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A Yahoo! search of the second paragraph yeilds 36 exact hits.

The fourth paragraph (searched in its entirety) yeilds 6,190 hits.

At that rate, I have no trouble believing that Ron Paul said it.

What I do doubt is the veracity of a poster who signed up today, to make this one post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:zatch87/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change

I finally got to see the original link and I do think it is from Ron Paul. And while I generally like Ron Paul, and even agree with much of what he says here in principle, the message itself seems rather rambling and at times seems to have no clear form. It also stumbles into clear error occasionally.

The justification to ban the mosque is no more rational than banning a soccer field in the same place because all the suicide bombers loved to play soccer.

This is not a well considered opinion. This comparison seems to reveal a very poor understanding of the role Islam plays in events like 9/11 and how important religious shrines and symbols are to people. A very unfortunate and unwise comment.

Offsetting this are a couple of gems which I do like.

In addition conservatives missed a chance to challenge the hypocrisy of the left which now claims they defend property rights of Muslims, yet rarely if ever, the property rights of American private businesses.

This is spot on. The left, in supporting so strongly the alleged rights of this mosque and its proponents have thrown into stark contrast their constant derision and denial of any such rights for either American businesses or, even more to the point, Christian churches.

What saddens me about this is that Ron Paul missed both the significance of this mosque to both sides, as opposed to a football pitch, and the most important reason we should be more careful in opposition. Right now this story is everywhere and it is making me very nervous. The Right has so jumped on this that they have created a firestorm over it, and now regardless of what the muslims may have thought about it it really is an important symbol. If it gets built they will know they have really beat us, and if it doesn't they know that the conservatives will have come out looking intolerant to a lot of people. In either case they get ammunition. We are investing the actions of these people with too much power and it may very well turn on us in the end. I do wish we could have just taken it all down a notch before it got this huge as it now threatens to turn on us. One stray word from anyone on the opposing side and we will never be able to get away from it. I worry that conservatives often don't understand the delicacy these things require and will end up giving too many opportunities to the enemy to turn our words and actions against us.