Purely by accident Tom Friedman may have stumbled on the real reason for opposition to the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed to be located at the Holy Mother Coat Factory:
"When we tell the world, 'Yes, we are a country that will even tolerate a mosque near the site of 9/11,' we send such a powerful message of inclusion and openness. It is shocking to other nations. But you never know who out there is hearing that message and saying: 'What a remarkable country! I want to live in that melting pot, even if I have to build a boat from milk cartons to get there.'”
It's a good thing the building's not located in Arizona. Op-Ed Columnist – Broadway and the Mosque – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
Not to belabor a point I made recently, but Andrea Peyser's cognitive ability would not much suffer if her brain were extracted and replaced by a pound of goosefeathers. A new hijacking – NYPOST.com www.nypost.com
Monumental Obscenity of the Day:
In what appears to be an heroic effort to prove she's not a Muslim, Congressional hopeful Reshma Saujani said "“I think we need to make sure none of the funding [for the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed for The Holy Mother Coat Factory] is coming from any terrorist organization, I think we need a process to do that.”
Who’d oversee the vetting process?
“This is where I think the community board can get involved and get engaged in doing that,” said Saujani.
Thanks to the efforts of the boyfriend of Saujani Supporter and former Pataki Administration Banking Commissioner Diane Taylor, NYC's Community Boards barely have enough money to evaluate local zoning and monitor City services in their areas, yet Saujani wants to saddle them with national security investigations unjustified by probable cause. Vetting Islamic Center and Mosque Money – WNYC beta.wnyc.org
Israeli rightists join forces with Hamas and the loony left to promote the destruction of Israel. Israeli Rightists Begin Push For One-State Solution,Leslie Susser www.jewishpress.com
This is an old link from a left source I normally would not trust on international issues, but it is about as good a rebuttal as could be imagined to those on the left who favor a bi-national state as the panacea for resolving Israel-Palestine problem. Matthew Yglesias » Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace yglesias.thinkprogress.org
Here's something you don't see every day.
Normally, they'd say that the Israeli had committed a war crime by destroying the Lebanese bullet. U.N. Supports Israeli Account of Border Clash – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
Here's something else you don't see every day: the flow of money between Pedro Espada and the public reversing directions. Sen. Pedro Espada Gets Steamed: The Movie www.nydailynews.com
SERF WASHES UP ON THE BEACH:
“Maltese …expressed confidence in being able to manage the new technology being woven into city elections, citing his experience turning a lifelong project of memorializing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire into a Facebook page with 1,250 members since his granddaughter created an account for him on the social networking site several months ago. …‘I don’t pretend to be a techie, but I’m a quick learner,’ he said, adding, ‘I don’t expect to be an expert on it. I expect the technicians at the Board will do it.’…More important, he said, was his experience as a lawyer who helped found the Conservative Party in 1961…”
The idea of 77 year old troglodyte Serf Maltese as Executive Director of the NYC Board of Elections at a time out voting is going hi-tech is frightening enough, but not nearly so as the thought of a what a Conservative Party ideologue’s view of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire might be:
"The garment factories don’t need Albany to be making rules. Listen, the owners try to make good rules to protect their people here. If they don't, I'm thinking that no one will apply for those jobs. Safety rules are unnecessary, because workers can choose not to accept jobs from employers that feature unsafe working conditions. Thus, the market is self-correcting. If they don‘t like working in a place where the doors are locked, they can just get up and leave ” Serf Maltese's Board of Elections Candidacy Likely To Swing Top Job To Democrats www.cityhallnews.com [NOTE: SOME MESSAGES ON FACEBOOK HAVE FORCED ME TO CLARIFY THAT THIS QUOTE IS A PARODY OF CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT–SERF DID NOT SAY THIS]
The enemy is about to attack, but the left continues to frag Obama. Is Obama Meaner To Liberals Than To Conservatives? | The New Republic www.tnr.com
A very cheap shot, but soooooooooooooo delicious Rudy Guiliani On Parental Responsibility In 1999 | Room Eight www.r8ny.com
Today's best of Gatey; for some reason, this one seems like ages ago now. Ensuring the Rights of Families Headed By Same Sex Couples is a Moral Issue—How We Get There is Not www.r8ny.com