A Near Total Abdication of Civic Responsibility

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Last time out , I took a contrarian position on the idea of what we should be expecting from our daily papers in the coverage of primary contests for seats in the State Legislature.

My answer was “not much more than what we are already getting.”

Today’s column moves from the news pages to the editorials.

What should we be expecting in editorial endorsements by our local dailies?

My answer is “quite a bit more.”

Putting “The Gateway” in Perspective, and Exhuming its Prehistory

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A few months ago I began an experiment, by changing the format of this department. As I noted then, I spend too much time on Facebook, and it displaced my time on Room 8 as my #1 time waster, but while Facebook displaced Room 8 in my life, Room 8, in its own way displaced Facebook. I started my Facebook life making somewhat edgier versions of David Barry-like observations, combined with opining about Rock and Roll’s roots and branches; and except for posting links to my Gate pieces, barely let politics include, even during the primary season.

But somehow, in a manner resembling my current obsession with the Young Men’s Islamic Association proposed for The Holy Mother Coat Factory, I became obsessed with passing health care reform, and specifically with the idiotic left wing efforts to sabotage it because the achievable was not good enough.

The Gateway (Putting My Caveats in a Row Edition)

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Young Men’s Islamic Association developer Sharif El-Gamal seems to enjoy the gamier side of life a bit too much to be a Wahabbist, and seems too angry to be a Sufi; he bears a far greater resemblance to a US Senator from Louisiana crossed with a State Senator from Flatbush.

Nonetheless, it is worth remembering that if NYC barred the sleazy from the development of real estate projects, our skyline would resemble that of Dayton, Ohio, but with more open spaces. Park51 developer Sharif El-Gamal has a history of run-ins with the law www.nydailynews.com

 

The State Senate Primaries (Part Two): Basil “Faulty” and the Charter School Boys Choir

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GATEMOUTH: And while I share the DLC’s willingness not to invariably come down on the sides of the unions or other traditional liberal allies (say, on charter schools), I find that, on many of these issues (like charter schools), I end up skeptical about the new ideas in actual practice.

LEON WIESELTIER: …The New York Times published a warming story about the rage for charter schools among hedge-fund managers. It appeared in "Sunday Styles," and was a fine glimpse into the current fashion of "social entrepreneurship" and "philanthrocapitalism“….But what irked me… was the usurpation of the moral prestige of the public sector by the social prestige of the private sector…one of the most effective methods for the delegitimation of government in our day has been the notion that charity may do the work of public policy, that private wealth is the answer to social crisis.

The Gateway (Oh Tannenbaum Edition)

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Chutzpah Award of the Day

Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum:

“Opposition to the building of the mosque is not an issue of religious intolerance or a matter of us versus them…People of all faiths should be appalled by the Imam’s remarks and very frightened at the possibility of terrorist monies funding this endeavor.”
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Rabbi Tannenbaum is Director of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. The Head of the Rabbinical Alliance, Rabbi Abraham Hecht, was the Rabbi who issued a fatwa against Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shortly before his assassination The Yeshiva World Hikind Calls On Bloomberg To Withdraw Support Of Ground Zero Mosque « » Frum Jewi www.theyeshivaworld.com

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