by Eric Martin
The increasingly vocal campaign to prevent a mosque from being built near the Ground Zero site in New York City is an unseemly mixture of ignorance, irrational fear, naked bigotry and opportunistic political demagoguery. It also represents a blunder in terms of counterterrorism policy.
Unsurprisingly, Sarah Palin has thrust herself to the forefront of this effort, with her characteristic mangling of the English language somewhat obscuring the ugliness of the message underlying her now infamous "refudiate" tweet. Neddy Merrill captured the crux well:
As if you didn’t know, Palin tweeted as follows:
Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate…Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real….Peace-seeking Muslims pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing
There’s something obscene about Palin reminding “peaceful” New Yorkers that the pain of 9/11 is “too raw.” But what really set me off is the idea that “peaceful Muslims” should oppose the masjid because of its associations with 9/11. Here’s the tension: we’re always hearing calls for “moderate muslims” to repudiate extremism, denounce terrorism, etc., but the guy heading the Cordoba Institute is pretty much the paradigm case of the moderate muslim who rejects al Qaeda, Sharia-for-all, global caliphate, all that. The Cordoba Initiative is all about being the moderate Muslim voice. One problem, therefore, is that he’s being opposed by the people ostensibly calling for…more of what he wants to do.
The second problem: the CI masjid will be “unnecessary provocation” only if people see the pain of 9/11 as caused by [M]uslims rather than, say, extremist [M]uslims in al Qaeda. (If I were more enthused about this post I’d make up a story about “how dare you build a synagogue near where that Jewish guy did that terrible thing” etc. etc.) Complaining about the symbolism or psychological effects just helps to cement the idea that the relevant reference class is [M]uslim rather than something else. The point of amplifying the “moderate voice” is to show what is true, viz., the [M]uslim community is a diverse one with a very small minority who likes to blow stuff up. The collective responsibility view implicit in Palin’s opposition is diametrically opposed to that. And you wonder why Step ibn-Fetchit doesn’t come running when you call.
That's it in essence. The building of this mosque by the Cordoba Institute would only be problematic if al-Qaeda is treated as representing all Muslims, even those that view al-Qaeda as a fringe group that espouses heretitcal ideas. No doubt al-Qaeda craves that mantle, but we have very good reasons to try to deny al-Qaeda that prize.
And, remarkably or not, many of the same pundits that claim to want "moderate" Muslims to take a more prominent role in marginalizing the extremists fringes are also the ones arguing that such moderate Muslim groups should not be part of the tapestry of the financial district in Manhattan.
This is common sense. Alienation and marginalization of moderate elements is not conducive to the empowerment of those same elements. That, aside from the malevolance of the bigotry itself.
This demagogic, bigoted piece of anti-American filth could very well be tweeting the State of the Union Address in 2014.
Add in the latest racist, malevolent Breitbartian and FOX (the posters at Balloon Juice have been on the money) sh#tstorm and the shameless cowardice of Tom Vilsack and the Obama White House regarding the matter and I think the future of the country is ruinous, but deserved violence against the most dangerous organization on the face of the Earth --
-- the Republican Party.
The Confederacy should have been finished off in 1865.
It's way past time.
Posted by: John Thullen | July 21, 2010 at 11:35 AM
As is so often the case, Mr. Thullen took care of the substance, so I can only compliment yet another good post title.
This is truly "a b-movie starring us."
Posted by: Uncle Kvetch | July 21, 2010 at 12:03 PM
I wonder if Sarah Palin ever considered the fact that Muslims working at the NY World Trade Center died on 9/11, or that Muslims in the police and fire departments that responded saved the lives of others, some giving up their own lives in doing so.
Posted by: hairshirthedonist | July 21, 2010 at 12:14 PM
I'm really confused by the reference to the Confederacy. Since Lincoln was the first Republican President, I think it confuses the issue. Whether would-be neo-Confederates have taken refuge in the Republican party, I can't say. I'm all out of white sheets and never get invited to the parties anymore.
Posted by: scyllacat | July 21, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Yeah, but HSH, those Muslims should do the right thing and defer to people with irrational hatred and bigotry about Muslims.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 21, 2010 at 12:21 PM
What's a good atheist to do in the face of this kind of "controversy"?
I look upon all religion as pointless ritual and mindless superstition. This annoys people, including my aged mother. It would probably annoy Sister Palin and Osama bin Laden. Maybe even the moderate head of the Cordoba Institute.
So, do I have a dog in this fight? You betcha. It doesn't matter to me which brand of god anybody believes in, except when they give themselves airs about it. The religious lunatic from Wasilla would, if she could, impose her Christianism on me. Perhaps the "moderate" head of the Cordoba Institute would, if he could, impose sharia law on me. But only one of them ever came remotely within range of the White House.
Until humanity outgrows religion altogether, we atheists survive because the religious are busy sniping at each other. The worst outcome, for us, would be for our fellow citizens to definitively "refudiate" one brand-name monotheism or another.
If and when the head of the Cordoba Institute moves on to bigger and better things like a nomination for vice president or a tweeter account, then my sympathies may change. Meanwhile, I endorse the proposed mosque specifically because it annoys Sarah Palin.
--TP
Posted by: Tony P. | July 21, 2010 at 12:23 PM
wingnuts don't want any Muslims building anything, anywhere. for example, Tennessee.
they're flat-out bigots, plain and simple. mostly simple.
Posted by: cleek | July 21, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Sarah is forgetting to let the market handle this, perhaps.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 21, 2010 at 12:52 PM
I admit, Im still fascinated by a "heartland" that feels it was the true target of the attack on 9/11. NYC was merely a proxy for an attack on "real america", so no wonder that the fake american New Yorkers don't feel this stab in the heart the way folks living thousands of miles away do.
Posted by: Carleton Wu | July 21, 2010 at 01:00 PM
Argh. One of the things that the United States does really really well, better than almost any other major country, is religious tolerance. Palin's attack on that is a radical attack on one of the very core values about how the United States operates.
Argh.
Posted by: Sebastian | July 21, 2010 at 01:01 PM
I'm tempted to ask why religious INtolerance seems to go hand in hand with "Drill, baby, drill", opposition to the "death tax", and "2nd-amendment remedies".
Oops, I see I've already yielded to temptation. So let me be precise. I'm not asking why conservatives are on Sarah Palin's side. I'm asking why she's on theirs.
--TP
Posted by: Tony P. | July 21, 2010 at 01:22 PM
Argh. One of the things that the United States does really really well, better than almost any other major country, is religious tolerance. Palin's attack on that is a radical attack on one of the very core values about how the United States operates.
Couldn't agree more Seb. And some counterterror experts argue that this, general, tolerance has made America tougher to infiltrate - with the domestic Muslim population acting as a trip wire against radicals.
But she wants that to end.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 21, 2010 at 01:25 PM
I'm tempted to ask why religious INtolerance seems to go hand in hand with "Drill, baby, drill", opposition to the "death tax", and "2nd-amendment remedies".
except for its fetishistic love of ever-lower taxes, modern American "conservatism" is simply the opposite of what liberals want. there are no positive ideas, simply reactions to what their designated enemy wants. if a study discovered that liberals preferred chocolate ice cream, the GOP would insist that vanilla is the true American flavor.
Posted by: cleek | July 21, 2010 at 01:31 PM
Tony: Oops, I see I've already yielded to temptation. So let me be precise. I'm not asking why conservatives are on Sarah Palin's side. I'm asking why she's on theirs.
Because racism is the traditional conservative way of getting poor white Americans to vote Republican against their economic self-interest.
And, while the new conservative way of creating a movement for denying women abortion, contraception, and health care, and calling it "pro-life", or the newer conservative way of creating a movement for denying Americans equal marriage and calling it "family values", are both effective... conservatives are big on tradition. Sarah Palin could be this generation's Strom Thurmond.
Posted by: Jesurgislac | July 21, 2010 at 01:37 PM
Palin is vile, but I have to confess that I like "refudiate" (although not in the context where it was used).
I like portmanteau words and I like the invention of new words and I think we worry way too much about spelling and grammar and correctness when we could be having fun making up perfectly cromulent new words without impairing communication.
As for the mosque thing, I really don't even understand it. Well, I mean obviously I understand it as part of a bizarre attempt to drum up some kind of religious conflict. But the 9/11 attacks were not an attack by Islam on Christianity. They were an attack by a bunch of nutcases on what they thought of as the most visible symbol of the United States. The United States has at least 2.5 million Muslims. Complaining about the mosque is a non sequitur.
Posted by: Jacob Davies | July 21, 2010 at 04:55 PM
we could be having fun making up perfectly cromulent new words without impairing communication.
It would embiggen us all.
Posted by: Hogan | July 21, 2010 at 04:58 PM
The United States has at least 2.5 million Muslims.
They're just waiting for the secret code words to be uttered, at which point they will discontinue their charade of positive participation in American society and unleash unspeakable evil upon our fair nation. Diabolical, it is, truly.
Posted by: hairshirthedonist | July 21, 2010 at 05:00 PM
Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland?
When and if fascism gets a good leg up here in the good old USA, "the heartland" will be its rallying cry.
When Islamic extremists attach Tulsa, or Dubuque, or Little Rock, or Wichita, then maybe Muslims (or anyone) living in downtown NYC will need to give a crap about what does or doesn't "stab folks in the heart" out there in "the heartland".
In the meantime, the folks who live there are going to get on with their lives. They have their own wounds of the heart to heal.
When they blow up your town, you can decide how to respond, Sarah.
Until then, piss off.
Posted by: russell | July 21, 2010 at 05:13 PM
Shorter russell: Hey, Saruh, fuggedaboudit ;)
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 21, 2010 at 05:15 PM
Jacob, you might enjoy this. It's from a few years ago:
Let me also add that I'm always in the market for good Spoonerisms. My recent favorite:--TP
Posted by: Tony P. | July 21, 2010 at 05:23 PM
I like new words and old words used in new ways, too.
When Archie Bunker said he was going to appear in the "menstrual" show whether Meathead liked it or not, that was funny.
Ipso fatso, Mrs. Malaprop was a funny character.
The comedian Norm Crosby was goofy/dopey funny.
Sarah Palin talking funny and making up new words ("refudiate" will be in the dictionary within five years, with her meaning) wouldn't be so bad coming from a harmless person from Wasilla.
It's funny to think of Gracie Allen as President. It's funny to think of Harpo Marx as President, honking and blatting his way through the State of the Union address, while hanging the crook of his leg in his opponent's hands on his way back up the aisle --- I might vote for that.
But coming from Sarah "Death" Palin, the very effective demagogue, who is championed by the worst anti-intellectual demagogic elements of the Republican Party who want to elevate the rankest ignorance and cynicism to the highest office in the land as some sort of revolution perpetrated by the stupid on behalf of the most powerful and malign interests in the country ..... not so funny.
It would be like elevating a former chicken farmer and fertilizer salesman to run the nation's summer camps.
What a gas that could turn out to be.
Posted by: John Thullen | July 21, 2010 at 05:42 PM
wingnuts don't want any Muslims building anything, anywhere. for example, Tennessee.
they're flat-out bigots, plain and simple. mostly simple.
Or in http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mosque-20100718,0,2447625.story>Temeculah / Murietta, either.
Posted by: Jeff | July 21, 2010 at 06:21 PM
It's really simple.
Until the civil rights era, the heirs of the Confederacy's values and goals were at home in the Democratic Party.
Following the exodus of the Dixiecrats, the Republican Party became their home. It has been their home ever since.
Far from moderating, the GOP is moving further and further to the right, and their embrace of Confederate values has become more and more open. The election of the nation's first black president has pushed these neo-Confederates over the edge. A nontrivial number of Republicans still believe--or act as if they believe--that the wrong side won the Civil War. They are still fighting it.
The best way to deal with their repugnant views is to shine as much light on them as possible, so that Americans--a majority of whom find the GOP's neo-Confederate agenda repulsive--can make an informed decision. And part of that light involves making it abundantly clear what these people really are.
Posted by: Catsy | July 21, 2010 at 07:05 PM
Love the idea that Wasilla, AK, which is nearly as far from One World Trade as Honolulu, HI, falling short by only 600 miles or so, is "the heartland." I'm from Ohio. I know from heartland. You don't live in "the heartland," Palin, nor do you speak for it.
Posted by: Phil | July 21, 2010 at 07:10 PM
She can't even see it from her porch.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 21, 2010 at 09:22 PM
When and if fascism gets a good leg up here in the good old USA, "the heartland" will be its rallying cry.
Wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.
When will the moderate/peace-seeking republicans refudiate this person?
Posted by: Ugh | July 21, 2010 at 09:44 PM
"but the guy heading the Cordoba Institute is pretty much the paradigm case of the moderate muslim who rejects al Qaeda, Sharia-for-all, global caliphate, all that..."
So, if that's all true, why did the guy name it the Cordoba Institute?... Isn't that an insensitive name to choose for someone who wants to distance himself from all that global caliphate stuff?
And if he wants to build bridges with the community and not annoy the hell out of half the population of the city why doesn't he situate the Mosque another ten or twenty blocks away from Ground Zero? You can pray to Mecca just as good one subway stop north as you can in Zipcode 10048... and that way a lot of New Yorkers won't think he's giving them the middle finger...
Posted by: Pop Adelman | July 22, 2010 at 02:34 AM
"Until the civil rights era, the heirs of the Confederacy's values and goals were at home in the Democratic Party.
Following the exodus of the Dixiecrats, the Republican Party became their home. It has been their home ever since."
Prior to the civil rights era, the Democratic party was the party of officially sanctioned racial discrimination and a racial spoils system. Curiously enough, today the Democratic party is STILL the party of officially sanctioned racial discrimination, and a racial spoils system. They've just swapped the victims and beneficiaries.
You never did stop thinking like racists, I guess because you didn't know how, or saw no percentage in it.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore | July 22, 2010 at 06:46 AM
that way a lot of New Yorkers won't think he's giving them the middle finger
You from New York? Born there, or grew up there, or live there now?
If not, then speak for yourself.
Thanks.
Posted by: russell | July 22, 2010 at 08:08 AM
Ordinarily, folks on this blog try to refudiate Brett B by a slow, patient explanation of facts.
Not this time.
Brett, just stuff a sock in it.
Posted by: efgoldman | July 22, 2010 at 08:29 AM
Yeah, this is the same Brett that said the other day that seeing motivations rather than numbers being attacked gets his hackles up. Unless, you know, he's the one doing the attacking. Apparently.
Also, too, not only is Pop Adelman almost certainly another JJ sock, I'll bet all takers $100 that not only doesn't he live anywhere near Ground Zero, he doesn't live in New York at all.
Posted by: Phil | July 22, 2010 at 08:54 AM
You can pray to Mecca just as good one subway stop north as you can in Zipcode 10048.
they're already using the building as a mosque (of sorts). they just want to build a bigger building on the same spot.
Posted by: cleek | July 22, 2010 at 09:08 AM
Also, too, you don't "pray to Mecca." You pray to Allah, in the direction of Mecca.
And this New Yorker, who lives in the shadow of Ground Zero (and did on 9/11), very much wants the mosque there to show the world that Bin Laden was wrong, and that Islam can and does thrive in the West. That we are an open and tolerant society that is capable of placing the virtues of freedom, compassion and tolerance above hatred, ignorance and bigotry.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 10:01 AM
I was in high school a few blocks from the WTC on 9/11, and had to run out of there to get away from the wall of choking dust caused by the collapse. I would also like the mosque to be there.
Posted by: Julian | July 22, 2010 at 10:12 AM
Julian,
Stuyvesant?
I lived on Pearl between John and Maiden.
Now I live on N Moore and Greenwich.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 10:33 AM
It's interesting, digging around suggests that the name Cordoba institute seems to have been chosen to give a more easily understood idea of trying to integrate Islam with the West, in that the original name of the institute was the İhya Centre, which seems to be related to İhya Ulum-id-Din, a book by Al-Ghazali, who was the person who introduced the notion of philosophical skepticism to Islamic philosophy and who may have strongly influenced Aquinas. I imagine Cordoba was chosen not because its relation to the Caliphate (if that were the case, they probably would have chosen The Umayyad initiative or the Damascus plan) but because of the fact that the Great Mosque there was the center of translating Ancient Greek texts into Latin, Hebrew and Arabic (which would have been lost had Arabic scholars not translated them) It really suggests that unless they chose a name like the 10th Crusade institute, some people would never cut them any slack anyway.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | July 22, 2010 at 10:36 AM
Thanks for that research LJ.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Ahh, a little more digging reveals I made a big mistake, since the cordoba institute that was formerly named the Ihya institute is in New South Wales. Still, check out the wikipedia page on Al-Ghazali, it's quite interesting.
Though some may think that they are trying to surround us...
Posted by: liberal japonicus | July 22, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Yep. Pop Adelman and PhillyCheeseSteak are both Jay Jerome socks.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 22, 2010 at 11:54 AM
So... why exactly are the Republicans, who say they want weaker federal government, trying to get the federal government involved in a local NYC zoning decision on allowing a group to build a bigger building on the site they already use?
Posted by: Nate | July 22, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Freedom?
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM
More specifically, freedom from stabbed hearts. I mean, who wants a stabbed heart, right?
Posted by: hairshirthedonist | July 22, 2010 at 12:25 PM
Yeah, though my mom eventually browbeat me into leaving the school to avoid the cancer risks. It was one of the unhappiest times of my life because my best friends were there, and I loved Stuy, but I knew that I had nothing supporting my belief that it was safe besides my wish that it were so.
Unfortunately, I sold my WTC-righteousness rights on Ebay in October 2001. The GOP was buying them up like mad at the time, and what can I say now but "well played?"
Posted by: Julian | July 22, 2010 at 01:23 PM
Julian,
I have a lot of friends that went to Stuy. Not to get all Palin on you, but I can see Stuy from my balcony. And my wife occasionally uses the pool. If I stay in NYC, my hope is that my son attends.
That said, I can totally understand your mother's concerns.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 01:27 PM
Prior to the civil rights era, the Democratic party was the party of officially sanctioned racial discrimination and a racial spoils system. Curiously enough, today the Democratic party is STILL the party of officially sanctioned racial discrimination, and a racial spoils system. They've just swapped the victims and beneficiaries.
You never did stop thinking like racists, I guess because you didn't know how, or saw no percentage in it.
This is not the only flaw in that flawed piece of thinking but: in order for your statement to be true, it would have to be the same people.
But that's demonstrably not the case- both in terms of specific politicians who left the Democratic Party for the GOP and in general popular sentiment/voting patterns (eg The 1952 Presidential election, where the Dems lost, carrying only the Deep South, Kentucky, and W Virginia).
I understand that you very much want the ugly history of the Democratic Party prior to the civil rights movement and the Southern Strategy to be applicable to today's party. But you've clearly let your passions blind you to the facts of the matter- wanting things to be a certain way, even wanting it very badly, just doesn't change them, and it's childish to pretend otherwise.
Perhaps you should be asking why the unrepentant racists of the old Democratic Party felt and feel so comfortable in the modern GOP? Consider David Duke- he tried a couple of campaigns as a Democrat & failed to get anywhere, switched to the GOP, and was immediately elected to the House, and then became his party's standard-bearer in subsequent Senatorial and Gubernatorial campaigns.
Posted by: Carleton Wu | July 22, 2010 at 04:42 PM
CW, you're making his head hurt.
Posted by: Eric Martin | July 22, 2010 at 04:47 PM
[Deleted a whole pile of badly-spelled and -thought ad hominem that Jay Jerome undoubtedly imagined was clever - Ed.]
Posted by: Wahrheit Lautsprecher | July 22, 2010 at 04:54 PM
Sorry if no one got to read the deleted bit. I might have left it a little longer, had guy not misspelled "schmuck".
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 22, 2010 at 05:48 PM
Your comment is an example of smuckiness supreme.
Thanks man, I appreciate it. I do work hard at it, glad to know I've achieved the "supreme" level.
Let me put it in perspective for you.
Every day some conservative loudmouth somewhere is talking about the evil coastal big city liberal elites, how much they suck, how they are dragging this country down, blah blah blah.
Every day we get dumbasses from East Overshoe talking about the dreaded inner cities and their populations of criminals, crackheads, and T-bone-eating young bucks.
We get scramble-brained idiots like Palin waxing rhapsodic about "the heartland", where everybody drives a truck and has a little honest chickensh*t under their nails at the end of the day. Unlike those bit city slickers with their snotty unwholesome ways.
Dig this.
Sarah Palin doesn't give a flying f**k about New York City or the people who live there. So I don't give a flying f**k about her opinion of whether anybody builds a mosque near the former site of the WTC or not.
There are lots of people who live in New York, who lost friends and family when the towers fell, who oppose the mosque being built there. I can understand their point of view. There's a lot of pain attached to that place.
Sarah Palin's interest in the controversy is the opportunity it presents to her to engage in jingoistic dumbass misty-eyed flag-waving bullshit.
Which is bad enough on its own terms, but she wants to tell the people who live in the freaking area what they should or should not do, lest they wound her precious feelings about the place.
Palin couldn't find Ground Zero on a map. Screw her.
Remember when we decided to spend all of that lovely money on homeland security? All of the folks who couldn't wait to sign up for a million bucks to make sure that Uncle Bubba's Historic Peanut Shack was safe from Muslim bombers?
But New York, of course, was devoid of any kind of significant targets.
Fire up Google and go look up how much of that money was spent per capita by state. Then tell me how serious anybody out in the heartland is about keeping the citizens of the City of New York safe from Muslim extremists.
When the terrorists come after us here in the US, they target New York, LA, San Fran, DC. All the places Palin and people like her love to hate.
They target them because that's where the people are. They target them because all kinds of people live and thrive in those places, which unfortunately also has the effect of making it easy for them to come and go. And they target them because so many of the nation's important institutions aand symbols are in those places.
It's like one-stop shopping for terrorists.
I guess if they could find a way to blow up the Grand Canyon, AZ might be a target too.
But net/net it's just generally easier to pick on the big cities.
New York is the toughest city in this country, and is one of the toughest cities anywhere on the planet. It would take a lot more than anything Al Qaeda can ever dream of bringing to the table to bring that city to its knees. New Yorkers live with scary sh*t every day.
It makes them nuts sometimes, but it's a point of pride. They don't f**king bow.
The citizens of New York will figure out what they want to do with ground zero, and they don't need Sarah Palin's advice in sorting that out.
Or anyone else's, including yours.
Wanna do something for the people of New York? Next time you hear somebody b*tching about the godless coastal elite liberal scum, remind them that it was godless coastal elite liberal scum ashes floating around lower Manhattan on 9/11, and tell them to STFU.
There are some Muslims in NYC who want to build a mosque near the former site of the WTC. Some folks who live there are fine with it, some are upset. They'll sort it out.
Sarah Palin has nothing whatsoever to say about it.
Thank you for your time.
Posted by: russell | July 22, 2010 at 05:50 PM
Palin is vile, but I have to confess that I like "refudiate" (although not in the context where it was used).
I kind of like it too, and the irony is should would have been better off leaving up the "refudiate" tweet than issuing the "corrected" version":
Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused
At least she could claim that "refudiate" was a typo for "repudiate" or a neologism. "Refute" makes absolutely no sense in this context.
Posted by: BooThisMan | July 22, 2010 at 05:50 PM
I do love how Palin has retreated from not only the mainstream media but also Foxnews (or at least appearances where she might have to answer questions) to the short and supposedly safe confines of 140 character limit Tweeter and still manages to make herself look like a moron, needing three chances to figure out how to spell repudiate and the difference between the meaning of that word and refute.
I mean, Jeebus, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012 can't even flipping tweet without coming across as an idiot?
It reminds me of a scene from Beavis and Butthead in their Spanish class which went something like:
Military Teacher Dude: Alright Beavis & Butthead, let me hear what Spanish you've learned this semester.
Butthead: Um, er, taco? Er, burrito. Huh, huh, quesadilla!
Beavis: Um, spaghetti?
MTD: God-Dammit!! You guys have been coming to this class every single day for three months and the only spanish words you've learned are from fast foot restaurants, AND BEAVIS CAN'T EVEN GET THAT RIGHT!
Sarah Palin: The Beavis of the GOP.
Posted by: Ugh | July 22, 2010 at 09:25 PM
I feel obliged to apologize for my screed upthread, and to walk back some of my comments there.
The terror attacks occured in NYC and DC (and, in the air over rural PA) but they didn't only affect people in those places. Each of us had our own experience of that day, and that experience is as legitimate as anyone else's.
And there are, no doubt, many for whom the memory of that day feels like a "stab in the heart".
And, everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what should be done with the sites. "Ground zero", the Pentagon, and Shanksville.
In my opinion, however, the final decision about what to do with each of those places belongs to the folks who live with them. Pentagon less so because it's a public building, but the WTC site for sure belongs to the folks who live there.
Also in my opinion, it would be good if the mosque was built. There are lots of people in NY who object to it, quite strongly, and many of them object because loved ones of their died there.
But IMO it's also very important for everyone to understand that the Cordoba Institute is not Al Qaeda, and that Muslims live here peaceably and with good will and have done so for a long time.
Especially in a place like NYC, where so many different kinds of people live together in such intimate proximity, IMO it's important for an assumption of good faith to win the day.
I definitely understand why folks react to the proposal for building the Islamic center near the site, and I would go so far as to say that the Cordoba Institute may be guilty of having something of a tin ear regarding the objections.
But net/net, they live here too, and the proposal has been offered in the spirit of reconciliation and healing.
It is, as it were, an open hand being extended. It would be a very good thing if the rest of us could receive it as such.
My opinion.
I do not retract my comments about Sarah Palin. IMHO she has no particular regard for the people of NY, and is primarily motivated by a desire to pimp the memory of the dead to advance her own personal agenda.
No, I'm not a mind reader, but this is a blog, not a court of law. The preponderance of evidence is sufficient, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not necessary.
Apologies to anyone who might have been offended or otherwise put off by my comments above.
Posted by: russell | July 23, 2010 at 06:46 AM
To put it in simple Olbermannian terms: This woman is an idiot.
[snark]Maybe we could persuade bin Laden or his ideological heirs to attack Colorado Springs (aka Evangelical Central) next time. That would be heartland indeed. Building mosques (even fundie ones) on the smoking ruins could be considered an improvement.[/snark]
Btw, Cordoba (founded by Neanderthals about 32K BC) entered recorded history when the pre-Muslim Carthaginian ragheads renamed it to honor a fallen Numidian* commander (Qart-Juba = City of Juba) and made it a local center of administration. So, who's the usurper here?
*in popular culture Numidians are notoriously portrayed as black despite being Berbers (I blame Asterix).
Posted by: Hartmut | July 24, 2010 at 05:56 AM