15 thoughts on “In Good Company”

  1. We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places.

    I’m thinking that little gem wasn’t translated for the home audience.

  2. I’m thinking that little gem wasn’t translated for the home audience.

    What’s (inaudible) in Arabic?

  3. What’s (inaudible) in Arabic?

    Dunno, but after re-translating back to english maybe “Yasser Arafat died last night”.

  4. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, and their views don’t deserve any weight on anything,” Sen. Chuck Schumer’s spokesman [who was hired by somebody Chucky doesn’t even know… really, Chucky doens’t know the guy… he’s just some spokesman] said.

    Sorry Chucky, people are going to notice that Obama and Hamas are skipping arm and arm down the yellow brick road.

  5. Another interesting question I’ve heard raised: what would the Left be doing if Walmart wanted to put a Superstore near Ground Zero?

  6. Our Wonderful President has said,

    I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.

    The courts have determined that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church bozos have the legal right to picket near the funerals of slain American soldiers with “GOD HATES FAGS” picket signs.

    I wish someone would ask Obama whether he similarly will refuse to comment on whether or not what Phelps is doing embodies “wisdom.” Alas, I don’t expect our intrepid corps of journalists to ask that question.

  7. Alas, I don’t expect our intrepid corps of journalists to ask that question.

    It’s spelled journoListers.

  9. The courts have determined that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church bozos have the legal right to picket near the funerals of slain American soldiers with “GOD HATES FAGS” picket signs.

    I drove past a group of them protesting at a local church last year. It was one of the times I regretted no longer having access to hand grenades.

  10. Elsewhere I made this speculation: “Maybe Rauf really is into peaceful democratic coexistence with the West, and HAMAS wants the mosque built just so they’ll know what address to send the fertilizer bomb to.”

    Anyone familiar with Rauf’s book – the one whose Malaysian version is titled A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11? People like Andy McCarthy have written about it, but I haven’t found any sources that have direct excerpts.

  12. Well, gosh, doesn’t that depend on what the issue IS?

    Imagine that President Obama, or better yet, President George W. Bush, had addressed a meeting of the Westboro Baptist Church and told them they had every legal right to picket funerals because hey, this is America and we have religious freedom for everyone in America.

    And then imagine that he DIDN’T follow that statement with the caveat that what is legal isn’t always what is right, and that most Americans are disgusted by the group’s tactics and believe that they are harming their own cause, whatever that may be, with their deliberately offensive antics.

    And THEN imagine that the next day the President tried to walk back the statement, saying that he was only commenting on the legality of the tactics … and REFUSED TO COMMENT on whether Fred Phelps’ followers *SHOULD* picket the funerals of fallen soldiers by carrying “God hates fags” placards.

    Would you still be making Churchill analogies, Will?

  14. Murgatroyd writes:

    “Well, gosh, doesn’t that depend on what the issue IS?”

    Exactly. Suppose group A professes to believe X and Y, and a blogger notes that Politician B says that he believes Y, and since X is either false or ethically wrong, then we can draw some useful conclusion about Y.

    If Hamas thinks the Earth revolves around the Sun, should we conclude that it doesn’t?

  15. Exactly. Suppose group A professes to believe X and Y, and a blogger notes that Politician B says that he believes Y, and since X is either false or ethically wrong, then we can draw some useful conclusion about Y.

    Work on your logic, pal. That syllogism doesn’t apply to my question, which you didn’t answer.

    The point is that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it. You have the legal right to taunt ugly people, to advocate racial segregation, to be an apologist for genocide, to advise on religious grounds that sick people ought to drink camel urine, and to walk up to an NFL linebacker and say “Your wife is so ugly I had to put a paper bag over her head when I screwed her last week!” That doesn’t mean you should.

    You have the legal right to stand outside a cemetery and picket the funeral of a fallen soldier with a sign that says “He deserved to die because God hates fags!” You have the legal right to go to Ground Zero, stand on the sidewalk, and carry a sign that says “Allah triumphs, you lose! Convert or else, infidels!” I rather hope you wouldn’t do either one, though.

    Both the Islamic clerics and the Westboro Baptist Church have the legal right to build places of worship next to Ground Zero, and to carry out their usual activities there — activities that many people find offensive, insulting to the memory of the dead, and deliberately provocative. Do you believe that in both cases it must follow that everyone else is obligated not to voice their opposition to the construction, even though the people who disapprove are relying upon the power of public opinion rather than the force of law? If not, then why not?

    Part of my own opposition to the project is based on the strong suspicion that the would-be builders of the mosque aren’t acting in good faith. If, as they claim, the backers of the GZM are trying to build bridges to the greater American community, then they are going about it in a spectacularly unsuccessful way. If they are trying to build bridges to a triumphalist segment of the ummah, then they are doing a far better job.

Comments are closed.