9 Years Later

It’s 9 years since that clear day in September and here we are where:

This 9/11 is more political and contentious than the eight before it, with grieving family members on opposite sides of the mosque battle.

“contentious”, “opposite”, “battle”

It sounds like there is good and there is evil here. I wonder which side this reporter puts 70% of Americans?

There is a narrative and it goes like this:

America is a diverse country of caring people who have differing ideas of what to do with an occasion like this. Many want to stay home with their families. Many want to go drink. Many want to spend time alone reflecting. And many just want to be left alone.
We all realize this and when Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wanted to “build a religious center” near ground zero only to find out that others were dismayed at the idea, he decided to reflect on his decision.

Instead of knee jerk judgments of bigotry, there was understanding.
Instead of looking down on those who are put off on the idea of an Islamic Center, the President wrestled with pain people still feel during the continued war.
Instead of hateful threats of Quran burning as a response, the media ignored the few and far between whack jobs looking for their moment of fame and inflammation.

Instead of threats of death to Americans around the world, Imam Rauf spoke out about how in this country you don’t actually need to riot to say your peace. There is no need for mobs to back you up. Here you can just say it, or gather together peacefully.

Muslims the world over listened and said, whoa…..really? What’s that like?

Oh – wait, that isn’t the narrative.

You’ve heard the narrative “they’re” going with by now, but here, let me give you what our leader wants you to know.

Obama told a White House news conference that Sept. 11 would be “an excellent time” for the country to reflect on the fact that there are millions of Muslims who are American citizens, that they also are fighting in U.S. uniforms in Afghanistan, and “we don’t differentiate between ‘them’ and ‘us.’ It’s just ‘us.’”

I complained about the “Piss Christ”. I complain about burning Qurans. If it’s just “us”, then don’t I get to treat Muslim Americans just like I’d treat any other American? I’m a long way from ground zero, but much closer, I would complain if someone decided to put a youth prison near the site of the Columbine shootings.

It’s 9/11. It doesn’t have to be controversial and it doesn’t need to be a battle. The media has made it that way by reporting it that way and keep on with the narrative that says America is bad.

America, just like Muslim America isn’t “bad”. But we’re free and we have many to thank for that. Hug your mama’s and babies etc today because you just never know. The war is still on and there are still those out there that want us dead.

And many who don’t. (Insty links to a Muslim family who traveled across America)

My money is still on the side of freedom.

Headline News – Koran Burning

Here’s the headline:

Muslim world asks Barack Obama to stop 9/11 Koran burning

It’s from the Telegraph who should know better than to write an entire article about how the Muslim world wants Obama to fix this without once mentioning who we are and what rights we have.

Go ahead – click on through, I’ll wait. …..
After reading that article, if you were an unintelligent person unable to discern silly inaccurate news stories, wouldn’t you be led to believe that the Muslim world is not very peaceful at all?
In fact it sounds like they’re downright violent unless you do as they say.

Here’s the lede.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s leader, has written to the American President asking him to personally intervene to stop irreparable damage to relations between the West and Muslims “threatening world peace”.

Yes – we must now worry about world peace because of 30 Americans doing idiot things that Americans do.

Did you know that Saudi Arabia burns bibles all the time? I didn’t until Jawa let me know.

“As a matter of official policy, the government either incinerates or dumps Bibles, crosses and other Christian paraphernalia,” the Saudi Institute said in an article posted on its website.

“Although considered as holy in Islam and mentioned in the Koran dozens of times, the Bible is banned in Saudi Arabia, and is confiscated and destroyed by government officials,” it said.

Jawa also has a link today to this story that is worth a read.

Any how…..Rauf has the right to build his Cordoba house (even though had he thought it through a little more, he probably would not have put it where it’s going) AND Reverend Jones has a right to burn Korans.

And guess what oh Muslim world?…..Just like the President has no right to make you convert to Christianity (or hide your Muslim beliefs) when you move here [UNLIKE IN MANY OF YOUR COUNTRIES!], he/she cannot make Reverend Jones not burn the Koran.

It sounds like it’s going to happen and it’s distasteful and rude and intolerant.

Personally, I would recommend unfriending the reverend and prove to the world just how peaceful you can be.

[note the ridiculous threat at the end.....unless you leave Jones alone, I'll believe that all Muslims are violent and anti free speech - similar to Rauf newest thought ....unless I build this here, the Muslim world will think America is a bigoted nation.]

I vote that I would rather not live with threats of any kind.

UPDATE: Speaking of threats….I had to laugh at this. Apparently IF Obama will personally call the Reverend Jones, then he’ll reconsider. LOL What would you do?

Read Ann Althouse too. She’s got an opinion about book burning.

Cordoba House

Feisal Abdul Rauf has a nice column in the NYTimes today explaining his position in regards to Cordoba House. But he gets a few things screwy.

One is any empathetic understanding of why people might be unhappy with his decision to build the place in that spot and

I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.

two is a threat of what happens if he doesn’t build it.

The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith. These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift.

In other words, if we don’t build this, the terror will go on.

Third is a bit of bigotry that I don’t think he meant to do.

Lost amid the commotion is the good that has come out of the recent discussion. I want to draw attention, specifically, to the open, law-based and tolerant actions that have taken place, and that are particularly striking for Muslims.

If law-based, tolerant actions are particularly striking for Muslims then doesn’t that make them all a bit of a threat? (no, I do not believe that Muslims en masse are a threat but that statement certainly makes it sound like they are!)

Mr. Rauf doesn’t mention why he has to build the Cordoba House where he’s going to build it and I suspect at this point in time it’s not only stubbornness, but hostility that is keeping it where it is. This column he wrote tries to brush aside all concerns and focus on things like tolerance and freedom of religion without having much to do with freedom of speech of those protesting.

Good for him for giving it a go, but….no – he didn’t change my mind or my objections. And yes – he of course has the right to do this just like the Reverend Terry Jones has the right to burn the Koran. (totally different. One to supposedly heal and the other purposefully hurtful – yes, I know)

Our President

So – I’m reading this Washington Post story about Obama’s message in Milwaukee and have to take note of a few things. (the last of which will be the dog comment)

1 – After noting how the Republicans say “no, no, NO!” to every idea he has (remember this bit for later), Obama gives this proposal. $50 billion for infrastructure.

White House officials said the $50 billion in new government spending would be the first installment of a six-year transportation strategy that would include investments in high-speed rail and air traffic control. To pay for it, the administration would raise taxes on oil and gas companies.

Take note. To pay for this plan, the administration is going to raise taxes on oil and gas companies. Now lets use our own bit of common sense. Oil and gas companies have just taken a huge hit with the gulf situation and they now face, what the media is calling “an uncertain future”.
By raising the taxes on these companies, they can either a) slow hiring, or b) raise prices, or c) do all of the above to cover it. They’ll need to cover it somehow.

So the oil/gas companies who in the private sector hire a lot of people are to pay for the infrastructure that everyone uses so that Obama can hire a few people to cover. Or – to be honest – so that Obama can say he’s “saved” 4 million jobs by January.

2. Oh wait….. Obama has 2 other plans. One of which is:

a plan to let companies write off 100 percent of their new investment in plant and equipment this year and next.

The latter proposal would cost the Treasury about $30 billion over the next decade, but it would provide a much bigger boost to business in the short term, an administration official said Monday night, by encouraging companies to invest now, tax-free. White House economists say the plan would cut business taxes by nearly $200 billion over the next two years, though much of the money would be recouped thereafter.

Yes – Obama is noting that by cutting taxes businesses might just be encouraged to spend.
Isn’t that the kind of idea that Republicans are saying “yes” to?

3. – What the heck is “talk about me like a dog” mean?

Obama defended his record and criticized Republicans and his Washington foes as opponents of the middle class “who talk about me like a dog.”

Does he talk about his dog in terms like “bad leader”, or “in over his head” or maybe it’s just “get off the desk!”. What the heck is he talking about?

Here is a great column by Peter Wehner, about Obama’s thin skin written 3 months ago. However – it’s apropo concerning the dog and so I give it the quote of the day. (ht Instapundit)

And Obama needs someone who has standing in his life to tell him that the presidency is a revered institution that should not be treated as if it were a ward in Chicago.

Amen.

William Shatner

I’m going to throw this story up so I can read it when I get home. 6 pages about William Shatner. I like the guy. Enjoy.

The Mosque Controversy

I know I just back, but I won’t have time to blog tomorrow, so here’s a post on the controversy of the day.

The big mosque within the perimeter of 9/11 destruction.

It sucks. I am appalled that anyone would think in any context that this is any better of an idea than opening up a militia training center in the heart of Oklahoma City.
See – you just cringed at the thought didn’t you? And the thing is – no self respecting militia of any sort would ever think to do that out of respect for the folks of Oklahoma City.
Yet here you have a moderate Muslim thinking in his head that opening up a mosque/community center/education area right near the heart or ground zero.

Can you equate the 9/11 hijackers with all Muslims? Of course not. Not any more than you can equate people interested in militia training to Timothy McVeigh.
Am I or are most people (70% who are against the mosque) calling for a government takeover of the land to tell the guy what he can/can’t do with it? No, not necessarily. However – I applaud those who continue to complain.

Yes – property rights, blah, blah….but before that is free speech. Yell, complain, heckle, write letters, harass the heck out of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and maybe he’ll change his mind. What kind of community center would people go to where there is a 24 hour protest around the building – forever.

I doubt he’ll change his mind and I bet the thing will be built and people who are not racist, or religionist or antireligionist, or antiMuslim will be hurt to their souls having to look at it all the time.

I hope the protests keep up and I hope the dude never gets money for this thing.

Christina Romer – retired economic genius

Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post today of Christina Romer’s “dismal news” as she retires from being the President’s chairperson of his Council of Economic Advisers.

Apparently Christina:

had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. She still doesn’t understand exactly why it was so bad. The response to the collapse was inadequate. And she doesn’t have much of an idea about how to fix things.

Milbank makes clear that the current state of affairs is “not her fault”.

At week’s end, Romer will leave the council chairmanship after what surely has been the most dismal tenure anybody in that post has had: a loss of nearly 4 million jobs in a year and a half. That’s not Romer’s fault; the financial collapse occurred before she, and Obama, took office. But she was the president’s top economist during a time when the administration consistently underestimated the depth of the economy’s troubles – miscalculations that have caused Americans to lose faith in the president and the Democrats.

Here’s a question for genius economic peoples….If I were a business person, or an entrepreneur, what would be the most important things to me before expanding or hiring? (am ps, I’m not)
Hmmmm -
1. A stable future (?)

Which means what? I need to know what the laws are and are going to be. I need a good idea of what the taxes are and are going to be. I need to know what an employee costs and how much one will cost in the near term.

How are is that to figure out? With the healthcare bill a great unknown, with the deficit huge and growing and talk of new taxes around every bend from the local to the federal level why would now be a good time to expand, grow, or start up?? Yet:

Even now, Romer said, mystery persists. “To this day, economists don’t fully understand why firms cut production as much as they did or why they cut labor so much more than they normally would.” Her defense was that “almost all analysts were surprised by the violent reaction.”

It’s good Ms Romer is retiring because she apparently hasn’t a clue.

I’m Back! And timing forces me to start with the Speech

Welllllll – let’s see. What to say about this speech.
It had it’s moments.

ie
*Talking about the troops in a faraway place fighting for people they’ve never met.
*Mentioned the “one constant”, which is the men and women in uniform.
*He mentioned civilians and other government workers who have been a huge and necessary part of rebuilding Iraq but who often don’t get a shout out.
*He mentioned George W.
*He mentions the Iraqi’s themselves.

Oddly enough – he never actually “thanks” anyone for what they’ve done. Other than of course himself who he acknowledges has now fulfilled a campaign promise.

Oh wait – we’re on the positives. Obama mentioned al-Qaeda enough times it got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, he’s starting to get it. He even mentioned Iraqi’s who have to deal with al-Qaeda. That would be awesome if he understood this.

But now lets “turn the page”.
I got the feeling of: Good luck Iraqi’s, we’re here to “support you” as we move forward with “confidence” and “commitment”, but I’m not sure what that means. Since the page is turned, I don’t think Obama want’s me to find out.

“Now, now that I’ve drawn down in Iraq, we have the people to go on the offense in Afghanistan.” Isn’t that nice?
What the hell have they been doing there all these years?

Anyway – we’ve all learned our lessons and the lessons learned are that a) Bush didn’t understand, but diplomacy works in international affairs, b) we can’t just work for our fears, but for our hopes too because c) as we work to expand freedom we have to start within our own borders
Huh?
I swear he was going to mention Arizona there. But no. He went on to the middle class.

Because over the last 10 years (or did he say, the 10 years before he got to office?) our economic policies haven’t helped the middle class enough. Now we all have to work as hard as our military to make the tough decisions so that in the end a better life is within reach for everyone.

There – now you know about Iraq. Um – I think we won but I found that out on the internets, not from listening to the President.

UPDATE: This is fun. Ed Morrissey found the AP fact checking Obama’s speech. Apparently it was lacking even to the AP!!!

UPDATE II Marc Thiessen gets it right. (htJohn Kranz at Threesources)

The president said that addressing his domestic priorities “must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.” In fact, his “central responsibility as president” is to defend the country. And his failure to recognize this points to a central difference between George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

My bold. I would say this is the central difference in philosophy between left and right. The left (in general) has all sorts of central responsibilities – few of which include protecting this country.