A faith, any faith, buys land to build a church.  The Mormons come to town in dribs and drabs and eventually they have enough Mormons in town to justify building a ward.  They go buy some land; they hire the contractors, and build a church.  Big deal.

The Catholics decide they need to build a new church in Nevada somewhere, because they have a population of Catholics, which has grown enough to make it more comfortable to have an extra church rather than everyone squeezing in to one.  They buy the land, hire the contractors, and build the church.

The Methodists, the Seventh Dayers, the Moonies, the Scientologists, whoever it is, buys the land where ever they want, hires the contractors, builds a church or a reading room or a worship center or even just a quiet place to think about the man in the sky.  The Salvation Army wants to open a mission downtown to cater to the needs of the homeless and the hookers. The Church of Dan wants to declare his living room a holy shrine to Ayn Rand. Whatever.  Each and every one of these people has been told yes, because for some reason, they had to ask permission of some governing body for it.  Whether that was simply for tax free status of the property taxes given to a ‘legitimate’ church or whether is was for a tax dodge, some govt official had to say yes or no.

And that is the problem.

At some point, we the people allowed churches to have tax free status because we respected the work they do or just to promote the status quo or even because we secretly wanted some semblance of state notice that our churches were ‘real’ because they got treated special.

So now come these guys who want to build a mosque.  Not just any mosque, but named for freaking Cordoba, the virtual capital of Moor occupied Spain.  And not just any place, but in the still bleeding heart of an American tragedy.

Can anyone, ANYONE, show me where in the Constitution we are guaranteed the right to not be offended?

No? Really? I thought maybe it was in the good and plenty clause I’ve been hearing about lately but can’t seem to find either.  Perhaps it is contained in that whole “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” line and a mosque makes you unhappy. Oh wait, that was the DoI, not the USC.  Hmmm. Help me out here, really.

Do we, as a country, REALLY want our government to tell ANYBODY what he or she can’t do with his or her private property?   I know that I for one was outraged by the Supremes telling the country it was ok for a local government to take land from homeowners and give it to a developer.  How is this different?

Irrespective of the religion being honored, do we really want our government, at any level, to fold, spindle, mutilate, or create law just to keep that religion from practicing what it feels to be its due honoring to their version of God?

And if so, what next?  Do we tell the Scientologists they can’t give away free literature on the steps of their church?  To we stop the Mormons from going door-to-door? Are hospitals run by the Shriners, or the Catholic Church, or the Jewish told they can’t expand to serve their community by adding on a children’s wing because they would have to buy land and the land they want to buy (which the owner wants to sell!!!) is somehow too tragic because a fire there killed two kids and their mother.  Are we to assume that anyplace, anywhere, where someone has died is somehow too perverse or tragic or historical or whatever for a private owner to build a church there?

I somehow am betting that there will be a shrine to the dead placed in Shanksville, if there isn’t one already.  But will the place over Texas, Palestine ironically, where the Colombia broke up on re-entry have a building halt handed down because it is somehow rude to the crew members families to build a Baptist church, or even a freaking Qwikiemart, NEAR where it happened?

This is not about whether or not we, as a people, agree with the deliberate slap in the face the mosque and community center builders want to deliver to us.  Especially since they have chosen September 11 as the dedication date.  They are absolutely trying to get a reaction from us.  They WANT us to either halt the deal so they can say “Look, the Americans are breaking their own Constitution to stop us from building this” or to let it go through so they can say “Look, the Americans are so weak they didn’t even try to stop us from building this.”  Either way, they get their propaganda. Either way, they can turn to their Muslim brethren and boast about how they outwitted us.

Only ONE way makes us change who we are as a people though.

Only ONE way weakens our own law, our contract with our children and ourselves.

Only ONE way leads to somebody with bad intentions turning up the volume and saying, “Whom can we mess with next.”

I think I would rather be called coward and know that it isn’t true than be called bully and know that it is.

Oh look, immigrants who had no trouble at all figuring out the path to US citizenship, how novel!

“I chose to become a U.S. citizen because I love this country,” said Simari, a production team leader. “Many people around the world have the false idea that gold and money grows on trees in the USA. While there is no denying that this is the country of opportunity, the U.S. has taught me more valuable things, such as hard work, education, self-reliance and a great sense of integrity.”

NO!  We can’t have that sort of optimistic claptrap, deport him!

My faith in humanity is now 1/100,000,342 restored.

Then there’s this article – with no author attribution that I can find – which puts forth the innovative idea of allowing boots-on-the-ground to voice opinions about various police actions war efforts in which they’re involved:

If you want to get down to the bare bones of which war policies work and which are unsuccessful, ask those who are carrying out the orders and are most likely to be doing the dying.

Their opinions are the ones that should matter most.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan.

A day on the water for a Sarasota County family took a nasty turn on Sunday as a 30 pound, 45 inch long barracuda jumped into a boat and attacked a 14-year-old girl.

Wonder if we could train ‘em to attack China…

An illegal immigrant with four U.S. citizen children, Gonzalez said she worried every day about being arrested by immigration agents and separated from her family.

Gee, whatever can I do other than wring my hands and wish for a solution to fall from the Giver of Unicorns??

Well, turns out there’s actual guidelines!  Here’s the CliffsNotes version:

1. Be at least 18 years old.
2. Have lived in the U.S. as a legal resident for at least 5 years.
3. Be of good moral character and loyal to the U.S.
4. Be able to read, write, speak and understand basic English.
5. Have basic knowledge and understanding of the history, government structure and the Constitution of the U.S.
6. Be willing to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S.

Oh, oopsie, already you fail.  Why?  Because you broke the law when you wetbacked your sorry ass into this country in the first place.  That kind of scratches off the “good moral character” part doesn’t it?  And the “legal resident part.”  And as far as I am concerned, the “willing to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S.” part as well, seeing as how you shat on the perfectly functional method of gaining citizenship and decided to hope for manna from the gubmint Heaven instead.

What’s the gripe with the current method of immigration, does anyone even know?  Other than it invalidates a ready-made block of voters, who the Progs assume will come down on their side should the One gain the power to wave his magic wand and grant them all citizenship.  Well, genius, if they’re already so little interested in the workings of this country that they illegally entered, what makes you think they’re going to bother VOTING?

Here’s a visit from the clue train:  If you don’t EARN it, it means NOTHING.

Him:  MCL tear…you’ll never play ball again with that.

Me:  I know.  Have to get a real job…

Him:  Go into broadcasting, work with Costas.

Me:  Oh hell, not Costas, I can’t look at that man’s eye job all day every day.

This past weekend saw a return to unprecedented pain after a mere hour in the garden, so, in the interest of kicking things up a notch (and getting a decent night’s sleep for a change) I insisted on a referral to an actual ortho.  Today was The Big Day…popped in, got xrayed up, down and sideways, and consulted with the doc.  The pictures tell the story:

Well no fucking wonder.*

The diagnosis: incipient arthritis, some missing cartilage due to time and wear, and maybe lose some weight, hey?  Then they aspirated the damned thing (about a 5 on the Compares To Childbirth scale), pumped it full of cortisone, and sent me on my way.

Sigh.  I want my immortality back.

*Yeah, that’s not my knee. Sucks to be that dude, amiright?

Concealed weapons permit holders in Virginia will be allowed to carry guns into restaurants that serve alcohol provided they don’t drink…

Just who is going to be in charge of checking up on that?  And how?  Bartender-with-xray-vision tips?  Notes passed in gym class?

But it’s utterly full of spin.

Yeah, it’s a blog, and a blog for a conservative site at at that.  But it presents itself as news, even offering actual quotes.  It’s even reprinted as news by other outlets.  Only I can’t find corroboration of those quotes anywhere else.

And that makes me quite grumpy.