So this first blog post is basically the pieces of things which I've heard about and tried to learn more about. I'm very liberal, I've never understood the logic of extreme tax cuts especially in times of financial recession and/or war (for that matter I've never agreed with the war which just sort-of-ended -- why invade the country that didn't attack the US, in order to look for weapons which weren't there? I mean besides oil, which was a reason, and some kind of international good will which has completely devolved into neo-paternalism. Then there were the elections in the Middle East, which I highly doubt were accurate, given the amount of hostility facing those who chose to dip their thumbs in ink). (I like parentheses.) Speaking of the war, I'm amazed by how many people don't know/care that it was announced last week that 80,000 troops will be coming home by next year, with 50,000 remaining as non-combatant. I have no idea what was achieved anywhere in the Middle East, besides the fall of Saddam Hussein; tensions between countries and ethnic groups are still incredibly high, as they have been for centuries. The entire "nation-building" enterprise or whatever just reeks of paternalism.
On a totally different note, I have been following fairly closely the story about the new Islamic cultural center that's supposed to be built in an old Burlington coat factory about two blocks from Ground Zero in New York, the place where about 300 Muslim lives where also lost. Freedom of religion, and the right to build places of worship, should make this something of a non-issue; constitutionally, the center (which isn't a mosque. I have no problem with a mosque being built there either -- there's one like five blocks away already -- but it's just inaccurate to call a cultural center a mosque) can be built. I empathize with those who lost loved ones on 9/11, and I understand that this might be a sensitive subject, but this is not like the Taliban setting up a watchpost. It's a cultural center for people who are not connected to terrorist groups (quite the opposite, actually) and just want a place to worship peacefully, which is probably a reason they came to New York in the first place. The loudest media voices against construction, the fear-mongerers-who-don't-always-do-careful-research of FOX news, have recently been decrying Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who had the idea to build the center. Mere months ago the same pundits were praising his work as an author on books pertaining to the interaction between Western and Islamic cultures. But people on news shows, especially FOX, are usually hypocrites, saying what they need to please whoever is paying for their show. I'd prefer not to limit freedom of speech, but I also like freedom of religion, so I feel that building the cultural center is totally justified.
