you can't fix stupid...

I generally reserve my blogs for something that will find a giggle in someone’s day or some meaningless event that happened to me that I owed it to put pen to paper (metaphorically speaking) to share with whoever reads the nonsense I post.

Today, however I was emailed this link – http://www.sustaining.me – to a blog of someone who would have you believe he is educated. I mean, shit… line 3 of his pathetic little ranting gives self-proclamation to the very idea. I’m curious though as to what he’s actually attempted to educate himself on now that he’s sans a TV. Because what I find below is quite possibly the most ill-thought out 3-bullet point assessment of the liberties of Americans coupled with unfounded accusations. He has the right to think how he chooses – again, another right he is afforded by being a US citizen – but ignorance isn’t a right, it’s simply genetic make-up.

In the famous words of Ron White – You can’t fix stupid.

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Sustaining me
The blog of Jeremiah Joseph Hammer

Islam – It’s the New ‘Black’ at Ground Zero
I don’t watch TV, let alone own a TV, for 2 main reasons:
I have better things to do (like educating myself).
The content stinks.

I do read quite a bit though, and felt it important to weigh in on the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ topic before all the major networks go back to stalking Lindsey Lohan.

I’ll lay this out as plainly as possible:

- If the organization building the Mosque legally purchased or has leased the property from the owner, and it meets all zoning requirements; then they have the same right to build there as any other person or entity who sought to lease or purchase and build at that location.

- If you do not believe they have a right to be there, then you support segregation.

- If you are angry at Muslims for wanting to build there, then you are a bigot.

How easily we forget what our fellow black Americans endured just over half a century ago.

No repita, por favor.
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Whew, thanks Jeremiah! We almost enslaved the all the Muslims living in America and ripped them of all their rights. What a gross-oversight that everyone else on the planet has made. Thank God you were here, to get us back focused on history not repeating itself.

Well it seems as if you are missing the point, now aren’t you Jeremiah. Yes, in our country urban development/planning isn’t based on religion solely. Because of those freedoms that this country allows its people, the mosque development will continue in a forward progression. As a matter of fact, there is defense to the mere idea of dictating where and how you can build as long as the builders have abided by the appropriate means of doing so.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated in regards to this very topic – “Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.”

Fair enough Bloomberg, but his generic – We’re a free democratic country that allows our people to build where they’d like to (under proper legalities) and worship where ever they find their God under whatever name they call their religious beliefs – is just that, generic and of no consequence to the underlying contention.

It’s curious though, the controversy surrounding the decision to build a mosque 2-blocks from ground zero is being made to be all about tolerance and sensitivity. It seems that the people organizing the building of this mosque would show the same decency and respect that they so adamantly demand when it’s in relation to their personal and religious sanctity.

Furthermore, it seems a bit odd that there are active Muslim members on the Canadian Congress (Raheel Raza and Tarek Fataf) that say that what Rauf is doing has no relation to tolerance, in the least. As a matter of fact, these 2 individuals recently wrote in the Ottawa Citizen – “Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel.” A little later in the article they go on to say – “The proposal has been made in bad faith. Do [the mosque organizers] not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox church near the killing fields of Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?”

Well that drives the point home, now doesn’t it? There is an uneasy and disagreeable feeling from people within the Muslim community as to the decision to build a huge multi-level mosque within viewing distance where not only 2 historical landmarks were brought to the ground in an instant, but more importantly where over 3,000 Americans were murdered by Islamic jihadists.

People aren’t bitching because of bigotry or religious hatred. They aren’t bitching because they feel they shouldn’t have the “right” to build their mosque there. They aren’t even bitching that this is yet another terrorist attempt for better positioning within our US borders. The issue above and beyond all else is that we grant all people living within the borders of the USA the rights and freedoms that are afforded to them by the laws in place and their constitutional rights. It’s not a pass to show a lack of sensitivity to the Americans that perished on 9/11 when they demand respect, tolerance and sensitivity to their choice of beliefs.

And beyond what is seemingly blatant, the refusal of the release of where the funding is coming from to build this mosque is suspect. Rauf and his organizers dodge the inquiries refusing to share what should be public knowledge. Now, why is that? There’s something to be said when even Nancy Pelosi is vocal about investigating where the funding is coming from. She’s bat-shit loony. I never thought I would see the day that I would ever quote one damned thing this woman ever said, but she went on record saying...

“The freedom of religion is a Constitutional right. Where a place of worship is located is a local decision… “I support the statement made by the Interfaith Alliance that ‘We agree with the ADL that there is a need for transparency about who is funding the effort to build this Islamic center. At the same time, we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center.’”

How is standing firm on where they decide to build this mosque with such opposition from a seeming majority of people legally living within the US bringing the cultures any closer together – you know for that unity and world peace thing that everyone is always talking about? Just because it’s within their legal rights to build there, doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do. This idea is supported by a substantial number of these “moderate Muslims” that everyone keeps referring to – the ones who aren’t associated with known terrorist organizations and who genuinely use the mosque to worship freely and without prejudice. It is certainly cause for question and it’s the farthest thing from bigotry, terrorist accusations or even some truly sad attempt to connect this back to slavery in any capacity. It’s people like you who perpetuate and exacerbate the dissention in a country so torn on the idea of being able to cohabitate with freedoms that are refused in other countries. It’s simple, play nice in the sandbox children.

I personally saw Rauf appear on a 60-Minutes special that was somewhere around 20 days after 9/11 and he was asked quite pointedly if the USA deserved this vicious attack. His response was as such (and I looked it up to quote it, because I remember being appalled the second he said it) – “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened. But the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”

Then, and here’s the real gem, he says, “Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”

This is the guy who is organizing the urban development of this mosque. So Jeremiah, you miss the point on anything you’ve so flippantly written here. It’s pathetic that you would even make such correlations to this event and slavery. And – “No repita, por favor”?! If history was repeating itself, Jeremiah the building wouldn’t be moving forward with development, which it is. It is our right to have an opinion about it.

Welcome to America, fool.
It’s difficult to defend one set of rights while shitting on the ones you choose not to look at because they might just make it a little difficult for you to look educated in any capacity. I’d recommend you turn the TV back on and keep your ill-thought platitudes to yourself.

And just as a last note… the reality is that there most certainly exists a group of people out there, who like Jeremiah are equally as uninformed and uneducated. It’s without doubt, that some opposition of the building of the mosque so close to ground zero comes from a place of bigotry, thoughts of terrorists and terrorism in our own country and what I suspect to be the number one factor – fear. But to blanket statement that anyone who has finds some opposition to the decision to move forward with the build of this mosque, is ignorant; plain and simple.

Delete your blog, in its entirety, Jeremiah and do us all a favor because no one wants to hear you pontificate.