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Um, yeah, I think I will go back to bed: Over half of the Republican respondents in an Economist poll answered "no" to the question, "Whether or not you think the Islamic cultural centre and mosque should be built near the World Trade Center site, do you think that Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque there?" I mean, JESUS. Even Rudy Giuliani is still making the effort to use the bullshit dodge about believing that they should be allowed to but suggesting that they really shouldn't. How flat-out bigoted do you have to be to not even LIE about your bigotry?
I would like (I mean hate, actually, but whatever) to see a poll asking Americans if they think Islam (and atheism, and various other outlooks on life) should be banned in the USA. I'm sure the numbers would be horrifying.
I bet you atheism would still rate lower (higher?) than Islam.
Indeed. There was some study a few years ago that it's pretty much impossible to get elected to anything if you're an open atheist – something like three people in the entire country in any sort of elected position, and all were extremely minor positions. Google tells me we appear to have two Muslim congressmen, and I'm sure there are many other Muslims in lower-ranking elected positions.
On the other hand, it's a lot easier to hide being an atheist (and thus avoid persecution) than it is to hide being a practicing Muslim.
Maybe they're planning to try and secede again and they're trying to annoy us enough so we'll just let 'em.
What can we do to make them speed this effort up? Who needs a fruit basket sent to their office?
The only possible saving grace here is that these people might just be illiterate, and can't even read the Constitution?
maybe they reject a static reading of the constitution and believe that it is a living document which evolves to reflect changing social mores.
59 percent of Republicans know either "some" or "a great deal" about Islam and its practices. I bet they do!
You betcha.
And 25% of normals think they don't have the right to it also.
I've said this a lot since I started using the internet daily but this time I really mean it: This is the stupidest shit I have ever fucking heard.
And this is on the heels of the Foursquare mayor story, which is already in the "stupidest shit I have ever fucking heard" pantheon, so I know you mean business.
The stupidity is exhausting.
@boyofdestiny: The Foursquare mayor story is just the latest in a series which I like to call "the stupidest article the New York Times has ever printed, until tomorrow's edition, which will contain the new stupidest article ever, etc."
NB: New York Times articles exist in their own universe of stupid shit which, Doctor-Who-style, exists parallel with (and comparable to, but never intersecting with) the normal universe of all other stupid shit.
PS: Holy crap, that article was some stupid shit, though.
You know what would be a good way to deter future extremist Muslim terror attacks? Building a mosque on the target. If these demagogues were serious about public safety, they'd be advocating a mosque at ground zero, not to mention in the Statue of Liberty's crown, the Grand Canyon, etc.
The White House is safe, obviously, what with the Muslim president and everything.
People are dumb, we know. Let's focus instead on pointing me towards interesting things on the internet!
OK. Here's Susan Orlean with a very smart commentary on hashtags. Totally suitable for sending to your older relatives.
I'm not taking shit like this to mean that the Republicans are turning into bigots, but that non-bigots among them are simply leaving the party. That's how they lost the previous elections, and if the trend continues, they'll just keep losing them like that.
Christ on a bike.
Hey, as long as the country is fucking blaspheming…
Will progressives stop pretending to believe that people have a constitutional right to build what they want on their land? You guys do not believe this. There are 1000's of pages of laws dictating what people can build, where they can build it, how high they can build it, what materials they can build it from ect. on the books as a result of you not believing this. Please stop lying.
False dichotomy. There are plenty of valid reasons to object to what people build: public safety, historic preservation, pollution, noise, etc. "I don't like their religion" is not one of those valid reasons.
And honestly, conservatives started this controversy by hypocritically demanding that the nanny state intervene to save them from scary moozlims. That hasn't slipped anyone's mind. Glass house much?