MOOSERIDER magazine: Double Standards Reign Supreme on the Left-Religious and Property Rights at Ground Zero

Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Double Standards Reign Supreme on the Left-Religious and Property Rights at Ground Zero

Religious and Property Rights at Ground Zero | Liberty Works |

August 17, 2010 | By BoomerJeff In Obama Administration

UPDATE: Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants an investigation of “the funding” of those who oppose the Mosque, 58% of voters according to Rasmussen. We hope she does locate this funding source since we haven’t yet received our check!

This is the second post on this topic. In the previous post I discussed President Obama’s defense of an Islamic Mosque adjacent to ground-zero where Islamic terrorists murdered some 2,700 people on 9-11. During a speech to a group of Muslims last week The President said, in part:

I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.

In the previous post I reviewed a few of the battles Christian churches have had with local zoning authorities all across the country and wondered if the President was equally concerned about the property and religious freedom rights of all churches.

First, lets consider the tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, built in the 1960s. It was across the street from the World Trade Center and was destroyed on 9-11. It still has not been rebuilt.

Before 9-11 St. Nicholas was on a small parcel of land and was surrounded by a parking lot. After 9-11 the Port Authority took over planning, zoning and permitting for the entire Ground Zero area, purchased the parking lot, and announced plans to turn it into a park.

Several years ago the Port Authority offered the church another, nearby parcel in exchange for it’s land, which would become part of the park. But later the Port Authority apparently reneged on the land exchange offer and has since blocked the church from rebuilding on it’s own land.

A 2008 New York Times article quoted Port Authority Director Chris Ward:

We understand the church’s mission. It is part of the history of the site and we want to maintain that. We just need to put the project in the right context.

Context?

Isn’t context why a majority of Americans and a majority of New Yorkers oppose siting a Mosque adjacent to what even President Obama called “hallowed ground?” Apparently municipal authorities can raise “context” as a condition to be met by a Christian Church. But The People have been rebuked from the President’s bully pulpit for objecting that Ground Zero is the wrong context for a Mosque.

If local authorities across America and in New York consistently adhered to the principles of religious freedom and property rights enshrined in America’s founding documents any church would be free to pick any location that did not infringe on the property rights of others. If that were reality in America I would, however reluctantly, agree that the Muslims had religious and property rights to occupy the site they have chosen near ground zero.

But throughout the country powerful and capricious zoning boards regularly infringe on property rights, and when churches are involved, they infringe on religious freedom as well. New York and Port Authority zoning officials appear to be among the most powerful and capricious in the nation and could easily respect the will of The People and reject a Mosque at ground zero, especially if “context” were a consideration! Instead they have offended The People and stirred up unnecessary conflict.

I agree with Randy Altschuler, a candidate for Congress from a nearby district in New York who called the President’s statement “political correctness run amok.” By invoking religious liberty and property rights only on behalf of Islam Obama demonstrates rank hypocrisy.

But this isn’t really about religious rights. It’s about Obama’s desires to see himself as more “tolerant” than the rest of us, and to be embraced by the Islamic world.

By planning a Mosque at Ground Zero Islam offends the memory of those who perished on 9-11 and offends the sensibilities of millions of Americans. Obama’s sanctimonious call for us to stifle and respect the religious rights of Muslims, when the same rights of other religions are regularly infringed, turns offense into outrage.