Then, you call it “an entirely foreseeable controversy.”

Which is it? Nonsense, or a controversy? Let’s say you (as a white male from Michigan) were to move to Oklahoma City and buy a house near the site of the Murrah Federal Building tragedy (good house, close to work, great price). What would you say to people who tied you (as a white male from Michigan) to Tim McVeigh, and told the city you shouldn’t buy a house there. Are their accusations of your ties to a mass murderer nonsense, or an entirely foreseeable controversy?

My point is that this mosque has taken on the status of “controversy” because of the fringe, and that is why your analysis should take the fringe into account. The two arguments against the mosque are as empty as your alleged ties to Tim McVeigh. And yet, those arguments (made by people who are batshit crazy) have forced this non-issue to the front of the media’s attention.

The fringe won’t be swayed by the facts of Cordoba. But I don’t buy the argument that there’s any controversy here.

As Bloomberg said:
“The simple fact is, this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship, and the government has no right whatsoever to deny that right. And if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.”

End of story. Welcome to America.

To be honest, I’m not impressed with the “you gotta be there to get it” argument. I’ve laid out, in straightforward fashion, a claim about a complex phenomenon that does not belong to any particular geography.

And RE: the Murfeesboro lunatics, I’m not going to chase the straw man. OF COURSE they are deranged idiots. So what? I didn’t call them out any more than I’ve called out the Truthers. You can always point to the radical fringe and say, “See? What about them?” but in the end, I’m more interested in the middle 2/3s of the bell curve than in the long tails. Focusing on the fringe is usually an unnecessary distraction.

I think all New Yorkers thank you, Jason from Grand Rapids, Michigan, for telling them what the REAL problem is.

Have you ever been to New York City? Do you know any New Yorkers? If you did, you’d know they don’t really need advice from Jason from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/murfreesboro-tennessee-mosque-plan-draws-criticism-residents/story?id=10956381

“I found out when the sign came up,” said Murfreesboro resident Mark Walker, whose home is near the site of the proposed mosque. “We are fighting these people, for crying out loud, we should not be promoting this.”

“They seem to be against everything I believe in, and so I don’t want them necessarily in my neighborhood,” said local resident Stan Whiteway.

And my favorite:
Tracey Steven, who also attended, said, “Our country was founded through the founding fathers — through the true God, the Father and Jesus Christ.”

Jason, you forget that there are batshit crazy people in this country, and they are the ones we need to watch out for. You claim that there are “lefties” who “ordinarily gloat at the erosion of the Judeo-Christian perspective in the public square,” (without naming one, I might add), but you seemingly hold the right blameless when people like Tracey Steven intimidate other citizens exercising their first amendment rights.

If the Judeo Christian perspective is people who think that God, the Father, and Jesus Christ founded America (apparently the Holy Spirit was on the side of the Redcoats), then maybe they should be banished from the public square. If that happens, I’ll be the first lefty to gloat.

The thoughts and questions in any divorce are “Why?” Your statement even to some seems somewhat correct is far from the truth.

“The Kuipers, it seems, had absolutely no interest in their genetic kin”.

Nancy my wife and I met you and your mother a few time after the divorce and there was a distance and separation that was made very clear to us that she wanted. No one can control another’s wishes and a respect of wishes is sometimes a better thing. Once you push yourself on someone’s wishes it always makes things more difficult and most of the time pushes then farther away.

We lost contact and it was far from our choice. Then the years go by and the distance gets farther away and then the questions get bigger and harder to answer. I worked on building your house in Rockford, MI and remember you very well. I also know that no one puts blame on you for what you did (no matter what age you were). No one in the Kuiper family is angry or upset at you and the fact is this is the first time I have ever known what happened. Tom never said why and to respect him I never asked. I hoped and prayed it was the right choice but bottom line we had to respect both Tom and your mom’s wishes.

Now that you are of age and can make choices for yourself it becomes your turn. I for one would very much like to meet you and Brian. Not to bring up hurts and pains of the past but to reflect on the good things that happened in your lives like the day you and Brian put sand in the lawnmowers and I can remember Tom laughing till he almost wet himself.

Jason, divorce is not good in any way shape or form. Being part and yet not having a choice in the part is even harder. My choice was to continue our relationship but we had no choice. You and Brian can become a complete part if you choose; we open up our arms to you both.

Paul Kuiper

You don’t know what kind of relationship that father had with his son. Your comments are really callous.

But my other point. I think it’s time we just accept that, in most cases, schools are prisons. The caged routine of the typical school day is dreadfully similar to how convicts are handled. We build these prisons for our young people, and treat them like prisoners, and then get mad when they act like prisoners.

Today’s schools lock the smart in with the dumb, the weak with the strong, and then pit them against each other. So of course there’s going to be cases of students brutalizing each other. It’s as though schools have given up on the mission they claim to have: to prepare kids for the world at large. The world inside a school bears no resemblance to the world at large. Think I’m being overly sensitive? Next time you’re at work, imagine sitting in your office and having your boss punch you in the face. Or sitting in a meeting, and having someone call you “fag.” You go to the bathroom, and a few people are smoking pot in the stalls. How long would you keep working there? Yet we tell our kids to take that shit for four years of their life. AND we tell them that those four years are the BEST years of their life.

Chris, no wonder our country’s falling apart. In the words of Bob Dylan, “It’s a hard rain’s gonna fall.”