Thursday, August 12, 2010

Of Mice And Mosques

Oh, man, I have so much to say and no time in which to say it.  2 birthdays this week and a family visit are making me pay attention to real life for a bit.  Anna has turned 17, Rachel turned 8 today, and we still have Rachel's b'day party Saturday to prepare for. I'll be back tomorrow to complain about the rodents who have been scampering inside my bathroom vanity and my silverware drawer.  Important tip:  when your husband adds "mousetraps" to your shopping list, don't ask for details.  Is there really anything he could tell you that would make you feel better?

In the meantime, how about going here, where you can find a full explanation of how the "Ground Zero Mosque" isn'tNot Ground Zero, not a mosque...and fully approved by the local city council.  Odd how politicians who want Big Government off our backs and who laud the virtues of local gov't are crusading against this particular local decision, isn't it?  I smell demagoguery in the air...

Oh, what the heck...you don't even have to bother to click.  Here's the meat of it, written by someone who actually lives/works in Manhattan, as opposed to a lot of the carpetbaggers we're hearing on the news lately. 

Ah, the “Ground Zero mosque.” Well, for a start, it won’t be at Ground Zero. It’ll be on Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site (from which it will not be visible), in a neighborhood a jumble with restaurants, shops (electronics, porn, you name it), churches, office cubes, and the rest of the New York mishmash. Park51, as it is to be called, will have a large Islamic “prayer room,” which presumably qualifies as a mosque. But the rest of the building will be devoted to classrooms, an auditorium, galleries, a restaurant, a memorial to the victims of September 11, 2001, and a swimming pool and gym. Its sponsors envision something like the 92nd Street Y—a Y.M.I.A., you might say, open to all, including persons of the C. and H. persuasions.

Like many New Yorkers, the people in charge of Park51, a married couple, are from somewhere else—he from Kuwait, she from Kashmir. Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Columbia grad. He has been the imam of a mosque in Tribeca for close to thirty years. He is the author of a book called “What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America.” He is a vice-chair of the Interfaith Center of New York. “My colleagues and I are the anti-terrorists,” he wrote recently—in the Daily News, no less. He denounces terrorism in general and the 9/11 attacks in particular, often and at length. The F.B.I. tapped him to conduct “sensitivity training” for agents and cops. His wife, Daisy Khan, runs the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which she co-founded with him. It promotes “cultural and religious harmony through interfaith collaboration, youth and women’s empowerment, and arts and cultural exchange.”


[Crown image credit: MSR Wholesale Balloons]

18 comments:

  1. Oh my. Are you actually one of those REASONABLE PEOPLE? I was wondering where all of you were. I about got my head chopped off commenting that the uproar around this mosque is outrageous. Thanks for some straight talk.

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  2. The mosque thing is getting crazy-overblown. I like this take on it:


    http://www.frumforum.com/is-the-911-mosque-a-publicity-stunt

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  3. Thank you for the post and the explanation. It clarifies for me. BTW, mice---yikes! We had one once in our butter...I have struggled eating butter ever since.

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  4. Though I am an upstate NYer, I will admit I haven't followed this at all. Thank you for the clarification.

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  5. I have the most overwhelming fear of mice. . . I may not even visit your blog again until you tell me they're gone!

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  6. I just read a wonderful quote by Mark Twain: “Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.” Thanks for your add'l info on the mosque issue.

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  7. As a former New Yorker I find this whole Mosque business uncomfortable. I still think it's in poor taste to want to put it even 2 blocks away from The World Trade Center.

    They're getting way more press than it deserves.

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  8. Ah, you and your calm head. I'd be shrieking about the mice and threatening to go on vacation until I was assured they were gone forever -- them AND their droppings.
    And then you go all calm and collected about a hot button subject, too. (Thanks, BTW)
    What are you taking? I want some.

    Happy belated birthday to your girls.

    Now I'm going to try to catch up on what I missed while on hiatus. (

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  9. I awoke yesterday morning to find, when I threw back the covers, that the cat had left a mouse, IN A TRAP, on my bed. Proud hunter that he is...I haven't recovered yet. It's going to take a LONG while.

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  10. It's nice to know that there are others out there who think this way. And about the mice? Sorry.

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  11. Are you letting facts get in the way of a good rant again?

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  12. I'm actually a very calm kind of person, but when it comes to rodents and mice, I could be the loudest and panickiest person around the house.LOL. Anyways, happy birthdays to your two girls.:-)

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  13. Dang, I hate it when I learn something interesting on a Friday night. Loved hearing a different take on it.
    May your weekend be full of cake and mouse-free.

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  14. I suppose this is when I feel hoisted by my own petard. I believe strongly in city/states rights and right of an immediate locale to govern themselves versus people thousands of miles away. Intellectually, the mosque is should happen. But in my heart, I still repel at the idea of a mosque so close to ground zero.

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  15. Mice? Don't you have a cat? Mine likes to leave dead mice and the occasional bird, on my bedroom floor for me. Not a good way to wake up in the morning, to step on one barefoot while you walk accross the room. :(

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  16. Thank you for being sensible during all the screaming going on!

    Rats and mice hate mint. I put some near my birdseed and actually watched a rat trying to circle around it without getting near the mint. (They do get used to it fast, even if they hate it.) But for a short-term relief while you're trying to catch them, buy some mint leaves and keep them as fresh as you can--in water, no fridge.

    The unexpected side effect of having a birdfeeder is it attracted all the neighbor's cats and now we don't have rodents around anymore--except for squirrels, and I saw a cat even get one of those once.

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  17. Do you guys have cats? Anyone allergic? My cats do a good job with the critters. Ditto on the ground zero mosque

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  18. I get the feeling that almost all the 70% of Americans who think this mosque is "too close to Ground Zero" would think a mosque 2 blocks from the Kabala in downtown Mecca would also be "too close to Ground Zero."

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