Madness over Manhattan mosque

I haven't weighed in on this issue, even though I am about to become a part-time New Yorker, because much ink has been spilled and everyone who reads my blog regularly will know how I feel about it (I'm not a bigot, thus my attitude should be clear.)

But every once in a while someone expresses what many of us are feeling and thinking in such a clear and powerful way that we wish we had done it ourselves. Those people are called, um, writers! And in his blog today, my friend and close comrade-in-arms Marc Cooper, a journalism professor at the University of Southern Calfornia, surpasses his usual eloquence. Please read it at this link. Oh, and please forgive Marc for the rather disgusting image he chose to illustrate his post, although it is probably well deserved in this case.

Let me just highlight one paragraph from Marc's post, on a subject close to my heart, but be sure to read it all:

Most repulsive to me, as a nominal Jew, has been the unspeakable but rather predictable posture of the Anti-Defamation League. I say predictable because the ADL has been running one of the greatest of scams for way too long, baldly capitalizing on the Holocaust while serving, primarily, as a lobby for the state of Israel. Anti-semitism is charge no one wants to bear, and the ADL has cynically manipulated the issue and politcally blackmailed (and blackballed) way too many legitimate critics of Israel by smearing them as anti-Semites (yours truly included).

The revenge of the bulls. I hate to see anyone get hurt, especially children, but it's hard to feel entirely sorry for the spectators injured by a taunted bull run amok in Spain. At least the people of Catalonia have had the good sense to ban bullfighting. The bull always loses in the end, but sometimes takes people down with him along the way--bullfight enthusiasts should at least be able to appreciate the poetic justice when that happens.

Israel reaches new peak in arbitrary razing of Palestinian homes. So says Human Rights Watch. "While Israel is demolishing more and more Palestinian homes, it continues to subsidize the Jewish settlements nearby," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel has flouted international law not only by supporting settlements on occupied territory, but also by erasing longstanding Palestinian communities next door."