A reader writes:
Did Newt really claim that the Cordoba House mosque would "overlook" the World Trade Center site? Rubbish. It is three blocks away and has no line of sight.
And 3,000 Americans? 3,000 human beings, mostly but by no means entirely American, as anyone in reality-based discourse knows. Another writes:
I live two blocks from Ground Zero in a six-building apartment complex with an active tenant association. As best I can tell, Cordoba House is a non-issue among local residents. I haven't heard a word from anybody on the subject - not in the elevators, not in the lobby, not at the neighborhood bars or restaurants. Nada.
Here are the facts. The proposed Cordoba House is not a mosque. It's to be a community center modeled after the YMCA and the Jewish Community Center, with most of its 13 floors devoted to classrooms, fitness and recreation - open to the entire downtown community, not just Muslims. There is to be a "prayer space" that can hold up to 2,000 people. I'll aver that "prayer space" could just be a PC term for "mosque," though I confess no knowledge of what procedures must take place to consecrate a facility as an official mosque. The group's leader, Imam Abdul Rauf, has held services in a small mosque in the neighborhood since 1983. It isn't as though the group materialized out of nowhere or has no history in the neighborhood.
Another
I think Gingrich has a point.
I re-read my home copy of the Constitution this morning and came across the first amendment which reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." But based on Gingrichian logic, I figured this cannot be true because Saudi Arabia doesn't allow for full freedom of religion, so therefore there is no way the United States can.
So I looked closer and closer at the Constitution until I noticed something: there was more text there, hidden with invisible ink. So I whipped up a batch of my homemade ink revealer (just like Nick Cage), applied it to the Constitution, and voila! there it was: a missing footnote that was hidden for centuries! It reads: "This amendment is only valid when Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations recognize freedom of religion inside their own borders."
Another:
Maybe Newt would also like us to adopt Saudi Arabia's penalties for adultery.
Not likely. But now he's a theocon Catholic, who knows? What interests me is how Newt was obviously doing this to make sure Palin doesn't get an edge with the war of civilizations crowd. She's setting the agenda for Gingrich now, as well - and their primary battle (in which she will eat him alive) is beginning. And can we have no more encomiums to how smart Gingrich is? He's an ill-educated ideologue who treats ideas and arguments as weapons in political wars. That's all.
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty.)