No mosque at Ground Zero

The great Pat Condell with words for Americans on the prospect of a mosque being built just yards from where Muslim jihadists killed thousands of our people in 2001:

I admit this is a difficult issue for me, since, as an American, anything that smacks of abridging freedom of religious expression gets greeted with great skepticism. As it should.  And yet, this case is different: a mosque is a symbol of Islamic domination and, per sharia law, becomes a permanent possession of the Islamic ummah, or community. It is no longer American soil, but part of the Dar ul-Islam, the House of Submission.  This is as much a part of Islamic law as the call to jihad, that same called that resulted in so many deaths on 9-11.

I’ll have more to say about this some other day, but, for now, I think the mosque should be blocked. It’s not an act of “reaching out” or “building cultural ties.” No, by placing it at the site of Islam’s “great victory,” it’s an act of conquest and domination – of cultural jihad.

RELATED: (via Hot Air) By the way, did you know that the imam of this proposed mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, belongs to a group that is the largest donor to the group that organized the Gaza “aid” flotilla? What a coincidence. Hmmm… 

Interview with Marco Rubio

Ed Morrissey does a wide-ranging and interesting interview with Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee-presumptive in the Florida senate race. Rubio was in Minnesota for a fund-raiser hosted by Governor Tim Pawlenty:

LINKS: An interview from a few months ago with National Review. Rubio was also interviewed by Power Line. The video hasn’t been posted yet, but John Hinderaker writes about his impressions of Marco.

An example of American exceptionalism in action

Arthur Brooks in the Wall St. Journal on what the Greek demonstrations tell us about the differences between Americans and Europeans:

Many Europeans also expect others to work so they can live. The International Social Survey Programme asked Americans and Europeans whether they believe “It is the responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes.” In virtually all of Western Europe more than 50% agree, and in many countries it is much higher—77% in Spain, whose redistributive economy is in shambles. Meanwhile, only 33% of Americans agree with income redistribution.

Simply put, Europeans have a much stronger taste for other people’s money than we do. This is vividly illustrated by the recent protests in the U.S. and Greece.

Why are citizens rioting and striking in Greece? Despite the worst economic crisis in decades, labor unions and state functionaries demand that others pay for the early retirements, lifetime benefits and state pensions to which they feel entitled. In America, however, the tea partiers demonstrate not to get more from others, but rather against government growth, public debt, bailouts and a budget-busting government overhaul of the health-care industry.

In other words, the tea partiers are protesting against exactly what the Greeks are demanding. It is an example of American exceptionalism if there ever was one.

(via Dan Mitchell)

It’s the thought that counts?

Memo to Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State:

Dear Madame Secretary,

The Queen’s birthday is next week.

yours,

–Phineas

Gee, ya think there might be a problem?

So, in the annals of our porous southern border, we’ve had problems with illegal migrants, drug smuggling and human trafficking, vulnerability to terrorists, and even Americans being murdered on their own property.

Now we have to worry about the dam bursting. Literally.

Agents feared Mexican drug cartel attack on border dam

An alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a dam along the Texas border — and unleash billions of gallons of water into a region with millions of civilians — sent American police, federal agents and disaster officials secretly scrambling last month to thwart such an attack, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

Whether or not the cartel, which is known to have stolen bulk quantities of gunpowder and dynamite, could have taken down the 5-mile-long Falcon Dam may never be known since the attack never came to pass.

It may have been derailed by a stepped-up presence by the Mexican military, which was acting in part on intelligence from the U.S. government, sources said.

The warning, which swung officials into action, was based on what the federal government contends were “serious and reliable sources” and prompted the Department of Homeland Security to sound the alarm to first responders along the South Texas-Mexico border.

Mexico’s Zeta cartel was planning to destroy the dam not to terrorize civilians, but to get back at its rival and former ally, the Gulf cartel, which controls smuggling routes from the reservoir to the Gulf of Mexico, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, head of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, as did others familiar with the alleged plot.

But in the process, massive amounts of agricultural land would stand to be flooded as well as significant parts of a region where about 4 million people live along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

A local Texas police captain discounted the threat, but bear in mind that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by 15 guys with box-cutters. And isn’t it comforting to know they weren’t out to get us, really; they were just after other drug smugglers. The Zetas were even courteous enough to warn residents on (the Mexican side of) the border to clear out.  Bad guys fighting bad guys! Win-win!

Speaking of holes that need plugging, Mr. President…

(via Allahpundit)

LINKS: More from Fausta.