Can you believe it?  I sure can’t.  And I must admit I’m having serious trouble digesting this one. 

Apparently, plans are currently underway to build a 14-story, Islamic cultural center and mosque just two, short blocks from Ground Zero.

Some people’s chutzpah know no bounds!  Forget about words like ‘insensitive’ –  that’s too weak a term for this unbelievable development.  This absurd proposal is nothing short of unmitigated gall.

As a native New Yorker who sat riveted to the TV on 9-11, watching the heartbreaking tragedy and shocking destruction of the World Trade Center unfold with tears running down my face,  all at the hands of wacko Muslim religious fanatics, this tactless proposal is just too much to swallow.

Muslim proponents say they are building the center  to show the community “that we have peace in our hearts.”   

Well, if they’re really sincere about that, why don’t they collectively put some pressure on the likes of Osama bin-Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and the other fanatical terrorist groups, to put a little ‘peace’ in their hearts.  If that could happen – overnight,  all the Muslim-rooted trouble spots around the globe would also find some peace.

But, until we see some real peace moves coming from the Muslim world, I sure don’t want to see a tribute to the 9-11 terrorists anywhere near Ground Zero.

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Right off the bat, I want to state that I definitely am not a fan of ‘political correctness.’  In fact, I despise it.  If ever there was a real threat to free speech, it’s this stupid PC thing, which is nothing more than a thinly veiled gag to control your right to say what you want.

If you don’t like what someone says, tell them so – and why.  If something offends you on TV or radio, switch the channel or turn the darn thing off.  I mean, the PC  police are everywhere these days. You have to watch every thing you say and just about walk around on eggshells, least you offend anybody.

With that said, let’s tackle Helen Thomas’ recent remark – and why she deserved to get fired for what she said. 

Thomas didn’t make those offensive remarks while a guest on the Jay Leno show – or even The Daily Show, where you’d expect to hear something outrageous or insulting.  No, her comments came following a White House briefing, which she had attended in the capacity of a journalist. 

And while it’s true that most journalists don’t pretend not to have a personal viewpoint on a given issue - I believe we do try our best to remain objective in our reporting, and keep our personal opinions out of our copy.

So, for me,  Helen Thomas’ biggest sin wasn’t what she said (although, I did find her remarks blatantly anti-Semitic and reprehensible).  No, in my book, her unforgivable offense was that her nasty comments showed an outright bias and a total lack of objectivity that any Journalism 101 student would recognize.

After all her years as a noted journalist, she should have known better.  And she paid the price for her big, biased mouth.  She has ended a long and distinguished career in disgrace.

How sad.

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North Korea torpedoes a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors.

Where’s the world outrage?

Iran thumbs its nose at threatened U.N. sanctions , and vows to continues its nuclear weapons (oh, I mean ‘nuclear energy’) program.

Where’s the world outrage?

A greed-driven, foreign oil company devastates the Gulf states in the worst ecological catastrophe this country has ever experienced – with the worst yet to come.

Where’s the world outrage?

Israel attempts to search a  ‘peace’ ship heading to Hamas-controlled Gaza  (the same Gaza from which thousands of rockets have been launched against Israel almost on a daily basis), and  ‘peaceniks’ beat the outnumbered soldiers with lead pipes, stab them with knives and toss them overboard – leading to the deaths of 9 ‘innocent victims.’

Boy, did that get world outrage! 

But,  just who is the real victim and who is the perpetrator?    Israel is suffering world condemnation for killing 9 pipe-wielding ‘peaceniks’ in self-defense.  If someone was bashing my head in with a lead pipe, you can bet I’d shoot them too.  (Incidentally, how come Israeli soldiers didn’t threaten or shoot people on the other 5 ships in the flotilla?  Maybe that’s because the other ships went peacefully to be searched for contraband.)

As the facts behind this incident come to light, it turns out that this was no ‘love boat,’ as Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu so aptly put it.  Background checks on some of the dead ‘victims’ are revealing the same old club members with the same old ties to terrorist organizations.  But the world doesn’t want to see that or acknowledge the truth.  The other hapless and misguided do-gooders on the ship should get a life and stop making a bad situation worse.

Let’s wait for the results of a  full investigation before pointing fingers.

 

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Maybe the government should give “Ghostbusters”  Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray a quick call, since it sure looks like we don’t have any “Oil Busters”  handy to tackle the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

The finger-pointing game between British Petroleum,  the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard has become so mindboggling, it’s hard to keep track of “who’s on first.”

If the situation wasn’t so tragically devastating, it would be almost laughable watching the “dance of incompetence” among those involved.

If you’ve been following CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s nightly coverage of the oil spill catastrophe, as I have, it’s downright frightening to discover just how bad this is – and nobody seems to have an answer  about taking some kind of action to solve the problem  – not even our government.

It sure causes one to be more than a bit uneasy about  who, if anyone, will show up in a “Batman” suit to save us if and when a major national crisis occurs.  Not that this isn’t a national emergency.  Just watching the heartbreaking  news footage of dead wildlife beginning to wash up from the oil spill is a chilling omen of what’s still to come.

If the government doesn’t hold BP responsible for the millions of dollars it will take for oil cleanup, lost income for coastal businesses and workers, and the ecological damage to the wetlands and beaches –  there should be an outcry from the citizens of this country.

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Whether you like Elena Kagan, or not, no one can say Obama’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens certainly isn’t qualified. 

In fact, as the first female dean of Harvard Law School and the first woman to serve as solicitor general, Kagan’s professional credits prove she can more than handle the job.

As to accusations she’s too liberal, or rumors she’s gay – well, she’ll definitely be ‘right’ of Stevens, and what does her sexual orientation matter.  Surely, we’ve gotten past that, by now.

What impresses me about Kagan is that she appears to follow her conscience and she stands up for what she believes is right.  This, apparently, is a lifelong trait.  As a young girl of 12, she fought to have a bat mitzvah ceremony in her upper west side Orthodox synagogue, at a time when the Jewish coming-of-age ritual was not something open to girls. She won that battle.

Though she considers herself a Conservative Jew, I doubt religion, sexual orientation, or political pressure will influence her decisions as Supreme Court Justice.

I could be wrong, but I like her moxy and am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.  So, I say – thumbs up for Kagan.

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