<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Nick,<div><br></div><div>This also raises some interesting questions about other "high church" officials in the government. If you can imagine, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller for the first four years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">was Rabbi Dov </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "> Zakheim. You can imagine how well that went over while trying to conduct military operations in the Middle East with him controlling the purse strings. Since the fall of the Bush administration,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">he has been a Vice President for Booze Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest belt-way bandits in the country.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi Roger:<br><br>I have a question and a comment for you:<br><br>You said: "Sharia law downgrades women. Any religion should be free to practice their beliefs as long ad they do not interfere with individual rights. Individual rights trumps religious practice in the US."<br><br>Doug Wilson believes that women should not vote and that gays should be either executed or run out of town. Your argument implies that Christ Church must shut down. Is that your position?<br><br>You said: "Also the State department is funding his trip abroad to raise funds. Under separation of church and state the government should not be funding a trip for any religious purpose."<br><br>The state department was sending Imam Rauf for diplomatic not religious purposes. The logic of your argument is that only agnostics could be sent on diplomatic missions!<br><br>Nick<br><blockquote type="cite">Roger<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">-----Original message-----<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">From: "Art Deco" <a href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">deco@moscow.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:14:44 -0700<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">To: "Vision 2020" <a href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Subject: [Vision2020] Not all conservaives are anti-mosque<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The Ground Zero mosque must be built<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">By Kathleen Parker<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Wednesday, August 18, 2010; A15 Washington Post<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but an important point seems to be missing. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">This point surpasses even all the obvious reasons for allowing the mosque, principally that there's no law against it. Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people's feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws. And, really, don't we want to keep it that way? <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Confession: I would prefer that the mosque not be built so close to the ground where nearly 3,000 innocent souls perished. That's my personal feeling, especially as I imagine the suffering of so many families whose loved ones died in the conflagration. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">But why do so many Americans feel this way? The answer is inherent in the question. Feeling is emotion, which isn't necessarily bad, but it bears watching. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Reason tells us something else: The Muslims who want to build this mosque didn't fly airplanes into skyscrapers. They don't support terrorism. By what understanding do we assign guilt to all for the actions of a relative few? <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Even so, as others have noted, civilized people and nations are careful to avoid trespassing on the sorrow, suffering and sacrifice we associate with hallowed grounds. As Charles Krauthammer pointed out, Pope John Paul II ordered Carmelite nuns to abandon a convent they had established at Auschwitz, among other examples. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">We would like to think that others would be as respectful of our own horrors. And yet, we should beware what we demand lest others demand the same of us. Count the number of times we've heard "sensitivity" invoked the past several days. Muslims should be more sensitive to the families of those who perished, we've heard repeatedly. Even the Anti-Defamation League, defender of religious freedom, urged the mosque's leaders to situate the building farther from Ground Zero -- out of sensitivity. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Many couldn't agree more, and yet it goes without saying -- even if President Obama felt it necessary to state -- that American Muslims have the same right as any other citizens to practice their religion and to build on private property. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Some might wish that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is behind the proposal, were more sensitive, though opinions are mixed. Others have argued that a moderate Muslim such as Rauf is just the sort of person we hope will help influence a more-moderate Islam. Might an Islamic center near the spot where the religion's worst adherents slaughtered thousands, fellow Muslims among them, be useful to that end? <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">These are all reasonable arguments. But the more compelling point is that mosque opponents may lose by winning. Radical Muslims have set cities afire because their feelings were hurt. When a Muslim murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, it was because his feelings were hurt. Ditto the Muslims who rioted about cartoons depicting the image of Muhammad and sent frightened doodlers into hiding. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The idea that one should never have one's feelings hurt -- and the violent means to which some will resort in the protection of their own self-regard -- has done harm rivaling evil. It isn't a stretch to say that the greatest threat to free speech is, in fact, "sensitivity." <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">This is why plans for the mosque near Ground Zero should be allowed to proceed, if that's what these Muslims want. We teach tolerance by being tolerant. We can't insist that our freedom of speech allows us to draw cartoons or produce plays that Muslims find offensive and then demand that they be more sensitive to our feelings. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">More to the point, the tolerance we urge the Muslim world to embrace as we exercise our right to free expression, and revel in the glory and the gift of irreverence, is the same we must embrace when Muslims seek to express themselves peacefully. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Nobody ever said freedom would be easy. We are challenged every day to reconcile what is allowable and what is acceptable. Compromise, though sometimes maddening, is part of the bargain. We let the Ku Klux Klan march, not because we agree with them but because they have a right to display their hideous ignorance. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Ultimately, when sensitivity becomes a cudgel against lawful expressions of speech or religious belief -- or disbelief -- we all lose. <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">______________________________________<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Wayne A. Fox<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">1009 Karen Lane<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">PO Box 9421<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Moscow, ID 83843<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><a href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</a><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">208 882-7975<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">=======================================================<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">=======================================================<br></blockquote><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> <br> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>