Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well for one, a gun safe might have been a good beginning. They had the thing lying in a closet. Like many "responsible" gun owners, I'm sure they taught their kids to respect firearms. Apparently they were not as successful in teaching their son respect for family, or human life.

I understand why you need a gun safe; I don't get how one "defends one's property" scrambling for the gun that is kept safely away or guns and ammo kept in separate places. I just don't get the need for guns.

If a gun is in a gun safe, you don't need to separate guns and ammo. Sheesh.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rauf will remain on the board of Park51, but the developers appointed Imam Abdullah Adhami to serve as Senior Advisor to the project to help create, “a robust and dynamic religious and interfaith component.”

Really, you should be ashamed. How can you even look at yourself in the mirror after this display of intellectual bankruptcy? Aren't you humiliated?

First, you changed Imams. Rauf was the primary proponent of the Mosque. But, you discuss Adhami. What do you find? According to your unsourced article, he has praised another Imam. What did this guy do? Well, it's not really clear other than he "laid foundations." What does that even mean?

This is your argument? You are not ashamed?

As for the Gaza flotilla, you switch back to Rauf. I guess all Muslims not only look the same to you, you actually believe they are the same. Rauf, Adhami, what's the difference, right? Again, it is quite a stretch to say that support for an organization tied to the Gaza flotilla -- an organization even your source describes as supporting only "non-violent direct action" -- is proof that someone is not peaceful.

This is shameful. If you had any intellectual pride whatsoever you wouldn't have posted such a thing.

Might I suggest you read the entire article posted?

Conservatives are cafeteria constitutionalists. They will never defend the tough cases. Just the ones they agree with.

Anonymous wrote:Rauf will remain on the board of Park51, but the developers appointed Imam Abdullah Adhami to serve as Senior Advisor to the project to help create, “a robust and dynamic religious and interfaith component.”

Really, you should be ashamed. How can you even look at yourself in the mirror after this display of intellectual bankruptcy? Aren't you humiliated?

First, you changed Imams. Rauf was the primary proponent of the Mosque. But, you discuss Adhami. What do you find? According to your unsourced article, he has praised another Imam. What did this guy do? Well, it's not really clear other than he "laid foundations." What does that even mean?

This is your argument? You are not ashamed?

As for the Gaza flotilla, you switch back to Rauf. I guess all Muslims not only look the same to you, you actually believe they are the same. Rauf, Adhami, what's the difference, right? Again, it is quite a stretch to say that support for an organization tied to the Gaza flotilla -- an organization even your source describes as supporting only "non-violent direct action" -- is proof that someone is not peaceful.

This is shameful. If you had any intellectual pride whatsoever you wouldn't have posted such a thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's legal of them to do so. Just tacky as hell

Really. Sounds like you are blaming peaceful muslims for the bad behavior of a few extremists.

Nope. I'm questioning the logic of why peaceful muslims would want to build there.

And if you knew anything about the history of this imam, you'd know he is no peaceful muslim.

Oh, maybe because they want to serve muslims, and they don't feel responsible for 9/11 any more than you feel responsible for the bombing of the Atlanta Olympics.

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it...but does anyone notice the trend of all these shootings? Most are under 30. Has anyone thought that maybe we're seeing some of the ramifications of the first generation or so that grew up playing violent video games? We know they desensitize people and make it hard to separate fantasy from reality so thinking of kids with developing brains playing those very realistic ones is pretty scary. That and the number of 4/5 year olds seeing scary/violent movies with their parents in movie theaters.

I'm all for gun control to an extent, but I think there's also a deeper issue along the lines of mental health and violence. I know we can't tell people what to do, but I think we do need to have a study done and raise awareness of the affects of certain things.

Not really. Homicide rates have always been higher for for the younger age groups. But the trend within that age group is a decreasing homicide rate. I'm not saying it is irrelevant, but older adults don't kill nearly as often.

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it...but does anyone notice the trend of all these shootings? Most are under 30. Has anyone thought that maybe we're seeing some of the ramifications of the first generation or so that grew up playing violent video games? We know they desensitize people and make it hard to separate fantasy from reality so thinking of kids with developing brains playing those very realistic ones is pretty scary. That and the number of 4/5 year olds seeing scary/violent movies with their parents in movie theaters.

I'm all for gun control to an extent, but I think there's also a deeper issue along the lines of mental health and violence. I know we can't tell people what to do, but I think we do need to have a study done and raise awareness of the affects of certain things.

I don't think that "violent" video games are the cause of the gun violence. After all, you can very easily do a quick statistical analysis on Japan vs. America -- Japanese people play more video games (including the violent ones) than Americans. And yet our gun violence crimes are astronomically higher.

I can appreciate that you are trying to work through this, but I'd be more inclined to stick to the research. If you look at worldwide gun violence, the U.S. is off the charts for developed countries. That speaks to a more localized phenomenon, since we export much of our entertainment culture (i.e., scary movies and violent video games) to the rest of the world. The strongest correlation with gun violence is the accessibility of guns. The simple solution is to ban them as they are banned in most non-war-stricken countries. It's bullshit that people think a hunting rifle will protect them from the gov't, not to mention a misreading of the second amendment.

Anonymous wrote:

Well for one, a gun safe might have been a good beginning. They had the thing lying in a closet. Like many "responsible" gun owners, I'm sure they taught their kids to respect firearms. Apparently they were not as successful in teaching their son respect for family, or human life.

I understand why you need a gun safe; I don't get how one "defends one's property" scrambling for the gun that is kept safely away or guns and ammo kept in separate places. I just don't get the need for guns.

In above link:

Reuters[2] confirmed with the Free Gaza Movement — whose supporters include William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn,[3] natch — that its biggest donation did indeed come from Perdana. Any reason to fault Rauf for belonging to a "global peace organization" willing to give money to another group that promises only "civil resistance and non-violent direct action"?[4] Well, it depends. Did he know that the flotilla was being co-organized by a Turkish charity with terrorist ties?[5] Did he know that goon provocateurs would be aboard the flotilla, some of them from the Muslim Brotherhood?[6] Does he realize that the stated mission[7] of the Free Gaza Movement, i.e. to "establish a permanent sea lane between Gaza and the rest of the world," will assuredly result in weapons shipments to Hamas? If he didn't know those things before — and maybe he didn't — does finding out now change his opinion of the FGM? Inquiring reporters should want to know.

He also was a huge supporter re: the Turkish/Gaza flotilla:

http://www.think-israel.org/allahpundit.feisalabdulrauf.html

Rauf will remain on the board of Park51, but the developers appointed Imam Abdullah Adhami to serve as Senior Advisor to the project to help create, “a robust and dynamic religious and interfaith component.”

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to be a key advisor on a project going forward that has enormous creative and healing potential for the collective good in New York City and in our nation,” Adhami said in the statement.
But critics of the mosque do not share Adhami’s belief in the healing potential of the mosque project, much less in his ability to help bring it to fruition. They point to Adhami’s connection to Imam Siraj Wahhaj of Brooklyn. Adhami, who holds a degree in architecture, volunteered to help design Wahhaj’s Masjid At-Taqwa mosque, and fetes him on his personal website as a “pioneer in the American Muslim experience.” “Since the 1970s, Imam Siraj has tirelessly laid the foundations for many scholars and leaders that would follow him,” Adhami writes.

One of the “scholars” for whom Wahhaj laid foundations in the U.S. was Shiekh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the infamous “blind sheikh” and mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Abdel-Rahman spent time in prison in Egypt in the early 1980s on charges that he had issued a “fatwa,” or religious decree, calling for the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. He was also known to have ties to the terrorist groups Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, serving as the leader of the second group. Abdel-Rahman appeared on a State Department terrorist watch list before gaining entry to the United States in 1990.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's legal of them to do so. Just tacky as hell

Really. Sounds like you are blaming peaceful muslims for the bad behavior of a few extremists.

Nope. I'm questioning the logic of why peaceful muslims would want to build there.

And if you knew anything about the history of this imam, you'd know he is no peaceful muslim.

Please describe one example of the Imam being non-peaceful. From a reputable source please. So, that rules out Jihad Watch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's legal of them to do so. Just tacky as hell

Really. Sounds like you are blaming peaceful muslims for the bad behavior of a few extremists.

Nope. I'm questioning the logic of why peaceful muslims would want to build there.

And if you knew anything about the history of this imam, you'd know he is no peaceful muslim.

Anonymous wrote:It's legal of them to do so. Just tacky as hell

Really. Sounds like you are blaming peaceful muslims for the bad behavior of a few extremists.

I hate to say it...but does anyone notice the trend of all these shootings? Most are under 30. Has anyone thought that maybe we're seeing some of the ramifications of the first generation or so that grew up playing violent video games? We know they desensitize people and make it hard to separate fantasy from reality so thinking of kids with developing brains playing those very realistic ones is pretty scary. That and the number of 4/5 year olds seeing scary/violent movies with their parents in movie theaters.

I'm all for gun control to an extent, but I think there's also a deeper issue along the lines of mental health and violence. I know we can't tell people what to do, but I think we do need to have a study done and raise awareness of the affects of certain things.