Score A Victory For The Constitution Down By The WTC

Defenders of religious freedom and tolerance won a solid victory this week from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The highly controversial debate over whether to allow a mosque to be built on Park Row (two blocks from the World Trade Center site) has been going on for weeks now, and the Commission decided to ignore the bigots who group the terrible attacks of September 11th with the entirety of Islam.

From The NY Daily News:

Board members at the Landmarks Preservation Commission intend to vote unanimously against granting protected status to the 152-year-old building that would be knocked down to make way for the project, the Daily News has learned.

The Italianate building on Park Place, two blocks north of Ground Zero, simply does not meet architectural criteria for protection from the city, sources with knowledge of the issue said.

"The building is not worthy," a source said. "It does not rise to the level of an individual landmark."

The more intolerant among us decided to latch on to the issue of landmarking an old Lower Manhattan building to stop the construction of a mosque....not actually caring for the architectural makeup of an old Park Row facade. People such as Sarah Palin and sadly, the Anti-Defamation League (not so anti and much more defamatory these days, at least in this instance) spoke out against religious tolerance, using ignorance and fear to try and blunt one of the core ideas that our Founding Father fought for.

Good on the Commission for letting this go forward, and voting to keep New York City as a beacon of freedom, not a bulwark against it.

Man Thrown Out Of Yankee Stadium For Going To Bathroom During "God Bless America"

At this moment the story is sourced to the inbox at the Gothamist, but as the comments over there suggest, it could very well be true. A man claims to have been forced out of Yankee Stadium for the terrible offense of trying to use the bathroom during "God Bless America." Apparently somewhere on the fine print of your ticket, it says you must respect the song or face the consequences.

From The Gothamist:

"I attempted to get up to use the restroom, rather urgently, during the 7th inning stretch as God Bless America was beginning. As I attempted to walk down the aisle and exit my section into the tunnel, I was stopped by a police officer. He informed me that I had to wait until the song was over. I responded that I had to use the restroom and that I did not care about God Bless America.

"As soon as the latter came out of my mouth, my right arm was twisted violently behind my back and I was informed that I was being escorted out of the stadium. A second officer then joined in and twisted my left arm, also in an excessively forceful manner, behind my back. I informed them they were violating my First Amendment rights and that I had done nothing wrong, with no response from them.

"I was sitting in the Tier Level, and of course this is the highest level of the stadium and I was escorted in this painful manner down the entire length of the stadium. About halfway down, I informed them that they were hurting me, repeated that I had done nothing wrong, and that I was not resisting nor talking back to them. One of them said something to the effect that if I continued to speak, he would find a way to hurt me more.

"When we reached the exit of the stadium, they confiscated my ticket and the first officer shoved me through the turnstiles, saying 'Get the hell out of my country if you don't like it.'

"Nowhere on the Yankee Stadium ticket policy nor on any posted sign does it say that forced patriotism is a required element to attend a baseball game. Nowhere in the laws of this country would that begin to be defensible.

"Furthermore, when the two officers returned to their section, Steve who was still in the stadium overhead one of the officers say 'We got to watch ourselves. One day we're really gonna get in trouble.' They were also spreading rumors with a fan with whom they were friendly that I had said 'This country sucks.'

"I do not believe in God, nor am in support of this country to a degree of patriotic fanaticism. The fact that I wanted to use the restroom instead of standing through God Bless America should not be grounds for a forcible ejection from a baseball game."

Yikes! I always get that creepy feeling at Yankee games during the 7th inning stretch. Being a life-long Dodger fan (currently wearing one of their shirts as I type) and going to many more games at Chavez Ravine than in the Bronx, I found it odd just how religious it is up there. At Dodger games, they play "Take me out to the ballgame" twice and everyone has a good time and can go wherever they want. I guess that isn't the case at Steinbrenner's park.

Now as bad as that is that something like this can happen to a fan at a Major League Baseball game, what makes it worse is that Steinbrenner gets to have his cake (baked by the New York City taxpayers) and eat it too (thanks to exorbitant ticket prices). City officials should force him to pay for his own damn ballpark, but they apparently they are in on the scam too.

The whole thing makes me sick, I hope this guy takes everyone involved to the cleaners!

America, Meet John McCain's Spiritual Guide

I agree wholeheartedly that spirituality is important in one's life, but Rod Parsley doesn't have any clue as to what that word means:



So much for religious tolerance.