Liberty
(n) liberty (immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence)
(n) liberty (freedom of choice) "liberty of opinion"; "liberty of worship"; "liberty--perfect liberty--to think or feel or do just as one pleases"; "at liberty to choose whatever occupation one wishes" -- Princeton Wordnet
I start out with a definition of liberty because a lot of the people who use it most seem to have no idea what the hell it means. The people who call themselves "defenders of liberty" were actually handed a couple of setbacks this week, with a city board approving a Muslim community center in Manhattan and a judge in California striking down a ban on same-sex marriage. In both cases, liberty prevailed. And, in both cases, those "defenders of liberty" expressed their outrage.
Among the most shameful voices about the community center -- to be named Cordoba House -- has been disgraced former house speaker Newt Gingrich. And his reasoning was as idiotic as we've come to expect. "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia," he said in a statement. "The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over."Shorter Newt Gingrich; "If Saudi Arabia isn't going to practice religious freedom, we should become just as oppressive -- that'll show 'em! First Amendment be damned." You wonder when Newt will get around to calling for a moratorium on Catholic churches. After all, you're not going to find a lot of mosques in Vatican City. But that would require consistency in reasoning and that's not what we've come to expect from Gingrich -- or anyone else on the right, for that matter. And, of course, banning mosques would verify about 90% of Islamic terrorist propaganda. This doesn't strike me as being all that constructive...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
