If anyone other than Newt Gingrich had said, “There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia,” more people might listen.
No Puffin Perspective™
Most excellent shines and whines
If anyone other than Newt Gingrich had said, “There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia,” more people might listen.
Because we should strive to be more like Saudi Arabia? Gak!
Nope. Because it is wise to ask that others do what they ask to do unto us.
Balls. Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot be compared by any but the most moronic. We understand that Arabia is a deeply religious country without freedoms. We understand that the United States attempts to uphold high standards of freedom. To justify our prejudice and idiocy by pointing to the Saudis’ prejudice and idiocy is ridiculous. Waiting for them to allow small freedoms before we allow our large freedoms is not wise.
I wrote a comment to Bob’s post to the effect that this was the first time I’d ever seen an article by M Moore that I completely agreed with. But I didn’t save it because I don’t want to get sucked into the inevitable resulting debates. If people are going to be inconsistent in their philosophies (i.e. cry for freedom and then deny it for spurious reasons) I don’t really have a need to correct them.
Having said that, I changed my mind and commented. :)
@Don: “To justify our prejudice and idiocy by pointing to the Saudis prejudice and idiocy is ridiculous.”
The carrot-and-stick of diplomacy is another way to look at that argument. Most compromises between nation-states or warring spice grow out of the expectation that the other party must give us a happy ending before we do something to make them happy. Coercing the Saudis (or other similar religious countries) to stop persecuting us ain’t a bad tactic.