Freedom Mosque

The whole mosque at ground zero controversy has brought up two major points to me.  It started out “cultural center” in the media then went to “victory mosque” then finally “terror mosque”.  Personally I don’t have a problem with the proposed cultural center or its location.  It’s not like it is on the actual site ( like the multi-religious center at the Pentagon, which has operated since reconstruction was completed).  So if a mosque, all be part-time one is at one ground zero why not both?  The one at new the New York site is around a corner and down the block, how far away is far enough? 

All this is just a precursor  to what I think will be the real fight once the New York memorial is completed.  You know there will a Christian cross at the site and a Star of  David  for the Christians and Jews who died there, but what about a Islamic Crescent  for the Muslim victims of the attack.  If people don’t want a mosque two blocks away are they going to tolerate Islamic symbols on the site itself.  Muslims died in the buildings as well and they are just as dead as the people of other religions and I’m sure they will want their family members memorialized as well.  Did other religious groups who had victims in the Oklahoma City bombing want to tare down churches near the site because it was a southern Baptist who blew up the building?  I do not recall that happening.

On the other side the whacked-out Florida preacher that had planned to burn Korans on September eleventh may have made a point without even knowing it.  In the America I live in, as ridiculous as this idea was, most reasonable people would consider this a form of free speech.  But trying to burn a Koran or criticize a Muslim or Islam is likely to get you killed.  The founder of the New York mosque is unwilling to move his project because he’s afraid it will incite violence from the radicals.  this raises the question is Islam and freedom really compatible?  If you have to tiptoe around and be careful about what you say or do for fear of upsetting a bunch of radicals, that is no way to live in any society.  All fanatics must learn that nothing anyone says or tries to burn gives them the right to kill people or blow things up just because you disagree with them.  Compromising and putting up with ridiculous people, acts, and statements is the price of living in this country.

Despicable PG&E

Headline news reported the other day that TRN an industry watchdog group is accusing energy giant PG&E of serious misconduct in relation to the disastrous pipeline explosion two weeks ago.   Four people were killed and three more are “still missing” (let’s just call it seven, from the video i saw I do not think they will find the last three) dozens of houses were burned to the ground, and some of the evacuees who were lucky enough not to lose every thing in the fire were later victims of looters while being kept away from there homes by police.  Then I saw a news crawl that governor Schwarzenegger wants to declare the site a federal disaster area to pay for the cleanup.

The charges are that PG&E received a five million dollar rate hike to pay for repairing the gas main that failed, then turned around and gave the repair money out as executive bonuses.  PG&E then asked the state for more time and another five million dollars to make the repairs they should have already made.  I can only guess that they must have rum out of money before they ran out of executives.  The explosion and resulting fire were so huge that at first it was reported that an airliner had gone down in the neighborhood on approach to LAX.  It took emergency responders two days to put out the fire, and police kept even people who lost nothing to the fire out of the area.  Police kept out the residents but apparently  allowed in all the looters who felt like wondering through the neighborhood.  One couple not only had their jewelry stolen, but their passports and social security cards as well.  My advice to that couple is to go ahead and change your names now, it will only get tougher the more your identity is stolen. avoid the rush.

What I would do.  This is a new feature for this blog where I not only write about a travesty of justice, I will also write about what I would do to bring about a just resolution to the matter if it were up to me.  And they better pray it is never up to me.  First PG&E would pay for the whole cleanup and rebuild, no federal money!  Next, every executive that took a bonus from the rate hike meant for repairs would be charged with arson and murder.  Over and over again companies rip off consumers, poison their employees and customers all while getting huge tax breaks and free land from local governments just to do business in their states.  Nothing is ever done to correct these travesties or to prevent them from happening again.  There is a lot wrong with the Chinese government, but they know how to deal with corruption and restore the confidence of the public.  Remember when tainted baby formula turned up?  The Chinese took their head of the Chinese equivalent of the FDA out of his office and shot him within a month.  If we created a few examples like these some of these abuses would clear up pretty quickly