Thursday, August 5, 2010

Grudging Credit

I hate to admit it, but Megan got not one, but two issues more or less right in a single post.

Will Wilkinson names Michael Bloomberg "Hero of the day" for pointing out that there's no legal way to stop the Cordoba Initiative from using private property to house a mosque near Ground Zero. All I can say is, I'm glad to hear that Michael Bloomberg has suddenly discovered that there are some restrictions on the government's ability to dictate the uses of private property.

Update. No, I don't approve of the furor over the mosque; I understand why others are troubled by the symbolism, but it seems to be that the important bit of symbolism is that America does not collectively punish minority groups for the sins of a few members--no, not even in trivial ways.
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Now, yes, she does give the anti-mosque bigots a small nod, but at least she didn't use it as an excuse to again talk about how 9/11 happened to her, personally. And she got the Atlantic Yards issue right, amazingly. I assume it was for the wrong reasons, like her father being part of a competing plan for the area, but she's actually coming out against rich people being allowed to act as they please, I'm shocked.

2 comments:

NutellaonToast said...

I don't know much about it but I actually thought this was a rare instance of a pol doing right. I mean, Bloomberg not only ceded that he had no way to legally do anything, but didn't he also come out and state plainly that it would be morally repugnant to take action? He could have easily blustered about how bad the project was and then just done nothing.

Chad said...

Off-topic and apologies for making "requests," but please, please, please comment if Megan has anything to say about the recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles on our collapsing infrastructure. Seeing Libertarians face the real-world consequences of their ideology never fails to make me reach for the popcorn.