by admin on July 29, 2010
The “Ground Zero Mosque” that we have been and will be hearing so much about is not exactly a mosque, nor is it at Ground Zero. Here’s why: you can’t see Ground Zero — the former site of the World Trade Center — from the future site of the Cordoba House.
From 45 Park Place, the former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House, it’s two blocks, around a corner, to get to the WTC site. Park Place doesn’t lie between the construction site and any mass transit stations, so you would need to go out of your way to have it offend you.
If you look up the walking directions you’ll notice that it takes a couple of minutes to walk the distance (approximately a tenth of a mile) between the two spots. Pretty much two minutes exactly when I took the trip with a shaky video camera. Here’s the clip, first sped up to 4X speed then slowed down to 1X:
When the new World Trade Center rises, you’ll be able to see it from 45 Park Place, because it’ll be by far the tallest thing around. The planned Cordoba House will be dwarfed. It certainly won’t overlook or overshadow Ground Zero.
Why is the distance between the two sites so important? Simple accuracy, for one. It’s frustrating to see so many commentators blithely disregard an obvious, physical problem with the “mosque at Ground Zero” formulation: it’s not at Ground Zero.
Clyde Haberman of the New York Times further explains the significance:
There’s that “at.” For a two-letter word, it packs quite a wallop. It has been tossed around in a manner both cavalier and disingenuous, with an intention by some to inflame passions. Nobody, regardless of political leanings, would tolerate a mosque at ground zero. “Near” is not the same, as anyone who paid attention back in the fourth grade should know.
I understand the journalist’s impulse to use the “Ground Zero Mosque” shorthand to instantly remind readers why they should care about the story. Headlines leave out qualifiers like “near” all the time for brevity’s sake. But in this case the elision is critical; leaving out the “near” clearly takes sides — against the “mosque” and against accuracy.
In addition, the building planned for 45 Park Place is a cultural center with a prayer room — not a single-purpose house of worship for Muslims, which is probably what we should reserve the word “mosque” for. As Haberman also explains, “That it may even be called a mosque is debatable. It is designed as a multi-use complex with a space set aside for prayer — no minarets, no muezzin calls to prayer blaring onto Park Place.”
The 92nd Street Y, on which the Cordoba House is explicitly modeled, has a whole host of Jewish events take place inside of it, but no one calls it a synagogue. There’s no good reason why Cordoba House should be misleadingly called a “mosque.” I’ve been guilty of using this word too, in conversation and in writing, but it’s inaccurate. Muslims already read the Quran and pray at 45 Park Place, but that does not and will not turn it into a “mosque.”
There’s one more catch for the opponents of the so-called Ground Zero mosque: by the same logical leap you can call the Cordoba Center a “mosque,” you can also call Ground Zero as it already exists a giant, open-air mosque. Muslim prayers are already taking place right on the edge of the construction site, and not for world domination. Families are going there to pray — for the souls of the dozens of innocent Muslim victims who died on September 11.
View full post on Most Popular Entries on HuffingtonPost
Tagged as:
From,
ground,
Just,
Mosque,
Zero
by admin on July 28, 2010
In 1989, when the Exxon Valdez tanker spewed 11 million gallons of oil onto the Alaskan coastline, the state was deep in the throes of a recession. To repair the damage, Exxon paid hundreds of millions to a plethora of local businesses, which locals soon started calling the “spillionaires”.
Thereafter, Alaska went on to enjoy 21 straight years of growth, and the state’s economic recovery became a small consolation after the spill.
So who will be the “spillionaires” of the BP oil spill?
As Foreign Policy magazine notes, “beach crews aren’t the only people cleaning up after the Deepwater disaster.” BP is expected to pay $37 billion to clean up the mess.
But the small silver lining of the BP disaster isn’t as local as most would hope. It stretches well beyond the Gulf Coast region to Washington — where lobbyists are being paid huge sums to influence lawmakers on an array of oil-related issues — and across the country, to big clean-up companies that have won hefty contracts to decontaminate the Gulf.
Which businesses are “cleaning up” the most because of the BP oil spill? Find out below:
View full post on Latest News
Tagged as:
'Spillionaires',
coast,
From,
gulf,
photos,
profit,
Spill,
Who's
by admin on July 27, 2010
WHO: Charles Frederick Worth, Callot Soeurs, Gabrielle Chanel, and more
WHAT: American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
WHEN: May 5th – August 15th, 2010
WHERE: Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, second floor
WHY: The spring 2010 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. The exhibition explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sartorial emancipation. Early mass-media representations of American women established the fundamental characteristics of American style — a theme explored via a multimedia installation in the final gallery.
View full post on Latest News
Tagged as:
American,
exhibit,
Fashioning,
From,
Identity,
national,
photos,
woman
by admin on July 21, 2010
“Gossip Girl” Actress Taylor Momsen recently talked to MTV Style about her personal style. She explained, “I do myself up kind of like a doll. I have a doll collection and I look at their outfits and kind of imitate them.” She also eloquently noted, “I still wear pieces from when I was in f**king middle school.” She was born in 1993, so you can do the math.
WATCH:
Taylor talks about firing her stylist.
WATCH:
View full post on Latest News
Tagged as:
F**king,
From,
middle,
Momsen,
pieces,
school,
Still,
taylor,
video,
wear
by admin on July 19, 2010
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil and gas are leaking from the cap on BP’s ruptured oil well but the cork will stay in place for now, the federal government’s point man on the spill said Monday.
The leaks aren’t “consequential,” retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said, relieving concerns that they are a sign the cap is creating too much pressure underground. That could mean the cap that’s stopped oil since Thursday would have to be opened.
Allen said BP could continue testing the cap, meaning keeping it shut, for at least another 24 hours. He said BP must keep rigorously monitoring for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation.
If there was a quick rise in pressure, the well would be vented immediately to keep from creating leaks deep underground, Allen said.
Allen repeated Monday that the next step wasn’t clear.
“I’m not prepared to say the well is shut in until the relief well is done. There are too many uncertainties,” he said.
The concern all along – since pressure readings on the cap weren’t as high as expected – was a leak elsewhere in the well bore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix.
With the newly installed cap keeping oil out of the Gulf, this weekend offered a chance for the oil company and government to gloat over their shared success – the first real victory in fighting the spill.
Instead, the two sides have spent the past two days disagreeing over what to do with the undersea machinery holding back the gusher.
“We had some concerns … about commitments that BP had made that we did not feel that they were adequately living up to in terms of that monitoring,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “That was dealt with last night on a call that lasted late into the evening.”
The apparent disagreement began to sprout Saturday when Allen said the cap would eventually be hooked up to a mile-long pipe to pump the crude to ships on the surface. But early the next day, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the cap should stay clamped shut to keep in the oil until a permanent fix.
The company very much wants to avoid a repeat of millions of gallons of oil spewing from the blown well for weeks, watched live across the country on underwater video.
If the valves are kept closed, as BP wants, it’s possible that no more oil will leak into the Gulf of Mexico. Work on a permanent plug is moving steadily, with crews drilling into the side of the ruptured well from deep underground. By next week, they could start blasting in mud and cement to block off the well for good.
But the government is worried that the cap on the well is causing oil and gas to leak out elsewhere, which could make the sea floor unstable and cause the well to collapse. That’s why federal officials want to pump the crude to ships on the surface. That would require opening the well for a few days to relieve pressure before the pipes could be hooked up, letting millions more gallons of oil spill out in the interim.
View full post on Most Popular Entries on HuffingtonPost
Tagged as:
Detected,
From,
Leaking,
miles,
Seepage,
Wellhead
