I’m becoming a huge fan of Michael Bloomberg. He has the brains to understand our constitution, the balls to support it even when it’s complicated or hurtful, and the words to explain to the rest of us that

if we say that a mosque or a community center should not be built near the perimeter of the World Trade Center site, we would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom. We would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting.

Amen. Read the whole thing.

The Muslim-community-center-somewhere-in-lower-Manhattan-just-around-the-corner-from-the strip-club-and-BBQ-joint controversy is quickly becoming one of my favorites of all time, and not only because I’m having so much fun reading Bloomberg’s latest rhetorical demolition of the chickenshits who would enshrine fear and prejudice so close to the site where our enemies tried send the very same message.

No, this one rocks — with apologies to the unfortunate African-American construction worker who got heckled for simply being Black in the vicinity of Ground Zero — because it is so rife with right-wing hypocrisy.

For example, one of the righties’ new talking points is that they’re not prejudiced (no! no!), they’re just questioning the source of the money. You know, it comes from that Arab guy, the one who, oops, owns a large chunk of News Corp, and hangs out with the Bush family.

OK, yes, I get my news from the Daily Show. Laughing at the news is the only way it’s bearable these days. But I challenge any mosque-fearing righties to explain why Saudi money is scary when it’s funding a community center but not when it owns a big piece of a major right-wing propaganda machine.

I’m also loving the fact that my gun-shop-near-Columbine example turned out to to be not only snarky but (almost) TRUE!! The NRA was asked to move its convention from Denver the year after Columbine based on (wait for it) sensitivities. Charlton Heston explained, correctly, that “American must stop this predictable pattern of reaction.”  (It’s at the 7:24ish mark, though Jon Stewart is pretty funny, t0o.)  We can’t blame the NRA for the acts of two disturbed kids, and we can’t blame an entire religion for the acts of thugs who profess its beliefs. And most of all, we can’t compromise our laws and values in the name of sensitivities.  We are tougher than that. We did not become a beacon to the rest of the world by whining every time someone did something that hurt someone’s feelings.

Update: No longer funny. “A city cab driver is in the hospital after being stabbed by a passenger who allegedly asked if he was Muslim, police tell NY1.” It’s a pogrom. Suck on that, Abe Fucking Foxman.

Update 2:  This appeared on the Facebook page of someone I don’t even know, but I thought it was cool.  After subjecting the question to quantitative analysis, the clear conclusion is:  Get A Grip!