The Decline and Fall of the Washington Post: Sally Quinn

She was once a star reporter for the Style section. Then she made the big career move and married the boss. Today Sally Quinn is the “doyenne” of Washington, a celebrity in her own right and a fixture of the D.C. social set. And although she’s never had an original thought in her head — by the time Quinn gets around to it, it’s long since solidified into conventional wisdom —

— alas, she also still writes.

About “faith,” no less, having once bellied up to the communion rail in a Catholic church and partaking of the Eucharist, even though she’s not Catholic. (Her “co-moderator” of the “On Faith” column is none other than Jon Meacham, the man who drove Newsweek into a ditch, where it was recently auctioned off for a buck plus parts.)

A mosque near Ground Zero? Who’s going to pay for it? Where are they getting the money?

This is the cry of the conspiracy theorists who claim that the mosque will be built with suspicious money, including charities possibly connected to terrorism. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich are intensely opposed to the mosque. They want it to be moved. I have a great idea. Why don’t they find a new property and personally raise the money themselves to fund the $100 million community center? They could call the project The Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich Foundation for Religious Freedom. It has a nice ring to it. I think they should put their money where their mouths are. Nothing could be more patriotic or American; it’s what this country is all about. It would take, especially with Palin’s popular following, probably 20 minutes to collect the amount needed.

Even by the current low standards of excellence that obtain at the kiddie-corps-run WaPo, this is breathtakingly fatuous. By now, it’s clear that the denizens of the Beltway look upon Sarah Palin the way the inhabitants of Constantinople viewed the Muslim hordes during the final siege of eastern Christendom.

This still begs the question of whether there should be a mosque at all at Ground Zero. Will somebody please tell me exactly where Ground Zero is? I looked on the map of downtown Manhattan. There is a large semi square which is GZ itself. The proposed mosque is more than two blocks away. As has been pointed out there are several mosques near there, not to mention strip joints, etc. I would love it if those opposed to this mosque, including my colleague Charles Krauthammer, would take a red pencil and draw a line around what they believe to be “Ground Zero.” Exactly how many blocks away from GZ can anything which offends those who want to protect the hallowed ground be allowed?

Well, Sally, we can’t tell you that, but we can show you this:

This aerial photo of April 20, 2010, shows the New York city block, lower right, where a 13-story mosque is planned for construction two blocks north of the World Trade Center site, center left. The plan for the $100 million mosque and cultural center received initial support on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 from community board 1 in Lower Manhattan. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

One of the hallmarks of the Sneering Left is their posing of a series of stupid and irrelevant questions and then defying a sentient person to dignify them with an answer. Since their arguments are — pace Kathleen Parker! — never from reason or fact, but always from feelings and emotion, it’s no surprise that Quinn delivers up a whole heapin’ plateful:

Should there be a committee to protect Ground Zero? From what? All Muslims? Should Muslims, who lost many of their own at Ground Zero be allowed to visit there at all? What if they wanted to pray there? Should that be allowed? Newt Gingrich is planning to attend a demonstration at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. He will join anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders who has called for a ban on the Quran. Also there will be Ginny Thomas, wife of Chief Justice Clarence Thomas and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart. What if Muslims decided to hold a demonstration there at the same time? Are all Muslims the same? Should peaceful moderate Muslims be lumped in the same category with fundamentalist terrorists?

Here comes a beauty:

You see what I’m getting at. This whole question of whether the mosque should be built there is a slippery slope. We criticize some Muslim countries for not allowing Christian churches or Jewish synagogues. We say those countries are intolerant and bigoted. How can we take that stand and then deny Muslims the right to build a mosque anywhere they want to in this country?

Good Lord, where to begin? Is it possible she cannot tell the difference between Muslims freely being able to build mosques in America, but being asked to reconsider this particular site, and Christians and Jews being totally forbidden from building anything in a Muslim country like Saudi Arabia?

Instead, let’s cut to the end before our higher functions of ratiocination are completely destroyed:

I hope that the Cordoba House will be built at the proposed site. I know if it is, within a few years, people from all faiths and no faith will come, as they will be welcomed to communicate, to heal and to give prayers of thanks that they live in a country where religious freedom is cherished.

Yup, all faiths and no faiths, the lion lying down with the lamb, dogs and cats sleeping together: joyously we march into the brave new world of deranged liberalism, courtesy of the Washington Post.