Yes this whole Muslim mosque near the site of “ground zero” has bothered me as well.  Whats bothered me is the simple fact that this is such a controversy.  Granted I really don’t think I have much stake in this and probably shouldn’t say much in regards to it.  I didn’t lose anyone that day in the WTC and I’m not from or live in New York nor am I Muslim.  But I suppose this is considered an “attack on America” and being American I have some stake in it all.

Anyway, what I see is a bunch of over zealous nuts over reacting to something most really don’t understand.  How can I say that and what do I mean?  Well personally what I have seen is many Americans become anti-Muslim since 9/11.  They equate terrorist with Muslim and vice-versa.  This is simply ignorant and wrong.

Also, many in America claim to be “Christian” and love their “freedom of religion” as long as its their religion of choice.  I find it ironic how many Christians are upset over this, what happened to that whole “don’t judge” thing in the bible where your suppose to leave it up to God to sort out?

The point of this is actually to lead into another great rant I read online that is really to the point and simply couldn’t be stated better.

Here it is:

A semi-satirical rant about the “mosque” “at Ground Zero”

by Jack Turner

This is a rant, and it is not polite.

The people who are opposed to building a “mosque” “at Ground Zero” need to be slapped in the face and have their driving, firearm, voting and child-bearing privileges revoked. They are exhibiting reasoning so flawed, so dangerous and so dumb as to require their isolation from the rest of civil society. Do not respect their arguments. Do not respect their points of view. They’re wrong.

Something about this situation just made me snap this morning.

Maybe because today would be my mother’s birthday, and I’m feeling extra fired up; maybe it’s the fact that the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid, has come out against it; maybe it’s because half-term Governor Sarah Palin shares her half-wit thoughts on the matter constantly. Yeah, that might be it, cause I saw this on her Facebook wall:

“If [Obama] encourages [the mosque] he has lost my vote – and I am not even American.”

Some facts.

1. There already is a mosque near Ground Zero. It’s been there for decades, so shut up.
2. The proposed Islamic Center is more than a mosque. It’s a cultural center with a mosque inside it, so shut up.
3. This is really stupid, so shut up.

As best I can tell, those opposed to the construction of this thing think it is insensitive to the survivors of the September 11 attacks and the families of those who died. They reason — and I use that term with more compassion and generosity than they deserve — that putting a mosque near the site of an attack by Muslims is offensive because “Muslims attacked us.” They also cite polls about the American public’s opposition to the construction.

Indulge my disassembling of this poorly constructed logic.

a) There is a connection between the feelings of the 9/11 survivors and New York City construction plans.

Some of the survivors are offended. So what. Some of the survivors have no problem with it and are being used by opportunistic politicians. So what. Either way, it does not matter. Horrible things happen to people every day. That doesn’t mean they get to influence urban planning. I survived a meal at Crown Fried Chicken. It was traumatic. I suffered greatly. However, that does not mean I get to banish processed chicken products from my neighborhood.

b) The people who attacked us are building a mosque where they attacked us.

This actually physically hurts my brain to even type out. There are multiple Muslims in the world. The ones who jacked the planes and planned all that horribleness are not the same ones building the center. The fact that both claim to worship the same God is irrelevant. Would we come close to accepting this justification for other groups?

I have one in mind. Catholics. Thousands of Catholic priests raped children for decades and were granted protection by the Church itself. Very traumatic stuff. So how about no Catholic churches get built anywhere near a child? Children should be aCatholic Free Zone. It’s too risky. It’s too soon. It’s too painful. It’s probably still happening. It stabs hearts or whatever the hell words fell out of Palin’s gaping maw and found their way onto Facebook and Fox News and my brain today.

Here’s another. Bankers. Thousands of “finance professionals” took massive risks that destabilized what’s left of our economy in large part due to insane bets on the housing market and the peddling of crap mortgages. So how about no banks get built within five miles of a foreclosed home? I speak for the survivors of the housing meltdown when I say allowing any bank anywhere near such hallowed ground is offensive. It’s too soon and too thoughtless.

One more. People. People do bad things to other people. As a person I speak for the victimized people of the world, and I demand that we not allow people to do things near the places where other people might be.

c) A majority of the American people are opposed.

So what. This country isn’t run by simple majority rule, and the opinions of people in California, Kansas and South Carolina has not a thing to do with what we build in New York. Know what else is true of the majority of Americans?

• We can’t name a single Surpreme Court Justice
• Our young people can’t find Iraq, Afghanistan or other places we regularly use as bomb deceleration platforms
• We can’t believe this sh-t

In addition, did you know that 100 percent of the people in my apartment believe Montana should be replaced with a live fire obstacle course where the Texas School Board has to don sombreros, Charles Darwin t-shirts and survive an assault by the gun-happy, illiterate offspring raised on their embarrassing education standards? True story.

Look, there are hard parts to making democracy and civil society work. There are tough calls. There are times for compromise. This situation is none of those things. This is easy.

We claim to have religious freedom in this country, so the people who dry hump the Constitution should not be opposed.

We claim to respect private property rights, so the libertarian folks should not be opposed.

We claim to be a nation of laws, so the ignorant opinions of random agitators should not matter.

If we stopped this religious facility from being built on private property, then the terrorists have won.

I don’t know how this “argument” has gone on for so long, but it’s over. There’s really nothing left to say. Anyone opposed to this building is a crappy American who doesn’t know what America actually is.

Source: Jack and Jill Politics

Ok so I think I have a million dollar idea that someone with the know how, connections or resources should consider.

Lets start with some basics.  I think everyone can agree that in the future there will be a proliferation of high speed internet / bandwidth.  We may all disagree on what technology will accomplish this but its inevitable that we will continue to see higher and higher speeds and bandwidth.

I think we can also agree that we are at the dawn of new age when it comes to media.  For years we have fostered this need for instant gratification.  From the first fast food joints, cell phones, internet, wireless and even todays DVR.  All of these things foster the desire to have what you want, when you want it and where ever you are.

So, I propose the following device for the future.

We need a “box”, think Xbox or your cable box to start with?  However this box is going to be based on some industry standard.  Something like SIP if you will.   And rather then this box being proprietary or only works with a specific vendor it will have a place for you to fill out your providers info, kind of like todays email client where you input in the SMTP/POP address, username and password and presto your connected to your email.  Instead with this you will be putting in your content providers info.

Your content provider in this case is not just your regular IPTV provider or cable company.  It really and truly is your CONTENT.  All your digital media.  Photos, videos, music and even your local TV channels.  I say local TV channels based on the idea that eventually every TV channel will be available online in some way.

Ok, now for where this idea gets really fun and cool I think.  Imagine you go to a hotel, get up to your room, and one of these universal generic media devices are there.  You are to able to simply input your info into the device and presto… you have all your content and LOCAL channels and so on available to you.    

Of course I have to take this one step further and you now have to imagine that these devices will be equipped with some sort of RFID or Bluetooth type of device, as well as your mobile phone device will have RFID or Bluetooth embedded as well.

So now all of your service provider info can be stored on your mobile device so that when you get to your hotel room you initiate a “sync or pairing” with this media device so that all the user has to do is input a PIN and voila the media device is now configured and it can begin populating all your content.  This takes out the step of having the user go through a complicated configuration each time.

Your welcome for this great idea.  Please ensure to cut me in on the profits.  I will be happy to accept any percentage or stake in the business.

**********More Thoughts About This************

We are seeing more and more talk of the “cloud”, and we already have a mix of content providers or hosts if you will. For instance,  some are already acting as IPTV service providers where you sign up for a membership and you can stream your TV just about anywhere.  And we have had hosting providers since the internet was born pretty much who host any content you want.

This idea is a marriage of all these things basically.  Which in many ways resembles “the cloud” when it comes to the service provider aspect.

The key to this would have to be some sort of industry standard around these boxes and configuring them and how the content is delievered.  To be practical you have to make it as easy to configure as possible, you have to ensure that a box is a box and will work with any of these service/content providers without discrimination.

************Even more thoughts*************

Security.  You have to ensure a secure method for wiping content.  As well as maybe a way for one to decide what content can be stored / cached locally and what can only be streamed.  If the process for propagating the content was quick enough then maybe you can build in security based on the proximity of the device that configured it?  For instance, in my example using someones phone and RFID to configure the device then maybe the same can hold true for wiping the device.  If the phone in this case leaves the proximity of the box then it automatically wipes after a certain period of time or something?  As well as a way to manually wipe of course.

**************And more**********

Also imagine that this media device / box is the center piece of the AV equipment.  So TV connects to the box, as well as maybe digital photo frames and a phone.  You walk in, device is configured and is able to push your video content to TV, photos to digital frames and your phone is configured for you (again think VoIP and SIP).