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p>There is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9

p>Temple of the First Light

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p>Built to endure, from granite born,

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p>spire touched by gold from the dawn;

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p>Glowing reflection, with dawnlight blending

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p>Shining
Pure as hope
From Belmont to the sea.

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p>Clothed by loving hands, with flowers
girded by earth with sentinel trees;
blessing with beauty
man and woman
as they marry;
Encircling the grieving
within the arms of Heaven.

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p>Seen from sea

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p>And the sea, seeing,
Inviting all to walk in beauty
reminding all of numinous glory;

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p>A call to prayer

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p>Supplications

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p>Framed by clouds.

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p>cDeborah Sirotkin Butler, 1996

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p>Just another shadow from the Wayback Machine.  The reference to “the first light” has to do with Dawn touching our Eastern Shores before Dawn touches the temples in the West.  As to why I attend neither the Temple nor the Latter Day Saint Church these days – that is another story for another time.  Let’s just say, though, that I don’t change my convictions to be in fashion.

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p>The law was written by…Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). And looking at the timing, Belmont may have been on his mind at the time.

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p>It is destructive and divisive to frame this as a First Amendment issue.  The First Amendment is not absolute – fire in a crowded theatre, etc.  But this statute SPECIFICALLY PROTECTS this project from exactly the strategy that was being used to prevent the project.

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p>Full Disclosure – I DO think Cordoba House should accept the help of Gov. Patterson and relocate as a matter of good will and community.  

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p>And as to your last point, I also believe that it would have been better had Cordoba House located elsewhere- away from our National Ground Zero Shrine and the abutting adult entertainment establishments nearby. However, at this point, Cordoba House has the legal and moral right to do what they want; to acquiesce to politeness or poltical correctness at this point would be to give in to the demands of a bully. Or a terrorist.

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p>BTW – an argument is out there to use Kelo to seize the land using the argument that since eleemosynary and religious property enjoy a tax exemption, ANY other use would promote the economic benefit of the community (!) and that NYC should seize the property.

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p>I think that RLUIPA would PROTECT Cordoba in this instance, but that a non-profit (ANY non-profit) would be eligible for seizure.  So the ‘YMCA’ argument could backfire…

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p>RFRA, along with a raft of amendments to various things done at the same time, is another statute that attempts to protect the right to religious practice.

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p>These statutes don’t actually change anything about the underlying right, of course.

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p>By the way, I’m not sure using any tense of the verb “to have” makes any sense alongside a discussion of Romney’s “views.” This suggests that Romney actually possesses a viewpoint — which, as any reasonable person should be able to see, fails to offer an accurate description of the man.

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p>Mitt’s just another rich geeky kid that nobody really likes. No matter how hard he tries, the cool kids (the GOP right wing fundamentalists in this case) aren’t gonna be his friends. He can suck up all he wants. They’ll just keep stealing his lunch money.

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p>I think he’s so insecure and desperate to outdo his father that he will say and  do anything, no matter how desperate and insecure he looks and sounds.

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p>Maybe he can claim he’s brainwashed.

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p>