THE COMMON-SENSE NATION – AT 7:58 A.M. ET:  I always find myself so impressed by the way Americans handle complex moral issues.  Churchill remarked that the American people really do care about getting things right, about the moral core of society. 

Contrast that please with some of the more cynical nations, with their amoral elites spouting bromides while sending electronic equipment to Iran.

In the last few weeks we have seen, once again, that Americans aren't the hickish dullards portrayed in leftist Hollywood movies and on the "prestigious" campuses of the northeast.  Yes, they say, Muslims have a right to build their mosque near Ground Zero.  But no, they say, it's an insensitive idea, and the group behind the mosque (and community center) should reconsider.

Yes, they say, that whacked-out pastor in Florida has the right to burn the Koran.  But no, they say, it's a very bad and harmful thing to do, and shouldn't be done.  The right is there, but it isn't right.

Contrast again please with the stunning comments by the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque, who said on TV over the weekend that if the mosque issue isn't handled "right," there could be repercussions around the world.

Where I come from, that's called blackmail, and Americans know it.  I wish a reporter had confronted this chap with that word, and asked his reaction.

Isn't it strange:  From the president on down, leading Americans have pleaded with that pastor not to burn the Koran because of the insensitivity of the act.  For this, our leaders are called statesmen.  But when an overwhelming majority of Americans ask that the mosque not be built at Ground Zero, to show sensitivity to the horror that was committed there, they're called bigots and Islamophobes.  I can think of no greater example to mark the hypocrisy of elite opinion in America today.

For the last generation, our students have been taught, in too many institutions, that there really aren't any rights or wrongs, simply different "narratives."  We see that thinking reflected in the hobbled, spiritually vacant journalism we all read every day.  We're fortunate that, thus far, the American people aren't buying the line. 

Too many of our leading "intellectuals" have forgotten what it means to be human, to have human feelings.  When Sarah Palin said that the mosque at Ground Zero "tears at the heart," she spoke for a nation.  And she was laughed at by the very people who claim to be our eyes and ears.

September 10, 2010