<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[&#8220;Why Think When You Can Just&nbsp;Feel?&#8221;]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[
<p>&quot;Where to start with this part-pathetic and part-sinister appeal to demagogy? To begin with, it borrows straight from the playbook of Muslim cultural blackmail. Claim that something is &quot;offensive,&quot; and it is as if the assertion itself has automatically become an argument. You are even allowed to admit, as does Foxman, that the ground for taking offense is &quot;irrational and bigoted.&quot; But, hey — why think when you can just feel? The supposed &quot;feelings&quot; of the 9/11 relatives have already deprived us all of the opportunity to see the real-time footage of the attacks—a huge concession to the general dulling of what ought to be a sober and continuous memory of genuine outrage. Now extra privileges have to be awarded to an instant opinion-poll majority. Not only that, the president is urged to use his high office to decide questions of religious architecture!&quot; &#8211; <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2263334">Hitch</a>.</p>
<p>  Meanwhile, National Review has a <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/243008/government-confiscates-your-money-build-mosques-andy-mccarthy">blog post</a> that is actually titled thus: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Government Confiscates Your Money To Build Mosques</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No, you can&#39;t parody it. You can just weep at it. </p>
]]></html></oembed>