983 A Camera in the Moose Head on the Wall

983 A Camera in the Moose Head on the Wall

(Note: This is an expanded and more detailed version of a “Wessays Extra” that appeared under the title of “Iranians in Great Neck.”)

There are no moose heads in Mosques. But there are some nifty other places to hide cameras and cops wearing wires.

The NYPD has been spying on Muslims beyond the borders of the five boroughs.  The mayor defends this by saying (1) Religion plays no part in the NYPD's undercover search for terrorists and (2) The cops go where the allegations are and investigate to see whether they're true.

So what are the allegations, and are they true?  No word on that from City Hall, exactly.

They've been up to New Haven to investigate Yale, that hotbed of Muslim terrorism.  And the president of that radical school has had a public tizzy about it, and rightly so.

They've been over to Newark, taking pictures and taking names.  The mayor there, Cory Booker, is screaming -- also rightly so -- for an investigation, which the state attorney general, Jeffrey Chiesa is already conducting.

And they've also been to Great Neck, one of the richest suburbs in America and  just over the Queens border.  Guess what they found there?

According to the AP, which first broke the story last summer, there are a gazillion Iranian businesses.  Grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores.  Again, names and pictures. Complete and detailed police reports.

So, where are the Mosques?  None is listed in the classified, as far as one can tell.  

How's that?

Umm... well, starting in the 1950s, Great Neck attracted a gazillion Jews, added to the few already there.  Thirty years later the community remains largely Jewish.   And one of the big components -- Iranian Jews who fled from the Islamic revolution.

Jews have been in Persia for more than 2,500 years.  Islamic scholars say their faith can be traced back 1,400 years, though many say its structure was formalized a “mere” 1,000 years ago.

Neither group has been in this country anything close to that.  Good thing, too.  Think of the time the NYPD is saving by not having to go through all those ancient and crumbling video tapes.

So what’s next, concentration camps?

Shrapnel (Streets of Paris Edition):

--GM and Peugeot are talking about affiliating, largely because sales of the Opel are lagging in Europe and GM needs a hand up.  So, GM, how did that affiliation with Saab work out for you? And don’t forget, Saab made actual cars, as opposed to the Fiat-envy stuff Peugeot turns out.

--Anyone who has owned a French car knows that the French can’t make cars.  Yet some of their designs are timelessly beautiful, or timelessly ugly.  Case in point:  the mid 1950s Renaults and Citroens … especially the ones where you could remove the doors to improve air flow on those hot summer drives or to keep the car’s weight down when attempting to climb mountains.

--Your correspondent’s first car was a 1957 Renault Dauphine named Maurice.  It came with a crank... a crank in 1957...  you had to take the engine out to replace a busted water pump, and eventually the floor rusted and the passenger seat fell through.  But driving Maurice was the most fun and adventure anyone had in a car while alone.

Have You Noticed?  There’s a new spirit of bipartisanship in the land... with both Democrats and thinking Republicans concluding Rick Santorum is nuts.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
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