Legislating Morality ...

Ok, so recently, there have been a few controversies, one of which involves a mosque/muslim community center being built close to ground zero, and another of which involves Dr. Laura saying the n word on the radio. 

I'll address Dr. Laura first.  She said the n word.  On radio.  Multiple times.  Ok, well, firstly, in her defense, she was not calling anyone an n word.  She was saying that the n word gets said on hbo or something.  Then she repeated herself.  Then she repeated herself again.  Also, in her defense, she has done a whole lot worse than saying the n word.  She's been anti parent, anti woman, told little girls they weren't raped when they were.  With that said, I don't know why anyone would say it at this point.  It weakens your point and it offends people.  To defend herself, she said that her first amendment right to freedom of speech included saying that word.  Now, no legal action was taken against her, and it is other people's constitutional right to express being upset with her, including her being fired or whatever, but let's just focus on the defense at this point in time.        

Now for the mosque.  There is a mosque which is going to be built right near ground zero.  The people building it say that they want to promote tolerance and inter-ethnic dialogue.  Actually it has just upset people, 65% of Americans surveyed, to be precise.  Now, why would they be upset?  Because it is insensitive.  It is putting something dedicated to the same thing which 3,000 people were killed in the name of right beside where they died.  It's like putting an eastern orthodox church or or a serbian flag beside Srebrenica, or like putting a German flag over Auschwitz, or a Japanese cultural center at Pearl Harbor, right after WWII.  The two best responses I heard to the controversy were Greg Gutfeld's and Rand Paul's.   
Greg Gutfeld announced plans to open a gay bar catering to Muslims beside the Mosque.  That is brilliant on every level.  There is a severe lack of tolerance in Islam, particularly with regard to gays and women.  If they're going to push our tolerance, perhaps we should push theirs. 
Rand Paul said that, if they really wanted to promote inter-ethnic tolerance and dialogue, the people should have donated money to the 9/11 victims' fund.  That is exactly right.  If you want to get someone to like you, you show sympathy, empathy, and solidarity, not rudely tell them that they should like you.  It works in personal relationships and on larger scale relationships between groups.  You don't tell people what to think of you, you act as the best person you can be and if they don't like you, then it's their problem.                
What's the defense of the mosque/community center?  It's legal.  The constitution gives people the right to worship when and where they choose.           

Sound familiar?  Oh, that's right, Dr. Laura.   Both of them did insensitive and ridiculous things, both claiming to make a point, and both making the opposite point much better than they made their own.  Then both used the constitutional rights that people in the US are supposed to have to defend their actions.  Of course those things are legal, but just being legal doesn't make something right.  At the point where morality and legality become interchangeable, it becomes necessary to make everything which is wrong illegal, to legislate morality.  That is wrong, and should never happen, but living in a free society means you have to take some responsibility for yourself and your actions.  Things which are illegal should be restricted to things which directly take away other people's freedom, but for that to work, legality and morality must be recognized as distinct concepts.