The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

‘You Didn’t Have to Go Searching for Me. I’m Just a Toddler.’
“Humble Toddler Found Safe”–headline, Houston Chronicle, Nov. 22

A Wolf in Sheep’s Robing
“Judge Sides With State in Wolf Suit”–headline, Powell (Wyo.) Tribune, Nov. 23

A 9/11 Tribute
They’re back! John Avlon of the Daily Beast reports that the developers of the proposed Ground Zero mosque now want American taxpayers to pick up the tab for their obnoxious project:

Earlier this month [they] applied for roughly $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. . . .

The application was submitted under a “community and cultural enhancement” grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation (LMDC), which oversaw the $20 billion in federal aid allocated in the wake of 9/11 and is currently doling out millions in remaining taxpayer funds for community development. The redevelopment board declined to comment on the application (as did officials from Park51 [this month’s euphemism for the Ground Zero mosque]), citing the continuing and confidential process of determining the grant winners.

Even Avlon–who thinks that Mayor Michael Bloomberg behaved “honorably” when he engaged in McCarthyite attacks on mosque opponents–finds the grant request too much. He calls it “a lose-lose proposition put forward by a tone-deaf organization that seems determined to alienate allies and embolden opponents.”

Probably Avlon is right when he characterizes the mosque guys as “tone-deaf.” It seems too conspiratorial to think that the purpose of the mosque proposal is to incite hatred between Americans and Muslims. But if one were inclined toward the latter hypothesis, the latest development would certainly offer support. 

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”