Empire State Building Lights Up for ChiCom Anniversary, Refuses Marines and Mother Teresa

Do these clowns have any idea how bad this looks?

The few. The Proud. The Dissed.

The U.S. Marine Corps, like Mother Teresa, is being barred by the Empire State Building from starring in lights.

"We were rejected," said Gunnery Sgt. Alex Kitsakos of the Marines' public affairs office in midtown, who asked for the building to be lit scarlet and gold in 2008 on the Marines' Nov. 10 birthday.

"Of all the silly things they would consider lighting the building for, they wouldn't light it for the Marine Corps?" he asked. "Whoever it is that's running the building, they certainly could be making better decisions about who it is that they choose to honor."

Anthony Malkin, the developer whose family owns Manhattan's tallest skyscraper, has refused all calls to light the tower blue and white on Aug. 26, Mother Teresa's 100th birthday. A statement from the building Thursday said it does not honor religious figures or organizations.

"We are privately owned and our policies and practices are subject to change in accord with ownership's preferences," the building said.

"We are saddened by the hateful words and messages being generated both for and against lighting for Mother Teresa," it said. "We surely wish that the emotions of those in favor be directed towards good actions of community service in the spirit of their views, and that those who are against be dignified and respectful in their dialogue."

The Albanian nun tended to the sick and ailing in Calcutta's slums, and her Sisters of Charity order opened a convent in the Bronx to care for the poor here.

News of the Marine refusal came as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called on all New Yorkers to volunteer in Mother Teresa's spirit on her 100th birthday on Aug. 26 - and to light their own windows blue and white, the colors of the Sisters of Charity.

"We're not going to wait for the Empire State Building to make sure that her light is alive and strong in New York City," Quinn said, shortly after getting off the phone with Malkin in another attempt to convince him.

Last fall they had no problem lighting up to celebrate a monstrous regime responsible for the murder of tens of millions. They also honored the Grateful Dead last year.