I Have Moved

Thank you to many readers for your good wishes, thoughts, and prayers.

At first I thought that our battle with cancer would be a very private thing. Wrong again! Very wrong.

Though some of it is private, so many people, (family, friends, and colleagues) want to know what is going on with us and want to offer their support. So I have opened a site on CaringBridge to provide news of Charlotte’s illness and treatment. That’s the news that matters to me right now, and that’s where you’ll find me.

Best Wishes,
Harry

Adieu

In mid-May my beloved wife began a dizzying series of medical tests that last Friday determined she was suffering from cancer. Because of this, I no longer desire to blog.

My sincere thanks to all readers of this blog; past, present, and future.

Harry

Hoya Saxa

Off to DC today for a graduation weekend. See you next week.

Whose dog is that?

From today's Globe:

Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by a watchdog organization, a front-page article on May 3 incorrectly reported Oregon's status on allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will turn 18 by Election Day in November. Oregon lets 17-year-olds register, but they must be 18 when they cast a ballot in any election.

What’s the difference between a watchdog organization and a special interest group?

Is it perhaps that (in the journalist's opinion) watchdog organizations are trying to do good? Perhaps even doing it for the children?

As of now I am declaring this lowly blog to be a watchdog organization.

BTW the May 3 article referred to is here.

Who chooses these Obama photo ops?

First bowling gutter-balls with honkies in Indiana.

Then takin' it to the hoop.

Today a backhand shot in a dingy pool hall.

What comes next? Tap dancing?

"Today's patriot is tomorrow's terrorist"

The Globe reports that UMass and Beacon Hill are tripping over each other in a rush to revoke the honorary degree given to Robert Mugabe in 1986. UMass President Jack Wilson yesterday recommended that the degree be rescinded.

Said State Rep Kevin J. Murphy:

"I'm thrilled that president Wilson has lent his support to calls for revoking President Mugabe's degree," he said. "The University of Massachusetts has always prided itself on being a forward-thinking member of the global community, and it is an honor to support Zimbabwe's people in any way we can."

All the corpses Mugabe has made since 1986 would thank you for your courageous support, Kevie-boy.

Trustee James J. Karam said that he supports stripping the degree and that universities should be cautious in awarding honorary degrees to international politicians. "Many times, today's patriot is tomorrow's terrorist," he said.

Or perhaps today’s facts are yesterday’s smears from conservative attack machines.

And as happens so often, the Globe story’s last paragraph is reserved for the mention of contrarian allegations:

But some observers say that Mugabe was guilty of human rights abuses throughout his time in power and that in 1986 he had a history of violence against his people.

Indeed! I'm truly shocked! How dare some observers say such a thing? To find out, let’s pull something out of the vast memory hole, shall we?

Below is a story from July 1985 (BPL card required) that was published in a then-reputable Boston newspaper, 10 months before Robert Mugabe was honored by UMass.

MUGABE VOWS TO ESTABLISH 1-PARTY RULE IN ZIMBABWE
The Boston Globe
Jul 7, 1985

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, more powerful than ever after a landslide election victory, vowed yesterday to create a one-party state in the next five years, and threatened tough action against minority whites and black opposition leaders who stood in his way.

He said that whites "who have not accepted the reality of a political order in which the Africans set the pace have to leave the country."

Mugabe told a news conference hours after election results were announced that he would not feel bound by the British-drafted constitution, which protects the rights of minority political parties in this former colony until 1990.

He accused black opposition parties of "organizing counterrevolutionary activities" and warned they would "have no one to blame but themselves when the hand of law and order exercises itself over them."

Mugabe said his winning 63 of 79 National Assembly seats contested during last week's elections, the first general elections since independence in 1980, was a mandate to "unite our people under one political umbrella."

"This is a mandate for us to unite our people." he said. "We believe in the inexorable law of unity. You must be united or else you stand divided and perish."

He said he would not be swayed from his goal of a single-party state by unfavorable reaction from the international community, which has given millions of dollars of aid to his government.

"The Western world . . . can go hang. The Western world can say what it wants," he said. "As long as we believe we are right, we will do what we have to do in the interests of our people."

Mugabe, whose major rival, Joshua Nkomo, made a sweep of 15 seats in troubled Matabeleland province, dividing the nation on tribal lines, was angered by whites who voted for conservative Ian Smith in separate elections on June 27 .

Smith won 15 of 20 seats that are reserved for whites until 1987 under the constitution drawn up at a peace conference in London in 1979. He was the last white prime minister of the country when it was called Rhodesia, a breakaway British colony.

Who could have imagined from reading this cheery report in 1985 that Mugabe would turn out to be an unworthy dictator rather than an African Messiah? Give him an honorary UMass degree! He hates Apartheid, doesn't he? That means that he’s on the right side of the most important issue. How bad could he be? Besides, he’s a member of a minority group!

The Politics of Poor Journalism

A Globe front page story today headlined “The politics of commencement” notes that Catholic universities in the US are awarding far fewer honorary degrees to politicians. In classic Globe fashion, the story far underplays the important role of the US Catholic bishops, who have urged this change. Excerpts from the Globe story (emphasis mine):

The 4^th paragraph:

After repeatedly getting criticized by conservative Catholics, and after years of pressure from the Vatican and some American bishops, Catholic colleges and universities are now shying away from politicians - especially those who, like Kennedy, Kerry, and Pelosi, support abortion rights - as commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients.

…and some American bishops? But reading much further down, the 14^th paragraph reports:

In 2004, the presidential candidacy of Kerry, a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights, led to the creation of a task force of bishops examining how the church should relate to such politicians. That task force failed to settle the prickly question of who should decide whether such politicians should receive Communion, but it was clearer about commencement, declaring, "The Catholic community and the institutions which are a part of our family of faith should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."

What are the facts? In fact the above statement (which is online in its entirety here) was ratified by a vote of the entire congregation of US Catholic bishops, not by some American bishops. Furthermore, this same statement should be known in the Globe newsroom. It was the reason that many Catholics (including Boston Cardinal O’Malley) chose not to attend a 2005 dinner ceremony where the Mayor of Boston was presented with an award by Catholic Charities, a story which the Globe put on its front page.

With superb irony, today’s Globe also carries a story about an attempt to rescind an honorary degree that UMass awarded in 1986 to a most unsavory politician, Robert Mugabe. At the time, according to the Globe story, UMass referred to Mugabe as a “champion of human rights”. Why?

The underlying reason Mugabe received honors from UMass and other schools was so that these institutions could publicly thumb their noses at the white minority South African regime, which supported the policy of Apartheid. In time, the much despised white South Africans enfranchised native Africans and thus relinquished their power democratically, showing themselves to be far more attuned with liberal democratic values than honorees such as Mugabe.

That universities would stain their record by honoring Mugabe is a better example of the “politics of commencement”, where moral posturing and political correctness can far outweigh common sense.

Don't Call Obama A Politician!

Joan Vennochi throws some water on the "Santo subito!" emotion among Democrats for Barack Obama:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright called him out as a politician, a description that angered Obama as much as any other declaration by his former pastor because it exposed an unflattering truth. Obama held Wright close when it was politically advantageous and cut the controversial minister loose when it was politically advantageous...He argues that he's best suited to challenge Washington's political culture because he isn't steeped in it. Today, Clinton is scorned by Democratic insiders and McCain is more maverick than darling of the GOP.

The View From Terminal A

Just got back in town yesterday at 5:30PM and a few minutes later I walked through the new Terminal A at Boston’s Logan airport. I had to record these 2 pictures for posterity. They show just one tiny bit of the cost we pay each day for our government’s self-righteous obsession with the strange participatory ritual we now call airport security.

I was struck by the stark contrast between how the airlines and the TSA manage their queues. Note the complete lack of queue at the airline check-in counter (left), and the usual long queue at the TSA checkpoint (right).

There were no innovations like touch-screen check-in kiosks on 9/11. In the 6+ years since then, most airlines have streamlined their own check-in processes so that they are faster and easier, not to mention more secure – even for we cattle who must fly in coach.

During the same 6 years the government, through the TSA, has done very little innovation. Though a high percentage of travelers are frequent (meaning weekly) flyers, the TSA security policies do not discriminate differentiate among any classes of passengers. All are subjected to the same process, day after day. The unimaginative uniformity of the TSA’s policies continue to severely damage the airline’s business-critical customer experience, all the while the TSA goes on charging the airline’s customers a fee for its work, and thus contributing even further to the woes of the airline industry.

Many Democrats seem sure the government would do a much better job than this of managing all our health care policies. I’m sure it would be fairer in the same idiotic sense that TSA security policies are fair – meaning uniformly inconvenient and thus questionably effective.

This lunacy of TSA policy reminded me of Peggy Noonan’s remarks last week in The View From Gate 14:

America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention. America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished. America is embarrassed to have put one one-ounce moisturizer too many in the see-through bag. America is irritated that the TSA agent removed its mascara, opened it, put it to her nose, and smelled it. Why don't you put it up your nose and see if it explodes? America thinks.

And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government's way of showing "fairness," of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line.

All the frisking, beeping and patting down is demoralizing to our society. It breeds resentment, encourages a sense that the normal are not in control, that common sense is yesterday...

Another Globe Story Doesn't Add Up

Blogger Bill Schaeffer notes that this Boston Globe sob story about SUVs and high fuel prices features a very atypical driver as its poster child. Says Bill:

He must be driving around 961 miles a week; that’s almost 50,000 miles a year. Wow. And it’s costing him around $11,000 to do that much driving. So basically the story from the Boston Globe is that consumers that drive over three times the yearly national average are facing a financial burden. Yep, sounds like NEWS to me.

Is this what happens when professional journalists go trolling for victims to feature in their sob stories?

The Bitterness of Small Think Tanks

Susan Milligan reports in today’s Globe:

Deep racial divisions emerged in yesterday's critical Democratic primaries, with African-American voters overwhelmingly supporting Senator Barack Obama and whites casting their votes solidly with Senator Hillary Clinton in both North Carolina and Indiana, according to exit polls.

Apparently Sunday morning isn’t the only segregated time in America. Election days are segregated, too. But though the voting in yesterday’s Democratic primaries was racially polarized, neither the Dems nor much of the press are too concerned or using words like “polarized”. Milligan finds a hopeful voice from a liberal think tank:

"I think this whole issue of elitism was sort of settled" with yesterday's contests, said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a liberal think tank formerly known as the New Democrat Network.

Sort of settled, Simon? Sort of not. Simon sounds slightly bitter and defensive to me. Didn’t somebody recently say:

You go into these small liberal think tanks in Washington and, like a lot of struggling advocacies in the Northwest, their ideas have been ignored now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to hopes of gun control or secularism or antipathy toward questions they claim are sort of settled or pro-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Red State Visiting

I'm away this week visiting a Red State so posting will be irregular.

Funny, isn't it, how the media couldn't use the color red for the more leftish states, but instead used the extreme left's favorite color to designate conservatism.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' 2-Party System

The impotent state of the Massachusetts GOP gets plenty of ink on the front page of today’s Boston Globe. But the story by Matt Viser seems contented with 1-party rule. Only in the 17^th paragraph of the story does Viser write:

Critics say that having such one-party dominance on Beacon Hill results in more checks and fewer balances and limits creative tension in the political process.

More checks is apparently a used as a pun here, as in more government spending. How not funny.

I interpret Viser’s unnamed critics to mean people who vote Republican.

Chasing the Arugula and Collard Green Vote

This news today from the Globe’s Campaign Notebook:

Hillary Clinton's campaign apparently believes that poet Maya Angelou can help her make inroads among African-Americans and the liberal intelligentsia - two groups in which rival Barack Obama dominates. Clinton's camp released an open letter from Angelou last week. Now she's featured in a 60-second TV ad the campaign announced yesterday will air in North Carolina…

Heh.

In the context of the Globe’s writing, isn’t liberal intelligentsia a redundant term?

Did Yuz Evah Notice They Cahhnt Say Theyah Ahhs Well At All?

Yesterday’s News

Only today, now that suitable reactive statements have been issued by the Obama campaign, the Boston Globe actually reports yesterday’s news to readers; the propositions at the core of the controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

Answering questions submitted by reporters on Monday, Wright praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as "one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century," and said it's possible that the US government created the AIDS virus and introduced it into the black community...

While these remarks actually were reported in the Globe yesterday, the reports were buried deep in background material. Today’s act of journalistic backtracking was accurately predicted yesterday by blog reader flymorgue:

Prepare yourself for the 'inverted article' tomorrow where the Globe writers are tasked with describing Obama's disavowal of an incident of which Globe readers are ignorant. It is such a classic Globe style, perfected in the Swiftboat days, of explaining a response first, and then the 'response to' in the second paragraph.

Actually it was the 7^th paragraph, but that’s an improvement. Peter Canellos, the Chief of the Globe’s now 1-man Washington bureau also writes on the Wright story, also one day late:

Now, after Obama's uncategorical repudiation yesterday of the man who presided at his wedding and the baptism of his daughters, voters and other political observers will inevitably wonder what took so long - and how Obama could have misjudged someone to whom he was very close.

Globe readers (or C-Span watchers at least) were wondering about this yesterday, too.

Unlike Canellos, Globe political columnist Scott Lehigh applies a low quality smokescreen:

What's really relevant here is not what Jeremiah Wright says but what Barack Obama believes.

The issue voters are weighing does not concern Mr. Obama’s beliefs, but rather his judgment, as Canellos correctly observes.

The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal site today carries a column by Heather McDonald of City Journal that reports what still remains unmentionable in the Globe at least, that is the content of Wright’s remarks before the NAACP Sunday night in Detroit:

At the NAACP meeting, Mr. Wright proudly propounded the racist contention that blacks have inherently different "learning styles,"… Pursuing a Ph.D. by logging long hours in the dusty stacks of a library, Mr. Wright announced, is "white." Blacks, by contrast, cannot sit still in class or learn from quiet study, and they have difficulty learning from "objects" — books, for example — but instead learn from "subjects," such as rap lyrics on the radio. These differences are neurological…Whites use what Mr. Wright referred to as the "left-wing, logical and analytical" side of their brains, whereas blacks use their "right brain," which is "creative and intuitive."

It seems that many of the very people in politics and media who so often claim to be longing for “a national dialog on race” are at this very moment too squeamish to even mention these propositions of Rev. Wright, let alone say to anything even slightly critical of them. The Globe has been completely silent.

Some dialogue.

And this squeamishness remains despite the fact that Wright’s NAACP speech was televised live on CNN (and remains on YouTube with segments here and here). Heather McDonald concludes that:

Mr. Wright's speeches have shown how quickly academic insanity becomes incorporated into practice.

Indeed. Just ask Lawrence Summers.

Was there news yesterday?

Jeremiah Wright’s speeches in Detroit Sunday night and at the National Press Club Monday morning are unquestionably the most explosive story so far in the 2008 presidential campaign.

You would never guess that from reading today’s Boston Globe.

On the Globe’s front page Wright get’s only a pointer item to a very understated story on page A6, and a second context story from AP with a few extended quotes. The Op Ed page is silent. Globe Washington Bureau Chief Peter Canellos writes today about Obama’s stance on affirmative action. Is the Globe so tight on cash these days that poor Peter doesn’t have access to C-Span?

But of course Wright's remarks are not a big story, correct?

Wright merely served as Obama’s pastor for 20 years. It not like they had a close relationship, the way Mitt Romney did with this groundskeeper.

This is not as relevant as the story the Globe wrote about Mitt Romney’s Latin American groundskeeper hiring illegal immigrants. Now that was big news and was all over the front page, because it was relevant to the campaign. But this story about the man who married Obama, baptized his children, and served as his pastor for 20 years is not that big. It’s not that relevant.

Wright thinks the government created HIV to harm blacks? No big deal. He uses security guards from the Nation of Islam at the National Press Club? Unmentioned. He invokes some bizarre forms of phrenology (phrenology is a safe word choice here. Let’s not be the ones to use the R-word) while speaking to the NAACP (!) in Detroit and says that black people and white people are different because they have different kinds of brains? Also unmentioned.

Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web, James Taranto asked with tongue in cheek, “Democratic front-runner Barack Obama was supposed to unite the country, overcoming racial and even partisan division. How's that working out?”

Not much news about that in the Boston Globe, James. It must be working out just fine.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham writes of her experience being sworn in as a citizen of the United States at Boston's Faneuil Hall.

When it comes time to take our oath of citizenship, the sea of raised right hands - high and low, smooth and lined, black and white - is a beautiful sight.

Together, we renounce all other allegiances, swear we will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and promise to bear true faith to its principles.

A citizenship ceremony is truly an inspiring sight. In 2004 I had the good fortune to stumble onto one while conducting a tour for foreign visitors. It was s a great way to explain our nation, without requiring words.

Victims Wanted: Contact the Globe Today!

Ever wonder how Globe reporters get in touch with the dodgy folks who often end up as sad sack poster children for Globe stories? For example last month, the Globe ran a “tough economy” story that featured a family who had moved to Maine and were suffering from high gas prices. But both mom and dad still commuted to work from Maine all the way to Massachusetts. I asked how does the Boston Globe always find "poster children" such as this?

Here is one way. The Globe’s main web page solicits people to get in touch with reporters who are working on future stories. From reading the solicitations, it appears that the story line is in place long before the story’s sad sack poster children are chosen. Here are 5 of the first 6 solicitations found on the Globe website today:

Hard economic times and spring break
Are hard economic times forcing you to forgo Disneyworld with your kids this spring break? Please tell us about your closer-to-home spring break plans. Send emails to schweitzer@globe.com.

Own an SUV?
As gas prices rise, the value of SUVs is dropping. We're looking for SUV owners who've found the trade-in value of their SUV is less than expected. E-mail krasner@globe.com to discuss.

Summer camps and the economy
Has the tough economy affected your plans to send your child to camp this summer? Globe reporter Erica Noonan would like to hear your story, please email her at enoonan@globe.com.

Taking money from your 401(k)?
Have you had to make a ''hardship withdrawal'' from your 401(k) retirement savings account? Globe reporter Ross Kerber would like to hear about your experience — email him at kerber@globe.com.

Retired but still working?
Are you retired from a corporate job and now working some place else -- like at a Home Depot or Borders -- because you want or need to continue working? Contact mpothier@globe.com to tell us about it.

Do you feel you are a victim of hard times? Call us now, please!

One More Cut

Poynter has posted a memo from Globe Managing Editor Marty baron indicating that 23 Globe newsroom staffers have accepted the most recent buyout offer.

My own former employer was a firm that repeatedly offered employee buyouts, and each offer was less generous than the previous ones, as people needed less incentive to leave. I doubt his will be the last one at the Globe. Its lost advertising and subscribers are not going to come back again.

Hat tip: Massachusetts Liberal

One More Reason to Distrust the Media

“Leave me alone. Do you know who the f--k I am? I’ll have a news crew down here in minutes and you will lose your f---ing jobs, f-------s. I’m a bigshot in Boston and I’ll have your f---ing jobs. You think your[sic] a f---ing tough guy, you just watch and see what the f--k happens to you when I get the f--k out of here.”

According to a Massachusetts State Police report (documents linked by the Globe here and here, with a story here) these are the words of Randi Goldklank, the general manager of WHDH (Boston’s TV channel 7) when confronted by State Police before being arrested at Boston Logan Airport Monday evening.

I find the media arrogance displayed here far more appalling than the vulgarities.

One can blame alcohol for these remarks, but I don’t think alcohol comes close to excusing them. I doubt the arrogance they expose disappears entirely when Boston Channel 7’s Bigshot GM returns to sobriety. Of course (we will doubtless be assured) this case is an aberration within mainstream media and journalism. Very atypical. Most media people don’t think like this.

Yes, there is a difference. Most media people are not the boss. Some are surely of better character.

The Boston Globe featured a quite complementary profile of Goldklank last September. Snippet:

"Television has such an impact on people and the information they get," Goldklank says. "It's a public service, but it's also exciting. I wanted to be a part of that."

Refer to the rant quoted above for an elaboration of Goldklank’s concept of “public service”.

WHDH placed Goldklank on administrative leave Tuesday.

Hat tip: Universal Hub

The News Mausoleum

In Commentary John Podhoretz reflects on the recently opened $475M “Newseum” in Washington DC, calling it “The News Mausoleum”. Podhoretz connects both the failing business model, and the arrogance of mainstream media to their former status as regional monopolists. This blogger has made similar observations, but not as well stated as this:

This labor-intensive process is precisely the model that has been upended in industry after industry, driven to painful change by technological innovation and competitive threats…Feverishly anticipating the demise of their 19th-century industrial product, newspapers are once again renewing their efforts to take advantage, somehow, of the growth of the Internet. But they are uniquely ill-positioned to do so. When it comes to reporting the news, their greatest competitive asset is the size of their news-gathering and news-writing staffs. But they can afford those staffs only because of advertising revenue. And, on the web, they will generate only a fraction of the advertising revenue they have been able to generate in print as an effective monopoly. Moreover, and unlike the case with every other rival they have faced in the past, the technical cost of competing with them is astonishingly low…

The prospect is a very stark one for people who work in, write, and edit newspapers. For these people do not think of themselves as “content providers.” They think much more highly of themselves than that. They believe they play a vital role, perhaps the most vital role, in the defense of the freedoms of every citizen. After all, who else is there to keep a vigilant watch over the official custodians of society? Who else is there to protect the people from the depredations of business and government? Is not freedom of speech—the very freedom that enables journalists to ply their trade—the first of our freedoms, primus inter pares, and who will guard it if not they?

Historically speaking, this attitude is of relatively recent vintage. It may, in fact, be an artifact of the rise of the same highly profitable monopoly newspapers and shared-monopoly television networks that were so profitable and consequently grew so powerful that they gave the members of their news force reason to believe they were not just working stiffs—the general attitude of newspapermen throughout most of the preceding era—but akin to a democratic nobility.

The immodesty of this idea led many newspaper professionals of the late 20th century into a category error. They came to confuse the significance of the subjects they were covering with the act of covering them. Proximity to the news made them a species of news. They wrote about government; therefore, they were equivalent to the government in importance. They reported a war, and their act of reporting a war came to loom as large as the war itself. Today, the death of a journalist in a war zone is assigned vastly more weight than the death of a soldier.

Happy Earth Day

Globe columnist Alex Beam today describes the state of Earth Day as an event that was once historic has become farce.

You know the slick green tide is coming in each year when Vanity Fair publishes its Armani-scented "green" issue, which celebrates the eco-worthiness of such regular guys as Leonard DiCaprio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Last year, you may remember, Leo was posing on an ice floe with a cute little polar bear photoshopped in for the occasion. Leo has since moved off the glacier into an eco-friendly New York luxury apartment, boasting low-emissions paint and, of course, solar panels.

Sorry, Alex, but I believe the level of committment expressed at the original 1969 Earth Day was equally shallow.

The value of the male schoolteacher

Derrick Jackson recalls his son’s teacher Patrick Cunningham, and reflects on the cultural losses that result from the ever-increasing rarity of male schoolteachers:

That is a good argument to coax more men into the profession. "The problem is, for both men and women," Cunningham said, "is that this is a job where too many people ask, 'Why would anybody do this?' It is almost like becoming a priest or nun or something like that."

A good question, Derrick.

That they may have life, and have it abundantly

Today in the Globe James Carroll meditates on the passing of one of his mentors, Lutheran Bishop of Sweden Krister Stendahl. Excuse Jim for overstating:

Krister Stendahl argued that Christians - at least since Martin Luther, if not since St. Augustine - had misread the testimony of that early apostle. In this misreading, St. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus was taken as rescue from a troubled preoccupation with sin and guilt, establishing the paradigm of Christian grace, which saves, against Mosaic Law, which condemns. Stendahl showed that St. Paul's conscience, instead of anguished, was "robust." His stance before God was overwhelmingly one of confidence, not terror. God's constant love, not God's threat, was Paul's driving force.

“Be not afraid”, as John Paul II always said.

Look in the Mirror, Scott Lehigh

Boston Globe political columnist Scott Lehigh writes a deeply sarcastic column today criticizing the media managers of Wednesday’s Democratic debate, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC TV news for focusing their questions on non-issues and trivia.

Lehigh is so peeved he concludes:

…no doubt that's why I'm not a network anchor or even a chief Washington correspondent. After all these years of covering politics, I still don't have any idea what's really important.

I’ll tell you what's important, Scott. The critical issue in 2008 is the hiring practice of Mitt Romney’s groundskeeper. At least your own Boston Globe colleagues thought so when they put that trivial non-story on the Globe’s front page.

Scott, rather than dump on ABC, clean up the Globe's act. If you want to see regular examples of the media alienating their customers through arrogant decisions to focus on non-issues and trivia, there's no need to turn on the boob tube. Read your own rag.

Too Much Red Ink

And speaking about squandering opportunities, here is a excerpt from a Goldman Sachs report on the New York Times Corporation issued yesterday :

NYT reported weak first quarter results that were well below expectations…The negative advertising revenue trends seen in January (down 9.8% y-o-y) and February (down 8.3%) continued, as March numbers fell 11.1%. The weakness was mainly seen in classifieds, which dropped 25.7% y-o-y in March (down 22.6% YTD). Moreover, the New England Media’s performance was particularly bad (down 25.9% y-o-y).

Patronage Uber Alles

I skipped the 21^st Democratic presidential debate, but from reading the reviews it sounds like the program lifted the spirits of Republicans. Peter Canellos writes in the Globe:

The first half of last night's debate in the august National Constitution Center in Philadelphia was a tawdry affair, as ABC news questioners called on Obama and Clinton to address a year's worth of dirty laundry, and each combatant eagerly grabbed at the chance to besmirch their rival a little more.

And Joan Vennochi today writes of Democratic women voters frustrated with the exclusion of the Florida and Michigan delegations, who aren’t getting any help from the local pols:

Kennedy, Kerry, and Patrick are mistaken if they believe all their female supporters can be counted on to stay there.

Joan, where they gonna go?

The Democratic party apparatus holds our state government in a vice. That’s why we have such open, uplifting, and lively debate in our legislature. There is no creditable opposition. These ladies are merely discovering the downside of a one-party state. It is patronage uber alles, and alles includes the electorate.

Out of Town News

Thanks for visiting, but I am on the road and quite isolated until Tuesday April 22, so please keep your expectations low.

That one is out of the park

Roger Kimball:

I rankled at the description of Obama’s bitter-small-town-guns-and-God comment as elitist. It was smug; it was self-righteous; it was blinkered, bigoted, emotionally impoverished, and otherwise odious; it but it was not in any normal sense of the word “elitist.” I do not live in Pennsylvania. But I do live in a small(ish) town; I think the Second Amendment is a vital prophylactic against the untoward prerogatives of state power; and I’d sooner “cling” to religion than the hectoring, welfare-state, just-let-us-tell-you-how-to-live-your-life directives dispensed by Michelle and Barrack Obama. But what bothers me about such directives is not their elitism but their arrogance.