Wednesday, March 24, 2004

A pair of Picassos from the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC-Greensboro Maternite Picasso, Pablo 1963 color lithograph Paolo as Harlequin with Flowers Picasso, Pablo 1923 color etching on paper 6:16:19 PM    comment []

Uncle Terry went to The Hague to give a lecture comparing the development of the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization, and all I got was this lousy PDF. 5:40:26 PM    comment []

What would happen if a CNN anchor subtitled his book "Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Conservatism?" Rush Limbaugh would need to pop an extra Oxy to contain his excitement. Glenn Reynolds would trot out his "Oh, that liberal media" headline. Michael Powell might deem it obscene. And they would be right to complain -- equating conservatisim with terrorism and despotism would be a vile thing to do. So why does Sean Hannity get a pass on his book, "Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism?" 10:24:53 AM    comment []

Matt Gross: "The real fireworks are set to begin at 1:30 pm ET, when Richard Clarke goes before the 9/11 commission."   Yesterday he wrote: "I doubted the extent of damage Clarke's allegations could do. On their own, very little. But live televised testimony has a certain place in the American psyche. It's not where you want to be in the kick-off to the general election. With each hour before the commission, and before the nation's eyes, the credibility of the Bush administration is called into further and further question. And that damage is done no matter what the final report says." 10:15:12 AM    comment []

William Safire urges the Supreme Court not to punt on the Pledge of Allegiance "under God" issue...then he punts. The only thing this time-wasting pest Newdow has going for him is that he's right. Those of us who believe in God don't need to inject our faith into a patriotic affirmation and coerce all schoolchildren into going along. The key word in the pledge is the last one. The insertion was a mistake then; the trouble is that knocking the words out long afterward, offending the religious majority, would be a slippery-slope mistake now. The justices shouldn't use the issue of standing to punt, thereby letting this divisive ruckus fester. The solution is for the court to require teachers to inform students they have the added right to remain silent for a couple of seconds while others choose to say "under God."   If only Safire had the courage to end his column after that semicolon in the second graf quoted above...or for that matter to argue that "under God" belongs in the Pledge. Solomonic decisions don't work -- that's the point of the split-the-baby story, that it forced a real solution, right? 9:54:42 AM    comment []