Is Blood Thicker Than Water? It seems to be for President Bush. He's refused to campaign for Republican governor candidates in Virginia and New Jersey facing the voters next week, even though they are both behind in the polls and could use the help. But the
Washington Post says Bush is likely to do a fundraiser for brother Jeb who is not up for re-election until 2002. Bush
cancelled another fundraiser just last week. (Via
Political Wire.)
posted by flip
on Nov 1, 2001 -
3 comments
Ask the ombudsman. Are newspapers revealing too much information? too little? A news ombudsman receives and investigates complaints from newspaper readers or listeners or viewers of radio and television stations about accuracy, fairness, balance and good taste in news coverage. He or she recommends appropriate remedies or responses to correct or clarify news reports.
Michael Getler: Internal Critic with Big Audience: how the Washington Post's Ombudsman does his job.
An ombudsman is someone who handles complaints and attempts to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Ombudsmen can be found in government, corporations, hospitals, universities and other institutions. The first ombudsman was appointed in 1809 in Sweden to handle citizens' complaints about the government. It is pronounced "om-BUDS-man" and is Scandinavian in origin.
posted by Carol Anne
on Oct 30, 2001 -
2 comments
Michael Kelly nails it. Are "pacifists" inherently relying on others to defend their right to protest the war? Or do they wish to live in a nation where we pledge allegiance to Saddam and Osama?
posted by prodigal
on Oct 3, 2001 -
68 comments
On September 30th, there was a peace protest in Washington D.C. I'm surprised no one else linked to this -- about 50 students from
my college attended and joined the crowd of a few thousand. I would have gone, but I'm dubious about the efficacy of public protest despite the fact that I'm an affirmed pacifist. What do you folks think? Will a totally non-military action be an appropriate response? (And is there any possiblity of the US acting in such a way?) Is the loss of a single additional human life in this new war justifiable?
posted by tweebiscuit
on Oct 3, 2001 -
109 comments
Bioterror? Nukes? Don't bet on it.
Buried in this Washington Post article about the possibility of further terrorist attacks is a piece of information that I had been thinking was probably true myself: The fact that they went to all this trouble to hijack planes and use them as giant bombs is "enormously illustrative" that they probably do not have anything worse to use on us, like biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
posted by aaron
on Sep 16, 2001 -
35 comments
A Sky Filled With Chaos, Uncertainty and True Heroism There's lots of fresh detail in this Washington Post story on flight 93, the only plane not to hit a target. "It was the hijackers' bad luck that they chose a plane with a number of large men on board. Beamer stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 200 pounds. Jeremy Glick, 31, another passenger involved in the apparent revolt, was a college rugby player and judo champion. Mark Bingham, 31, of San Francisco was a 6-foot-4 rugby player."
posted by NortonDC
on Sep 16, 2001 -
5 comments
Realism Urgently Needed - Or Not? David Ignatius's column today in The Washington Post addresses the question of effectiveness in the war against terrorism. He tells the sobering story of the CIA's collaboration with the terrorist Ali Hassan Salameh.
The downside: "The most obvious (lesson) is that collecting intelligence about terrorists is a truly dirty business. This world cannot be penetrated without help from members or friends of the terrorist network".
The upside: "Paradoxically, these tragic days have probably been an ideal time for the CIA to be recruiting new sources of intelligence about terrorism. The barbaric attacks Tuesday aroused disgust around the world --- not least among civilized Muslims. Some of these disgusted Muslims will surely want to help the United States and its allies put the terrorists out of business."
The crucial moral question: It's really a classic means/ends debate. Is it right - or just acceptably expedient - to collaborate with known terrorists in order to strike out at those we don't yet(or otherwise will never) know about?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 16, 2001 -
12 comments
Bush readies military--calls up 50 thousand reserves Well that will take care of the job market. But just what is it they are to do? One suggestion is that they will stay in the U.S. to ensure our safety. Isn't that called a garrison state? And Carnivore now installed at Hotmail and just about all oter places. But Bush had warned us early on that sometimes you have to give up freedoms, even in a democracy.
posted by Postroad
on Sep 14, 2001 -
12 comments
Another thoughtful article
Open the Washington Post to it's editorial pages, and war talk dominates:
Henry Kissinger: Destroy the Network.
Robert Kagan: We Must Fight This War.
Charles Krauthammer: To War, Not to Court.
William S. Cohen: American Holy War.
There is no column by Colman McCarthy talking peace.
posted by mapalm
on Sep 14, 2001 -
19 comments
Slate's Mickey Kaus and the
Washington Post ask the question: For all the claims of illegal monopolies and unfair advantage, is the tech industry counting on Microsoft and Windows XP's Oct. 25 release to save its bacon?
posted by rcade
on Jul 30, 2001 -
19 comments
You're Never Too Old to Get HIV!! People over 50 account for 13.4% of 1999 newly diagnosed AIDS cases. But because seniors, who don't think they're at risk to begin with, don't get tested -- the problem may be much bigger than number suggest.
Misconceptions about STDs, multiple partners, and the belief that condoms aren't necessary since pregnancy isn't possible, (and perhaps Viagra?) are contributing to the escalating rate.
posted by jennak
on Jul 17, 2001 -
3 comments
"I think that first world environmental groups (who oppose development of genetically modified crops) should put on the hat and shoes of farmers in Mali who are faced by repeated crop failure." -- Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, lead author of the U.N. Development Programme's annual Human Development Report. (Here's
another report on the same issue which includes a great deal of background information about the problems which still need to be solved, and why genetic modification of food crops is an essential part of the solution.)
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Jul 12, 2001 -
35 comments
More than half of all black men report that they have been the victims of racial profiling by police, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.
Overwhelming majorities of blacks, Latinos and Asians also report they occasionally experience at least one of the following expressions of prejudice: poor service in stores or restaurants, disparaging comments, and encounters with people who clearly are frightened or suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity.
This is 2001?
posted by owillis
on Jun 22, 2001 -
62 comments
The Search For Chandra Levy Chandra Levy was a 24 year old intern who was about to move back to California and receive her master's when she suddenly disappeared on April 30th. The search climbed to a new level last night, when her parents returned to DC and held a press conference with their attorney...and their fingers seem to be pointing a Congressman. (more inside)
posted by jennak
on Jun 20, 2001 -
21 comments
Are you an Audiophile? I found this article on
Slashdot, but I know some folks here don't read that site regularly and I think it's worth parroting here. I thought I was going a little overboard with my Technics SL-1200mk2 turntable the other week, but this is crazy. Or is it crazy/beautiful? Anyone here approach the depths of some of these music fans?
posted by moz
on Jun 13, 2001 -
22 comments
In the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border,
charity becomes political protest as humanitarian groups seek to put hundreds of gallons of water in the form of "watering stations" -- a few gallons of water and a blue flag -- on federal, military, private, and Indian lands.
posted by sudama
on Jun 11, 2001 -
3 comments
McCain considering whether to leave GOP Self-explanatory. Not exactly breaking news, considering that the National Journal reported the same (a tidbit also reported on the Web's
Orvetti.com). It is, however, the first time I've seen the "rampant speculation," as journalists like to put it, make for a headline article in a major newspaper. McCain advocate William Kristol may be the person to watch here, since he increasingly seems to advocate a sort-of Teddy Roosevelt-like ideology. Oh, intrigue. Goodie.
posted by raysmj
on Jun 1, 2001 -
33 comments
Alone. Ahhh. Sigh. 27 Million Singles Do Whatever They Want. All by Themselves.
The problem with census data is there's never space for a longer answer to the question. (Yes, I live like this but I didn't plan to. See, here's what happened . . . )
This week's newsy trickle across the national spreadsheet reveals, among other things, that more Americans than ever live alone. Twenty-seven million people, give or take. That's a lot of air guitar being played in private. That's a lot of bowls of cereal eaten over the sink around 1 in the morning.....
Do you fit into this scenario? I know I do.
posted by perogi
on May 19, 2001 -
33 comments
Is there anyone NOT blogging? asks The Washington Post. A mention for our own Jessamyn and Postroad, as well as the obligatory quote from Ev and brief mention of the Blogger-Trellix deal.
posted by briank
on May 17, 2001 -
24 comments
A Society of Aliterates? Confused article in the Washington Post Style section indicts an aliterate society (one where people can read, but choose not to) for selling its soul at the going rate of 1 pic = 1000 words. Conflating "printed material" with "reading" and then with "quality", the author completely ignores what information people actually take away from different media (eg, doesn't notice that "reading" may be crappy s-f [hey, I had to give romance novels a break], while tv can be Frontline or 60 Minutes). Further, they throw in a brief screed against multimedia including highway signs. Bizarre and hypocritical, or maybe just illustrative, in that the writer completely forgoes logic and goes for scare tactics like:
You can walk through whole neighborhoods of houses in the country that do not contain books or magazines
in addition to the old stand-by of ignoring any real historical trend in reading. I want to say it's just some old crank, but can't quite, because the article was passed along by a friend earnestly worried about our aliterate society.
posted by claxton6
on May 14, 2001 -
36 comments
TV to Air Death Chamber Tapes "The tapes were recorded by prison staff and document the events taking place in the execution chamber as narrated by prison officials witnessing the event. The descriptions follow the procedure from the securing of the prisoner to the electric chair to the pronouncement of the time of death and the removal of the prisoner's body from 23 executions. All the tapes are public record".
posted by matteo
on May 2, 2001 -
3 comments
American Hollow - The Bowling family has lived in the same rural hollow in Kentucky for seven generations. The Washington Post tells their story using the Bowlings' own words (including audio clips) and photographs with a Web site you might expect from PBS. Urban Americans (and others, too) might be surprised to learn that there are many, many families in the U.S. who still live like the Bowlings.
"It's 1998 and we just last year put running water in the house, into my kitchen sink. We did it ourselves. We bought line, hooked into Iree's well, dug up a ditch and ran it to the house. But I still need a bathroom and a septic tank. I got a rinse tub that we take a bath in. I'd rather have a bathtub, but meanwhile I can make do."
posted by ewagoner
on Apr 27, 2001 -
8 comments
big mac's big voice in meat plants "Bloodied in past scrapes with animal rights groups, McDonald's has been positioning itself in recent years as an ardent defender of farm animals... the company's headfirst plunge into slaughter policing is revolutionizing the way slaughterhouses do business, according to a wide range of industry experts and observers."
part of an ongoing washingtonpost.com series entitled "Modern Meat."
posted by moth
on Apr 10, 2001 -
13 comments
Culture as Culprit. Myron Magnet is the author of
The Dream and the Nightmare, which George W. Bush has called the most influential book -- aside from the Bible -- that he's ever read. Is poverty in American less an economic matter than a cultural one?
posted by techgnollogic
on Apr 6, 2001 -
9 comments
Two words: Bad Taste The Washington Post today is running an article on Alcatels new pitchman, Martin Luther King, Jr! Yes! MLK joins the likes of John Wayne and Alfred Hitchcock as undead spokespeople.
posted by cornbread
on Mar 28, 2001 -
47 comments
What You See May Not Be . . . A memo, telling lobbyists to "dress down" as "real workers" for GOP photo op, provides rare window into a common practice on Capitol Hill. Both Republicans and Democrats go to great lengths to assemble average Americans who can convey the appropriate political message, and when they can't find any, they simply trade in their white collars for hard hats themselves
posted by frednorman
on Mar 9, 2001 -
6 comments
Americans suck at math. Mathematician trade deficit ensues... I only find this article interesting because of a talk with my math teacher recently about how most math teachers these days are foriegners, although she isn't, and not that foriegners are bad. But I'm curious if this a bad problem in today's economy or not? Or if this is a problem? What country is good at math? India and China? That's where most of the Silicon Valley CEO's workers are from these days. Or is that political, financial? I don't know. Do you know?
posted by redleaf
on Feb 7, 2001 -
22 comments
