Thursday, June 29, 2006

Idiot Short Subjects

Ahort subjects from the news.

First, Patrick Reilly's Cardinal Newman Society was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I hate when whackos like Reilly and David Horowitz get coverage in mainstream media because it gives them a credibility far beyond what they deserve. Reilly is on a mission to make Catholic colleges more Catholic. So far, he has succeeded in getting the "Vagina Monologues" to be performed less on Catholic campuses -- only 27 times this year from 33 two years ago. At this rate, the play will disappear from college campuses by 2015 -- just about the time that the play becomes pretty stale. Reilly has hooked up with L. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center (what a joke -- this blog has more research content than the MRC) -- to build a direct mail base, largely by attacking schools like Boston College for backing the ban against military recruiters for discriminating against gays (so much for loving the sinner even if hating the sin). Reilly now has 20,000 members of the society. I don't see where that's much of a success -- 20,000 homophobes is just the tip of the iceberg in this country.

Second, the right wing media went nuts when Rush Limbaugh was detained at a private airport in Palm Beach because of questions over a prescription for Viagra he had. The prescription was not in his name, but his doctor's. The right wing media -- like Bill O'Reilly -- have charged that Limbaugh was treated unfairly. Of course, Limbaugh is on a probationary status because of prescription kiting for his Oxy Contin addiction. Carrying a prescription not in his own name is suspicious activity. Of course, this is highly embarrassing to Limbaugh. It's like finding out Sammy Sosa corked his bat.

Finally, it will be interesting to see if Attorney General Gonzales goes after the New York Times because of their revelation about the secret banking program. The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times also ran stories on the program the same day. If the AG goes after the New York Times, he'll also have to go after the Administration-friendly Wall Street Journal. The Journal has been arguing that if the New York Times did not run their story, they would not have run theirs. I don't think that will be much of a defense. That would be like Julius Rosenberg saying "Gee, I only revealed atomic bomb secrets because I saw Klaus Fuchs doing it." My guess is that the AG will let this all pass, despite all the sturm and drang by the Republicans in Congress and the squeals of the right wing media.

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