I am still catching up after the Tennessee tour, so here is another quick post saved from earlier in the week.
Idol word haunts copy desk
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Dobson, Miers and Ted Olsen (once again)
He’s baaaaaaaccccckkkkk. Meaning Ted Olsen over at the Christianity Today blog. He collected several hundred HHGR links (OK, OK, I didn’t count them all) so you don’t have to. Now, I call that servant leadership. Greater love hath no blogger …
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Coven and state clash, yet again
Maybe it’s just my church-state studies background, but this case about Wicca and public prayer strikes me as a major story and a sign of things to come. We may have heard the last of a witch named Cynthia Simpson at the U.S. Supreme Court, but the splintering of the old Judeo-Christian (and now Islamic) civil religion will continue. Here’s the lead from the Richmond Times-Dispatch story, the only MSM coverage that really mattered.
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McPrayer Closets in your McMansions?
What a week. I am finally back at work and I feel the need to unload some short items from the past week on the road. So — warning — here come some short, punchy (I hope) posts while I try to dig out my desk and travel bag. Prepare to scan and click.
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McCain and religion
It’s never too early to start talking about the next presidential election. The word on the street is that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is the odds-on favorite for the Democrats while Sen. John McCain is the GOP’s likely choice. Considering we haven’t had a president elected directly from the Senate since JFK, a McCain vs. Clinton 2008 contest seems a bit far-fetched. There is too much time, too many variables and too many candidates for anyone to know for sure.
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Malcolm Gladwell on Intelligent Design
This week’s issue of Time features a wide-ranging discussion that links to its cover theme of “What’s Next?” The participants, identified by Time as “some of the smartest people we know,” include author Malcolm Gladwell, techie lecturer Clay Shirky, New York Times columnist David Brooks and author Esther Dyson.
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The abortion coverage gap
I know this is not a news story, but this column by former Washington Post journalist Patricia E. Bauer is deeply moving and will hopefully — I say hopefully — encourage America’s mainstream media to explore the damage legal abortions have done to our society. The column by Bauer deals with how abortion has started to weed out children with disabilities. Reading it this morning nearly moved me to tears, and in conversations with friends of mine in the medical profession and parents (I am neither) I have learned even more that makes me think this is a huge story that has gone completely uncovered.
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Covering those dummies on the right
As I said a week ago, I really think the MSM are stuggling to cover the HHGR division within the camps of cultural, religious and political conservatism. What does it mean when journalists find themselves cheering for Bush, in opposition to Rush Limbaugh? What does it mean when you are an elite blue-zone scribe and you are tempted to line up on the same team as Dr. James Dobson?
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Trading conflicts over lulavs
I have long been an admirer of Chris Lee’s work in The Washington Post. As a reporter who deals primarily with the complex issues surrounding government agencies, Lee has a way of explaining intricate issues and spotting an unusual story that highlights key issues that others would overlook.
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