One of the truly odd facets of the contemporary Catholic church is that while insisting that divorced and remarried Catholics can have no meaningful access to the sacraments and cannot receive absolution, there is an escape clause: annulment. This is usually reserved for Kennedys and other prominent or wealthy Catholics, but is occasionally granted others. In my view, it’s a humane option, if granted on the merits – and it shows how exceptions to firm rules have always been allowed in Catholicism (unless you’re gay, that is, when no exceptions are ever allowed.) Now Newt Gingrich is trying the Kennedy gambit. Figures, doesn’t it?
THE NEW YORK TIMES AND FORTUYN’S MURDERER: Pim Fortuyn may still be an odious rightist, but his assassin, a left-wing environmental extremist, is still merely a “champion” of animal rights, according to the New York Times. High up in this breath-taking Marlise Simons piece, there’s an attempt to argue that the enviro-group to which Fortuyn’s murderer is “exclusively” a litigious group. Then in the last paragraph, we find that the assassin might be linked to another murder of an environmental official, and that he was not simply a member of the group but a co-founder, and that one of his colleagues called him a “fanatic.” Still, Simons’ left-liberal blinders stay firmly on. Here’s the jaw-dropping sentence: “The news prompted an outpouring of furious e-mails and telephone threats against other environmental groups, whose members fear that a broader hate campaign may be building up.” This is the first use of the term ‘hate’ in the Times’ coverage of this event. And it’s used to describe those appalled at the use of political violence – not the practitioners of violence themselves. What a monstrous moral inversion. Let’s see: a extremist enviro-maniac murders an openly gay, libertarian supporter of Israel. And it’s the victim who’s a fascist?
ADDENDUM:Mickey Kaus emails to say that the idea of incorporating his blog into Slate was not a Jake Weisberg innovation entirely, but had first been raised as an idea by Mike Kinsley. Whoever dreamed it up, good luck with it.
The Dish 