Category: The Dish

From Joe Klein’s article on Gore as the nominee:

Pish-tosh, you say, and you’re probably right. But let’s play a little. Let’s say the elders of the Democratic Party decide, when the primaries end, that neither Obama nor Clinton is viable. Let’s also assume—and this may be a real stretch—that such elders are strong and smart enough to act. All they’d have to do would be to convince a significant fraction of their superdelegate friends, maybe fewer than 100, to announce that they were taking a pass on the first ballot at the Denver convention, which would deny the 2,025 votes necessary to Obama or Clinton. What if they then approached Gore and asked him to be the nominee, for the good of the party—and suggested that he take Obama as his running mate? Of course, Obama would have to be a party to the deal and bring his 1,900 or so delegates along.

And I thought Clinton was presumptuous for offering Obama veep?

Poulos suggests an alternative to scrapping the penny:

The clear solution derived from these key points is not to eliminate the penny but to kill off the nickel and make pennies worth five cents.

Another reason to revere him. A reader writes:

So happens this Methodist minister is leaving for Fort Smith, Ark. in a couple of hours for a "Praying the Hours with Thomas Merton" retreat at the St. Scholastica monastery there. What I love about Merton is that while progressives and peace activists and social activists have always loved and embraced him and found inspiration in him, he was always suspicious and often very critical of their motives and excesses. Consider this journal entry of his from July 3, 1968, not long before his bizarre death from electrocution in Asia:

"One thing is very clear: all that passes for aggiornamento is not necessarily good or healthy. One has to remain pretty critical and independent about all ideas … Both the conservatives and the progressives seem to me to be full of the same kind of intolerance, arrogance, empty-headedness, and to be dominated by different kinds of conformism; in either case the dread of being left out of their reference group."

That is the right approach of a man of faith to church politics – let alone the secular, partisan kind.

One word on his untimely death: he was electrocuted at the age of 53 when getting out of the bath. It seems awful, unseemly, almost humiliating at first. And yet what a merciful way to be brought back to God. No anxiety; no fear of death; no forewarning. Are there any moments you’d be less expecting to die than getting out of a bath? Merton was so close to God I doubt God needed any last confession or contrition from him. So He took him instantly. Yes, Hitch and Sam can now laugh out loud.

A Cartier Camel looks into the camera during the 3rd Cartier Dubai Polo Challenge at Desert Palm Polo Ground on March 28, 2008 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Challenge is the year’s most celebrated polo tournament taking place in the desert under the patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of Dubai. By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

James Lileks wieghs in:

This shouldn’t be polarizing, but it is. Energy conservation has been suffused with a moral quality these days; instead of being a sensible reaction to higher prices and foreign dependence, it is a sign of virtue. It was thus in the 70s, and now it’s back. That’s why your choice of light bulb says what kind of a person you are. Fluorescent? Or evil?

A daily tabulation of Clinton’s chances at the nomination.

It’s only a flesh wound:

There will be no orgasmic Eiffel Tower changes after all. My apologies. The news stories were incorrect. But it would be soooo cool.

Very recently, another American soldier was killed in Iraq:

Maj. Alan Rogers, 40, a gay intelligence officer who served on a military transition team that trained Iraqi soldiers, died Jan. 27 in Baghdad from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device that detonated near him while he was conducting a patrol on his Humvee. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on March 14.

For sacrificing his life in the line of duty, the Army posthumously awarded Rogers a Purple Heart and a second Bronze Star.

In the light of the US military’s continuing discrimination against gay servicemembers, it seems very relevant to me that Rogers’ sexual orientation – about which there is no doubt – be included in coverage of his death and obituaries. And yet the mainstream media decided to enforce that closet – and perpetuate the military’s policy – even after Rogers’s ultimate sacrifice:

The Washington Post, National Public Radio and the Gainesville Sun, the local newspaper in his hometown of Hampton, Fla., made no mention of his sexual orientation or his involvement with a group that works to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Lynn Medford, Metro editor for the Post, said the newspaper debated whether or not to disclose Rogers’ sexual orientation and ultimately decided not to include such information as a matter of ethics.

Rogers to some degree “kept his orientation private” and outing him after his death would “take a decision out of his hands,” she said. Rogers had no partner and no immediate family to consult with to determine what his wishes would be, Medford noted.

The only reason Rogers was even semi-closeted to his peers was to protect his career in the military. As treasurer of an organization to end the military ban and with countless sources testifying to his sexual orientation, the decision of the Post and NPR to enforce the closet even after his death cannot be expained except by a view that somehow being gay is shameful or private. I can see why outing someone who is alive and closeted is unethical; inning someone who is dead and was out is a function of utterly misplaced sensitivity, rooted in well-intentioned but incontrovertible homophobia.

We already persecute these gay heroes when risking their lives for their country. For the MSM to maintain the shame, stigma and persecution after their death is unnacceptable. Email Howell at ombudsman@washpost.com to ask for the Post’s defense.

Noam agrees: it makes a great deal of sense at first blush.