The Dish

"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus, but I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude," – Barack Obama, today.

It may well be a tax regime not unlike France’s. It will be his final, brutal attack on conservatism in America.

Why so universal? A good question. No obvious answer.

A report.

An atheist dissents (along with many others in the email in-tray):

To say, as one of your readers did, that I am not filled with wonder every day at the world around me is not true. Sometimes, as now in the springtime, I am overcome with the beauty and mystery of the world.  But just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean that it is not explainable now or in the future.  A hundred years ago most people would never have dreamed that you could walk into a big tube and fly(!) all the way around the world in a matter of hours.  Who would ever have imagined that a person could communicate with someone else on the other side of the world via telephone or internet in a matter of seconds?

I think each person goes through life searching for answers and the older you get the more the questions revolve around death and the true meaning of life.  I’m very content knowing that there is nothing more and that it has been enough just to live on this wonderful earth.  I am truly at peace and appreciate each day as it comes.

An interview with Hendrik Hertzberg on his views on the constitution, and other matters. Since he came up, I figured why not provide more links.

Islamabad, Pakistan, 6.30 am.

Here’s a medical analysis of what he has. Here are some survival statistics. It may not be as much of a non-issue as I first thought. But there are wide variations between individuals and their own forms of cancer, and we should hope, of course, that it doesn’t affect Thompson’s life and career. A reader with personal experience writes:

At best, the patient lives a normal life of uncertain duration until the disease suddenly becomes aggressive and kills. The usual progress of the disease is as the name implies, slow progression with very few serious symptoms. During this phase, the protocol ten to thirty years ago was Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide) and prednisone, and/or radiation, and "remission" frequently occurred. But the disease invariably returns and recent thinking is to use watchful waiting, rather than aggressive treatment of the slow phase (so as to preserve treatment options until truly needed similar to treatment of HIV). Eventually,  the disease  progresses to an aggressive stage and paradoxically becomes  more responsive to treatments and even cures, but long term survival (cure) of indolent lymphoma is rare.

As readers know, I’m a secularist, which is not the same as being an atheist. (Yes, Mr O’Reilly, I’m talking to you.) But even I’m alarmed by the ways in which many politicians on the left go out of their way not to accord Christianity the same kind of respect they would accord any other faith. Howard Dean’s DNC Easter message is a classic. Easter is not about redemption for people of all faiths. It’s about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Between the Christianism of much of the GOP and religious cluelessness of many Democrats, it’s no wonder cultural polarization continues.

Sorry, but this old populist chestnut strikes me as lame. I don’t even buy Cunning Realist’s defense. Knowing the price of a supermarket item is not and will never be an important issue for a man or woman seeking to be president. If you’re going to give them pop-quizzes, at least ask them about the differences between Shiites and Sunnis, the presidential candidates in France, or how they define torture. We’re not asking them to be CEO of Safeway.