The Dish

Friedersdorf joins the debate:

There is a case to be made for diversity in newsrooms, and if you’re running an all white newspaper in a multicultural town, you’re probably doing something wrong. But no one is helped by peddling diversity mantras that betray an utter failure to grapple with a difficult issue. Furthermore, should the Washington Post newsroom grow more diverse in future years — and I hope that it does — let me be the first to assert that the minority staffers should be covering Congress, Bethesda, and the University Club as often as sitting on the Metro desk or reporting on Southwest DC.

Mr. Alexander would probably say he’d never suggest otherwise, but when you approvingly quote someone saying, “If you have a community of basketball players, it’s difficult for a newsroom of opera lovers to cover them,” it’s fair enough to wonder if you’re also saying the opposite. Of course, this whole exercise presumes that basketball and opera themselves are inherently racial rather than cultural phenomena, which is also wrong.

In related news, Politico was recently scolded for its lack of non-white men in an editorial meeting.

Today in Vatican watch, Douthat deflected the outcry of Archbishop Dolan, Paul Moses countered George Weigel, Andrew differed with Father Brundage, victims activist David Clohessy called for disclosure, Tom McNichol compared the crisis to Watergate, a reader raised a double standard for prison rape, and another asserted that abuse has gone undetected for centuries.

In other coverage, Obama hugged Romney tight, Friedersdorf instructed us not to donate to the RNC, Erickson faced the music on CNN, Ravitch graded the president, David Corn revisited Bush's war rhetoric, and Larison danced on the grave of the UK special relationship. Brooks and Andrew heralded marriage, Bella DePaulo differed, Kate Pickert killed the buzz over preexisting conditions, and TNC talked video games.

Readers continued the feminist threats on stripping and salary. Another alerted us to April 19. Tax-blogging here, here, and here. Beard-blogging here and here. Blog-blogging here. Winnie the Poof met Alien, Obama looked at awesome things, and LBJ said "bunghole." Adorable animals here, badass ones here, and suicidal ones here.

Get your civic asset forfeiture fix here.

— C.B.

From Larry King:

Chait thinks that Ambinder has it backwards:

Romney appears political viable right now because most Republican voters have not been exposed to the Romneycare-Obamacare comparison — or if they have, it's been made by advocates of the latter, rather than by Republicans who they trust. When the attacks come, Romney just has no convincing reply.

Kate Pickert decodes the pre-existing condition brouhaha:

Although insurers have promised to sell insurance policies to families with kids with pre-existing conditions, there is nothing to stop the insurance companies from charging whatever they want. Until 2014, insurers will still be allowed to set premiums rates in the individual market based on health status. For a kid with a bad health status – like cystic fibrosis, say, or cancer – that means very high premiums that families might still not find affordable. Insurers are not going to simply absorb the cost of covering these expensive cases; they will pass the expenses on to policy holders.

Nancy Folbre highlights a study (pdf):

Over all, parents pay less in net taxes than nonparents do — until the future net tax contributions of their children are taken into account.  These more than offset the difference, leading the authors to conclude that the average parent contributes far more than the average nonparent to net taxes — a difference of more than $200,000 in 2009 dollars…

Balko flags this video by the Institute for Justice against civil asset forfeiture:

Bella DePaulo counters Brooks:

Studies that compare the currently married to everyone else (which is the vast majority of marital status studies) can tell us nothing about the implications of getting married for happiness, health, or anything else. That’s because the currently married are the people who are left after setting aside the 40-some percent of people who got married, hated it, and got divorced. It is like saying that the new drug Shamster is very effective, based on a study in which the experiences of nearly half the people who took the drug were discounted, because it most certainly did not work for them.

Joyner half agrees. Like many married homosexuals, I remain among the few left championing the institution.

A blogger, ahem, makes the tough transition to the MSM. This is actually very funny: