Silly of me to post without checking out the breaking Sunday stories.
- WaPo has the US planning airstrikes on Iran. If this was Martin Sheen’s White House, I’d know the story was coming while Stealth bombers flew towards their targets, and that Monday’s news wouldn’t be about planning the strikes, but about their effects. I have this terrible feeling that an expanded war with Iran would look terrific from the administration’s point of view. It would cement our position in Iraq, bury both the NSA wiretap story and Libby’s finger-pointing, and bolster those flagging approval ratings. Is this too cynical?
- NYTimes Magazine has this story on El Salvador. A lot of people like to point out the absurd contradiction of prosecuting doctors who perform abortions but not the women who seek them. They should stop pointing to the contradiction, and start wondering whether the right doesn’t have farther reaching plans. I think the moment that hit me hardest was reading the phrase “forensic vagina inspectors” and knowing it was deadly serious. Don’t think it can’t happen here. Helps to put victimhood in perspective, too.
- This article in the Chicago Tribune made me laugh approvingly. What better way to point out the obvious: the difference between colonial genocide and cultural warfare is the difference between genetics and porn. In that battle, how can you not side with topless women and gay makeouts?
- To complete my continental sweep of the nation’s news, the LA Times has a story about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s practice of commemorating every California casualty of the war in Iraq. Sure he’s a bad governor who has eight Humvees and is probably contributing more to the peak oil crisis than the Califonia divison of the Postal Service. But he models some good behavior for our less heroic leaders….
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