The American Spectator

Gabrielle Giffords lies in a hospital room fighting for her life, and a precious nine-year-old girl is dead along with five others. Let’s pray for them and for our country and hope this tragedy prompts another round of examination of conscience.

(January 11, 2011)

In These Times

Up in the treetops of Congo, some demented writer for In These Times has perceived the future, and it is filled with “A Kinder, Gentler, Bisexual Great Ape”:

When Dominique Morel arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997, she had no background in animal protection. Nor had she heard of bonobos, one of the two great ape species most closely related to humans. But after her first visit to the bonobo sanctuary founded by the Congolese nonprofit Amis de Bonobos du Congo (ABC), Morel fell in love with the peaceful matriarchal creatures. Although they share 98.7 percent of the humans’ DNA, bonobos have created a society-unlike that of chimps and people-without violence, in which sex is a form of mediation.

(February 2011)

The Progressive

Proof of the disgusting stuff foisted on the youths of Podunk with the full cooperation of government bureaucrats at the USDA, many of whom are obese and some of whom smoke cigarettes and an occasional cigar:

My kids’ school is awash in fresh fruits and vegetables this year. We’re lucky. The school is just one of a handful in our community that received a federal Fresh Fruits and Vegetable grant. These are available through the USDA for schools with mainly low-income students. We spend Sunday mornings buying produce at the local farmers’ market, a few blocks from our school. On Monday nights, parents get together at a church across the street from the school to wash and chop the produce. Then we load it in the school fridge so the fourth and fifth graders can pass it out three mornings a week.

As labor intensive as this whole process is, it is intensely rewarding. Watching the kids gobble up watermelon on the playground or try cherry tomatoes for the first time in class-and hearing them say, “Cool, green beans!”-it is a big lift.

(November 2010)

The Nation

Young Eric Alterman inadvertently comes across a national disgrace, yet leaves unsaid still another disgrace; these poor people are really fat:

Think about it. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush talked incessantly about fiscal responsibility and lost no opportunity to denounce deficit spending, but these principles flew out the window when it came time to raise taxes on the rich. The new bunch are [sic] even worse. Incoming House Ways and Means chair Dave Camp recently told George Will that one of the biggest problems with our tax system is that too few poor people pay income tax.

(January 24, 2011)