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Michael Barone goes from the Duke lacrosse team to belief in victims.
The “Group of 88″ Duke professors, journalists for The New York Times and the Durham Herald-Sun, and heads of black and feminist organizations all seemed to have a powerful emotional need to believe. A need to believe that those they classify as victims must be virtuous and those they classify as oppressors must be villains. A need to believe that this is the way the world usually works.
Similar theme in Boston Globe.
IN MAY 2006, the women’s lacrosse team at Duke University announced their intention to wear sweatbands with the word “innocent” for a Final Four game at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. This gesture was a clear statement of support for the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer at a team party. In response, New York Times sports columnist Harvey Araton suggested that “cross-team friendship” had overridden the women’s common sense. In the online magazine Salon , writer Kevin Sweeney chided them for lack of solidarity with rape victims.
Now, it looks like the women’s lacrosse team had it right.
John Fund comments on Imus.
Marty Peretz was traveling for a bit. Now he’s back with posts on Sarkozy, movie on Pete Seeger and Bill Clinton’s help for Israel.
But I bet that the Communist Party doesn’t appear in the film, and the Communist Party was a big part of Seeger’s life and Seeger a big part of the party’s life, as well. The paradox of a loyal, no, fervent Communist being seen as a force for freedom and justice still escapes some over-age lefties. And it is incomprehensible to the young. Alas! Still, “If I had a hammer…” or “Kevin Barry” or even “The banks are made of marble, with a guard at every door” sounds strange coming out of the mouth of someone who was loyal to Comrade Stalin
The Captain posts on McCain’s attention to the tax code.
Power Line notes an Examiner article on dem corruption.
Instapundit says John Kerry is keeping his powder dry.
John Tierney has fun with the doomsday clock.
Sixty years ago, a group of physicists concerned about nuclear weapons created the Doomsday Clock and set its hands at seven minutes to midnight. Now, the clock’s keepers, alarmed by dangers like climate change, have moved the hands to 11:55 p.m.
The news wasn’t all bad. After all, the 1947 doomsday prediction marked the start of a golden age. Never have so many humans lived so long — and maybe never so peacefully — as during the past 60 years. The per-capita rate of violence, particularly in the West, seems remarkably low by historical standards. If the clock’s keepers are worried once again, their track record suggests we’re in for even happier days.
Couple of good items from New Editor.