Hand To Hand

Self-Inflicted
By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones.....
At 38, Ms. Lewis has three sons with three men....
Out came Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes, bought for the morning. (NYT, 2/3/2012)


One of those stories that the Times runs regularly about the plight of the poor. Conservatives are deemed heartless when it comes to poverty.  Actually, it is more like frustrated.


Illegal and Rare
A combined 58 percent of Americans stated that abortion should either be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal in only a few circumstances.” .... But if you’ve followed the media frenzy surrounding the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s decision — which it backpedaled from, with an apology, after a wave of frankly brutal coverage — to discontinue about $700,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood, you would think all these millions of anti-abortion Americans simply do not exist.... Planned Parenthood likes to claim that abortion accounts for just 3 percent of its services, for instance, and this statistic has been endlessly recycled in the press. But the percentage of the group’s clients who received an abortion is probably closer to 1 in 10, and Planned Parenthood’s critics have estimated, plausibly, that between 30 and 40 percent of its health center revenue is from abortion.  (Ross Douthat, NYT, 2/4/2012)


There are few issues about which the media gets more energized (Mitt Romney's taxes being another) than abortion.  And so there are few issues about which it is more dishonest.  Good column by Douthat.


Quests and Openness and Promises
Each case grows out of a struggle between left and right where politics have pushed the law: between a quest for universal coverage and the defense of big health care providers; between an emphasis on openness and hostility toward immigrants; and between a promise of access to the voting booth made nearly 50 years ago and the unyielding opposition to keeping that promise. (NYT editorial, 2/4/2012)


This is how the New York Times editors frame the health care, immigration and voting rights issues. Yes, it is as though they have turned the editorial page over to a high school civics class. 


Evolving and Devolving
The evolving strategy (in Afghanistan) is far different from the withdrawal plan for Iraq, where almost all American forces, conventional or otherwise, have left. Iraq has devolved into sectarian violence ever since the withdrawal in December, which threatens to undo the political and security gains there. (NYT, 2/4/2012)


Just a reminder for those who have been touting Obama's foreign policy accomplishments as a strength heading into the next election. (Good job NYT!)