Lamentations

Histrionics
Mr. Baquet becomes the first African-American to serve as The Times’s executive editor. Ms. Abramson’s hiring also made history — she was the first woman to run the newspaper. Her dismissal, after less than three years in the job, was met with disappointment by some women in the newsroom, and could be perceived as a step backward in the cause of female leadership at The Times and elsewhere in the industry. (New York Times, 5/15/2014)

At the Times, the recent management change is all about checking off the boxes to prove how open minded they are. The first lesbian is replaced by the first African-American, presumably to be eventually replaced by the first transgendered individual. Only then will we know that the Times is serious about equality!

We will know that the Times is serious about running their business as a business when they announce that they have hired "the most qualified person for the job."


College Daze
In a story that only a Liberal newspaper could or would write about higher education in America, the New York Times asks the question: Who Gets to Graduate? Yes, who GETS to graduate, as though graduating from college is not the result of hard work, but rather of privilege. Helpfully, the Times tells us this: 

"...whether a student graduates or not seems to depend today almost entirely on just one factor — how much money his or her parents make. To put it in blunt terms: Rich kids graduate; poor and working-class kids don’t." (New York Times, 5/15/2014)

We are not sure how that works. Rich kids buy their diplomas maybe? Helpfully, the Times presents us with a poor victim, Vanessa. Here are a few facts about Vanessa:

....Vanessa’s mother, then a high-achieving high-school senior in a small town in Arkansas, became pregnant with Vanessa.....Vanessa’s parents divorced when she was 12.....And then, a month into the school year, Vanessa stumbled. She failed her first test in statistics, a prerequisite for admission to the nursing program. 

Call us crazy, but maybe there is something else besides wealth going on here. 


Liberal Contributions to Culture
Speaking of higher education, read below what one Professor Victor Corona of FIT has to say about one Michael Alig who was released from prison:

Victor P. Corona, a sociology professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said that Mr. (Michael) Alig is a bona fide fashion icon, one who paid his debt to society and made a lasting contribution to culture. In a planned book, “Downtown Superstars: Inside Three Generations of New York Fame,” he makes the case that Mr. Alig is a bridge between Andy Warhol’s Factory and Lady’s Gaga’s fashion and music. (New York Times, 5/15/2014)

Wow, a bridge between Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga! But, we are still skeptical, what exactly did this cultural icon do to land himself in prison? Oh, this:

On a Sunday night in March 1996, Mr. Alig and Robert Riggs, known as Freeze, killed Mr. Melendez during an argument over money and drugs in Mr. Alig’s apartment on West 43rd Street. During a scuffle, Mr. Riggs hit Melendez with a hammer. Mr. Alig then suffocated him with a sweatshirt and poured Drano down his throat, he said, before dumping the body in the bathtub, pouring ice over it and abandoning the apartment for the next nine days. Then, high on heroin, Mr. Alig dismembered the corpse to get rid of it.

Got it. 

Maybe Vanessa and others are better off NOT going to college....