Flaming Visions

JV
Earlier this year, President Obama likened the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to a junior varsity basketball squad, a group that posed little of the threat once presented by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. (New York Times, 8/22/2014)

First Obama says you can keep your health care plan, then he says ISIS is not a threat. Does this guy get anything right?


Discharged
Ferguson police officials have said Mr. Brown and a friend were walking in the street when Officer Wilson stopped them. In an ensuing struggle, they said, Officer Wilson was hit in the face and Mr. Brown tried to take his gun, which discharged. Later, Officer Wilson shot Mr. Brown six times as the two men faced each other. (New York Times, 8/23/2014)

Weeks later, after writing countless stories reminding us every few sentences that Michael Brown was unarmed, the Times pens an article about police procedures in confrontational situations. Thirteen paragraphs in we finally hear the police side of the shooting. Of course the Times just says that the officer was "hit in the face" not that his eye socket was broken as others have reported. 

If we were writing the first sentence quoted above we might have written it differently: Ferguson police officials have said Mr. Brown and a friend were illegally walking in the middle of the street high on marijuana after having robbed a convenience store when Officer Wilson stopped them.