Global

Years ago, my friend Edward Said's wife, Mariam, asked if I would make available my apartment in New York, where I lived at that time, as the site for a surprise 40th birthday for Edward Said. I dislike surprise parties, but, of course, I agreed. The evening arrived; guests assembled on my sitting room on the 11th floor of 333 Central Park West. The dining room table groaned under Middle Eastern delicacies. Then came the word from the front door. Edward and Mariam had arrived! They were ascending in the elevator. Now we could all hear Edward's furious bellow: "But I don't want to go to dinner with ******* Alex!" They entered at last, and the shout went up from 70 throats, "Happy Birthday!" He reeled back in surprise, staggered and, for a moment, I thought he was going to keel over with a heart attack. Of course he didn't, and after a few minutes looking somewhat dazed at the greetings of friends he hadn't seen for 20 years, he had a great time.

To the Editor:

History provides another "other side" to the debate over Senate Bill 24, the misleadingly titled "academic bill of rights for higher education".  Consider... 

There was a time when most people thought Earth was flat...  Until the 1500s, most people believed that Earth was the center of the universe, and Copernicus was excommunicated for arguing that Earth revolved around the Sun... 

I'd like to think that Senator Mumper will continue to support teachers persistently teaching that the Earth is round and goes around the Sun, even though his intellectual forebears would challenge HIS right to challenge THEIR values by doing so.  I'd also like to think that Senator Mumper would support discriminating against flat-earthers in hiring airline pilots, air traffic controllers, bombardiers, astronauts, and astronomers. 

AUSTIN, Texas -- Budgets are the guts of government. That's where you find the answer to the first of the three important questions about who runs a society: Who's getting screwed? Who's doing the screwing? And what the hell will they do to us next?

There was a time when reporters actually read budgets to find out what was going on, but the things are so humongous these days, we've given up on that. Consequently, there's usually a bit of a pause after a budget comes out, while we wait to hear from the various special interest groups that study their own section of a budget in minute detail. Then, the screaming from injured parties commences, and the press presumably sits up and takes note of who's screaming loudest.

With President Bush's proposed budget, may it die in committee, no pause is necessary. Read any overview of the proposal, and you can see exactly who's getting screwed: children.

Off goes former Father Paul Shanley to state prison in Massachusetts for 12 to 15 years, convicted of raping and otherwise sexually abusing Paul Busa 20 years ago. He's now 74, so the earliest he can hope to get out is when he is 86, at which point the district attorney could determine that he is still, though frail, "a sexually dangerous person" and can remain in confinement for whatever years remain. And, in fact, a district attorney in Massachusetts exercised just that option in the case of Father James Porter, who was released in 2004 after pleading guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. At the time of his death earlier this month at the age of 70, Porter remained in civil confinement, with the state seeking to keep him behind bars indefinitely.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes the ironic timing of events in our public life is so striking as to cause one to wonder if the Great Scriptwriter in the Sky isn't trying to make a point. Thus, the word that the U.S. Senate voted for tort deform last week came just a few days after the news that seven executives of W.R. Grace and Co. were indicted on criminal charges for knowingly putting their workers and the public in danger by exposing them to asbestos ore.

Hundreds of miners, their family members and townsfolk in Libby, Mont., have died, and at least 1,200 more are sick from breathing the air polluted by the mine. Since the ore was shipped all over the country and was used as insulation in millions of homes, the total health effects are incalculable. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer deserves credit for bringing Grace to public attention with a series back in 1999.

The executives and the company were indicted on 10 counts of conspiracy, knowing endangerment, obstruction of justice and wire fraud.

W.R. Grace & Co. "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing," said a spokesman.

Last year, Parade Magazine reported The 10 Worst Living Dictators (David Wallechinsky, The 10 Worst Living Dictators, Parade). A new assessment was made for 2004. To compile this year's list, at least one more prominent Dictator can be added without a doubt. Consulting independent human-rights organizations willing to expose both left- and right-wing regimes, including Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders using a standard set of criteria. But the "Bloggers" have overwhelmingly made an addition fro dictator number! For the new list, G. W. Bush, President and Thief of the United States of America!! Bolggers have the mission to provide some good Journalism and save our America!!

The National Association of Secretaries of State recently held its annual convention. In the wake of two disputatious presidential elections in a row, there was considerable sentiment at the meeting for a resolution barring state secretaries from simultaneously serving as partisan political officials. In the two states where the greatest controversies arose in 2000 and 2004, Florida and Ohio, this had been a glaring problem.

The convention did the opposite. It passed a resolution stipulating that it was O.K. for secretaries of state to proselytize for their parties’ candidates, indeed even to serve as party chairpersons during the campaign. By inference, the N.A.S.S. would allow such officials to suborn acts of voter disenfranchisement, make rulings contrary to state law, interfere with legally sanctioned recounts, even to later campaign for higher office on the basis of having “carried our state for (the incumbent).”

Deborah L. Markowitz, Vermont’s Secretary of State, attended the convention. She said later that she recognized the need for reform, but added, “It’s hard to change the system. I’m a Democrat. I don’t want to appear partisan.”