It may have been an effort to pre-empt the U.S. Supreme Court, but at least alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla at last has been formally charged — and not with plotting to attack America, interestingly, but with conspiring to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas. Americans can argue all day about whether foreign enemy combatants are entitled to rights in U.S. courts. But Padilla is a U.S. citizen, and the legal limbo in which he’s been trapped for three years has been unacceptable. If the case is legitimate, it should be able to hold up in civilian court, no exemption from the Constitution required.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Pope Benedict XVI said earlier this month that the universe was made by an “intelligent project.” So does that mean intelligent design or its arguments should be taught in science class? No, says the director of the Vatican Observatory. “Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to be,” the Rev. George Coyne (in photo) said last week. “If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.” Exactly.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Time magazine’s Joe Klein makes a good point in this column about all the passionate discussions of whether President Bush intentionally misled the country into invading Iraq: “They are a waste of time. Two questions need to be addressed: Will an American withdrawal from Iraq create more or less stability in the Middle East? Will a withdrawal increase or decrease the threat of another terrorist attack at home? It does not matter whether you believe the war was right or wrong. If the answers to those questions are less stability and an empowered al-Qaeda, we’d better think twice about slipping down this dangerous path.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
You haven’t read much in The Eagle about what’s going on with parent Knight Ridder, which is under pressure by some shareholders to sell the company. That’s because none of us knows anything. But columnist Leonard Pitts, based at Knight Ridder’s The Miami Herald, used the uncertainty to make a potent statement about newspapers in general.
After recalling how a photographer for the Knight Ridder-owned Sun-Herald in Biloxi, Miss., handed out copies of the newspaper to Katrina victims for whom it was a precious lifeline, Pitts wrote: “Years before I ever drew a paycheck in this industry I was convinced that newspapers — and, more broadly, the news — are not a business. They are a mission — a vital, irreducible mission.”
He’s right about that. The thing is, Wall Street’s concern is not whether newspapers fulfill their mission over time but how much money newspapers make today.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Congress still hasn’t agreed on how much — or even whether — to cut federal spending, but there was a small but significant victory for fiscal sanity last week: Pork appropriator extraordinaire Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, pulled funding for his infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” project. The $320 million savings is small in the context of the federal budget, but the symbolism is large. Now, other lawmakers need to get the message and go on a pork-free diet.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
When state Rep. Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, proposed mandating that school vending machines contain only “healthy food alternatives,” it seemed like more legislative meddling. The bill rightly stalled early this year. But to Watkins’ credit, the industry took the hint: The Kansas Beverage Association will announce at a press conference today that it has adopted the American Beverage Association’s new policy of encouraging that elementary school machines stock only water and 100 percent juice, that middle school machines offer only nutritious or lower-calorie drinks during school hours, and that at least half of the drinks in high school machines be nutritrious or lower in calories. Such self-policing beats a legislative mandate.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
