Critical Mass

In in appearance on MSNBC, DNC Chairman Howard Dean was asked why he refused to debate GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman on the cable news networks. His answer: that "the spectacle of the debate overwhelms the desire to get the message out." He then criticizes television news in general as "infotainment."

Wait a sec. Anyone who knows anything about the media or watches any cable news networks knows that the whole reporting system is shallow, raucous and over-simplified. The roles of the DNC and RNC chairmen--go on and score some political points--were practically made for the cable news networks.

But enough of that. You want to know the real reason Howard Dean won't face Ken Mehlman? He can't pronounce "gladiatorial conquest" to save his life. Watch it at the link above. It's hilarious.

The Washington Post published an editorial by the president of the University of Notre Dame concerning the newly proposed policy at Harvard that would add a "Reason and Faith" course to the core curriculum (hat tip: Rebecca). President Jenkins writes:

The Harvard committee rightly noted that students coming to college today struggle with an academy that is "profoundly secular." This was not always the case, at Harvard or at many other universities. For centuries scholars, scientists and artists agreed that convictions of faith were wholly compatible with the highest levels of reasoning, inquiry and creativity. But in recent centuries this assumption had been challenged and assertions of faith marginalized in, and even banished from, academic departments and university curricula. Requiring courses in "Reason and Faith" would be a welcome step toward reintroducing faith to the academy.

Over the last five years, most newsworthy Islamic activity has been negative—bombings, minority oppression, throwing tantrums (and Molotov cocktails) when upset by the "insensitive" West, beheading Americans on television, etc. The standard response from the left has been that the majority of the world's billion Muslims are peaceful and non-radical, but that they don't covered by the news. I've always hoped this is the case, but I've been troubled by the seeming lack of denunciation and anger towards the Islamic radicals from the so-called peaceful mainstream. Christians always distance themselves from abortion-clinic bombers and zealots who fancy themselves modern Crusaders; why can't Muslims? Well, they're beginning to--or at least they're finally showing up in the news.

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