This and That

Here’s an interesting scan:

The failure of the 9-11 commission to investigate the findings of the “Able Danger” team…tops the list of the 10 most “spiked” or underreported stories of the last year

I didn’t read the story; I don’t have the time.

But I did scan over it just to see what the ten stories are.

Like I say, interesting.

They decided:

The Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said that federal authority to regulate doctors does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people.

Bummer.

So Agca is free from jail:

Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from a Turkish jail on Thursday after serving more than a quarter of a century behind bars.

“Agca is now a free man. After 26 years Agca is now getting wet in the rain,” his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag told Reuters.

I wonder if Hinckley is next.

But never mind that.

Here are John Paul II and Agca:

I wonder what each man was thinking at the time the photo was taken.

So he’s out and about, eh? And furtively, huh?

OK. So everybody is entitled to his privacy. But when the news proclaims “Where is N.Korea’s Kim? Officials hunt for clues,” well…

North Korea’s Kim Jong-il entered China for a rare overseas trip, but a day after the media reports first emerged mystery remained over the secretive communist leader’s agenda and even his mode of transport.

Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on his whereabouts, and South Korean officials said they were struggling to confirm various reports.

It was not clear what had prompted Kim to travel now.

Maybe Kim is planning to unleash a nuke or two and would rather not be home to experience the counter-strike.

Or maybe he is headed for Iran to coordinate the matter with what’s left of the Axis of Evil threesome.

Whatever.

But if you hear that Iran’s top guy is away from home at this time as well . . . .

“Wait!” he exclaims. “Wrong blog!”

I often am interested in the use of words to create (or at least reveal) a bias.

Therefore, this story from Reuters interested me:

A gay kiss in a swimming pool, which two men say got them thrown out of a luxury hotel, has caused a stir in traditionally macho Mexico, where open displays of homosexuality are frowned upon.

But when leftist deputies demanded an investigation into the incident in Congress this week, they were angrily shouted down by legislators from other parties who argued the subject was unfit for discussion in the chamber.

The ruckus highlights the discomfort about homosexuality in this predominantly Catholic country, despite recent openness toward gays in some areas.

“It is a question of profound conservatism, intolerance and backwardness,” Party of the Democratic Revolution deputy Inti Munoz said of the deputies’ reaction.

Congress voted that the issue was not urgent and shelved it in a commission for analysis.

Emphases mine, of course.

Modern. Art. Influential.

Amazing…maybe:

an ordinary white, porcelain urinal that’s been called one of the most influential works of modern art

“Dumb,” he says, putting it mildly.

This could portend (greater) trouble:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed into surgery at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem late Wednesday night, after intra-cranial bleeding was detected, following what doctors described as a “significant stroke.”

There was no immediate assessment of the damage he may have suffered. Doctors said earlier that the prime minister was receiving breathing assistance as his condition was assessed.

This is still breaking news, so read the above story and this next one with great caution:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken for surgery on Wednesday after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, the director of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital said.

“The diagnosis is cerebral hemorrhaging. In light of this, the prime minister has been taken to the surgical ward,” Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef told reporters. Sharon was in critical condition and may not recover, a senior political source said.

“It looks very bad. I don’t know if he will recover,” the source said.

If this means Sharon is out as PM or leads to his being out, things will deteriorate over there. In my Of-Course-I-Don’t-Know opinion, of course.

I remind you again of the breaking nature of this story. And I remind you of how bad the media just got the outcome of the mining disaster last night. I went to bed having read breaking news that only one of the thirteen miners died. And I get up this morning to learn that only one of the thirteen miners survived! I’m curious to see if anyone will take up this drumbeat: “The media lied!”

You know, like they’ve been doing about President Bush and pre-war intelligence?