NY Times

A smattering of opinion from hither and yon . . .

The Old Reliable has not much of interest to say:

This old world has had a tough year, from the war in Iraq to natural disasters to assassinations to continued tensions in a hundred or so of what the experts call "hot spots." Somehow, and they deserve credit, people in those hot spots manage to find a few joys and a few hopes here and there to keep them going, because they do carry on. And the world keeps spinning. Perhaps that's why, after so many challenges, so many really dire things facing this planet, we trust that it, and we, will endure -- because we have.

We'll endure because . . . we have? Tell it to the dinosaurs, Steve.

When the City of Salisbury comes to mind, lots of people think of our Senior Senator, who claims to be from that quaint little town, just as she claims to be from North Carolina. Milking our state for all it's worth, Elizabeth Dole has parlayed the illusion of residency for a career of personal gain and power. One of the ultimate insiders in the DC establishment, Dole seems to care little about her hometown, and even less about her home state.

But today readers all around the world are getting another view of Salisbury, through the eyes of a different woman, courtesy of the New York Times.

SALISBURY, N.C. — Vicki H. Readling vividly remembers the start of 2006.“Everybody was saying, ‘Happy new year,’ ” Ms. Readling recalled. “But I remember going straight to bed and lying down scared to death because I knew that at that very minute, after midnight, I was without insurance. I was kissing away a bad year of cancer. But I was getting ready to open up to a door of hell.” Ms. Readling, a 50-year-old real estate agent, is one of nearly 47 million people in America with no health insurance.

The NY Times today published an article by Philip Shenon called The Hammer Strikes a Comeback Blow about Tom DeLay's new blog but completely omitted the fact that when the blog started up a 11 days ago it was quickly bombarded with unflattering unmoderated comments and just as quickly taken down to be restarted in a moderated format with the offending comments removed. Tom DeLay blew it and the NY Times blew it by not reporting on his false start in this fluff piece about DeLay that displays very little knowledge about blogging.

Not to worry. Enterprising blogger James J. Risser saved the original for posterity (or posteriority) at tomdelaydotcom.blogspot.com