She protesteth too much
With such drivel, it's no wonder the ratings of far-left MSNBC are so low.
Rachel Maddow, one of the network's hosts, recently claimed - not in jest - that "The New York Times has its knives out for Hillary Clinton more so than any other mainstream media outlet in the country."
Whew, Fox and Rush Limbaugh must be breathing sighs of relief.
The newspaper, she said in recapping last week's Democratic presidential debate, has an "inclination to look for the worst in Hillary Clinton in every instance and to advance every negative story line they can get their hands on whether or not it's comporting with the facts."
Practically in the same breath, she said the newspaper was "absolutely glowing" about its coverage of the former secretary of state in the debate.
The Times, which hasn't endorsed a Republican candidate for president since 1956, apparently rankled Maddow with its rather tame investigation into Clinton's email scandal. It was so tame that, after a complaint from the Clinton campaign on the criminal inquiry into the controversy, the newspaper altered its reporting on its website.
Maybe the Old Gray Lady should use sharper knives.
Can't stop the music
Gospel music has recently became a crime in West Oakland, Calif. It has, at least, for round one.
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, a church with a presence in the community for 65 years, recently received a letter from the city that threatened a $3,500 nuisance fee and a $500 a day fine because of the impact of its spirited choir practice on "the use and quiet enjoyment of the surrounding community's property."
"Kind of hard to believe," said Pastor Thomas A. Harris III, "because we've been here about 65 years in the community and all of a sudden we get some concerns about the noise."
The real issue, area black pastors said, is gentrification of the community. Its neighborhood Victorian homes are being purchased by affluent tech workers.
"We're being bought out," said Lawrence Van Hook, senior pastor at Community Church. "We're being moved out. We are being priced out of our own neighborhood."
The city's NAACP has become involved.
"Those persons who are just new arrivals should not come and try to change the culture that existed before they arrived here," said George Holland, president of the Oakland branch of the organization. "We cannot have people come attack churches about music."
The pastors said all churches are threatened by the city's action and plan to fight it. For now, they said, the music will go on.
Her children are human
As medical advancements allow babies to be born earlier and earlier in their gestational period, it becomes harder and harder for liberals to make the case about less than full-term babies being just blobs of protoplasm.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D. Fla., got caught in just such a moment at the Democratic presidential debate last week when she was asked by a reporter from MRCTV.org: "Were [your children] human beings before they were born?"
The Democratic National Committee chairwoman hemmed and hawed about women making their own reproductive choices, though not answering the question, but the reporter was persistent.
"So were they human beings? Just yes or no," reporter Brittany Hughes asked.
"They're human beings today," the congresswoman and radical abortion supporter managed.
At least she's got that figured out.
So much for liberal tolerance
The University of California, Santa Barbara, has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed after feminist studies professor Mireille Miller-Young mocked two anti-abortion protesters in a designated "free speech zone," stole their sign, destroyed it and scratched one of the protesters, a 16-year-old girl.
The protesters, sisters Thrin and Joan Short, were holding a large poster that depicted aborted fetuses when Miller-Young approached as they were engaging with counter-protesters.
"Before she grabbed the sign," Thrin Short said, "she was mocking me and talking over me in front of the students, saying that she was twice as old as me and had three degrees, so they should listen to her and not me. Then she started the chant with the students about 'tear down the sign.' When that died out, she grabbed the sign."
The sisters captured the incident on a mobile phone, including a later exchange when the professor said, "I may be a thief, but you're a terrorist."
In the police report, Miller-Young said she felt "triggered in a negative way" by the poster and similar literature the sisters had. But she claimed she had a "moral right" to commit the criminal acts.
The professor, who specializes in queer theory, black film, prostitution studies and pornography at the school, received 108 hours of community service, 10 hours of anger management training and three years of probation but did not have to apologize.