Has she no shame?
Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and Republican presidential candidate whom Democrats have tried to smear with revelations that he had a student loan, some parking tickets and a boat (gasp!), really stepped in it now. He had the gall to attend a fundraiser last week at the home of a man whose art collection includes a painting by Adolf Hitler.
"An event at a home with items like these is appalling at any time of the year," Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. "Adding insult to injury, Rubio [was] holding this event on the eve of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Holding an event in a house featuring the artwork and signed autobiography of a man who dedicated his life to extinguishing the Jewish people is the height of insensitivity and indifference."
Home owner Harlan Crow, who also has works by other political figures (including Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower) and an extensive literature collection, says the works - in a different wing of his house from where the fundraiser was - are not to celebrate the lives of those painted but to make sure a part of world history is preserved. Oh, and Crow is the child of someone who was nearly killed by Nazis.
Rubio, not surprisingly, is still waiting for an apology.
Wrong Targett
Political correctness run amok found its perfect foil in University of Delaware Acting President Nancy T. Targett last week. When three "nooses" were found hanging from a tree in front of a campus building one day after a Black Lives Matter protest, she tweeted that "this is a despicable act of hatred and it's been perpetrated by what we think are one or a few individuals."
Campus police, she said, were "investigating" the "hate crime." In the meantime, she said, "we need to stand together against intolerance."
In a Facebook post, Targett added, "We are both saddened and disturbed that this deplorable act has taken place on our campus. This hateful display stands in stark contrast to Monday night's peaceful protest and discussion. We condemn this despicable action and ask everyone in our community to stand together against intolerance and hate."
Turns out, the "nooses" were remnants of paper lanterns. The university president didn't waste any time turning bad to worse, though, by calling all students to "stand with me on the Green." In a letter to the university community, she said that "the sensitivity of our campus to this potential issue clearly indicates a need for continuing dialogue within our community."
Deservedly, she was savaged on Twitter.
"Fake campus hate crimes are an epidemic," one said. "Perhaps you should educate yourself before going all in."
"You know what's the real hate crime," another one said. "Liberalism."
Fits the agenda
Regrettably, like individuals in every faith, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., picks out what in his spiritual life fits his political agenda and what doesn't.
On MSNBC last week, with the pope visiting the United States, the congressman said he was "challenged" by the Catholic Church's teachings on abortion and gay rights but felt it would be impossible to argue with the pontiff's feelings about illegal immigration and income equality.
Gutierrez said he finds "the teachings of the church when it comes to women's reproductive rights" - he wouldn't use the term "abortion" - "and the rights of the LGBT community" are "difficult" to reconcile.
But, eschewing the accurate term "illegal immigrant," he wondered "can you really argue welcoming the stranger? Can you really argue challenging society to do better for the poor? Can you really challenge someone who says instead of building walls, we should build bridges? I don't know how you argue that."
In reality, Gutierrez knows life is not quite that simple, but, hey, it seemed OK to be a partial Catholic in front of the cameras.
AP no climate change denier
If there was any doubt where the news organization stood on the issue, The Associated Press made it clear when it recently updated its stylebook to provide "guidance" on how scientists and other individuals who have their doubts about man-made global warming should be described.
"Our guidance," Vice President and Director of Media Relations Paul Colford wrote on a blog post, "is to use 'climate change doubters' or 'those who reject mainstream climate science' and to avoid the use of 'skeptics' or 'deniers'."
Colford justified the change, contending some scientists have complained that skeptics of man-made global warming "aren't skeptics because 'proper skepticism promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.'"
Never mind that all that has occurred and does occur.
The full entry also suggests the terms "global warming" and "climate change" can be used interchangeably but mentions nothing about the term "climate change" being favored in recent years when global warming numbers didn't quite match the claims by scientists.