BCT Editorial – 1/23/06

This page was last updated on January 23, 2006.

Salutes & Boots; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 23, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Boot: To an abuse of eminent domain that is taking place in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood. The Associated Press reports Norwood, using its power of eminent domain, wants to take a neighborhood that it considers to be deteriorating and turn it into a $125 million development for offices and shops. The issue is now before the Ohio Supreme Court. Let’s hope the court sides with the homeowners. It should, because even the city admits the neighborhood isn’t ‘blighted.’ Instead, it contends it is ‘deteriorating.’ That’s not good enough to toss people from their homes.”

[RWC] Hmm, I wonder why the author failed to note it was the liberal justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who opened this door. See “A fine line.”

“Salute: To the U.S. Supreme Court for ruling 6-3 in favor of Oregon’s right-to-die law. The end of life is not a matter for the federal or state governments to decide. This decision rests with individuals, their families and their God.”

[RWC] The Supreme Court did NOT rule in favor of the law. The Court ruled federal controlled substance laws could not be construed to impose limits on assisted suicide.

“Boot: To the Bush White House for its sanctimoniousness in regard to the Oregon end-of-life ruling. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, ‘The president remains fully committed to building a culture of life, a culture of life that is built on valuing life at all stages.’ Spare us the hypocrisy. When Bush was governor of Texas, hundreds of people were executed and Bush never gave it a second thought.”

[RWC] Those “hundreds” of people were actually 154 according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

You have to appreciate the idiocy of trying to draw a moral equivalence between assisted suicide and the execution of convicted murderers. This crowd uses the same “tactic” regarding abortion.

“Boot: To the pathetic defense of lying by the publisher of James Frey’s memoir of his addictions (‘A Million Little Pieces’) and Oprah Winfrey. In essence, Doubleday, a division of Random House, and Winfrey, who boosted the so-called memoir by selecting it for her book club, said it didn’t matter that Frey lied because his message was so powerful. Sorry, but there’s a category for this kind of book. It’s called fiction.”

[RWC] I know nothing of this book, but perhaps we should take the editorial’s position. After all, given the factual vacuum of many Times editorials, the paper sure knows a lot about fiction. <g>