If anyone doubted that college athletes in football and basketball are professionals and should be paid, a story out of Baton Rouge, La., will convince them. The Louisiana State basketball team recently worked out especially for the National Basketball Association. Scouts from 28 of 30 NBA teams attended, taking notes and jabbing at their cell phones with scouting reports. … [Read more...]
Syria proves humanity’s basic rule is war
Don’t believe a word President Obama says. He promises one thing today then changes his mind later. He promised repeatedly to have no “boots on the ground” in Syria. Now he’s reversing course. Obama says it’s only 50 Special Operations forces. But we’ve heard that story before. Start small then expand involvement. Americans have to wonder why U.S. troops are even in Syria … [Read more...]
Papal ‘rock star’ leaves moldy doctrines unchanged
Two hundred and 70 bishops from 120 countries issued a disheartening report after a recent three-week Vatican synod discussing family matters for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, called the document “deeply disappointing,” one that blocked “civil and moral equality for our community.” That community: an organization … [Read more...]
Seattle seeks to ban jail sentences for kids
Seattle is one of most progressive cities in America, constantly confronting musty ideas, long-festering problems and seeking betterment of its citizens. The latest example: the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution resolving to end the jailing of young lawbreakers. The council seeks to cut off the “school-to-prison pipeline” by finding alternatives to … [Read more...]
Modern version of Shakespeare an outrageous project
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has decided that Shakespeare’s language is too difficult for audiences today so it is commissioning 36 playwrights to translate his 36 plays into modern English. Absurd. The Shakespeare festival in Ashland, a great booster of Shakespeare since 1935, is selling out. Modern versions are an outrage. You get this kind of abomination: the New … [Read more...]
U.S. billions futilely spent training foreign forces
Thousands of American-trained security forces in the Middle East have collapsed or defected despite the expenditure of tens of millions of American dollars. The New York Times named three countries with the failures: Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Pentagon-trained army and police in Iraq’s Anbar Province, the heartland of the Islamic State, barely engaged the … [Read more...]
Oscar Wilde: one of history’s greatest geniuses
“Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” Psalms 130:1, sung in Handel’s glorious oratorio, “Messiah.” Brilliant. Witty. Epigramist. Great conversationalist. Playwright. Short-story writer. Novelist. Poet. Essayist. Social critic. Lecturer. Book reviewer. Journalist. Magazine editor. Classicist. Scholar. Dandy. Aestheticist. Individualist. Profound. … [Read more...]
Hearst defied first duty of a newspaper: the truth
SAN SIMEON, Calif.— The nearby Hearst Castle, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is a spectacle worth visiting. It is perched on 240,000 acres of a high hill overlooking the Pacific. But as a journalism historian and journalism history teacher for five decades, I detest William Randolph Hearst. He was first with the worst. He defied a newspaper’s first principle: … [Read more...]