They truly know no limits. Condi Rice says that if the facts revealed in the Kay Report had been known last winter, the UN Security Council would have backed President Bush in going to war...

[Rice said:] Had any one of these examples been discovered last winter, the Security Council would have had no choice but to take exactly the same course that President Bush followed: to declare Saddam Hussein in defiance of Resolution 1441, and enforce its serious consequences.

Really? Is that how it is? Every administration fudges, conceals, or deceives in this way or that. But, at least in my memory, I cannot remember any administration or even any administration official that so routinely says things that are the polar opposite of reality --- when the facts to the contrary are sitting right out there in the open. Set aside all the ridiculous efforts to spin the details of the Kay Report into some sort of vindication for the White House. The one thing the Report clearly shows is that Saddam was doing far less on the WMD front than even our staunchest international critics suggested. Given that they were unwilling to go to war when they thought he had some stocks of WMD, it’s awfully hard to figure why they would go to war once it confirmed that he had none. It’s just more up-is-downism. The same ridiculous spin as a year ago. [link]

No one will be sure what The Passion contains until Gibson releases the film; movies are readily edited, with content sometimes in flux until opening night. But initial reports aren't reassuring. Gibson is asserting his work is "the truth," historically accurate in the factual sense. Jesus lived, preached, suffered, died, and rose again to redeem the sins of the world; that, I feel sure, is truth. Everything else is speculation.

The four Gospels that recount Jesus' ministry differ on many specifics of the period Gibson is filming. They present mutually contradictory accounts of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem, his trial, his final statements. Most important to me as a Christian, the Gospels differ on Jesus' words at the Apostles' Charge--the moment when, basking in the bright glory of the resurrection itself, Christ told his disciples God's plan for the human future. Man, would I like to know exactly what Jesus said at the Apostles' Charge! I don't, and neither does anyone else. Nor does any Christian, nor any critic of Christianity, know for sure what happened in the hours of Christ's passion. When Gibson says he is only presenting facts, what he means is he presenting his opinion.

The New Republic is also guilty of Gibson-bashing, in the form of this article by Paula Fredriksen, an eminent professor of scripture at Boston University.... Fredriksen goes on to deliver herself of the same dubious claim at the heart of The Passion, namely, that she knows what really happened. The "historical fact" of Jesus' death, Fredriksen asserts in Gibson-like phrasing, is that Romans, not Jews, bore most of the blame. That may be, but it's an opinion, not a fact. Jesus was executed under Roman legal procedure; whether Romans or Jews or both pushed the execution forward we'll never be sure. Fredriksen says her committee found many "errors" in The Passion but can't prove the film "errors" any more than Gibson can prove it "truth."

Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50."...Shine displayed the game board, with properties including Westside Liquor, Harlem, The Bronx, and Long Beach City, and squares labeled Smitty's XXX Peep Show, Weinstein's Gold and Platinum, and Tyron's Gun Shop.

Players draw "Hustle" and "Ghetto Stash" cards with directions like, "You're a little short on loot, so you decided to stick up a bank. Collect $75," and "Steal $$$ if you pass Let$ Roll." The creator of Ghettopoly, David Chang, did not immediately answer e-mails or phone calls seeking comment about the game.

On his Web site, Chang is unapologetic, and promises that more games — Hoodopoly, Hiphopopoly, Thugopoly and Redneckopoly — are coming soon.

"It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter," Chang maintains, adding, "If we can't laugh at ourselves ... we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness." [Link]

“The argument that some who play to the politics of hate and envy and class division will say is ‘well, that’s only 2% or 5% in the near future of Americans likely to have to pay that tax.’ That’s the morality of the Holocaust.”

In 2004 President Bush will not campaign in a California seething with resentment of spending cuts and attempted tax increases advocated by a hugely unpopular Democratic governor. Instead, Bush will campaign in a California in which the Republican governor will be illustrating the axiom that today only a Republican governor can substantially raise taxes.

Sirs,

With respect to feminism—There never has been a female Homer, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Louis Pasteur, Victor Hugo, J. W. Goethe, Richard Wagner, William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, and there never will be.

Furthermore as William Henry, early newspaper columnist, war correspondent, and radio newscaster said: “You could eliminate every female author, artist, and composer from the caveman age to the present without deforming the the quality of Western culture.”

So why don’t the feminists accept the incontestable and just shut up?

Spencer Miller ‘31