I get your point but I was referring to the authors specifically. Read most comment sections (on blogs obviously) and it is usually filled with deeply entrenched ideology and name calling, BC being one of the exceptions (why I come here often). I appreciate some of the comments but I come here for the author mostly.

But locally the Atlanta Journal recently reduced the physical size of the paper by ~15% while their circ numbers went down 20%. Also dumped about a hundred staff. Its a race between the physical paper and the Cox fortune as to which disappears first. I hold no position on the favorite. Maybe they’ll hire Pinch.

Of course, that makes the MSM’s role as propaganda arm of the Democrats so obvious no one can miss it. I think that would speed up the readership loss.

Don’t be too suprised if that happens….The One will need a mouthpiece and what better than Pravda reincarnated! Another industry with a TARP bailout (wasn’t that supposed to be used to help the BANKS?) and a controlling Government interest.

Time to dig out my history books and read up on the rise of the Soviets.

If Wretchard was indeed referring to Pinch Sulzberger with his allusion to the Idylls of the King, let us hope it won’t be another case of hic jacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus. The thought of Pinch restored to power as a political newspaper czar is depressing, to put it mildly.

Morton writes: “Our chaotic world appears to be getting a lot more chaotic in the near future. I doubt that many things I value today will survive the onslaught of change, and I surmise that’s part of Richard’s point.”

Late night thoughts, down the rabbit hole:

One doesn’t want to be overly dramatic about dire straits ahead, but on the other hand questionable, perhaps unsustainable, economic policies don’t give one a lot of reason for optimism.

If I may channel the remarkable Rene Girard for a moment: stumbling blocks (skandalon) exist within every person and within every group, creating unresolved tension. People and nations willy-nilly seek resolution via violent scapegoating. This isn’t something you find in the newspaper. You may find it in psychology, or anthropology, or in the Gospels, but not in a news feed.

Liberals are seething over Pelosi’s bungling of the oh-so-close prosecution of Bush and Cheney, smelling metaphorical blood. Liberals, more generally, see religion (but mainly Christianity) as a (the?) source of intolerable, unresolved societal tension and therefore focus their animosity upon it. Islam envies and fears the west but is largely impotent against it. Traditional Christians labor under some literalist and triumphalist baggage and, also frustrated, cast about for some resolution. Conservatives (I suppose I can speak for myself) aren’t lacking their own virulent, contradictory animosities. Economic prosperity has been an all-purpose social lubricant, but we’ve probably already used up that handy option for resolving our conflicts.

I expect the next handy option, if the economy continues to slide world-wide, will be general victimization of Israel. The need for resolution of civilizational tension is great at this point, and Israel is too tempting a victim to pass up. Pinch seems journalistically ready to hold the coats of the aggressors. (On the other hand, Pakistan may do something to India first, Pakistan being Pakistan, but the same psychological mechanism is at work.)

The powers and principalities will generally agree that it’s expedient for one entity to perish if that will help to resolve (for a time) our unresolveables, and the crowds will accept nothing else. The resolution is an illusion, but the desire is unescapable.

Satan was a murderer from the beginning.

These are excellent points. Who will be the truth-teller? I don’t know.