NY Times Publisher Beyond Parody

NY Times Publisher: Beyond Parody
"You weren't supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, be it the rights of immigrants to start a new life; the rights of gays to marry; or the rights of women to choose. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where oil still drives policy and environmentalists have to relentlessly fight for every gain. You weren't. But you are. And for that I'm sorry." - New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., at the May 21 commencement address at New Paltz University of the State University of New York.

"Breaking a Travel Stereotype - Women, Minorities and Gays Make Business Trips, Too." - Headline to Michael Luongo's May 23 Business story.

North Korea: Good Points &Bad
"Older South Koreans, who still look upon the North as an enemy, want to see images of starving North Korean babies, Mr. Jong said. Younger people, who often want friendly relations with the North, want to see the clean streets of Pyongyang." - Norimitsu Onishi's May 25 story on North Korean-style "kitsch" restaurants in South Korea.
Murderous Mao As a "George Washington, James Dean...Pop Figure"
"Mao's image may also be considered China's first and only global brand. Even though China is a rising economic power, it still does not have a BMW or a Coca-Cola to sell to the rest of the world. But it does have Mao - a kind of George Washington, James Dean and Che Guevara wrapped in one; a historic and pop figure who continues to be hip and fashionable, even when Communism and the Communist Party are not."-From David Barboza's May 28 Week in Review story.

Gore Vindicated by "Melting Ice Caps and Toasty Winters"

"The warnings of global warming that led former President George Bush to mock Mr. Gore as 'Ozone Man' in 1992 hardly seem far-fetched in these days of melting ice caps and toasty winters. Mr. Gore's tough condemnation of the war in Iraq, once derided by the White House as evidence of Mr. Gore's extremism, seems positively mainstream today." - Chief political reporter Adam Nagourney, May 28.

Bush the "Cowboy Commander in Chief"

"But in an unusual admission of a personal mistake, Mr. Bush said he regretted challenging insurgents in Iraq to 'bring it on' in 2003, and said the same about his statement that he wanted Osama bin Laden 'dead or alive.' Those two statements quickly came to reinforce his image around the world as a cowboy commander in chief." - David Sanger and Jim Rutenberg, May 26.

Gore's Vision of Enviro-Apocalypse "Bluntly Effective" & "A Necessary Film"

"He speaks of the need to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions as a 'moral imperative,' and most people who see this movie will do so out of a sense of duty, which seems to me entirely appropriate. Luckily, it happens to be a well-made documentary, edited crisply enough to keep it from feeling like 90 minutes of C-Span and shaped to give Mr. Gore's argument a real sense of drama. As unsettling as it can be, it is also intellectually exhilarating, and, like any good piece of pedagogy, whets the appetite for further study. This is not everything you need to know about global warming: that's the point. But it is a good place to start, and to continue, a process of education that could hardly be more urgent. 'An Inconvenient Truth' is a necessary film." - Chief movie critic A.O. Scott's May 24 review of Al Gore's global warming movie.

"...as a user-friendly introduction to global warming and a succinct summary of many of the central arguments laid out in those other volumes, 'An Inconvenient Truth' is lucid, harrowing and bluntly effective." - Chief book critic Michiko Kakutani on the book tie-in to Al Gore's global warming movie, May 23.

It's Official: Lack of Funding to Blame for Everything

"Parts of Amtrak's electric system date to the 1930's, but Amtrak officials said it was not clear whether the age of the equipment or the historical lack of financing for Amtrak was a factor." - Patrick McGeehan, May 26.

The Day the Thin Mints Attacked

AI've been taking my daughter around the block lately, helping her unload Girl Scout cookies on obliging neighbors - and wondering whether we're killing them. The problem is that most of those Girl Scout cookies have trans fatty acids. Those are the worst kind of fat, killing far more Americans than Al Qaeda manages to." - From Nicholas Kristof's May 21 column.