Problems in the Catholic Church still garner the big headlines, but some of the leading Protestant denominations also are wrestling with the deviant sexuality that so troubles many parishioners. The Presbyterians, for instance, have decided to postpone - again - a decision on whether to repeal a ban on actively homosexual clergy. The Episcopalians are ahead of them on the affectional preference curve, with the New Hampshire diocese having just selected the U.S. Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop. It all invites the query why mainline denominations keep flirting with the deviancy that so encourages many to give up the pews for, among other options, golf.
Remember the November deal top execs at American Airlines kept secret when negotiating with unions in the spring? It preserved cushy retirement packages for the execs, even if the airline should go toes-up. Following the disclosure of the deal in April, the airline's No. 1 departed the scene. And so, from a June 14 Washington Post news story: "American Airlines' ousted chief executive and chairman ... will receive a $13.5 million supplemental benefits payment and a $79,000 annual pension but no bonus or other severance pay, the company said yesterday, in a board decision intended to restore credibility with workers as the carrier continues to struggle." Question: How does $13.5 million in supplemental benefits "restore credibility"?
For staggering statistics, consider these about the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River, where engineers "on China's most formidable engineering feat since the construction of the Great Wall" have just closed 19 of the 22 sluice gates to allow the water behind the dam to rise - from a news report: "With as much water as Lake Superior (the world's largest lake), the reservoir will stretch 385 miles east to west and more than one mile north to south. Two cities, 11 county seats, and 1,352 villages will be submerged under the chocolate-colored flow. To make room for the massive basin, more than 1.3 million people are being forced to leave their homes."
Remember the blasting of the Bush administration and the U.S. military over "stolen" museum relics in Iraq - the "rape of civilization," as one archaeologist described it - rivaling the more sustained criticism of the administration for its failure to find Iraqi nuclear and biochemical weapons? Consider this whole-story headline: "All Along, Most Iraqi Relics Were 'Safe and Sound.'" It seems the number of artifacts looted from Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities was not 170,000, as reported widely in April, but 33.
New York magazine's media critic Michael Wolff believes ousted New York Times editor Howell Raines, described six months ago as "the Godzilla of U.S. journalism," has taken "the fall" for his publisher and chairman Arthur Sulzberger. Writes Wolff: "I think that the focus now becomes Arthur Sulzberger, and in fact I think that's the root of what's happened here. It's all about the survival of the publisher at this point." Without Sulzberger, Raines likely never would have been named editor. How can The Times truly restore its reputation lost under Raines without the departure of Sulzberger as well?