Call me jingoistic, but reading something like this makes me proud to be an American. O brave new world that has such people in't!

Meanwhile, today's Times has an article about the soon-to-open National Museum of the American Indian. (Well, it's always been in New York- now it's moving to Washington.) Oddly, this article, too, stirred up some good ol' patriotism in me. And then came this:

But not only the sunny side of Indian history will be on display. Some of the
knottiest topics will be addressed, Mr. West said.

Actually, I was waiting for this. Will the museum talk about tribal warfare? Bloodthirsty practices? Scalping? Oh, no: They mean how badly the Indians were treated by the Europeans. Well, that's all well and good. But honesty is honesty.

Jonathan Rosenblum has really crossed a line with this piece. You want to talk shunning, Jon? (I hope that's all you want- but if you do, you're quite naive.) Decent people should shun you.

Speaking of indecency, the Jewish weeklies seem to be having a treif-fest. Last week, the crown jewel of Anglo-Jewish journalism (monkey*) saw fit to devote the major cover story and two whole pages within to Jews who participate in eating contests (non-kosher, of course). So not only is it treif, it's gluttonous treif. Lovely.

Oh, but the Forward will not be left behind. This week's number includes a recipe for- I kid you not- mealworm latkes.

OK, people, I know you don't keep kosher. But a little sensitivity? And leaving kashrut aside, a little, well, taste?

Finally, National Geographic, predictably (and ignoring my vote against) made its latest global warming fright-piece its cover story. (It seems on the newsstand version, too.) The editor freely acknowledges that controversy exists in his introduction- so why, in a huge three-part piece, isn't there the slightest hint of that? Not one dissenter interviewed? Not one word? (The insults in the online forum are precious.)

One letter in the issue is quite funny- a woman demanding that US troops pull out of all places they supposedly aren't needed. Of course, now that the President has proposed just that, I imagine it still won't make her support him. Hell, John Kerry called for it only a week or two ago, only to reverse himself once Bush declared for it. Yolds.

I'm back to ranting, baby!

*A TWoP term meaning "not."