Patterico's Pontifications

6/17/2015

Hillary Is Feeling Pretty Optimistic About Her Future

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:11 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Clearly, none of Hillary’s endless scandals have her the least bit concerned about her electability or her future:

“I hope that at the end of my two terms as president, I will have overseen an even bigger peacetime expansion of the economy than my husband did,” Clinton said, according to Time.

“He had the biggest peacetime expansion in our history.”

Hillary: I deserve this. And more!

–Dana

Will The Kangaroo Gets Its Day In Court?

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:44 am



[guest post by Dana]

Animal discrimination is a real thing. Because not all animals are not equal:

The Beaver Dam Common Council has voted to not allow kangaroos as service animals in public establishments, according to the Daily Citizen.

The council voted 14-0 to approve an amendment to their municipal code that redefines a service animal as a dog or miniature horse and that individuals need a doctor’s note to prove it.

Police will now have the ability to issue a citation to residents who do not abide my the new regulations.

This is what forced the issue to a vote:

Beaver Dam police say the woman wrapped the baby kangaroo in a blanket and tucked it in an infant car seat, then took it inside a McDonald’s in February. The woman has said the kangaroo is a therapy animal to help her cope with emotional distress.

City Attorney Maryann Schacht says the changes comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Is there a kangaroo court in the future of this woman and her little friend? After all, what exactly does kangaroo mean? It’s just an assigned name given to one that cannot even defend itself and explain why it should indeed be considered a service animal. That is, if it’s even an animal. Who are you to judge?

–Dana

Pray for Michelle Malkin’s Daughter

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:43 am



I have had the privilege of having dinner with Michelle Malkin and her family, and her children are wonderful. That made it especially heartbreaking to read this about her daughter Veronica, who turns 15 this week:

Just before Mother’s Day weekend, however, she started having what appeared to be respiratory trouble. She “couldn’t get a good breath” and began gently gasping and sighing for air every few minutes. Two trips to the ER later, she had been administered ibuprofen for “costochondritis” and then albuterol to open up her airways.

The problem is that all the various tests and exams indicate she’s getting plenty of oxygen. Her lungs, heart and vocal cords are all “normal,” and yet she describes a chronic feeling that she’s “drowning.” Every day begins with gasping beyond her control, multiple times a minute, nonstop, every hour of every day, until she reaches a point of exhaustion at 1 or 2 in the morning.

After a brief respite while sleeping, the day-mare starts all over again.

They don’t know what is wrong, but it seems to be getting worse, and sounds very scary.

There are pictures of Michelle’s daughter at the link; she is beautiful and looks quite a bit like my own daughter, who is roughly the same age. Michelle says: “Through it all, Veronica has not cried or raged or lost her will.” Michelle admits that she can’t say the same for herself, and I can’t either, after reading the piece last night. Happy Birthday to Veronica, and courage to her and her family. We will pray for you.

The New York Times Asks Whether Diversity In The Newsroom Matters

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:33 am



[guest post by Dana]

Today, New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan asks whether diversity in the newsroom matters:

Does it matter who reports the news and comments on it? Does it make a difference if top editors of news organizations include plenty of women as well as plenty of men, and black and Hispanic journalists as well as white ones?

Sullivan offers two sources of support for her position that yes, it does indeed matter.

First:

Nieman Reports, in a recent study, says diverse editorial leadership results in good things for coverage and readers alike. So does a focus on racial issues. The study, which is part of a special edition on race and reporting, quotes Nikole Hannah-Jones, who covers racial injustice for the Times Magazine. “We’ve been hearing the same thing for decades,” she complains — quite rightly. “Newsrooms have not really changed.”

Second:

Separately, the Women’s Media Center looks at diversity from a different angle, gender, and asks: Who is writing the news?

Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center, explains the impact of women, on average, writing only a third of stories at major newspapers. “Media tells us our roles in society – it tells us who we are and what we can be,” Ms. Burton said in an introduction to the report. “This new report tells us who matters and what is important to media – and it is not women.”

How does the NYT fare? Sullivan notes that while Dean Baquet, the paper’s first African-American top editor’s masthead “lacks significant racial diversity,” there is a strong female representation. Also, 5 of 13 editors on his news-side masthead are women. Further, bylines lack a female presence, and blacks are missing from its number of “culture critics”.

Sullivan explains why she believes newsroom diversity matters:

My experience leading a newsroom showed me, time and time again, that staff diversity results in better and different coverage. (I was proud to appoint women of color as executive sports editor and editorial board member, two firsts.) Not in some kind of silly or obvious straight-line way, as in “women write about things that interest women readers.” It’s more this: When the group is truly diverse, the nefarious groupthink that makes a publication predictable and, at times, unintentionally biased, is much more likely to be diminished. And that’s a good thing.

–Dana


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