Current Affairs

We've talked often about how those behind the self-esteem movement want to create a world in which nobody ever feels bad about anything. Heaven forbid we have just one high school basketball champion if we can have several divisions with their own champions. Why have a single valedictorian when that would make so many who came close have a pitiful self image? That campaign is now worldwide, thanks to the United Nations.

The New York Times joins the "best way out of war is to surrender" league:

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.

This article in The New York Times Fashion & Style section led to the best correction I've seen in some time:

An article last week about inexpensive dresses misstated the name of a clothing store on Broadway. It is Yellow Rat Bastard, not Dirty Yellow Bastard.

The astonishing studies just keep coming:

Boys who play video games on school days spend 30 percent less time reading and girls spend 34 percent less time doing homework than those who do not play such games, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

But they said video games do not appear to interfere significantly with time spent with family and friends.

Wait! Here's a terrific idea. If our houses keep getting water in them, let's build them further from the water:

Builders and planners face a crackdown on siting new houses in flood plains, after thousands of people were driven from their homes and at least seven were killed in last week's downpours.

One of the frustrating aspects of illegal immigration is that people like Simon Rios aren't kicked out of the country, despite having been in trouble for drunken driving and spousal abuse before being accused of raping and killing a 10-year-old and murdering his whole family. And when authorities do go after someone, it frequently seems like someone they shouldn't go after, like the woman who came here as a young child and was always told she was a citizen. Then there is this guy:

No sardonic comment necessary, or possible:

NEW YORK - A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

As dismaying as this is, it's probably no big shock:

The survey also found that, by a margin of nearly 3-to-1, Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."

And you thought nothing could bring the world together:

Waving their arms in the air with 70,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, princes William and Harry celebrated the life of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 46th birthday Sunday at a concert they organized.

[. . .]

Another group of downtrodden in danger of losing its rights: