FIVE quick must reads—but all worth your time and attention.
1. OBAMA AS PERSONAL SYMBOL
In Sunday’s LA Times, Ruben Martinez has a lovely meditation on what the Obama candidacy means to him as a “person of color” who, despite the fact that he’s a well-regarded author and a respected university professor, sometimes still finds himself both deeply affected by—and trapped inside—the “person of color” designation.
2. ACORN-RELATED SLAP-DOWN
And in this morning’s LA Times the editorial board rightly slaps John McCain upside the head for his “malicious misrepresentation” of the importance—or lack thereof—of the whole ACORN issue. (Don’t worry, the Times doesn’t let ACORN off the hook either.)
And while we’re on the subject, according to this morning’s LA Times, a man was arrested in Ontario on a homegrown voter fraud charge. Evidently the owner of a company that the California Repubs (and others) use to register voters, is accused of tricking Democrats into registering as Republicans. (Although, as with ACORN, what good that would do anyone in a national election isn’t quite clear.)
3. THE DOCTORS CONTEMPLATE THE CANDIDATES
The story that will get the most attention in this morning’s NY Times is about the candidate’s health—and how we still don’t have enough information about any of them. (How comforting.)
4. UNTANGLING THE INNER WORLD OF AUTISTIC TEENAGERS
If you can tear yourself away from the election and the economy for a minute or two, Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had an excellent story about a school that’s having great luck helping autistic teenagers develop their strengths and interests while keeping them more engaged in the world, and with each other.
5. MoDo SAYS OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!
Maureen Dowd is having very angry and vengeful, Madam Defarge-like fantasies about the “heedless and greedy financial aristocracy that plundered and sundered free-market capitalism”—and then, after they’d trashed the place, still walked around stuffing gobs of cash in their own pockets.
“Payback doesn’t have to go as far as the French Revolution,” she writes. “The grifters shafting us don’t have to shed blood, but they do have to give the money back. As far as these self-serving corporate con men and short-selling traders are concerned, off with their headsets.”
Definitely. What Maureen said.