New Head Of The Vatican
BAGreader Carolly contributed these comments regarding World Youth Day: A few days back, we discussed the sidewalk drawings to memorialize Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and there was an image of someone walking across the middle, uncaring. Here is another top-down view of a scene with interesting contrasts: When I first saw the...
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Giving Darwin The Finger
This is one of those images that makes me glad the BAG has developed such a keen group of readers and co-analysts. I’ll give you some of my takes, and then I’ll leave it to you to peel more layers. Here’s what I’ve got: 1. We know the right...
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Your Turn: Intelligent (Graphic) Design
…Now that President Bush has formally endorsed the pseudo-intellectual amalgam of scientific revisionism known as "Intelligent Design"… …AND the New York Times has created the blasphemous precedent of adopting the presumptuous term (without quotes!) as theoretically equivalent to the most rigorously vetted science… … it leave the BAG no...
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Stemless Faith
I can never tell in these instances if the press is too intimidated by the right wing to challenge their story line, or they just aren’t thinking hard enough. Yesterday, the NYT provided a completely free launch to the Frist for President campaign. (And who said there’s no such...
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Separation of Church and Church and Church and State
Has religion taken a chain saw to the vision of America? In reading about NYT law professor Noah Feldman’s new book "Divided by God: America’s Church-State Problem — and What We Should Do About It," I’m not that sure how well the cover represents the contents. Still, I couldn’t...
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Certain Results
So, was the choice between Ahmadinejad and Ahmadinejad, or did he win it outright? I can’t help thinking how the political turn of events in Iran basically mirror the same circumstances here. (Maybe its even a counter-reaction.) Hard-line conservatives with a fundamentalist agenda gain control of the executive and...
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Ford Pride
In Europe, car companies have tailored advertising to gays for years now. With the practice fairly new to the States, however, the American Family Association — led by the grossly over entitled Donald Wildmon — has been motivated to launch boycottFord.com. The AFA is inflamed over the fact Ford...
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Prayer for the Kangaroos
This is a “class A” example of how the media is getting steamrollered by the right. Yesterday, the NYT Magazine did a cover story on Rick Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate and the institution’s resident wild-eyed evangelical. So how did the Times approach the task of profiling...
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Like Mother, Like Daughter
I’ve been waiting for months to do a New Yorker cover. Unfortunately, the magazine hasn’t been that political on its face this year. (I’ll tell you just how eager I’ve been, though. If you recall, the Terri Schiavo drama came to a head right around Easter. That week, The...
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Crying Shame
Three cheers for Michael Crowley’s piece in the NYT Magazine this weekend exposing the pathetic dealings and decrepit character of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay’s high flight bagman. But, how many cheers for the photograph? On one level, the image couldn’t fit the story more closely. His game up,...
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Paging Howard Beal
This post is not going to tell you anything you don’t already know. That said, it probably says a few things about what we see and how we are trained to look. The radical Christian Conservative “anti-filibuster” telecast, “Justice Sunday,” was broadcast this weekend. If you haven’t been following...
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Ratz on the Balcony
If it had been up to John Paul, those cardinals would have better timed the news cycle. Because the ‘Zinger from the Vatican occurred in mid-day in the States, the story missed the papers. However, this was the image that fronted the NYT website for most of the day. ...
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Your Turn: Church Signals
‘He should have been brought up with many, many sisters and have a lesbian in the family.’ …This is part of the criteria offered for selecting a new Pope in this week’s The Way We Live Now feature in the NYT Magazine. If you were to critique this essay,...
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Spoil the Rod and Spare the Child
If you’ve been following the Republican threat to limit the use of the Senate filibuster, you know that the Family Research Council, a promotional group for reactionary evangelicals, is sponsoring a television broadcast to build grassroots support for such a move. These radicals believe that by eroding this legislative...
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An Image To Take Away
A number of you have written me about the photos of the Bush delegation at Pope-side. The main issue involves which figures the media has elected to include or crop out, with the possible combinations consisting of: W and Laura; W, Laura and Poppy; W, Laura, Poppy and Bill;...
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News As Spectacle: Pope 24/7
9:52am Bush says Pope was a great man. 10:19am Bush calls Pope a ‘champion of freedom.’ 11:23am Bush says “A good and faithful servant of God has been called home.” 12:03pm Bush Calls Pope ‘An Inspiration to Us All.’ 1:15pm Bush: Pope “champion of peace and freedom.” 1:45pm Pope...
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The Window
I was speaking yesterday of the Pope’s dignity in the face of death. I was speaking of the eloquence of his communication in the absence of speech. I alluded (through the link to a NYT Week In Review piece on Sunday) to the possible irony — given the Schiavo...
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Palm Sunday
I have to admit, I’ve only had one eye on the story of the Pope’s declining health — until now. With the Pope’s respiratory problems and tracheotomy coinciding with the debate over medical intervention at life’s end, one could easily envision some tortuous days ahead for the Vatican (link). ...
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