The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate
“An editorial on Tuesday about Russia’s military support for the Assad government in Syria misidentified Hezbollah. It is fighting to defend the government against the rebels; it is not an opposition group.”–New York Times, May 22
Out on a Limb
“Only time will tell which health plans will look wiser a year or so from now: those that took a leap of faith (based on past experience) into the unknown waters of Covered California, or those that stayed on the shore and watched the others splash and try to find the right stroke to navigate their way.”–Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, May 24
World Ends, Obama Hardest Hit
- “At times defensive, solemn, lawyerly and personal, President Obama on Thursday offered a rare glimpse of the burden that the nation’s fight against terrorism has placed on the man who leads it.”–Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles Times website, May 23
- “You wonder if President Obama sometimes finds himself singing a variant on Kermit the Frog’s anthem about the burdens of being green: It’s not easy being Barack Obama.”–E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, May 28
Boy Are These Guys Barking Up the Wrong Tree
“Chinese Animal Activists Petition White House Against Dog Meat Festival in Guangxi”–headline, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), May 23
Journalistic Freak-Out
“Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound,” the Associated Press reports:
In that category is the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River north of Seattle, which collapsed into the water days ago after officials say an oversized truck load clipped the steel truss.
Public officials have focused in recent years on the desperate need for money to repair thousands of bridges deemed structurally deficient, which typically means a major portion of the bridge is in poor condition or worse. But the bridge that collapsed Thursday is not in that deficient category, highlighting another major problem with the nation’s infrastructure: Although it’s rare, some bridges deemed to be fine structurally can still be crippled if they are struck hard enough in the wrong spot.
Another AP story reports that the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board called the Washington state collapse “a wake-up call to the state of safety of the nation’s infrastructure.”
This just seems like dumb sensationalism. All of us, after all, are one freak accident away from a horrible death. That’s the nature of freak accidents.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
