The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Out on a Limb
“Paper Shows Japan Feared Aftershocks at Nuke Plant”–headline, Associated Press, Oct. 15
Breaking News From 1922
“Demonstrators Rampage Through Rome, Clash With Police”–headline, Reuters, Oct. 15
Breaking News From 1981
“Iran Reacts to Pressure From America”–headline, New York Times, Oct. 17
Occupy Sri Lanka
Hey, a Wall Street guy is going to prison. Are you happy now, Karen Tumulty? Here’s the report from the New York Times website:
Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group chief at the center of the United States’ massive insider trading investigation, was sentenced to eleven years in prison. His sentence is the longest ever for insider-trading in the United States.
But wait. the Times published this in its blog called India Ink, slogan “Notes on the World’s Largest Democracy.” The story doesn’t mention anything about India, so we guess the Times must’ve assumed from his name that Rajaratnam is from there. In fact, as The Wall Street Journal reports, he is a naturalized American citizen originally from Sri Lanka.
It reminds us of the scene from “King of the Hill” in which one of the natives from Arlen, Texas, asks the new Asian neighbor: “Are you Chinese or Japanese?” The neighbor says he’s Laotian and gives a long explanation of Laos’s place in the world. There’s a long pause, then: “Are you Chinese or Japanese?”
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.”
