Stone Court

Mary and I are off to the U.K., so there'll be light posting until August 7. By then, we hope another Connecticut rodent will be finding out he's not really royalty....

David Bernstein reports what he suggests is fresh evidence of the New York Times' anti-Israel bias -- an anti-Israel rant by former Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges that argues that the Israeli government bears greater moral blame than the terrorists that it opposes:

Supporters of Israel are often accused of paranoia when they claim that the New York Times tends to be hostile to Israel. Hmm. Check out this piece, written by Chris Hedges, who was New York Times Middle East bureau chief from the late 90s to the early 2000s....

Consider the fact that this guy, who quite proudly prefers Islamist terrorist groups to Israel, ran the Times' Middle East bureau for years. And then consider the old saw that the fact that someone seems paranoid doesn't meet that someone isn't out to get him.

The problem, though, is that while Hedges certainly seems to have an anti-Israel worldview, the case against the Times is far more attenuated. In fact, Hedges was essentially fired by the Times for an anti-Iraq War and anti-Israel speech (which included: "The real injustices—the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the brutal and corrupt dictatorships we fund in the Middle East—will mean that we will not rid the extremists who hate us with bombs.... It was Israel who created Hezbollah...."). Here's Hedges' version of what occurred after that speech:

I was given a formal reprimand by my then employer, The New York Times. I remember being called in by my boss. Certainly, nobody likes to lose their job, and I am not going to pretend that I found this a pleasant experience. However, as I sat in that office, I had a choice. I could be silent, which was what the institution demanded of me. This would have been good for my career. But to do so would be to betray my father, and I am incapable of doing that. As I walked out the door of the Times, I realized that what my father had given me, above and beyond all else, was freedom. That was my inheritance. And that is probably the greatest gift a parent can give to a child.

Doesn't sound like the Times adopted Hedges' politics, does it?

From today's AOL Instant Messenger Front Page:

I'm Jewish, and I voted (and even did a little volunteer work for) Lieberman in 1988, and I'm very offended that Joe Lieberman's minion thinks that means I have some obligation to support Lieberman notwithstanding his terrible record as Senator.

We found another picture of Mary, and these do look more like her....

Via Feministe, face recognition software that tells you which celebrity you look like. Since we're pseudonymous here at Stone Court, we thought this might be a nice way of helping you put a face to "Fred and Mary"! No guarantees of actual resemblance, of course....