In case you missed it

I'm going to repost this from the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, because it's just stunning.

Four More Years and a Funeral
Blogger John Hinderaker notes that ABC News posted on its Web site yesterday the following announcement:

For a possible Inauguration Day story on ABC News, we are trying to find out if there any military funerals for Iraq war casualties scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20. If you know of a funeral and whether the family might be willing to talk to ABC News, please fill out the form below.

As Hinderaker notes, "that only the families of Iraqi war dead need apply. If a soldier died in Afghanistan, or aiding tsunami victims in Indonesia or Sri Lanka, or in a training exercise, never mind. That isn't the 'balance' ABC is looking for."

In his Inaugural Address, meanwhile, President Bush paid tribute to the fallen: "Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives--and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice."

ABC seems to have realized that they didn't sacrifice for the sake of the network's sneering story; the network pulled the announcement as soon as word got out on the blogosphere. (We saw it yesterday before it disappeared.) Blogger Edward Morrissey posted a copy here, though it doesn't display quite properly.

Anyway, this is the sort of thing that can be damaging to a network's reputation. ABC had better hurry up and hire Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi to find no evidence of political bias.

Context, context, context!

Why does the mainstream media REFUSE to put anything into its proper context? Is it because when they do it, all the steam fizzles out of their barely unspoken attacks on conservatives?

Washington Times: Inaugural Price Tag In Line With History

Bush's inaugural: $40 million (est)
Clinton's second term inaugural: $42 million (unadjusted. Adjusted for inflation, that's more like $49 million.)

I didn't hear any of these Democrats shrieking about the cost of Clinton's inaugural price tag.

Condolences.

I just wanted to say that my friend Resa lost her dad to pneumonia on Sunday. I'm so sorry, Resa. I'm thinking of you and your family.

Do it anyway.

Inspiring words from Mother Theresa. I'd seen this before, but today I saw it in reference to the Indonesian government's mind-numbing demand that we get out of their country. I find that every statement here is true to the credible extreme .. but it's not a reason to stop doing it.

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
It was never between you and them anyway."

English is funny.

> Nobody would buy a whole new computer to run Office 2004, but they would to be able to play Halo 2.

Would = would. Yet in this sentence, the opposite meanings are implied and, to my eye, are easily gleaned from the context.

Isn't this language grand?