"I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."Ok, so now it was an oversight. This brand of arrogance, so prevalent in anybody remotely associated with (i.e., being paid by) the Bush administration, is just plain sickening. A half-hearted apology hardly makes it here, especially when there is a total lack of journalistic responsibility.
Why the resistance to letting mega-discounters into Gotham? It's not the consumers doing the protesting. The bumps in the road come from a loose confederation of unions, endangered shopkeepers and community kibitzers who get their jollies stalling anything one might call progress.First of all, is he kidding? A resistance of mega-discounters in New York? Though he allows that "a handful [of stores] have made it into enemy territory," his argument has no basis in reality. If anything, New York has already allowed too many megastores into its ranks. Schwartz goes on to say:
To be sure, Wal-Mart carries some ugly baggage, like class-action suits for stiffing workers on overtime pay and for sexual discrimination. If America's largest employer hopes to do business in the world's media epicenter, it had better clean up its act. That said, it would be economic injustice to deny New Yorkers something other Americans take as a given: the right to get the best deal for the dollar.If New York allows Walmart into our city, what incentive would they then have to "clean up [their] act?" As far as the "best deal for the dollar," how does Schwartz think Walmart acheives this? He should read this for starters.
"A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality"This criticism is largely due to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's website which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race. Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who considers tolerance to be a bad thing says:
"Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity" within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary but it crosses a moral line."Statements like these are so representative of a social climate which deems the thinly-veiled hatred of any outside group acceptable if its doctrine can neatly fall under the category of moral values. McCarthyism wasn't that long ago, kids.
"One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior"Lt. Col. Barry Venable of the Army, a Defense Department spokesman, said: "This suggestion arose essentially from a brainstorming session, and it was rejected out of hand."
