Matters of Opinion

Afghanistanism, The Next Generation.

   The old cliche among editorial writers was that if you didn't have the nerve to write something critical of the governor, the mayor or the school board -- or if they hadn't given you cause to write something critical of them -- you could always write about Afghanistan.
   Probably, nobody in your circulation area would care very much, so they wouldn't get mad at whatever you wrote. Almost certainly, nobody in your readership would know enough to call you on it if you were wrong. We called it "Afghanistanism" and it was often a way to call another newspaper, or your own, cowardly.
   Not any more.

- Listen to the generals - The Buffalo News
   This cannot be a political decision. It must be a strategic one, based wholly on strategic -- not political -- considerations. The decisions to be made must be taken with an eye toward wise policy, not the politics of the moment.
- The president fiddles, Afghanistan burns - The Washington Times
- Obama is playing Emily Litella on Afghanistan - The Kansas City Star
- What's next in Afghanistan - The Dallas Morning News
- Be sure we know our goal in Afghanistan - The Gazette-Times of Corvallis, Ore.
- The Taliban Threat - The Washington Post
- Obama's Afghanistan options: no easy outs - The Orange County Register
- No good options in Afghanistan - The Wichita Eagle  
- Not Good Enough - Thomas Friedman/The New York Times

  Actually, the trend in these editorials is to punt, basically admitting we don't know the best course of action, or even the least worst one, setting some goals and hoping out loud that the president gets it right.
   Welcome to Afghanistanism, The Next Generation.

   Meanwhile, for some reason, no one else seems to care about Erie Community College. But, then, that's the problem.
- ECC needs repair funding
   ECC is the county’s second-largest post-secondary school after the University at Buffalo. It is not an educational afterthought for an ever-growing student population that relies on it for an education. It must not be a political or economic afterthought for county leaders.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News

The most important man you never heard of.

   I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space.
- Adm. James T. Kirk

   Norman Borlaug was from Iowa, too. He worked mostly in Mexico, Africa and Asia, but he might as well have been light years away for all the attention the news media paid little attention to him. Until he died a week ago last Saturday at the age of 95. 
- Borlaug, who saved millions from hunger, dies  
    Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug rose from his childhood on an Iowa farm to develop a type of wheat that helped feed the world, fostering a movement that is credited with saving up to 1 billion people from starvation. [AP/The Buffalo News. Honors list]

    Our editorial praised his accomplishments, with a little "yes, but" thrown in:
- A giant passes
   The first round of the Green Revolution is not sustainable. But, if the next generation is as smart and as industrious as Norman Borlaug was, it won’t have to be.

   A few years ago, I wrote a book about him. OK, it was a page (43) in a book about the sins of modern agriculture called "Raising Less Corn, More Hell."
   Anything is better than mass starvation, plus all the migration, social upheaval, epidemics, and wars that would certainly accompany any significant increase in the number of hungry people. Thus, when the scientist whose work was credited for sparking the Green Revolution, American agronomist Norman Borlaug, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970, it was not one of the science prizes. He received the Nobel Peace Prize.
    Still, this substantial victory has come at substantial costs, costs that have been driven by political and economic factors at least as much as by any changes in crop science. In fact, Borlaug could rightfully be compared to better-known atomic geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi, whose understanding and development of nuclear energy were co-opted to become the property of governments and industries that would happily sell a hundred Nobel Peace Prizes for short-term gain.

   Other commentary from The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Des Moines Register, National Post and The Wall Street Journal.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News   

Odds and odds: Gleanings from the Web

[UPDATE - Jan. 6: Now comes word that the McCook Daily Gazette, mentioned below, is also cutting back in the face of hard times for the newspaper industry. Not only no Sunday edition, but, by the end of the month, no Saturday edition, either.
   Sigh.]

  You may have learned to read from Dick and Jane or My Weekly Reader. I learned from The Omaha World-Herald. [My kindergarten teacher was not amused.]
  As a small child in the small town of McCook, Nebraska, I joined my parents in pouring over the Herald seven days a week. I particularly remember the Sunday funnies, such as Smokey Stover. It, the smaller evening paper, The McCook Daily Gazette [good, but no Sunday edition] and Life magazine were as close as anything in that very small town at the intersection of US 6 and US 83 to today's World Wide Web.
   Thus a pang when I read the other day -- on the Herald's Web site, of course -- that the Herald will no longer offer same-day delivery to 12,000 subscribers in the western parts of the state, including McCook. [It's 294 miles from Omaha to McCook. I know because I looked it up on Google Maps.] Says The World-Herald, in a statement that's become familiar around the industry:

The World-Herald has made these changes to strengthen its position to provide quality news and advertising services while addressing challenging economic conditions, rising newsprint expenses and higher operating and distribution costs.

   The newspaper's content is, of course, online. Many young people prefer it that way, anyhow. And the Herald now owns a few of the newspapers in central and western Nebraska, forming a news service that will share articles and supposedly improve the coverage of the state for all concerned.
   Still.

   Today's Denver Post has this article about how the leadership of the University of Colorado is pushing to be set free of the Colorado Legislature to make its own policies, set tuitions, etc., so as to make better use of whatever funds it has and so as to raise more from the private, entrepreneurial sector. That sounds familiar.

   Today's Hutchinson (Kansas) News [a newspaper that helped teach my younger siblings how to read -- and write -- ] has an article about how the Western Kansas city of Tribune and the surrounding Greeley County have merged into a single government. That sounds a little bit familiar, too.
   [Extra points for knowing why it makes sense for Tribune to be in Greeley County.]

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer

   

   

The Hillary Watch, continued

Briefly, on my way to the gluttonous celebration of the Native American Holocaust, two more interesting pieces about what might happen if Sen. Hillary Clinton gives up her New York Senate seat to become Barack Obama's secretary of state:

On The Daily Beast, Benjamin Sarlin suggests the job might go to 20th District Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand [left], a relatively conservative Democrat whom he describes as: A bizarro version of Sarah Palin: she proudly touts her 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association, and has two young children, aged 4 years old and six months old.
The really troublesome thing about that piece is that Sarlin refers to Gillibrand, whose district borders Connecticut, as "a true upstater." By those standards, Buffalo is part of Ohio. [Or, as occasionally I still dream of, Canada.]

But here, via The Washington Post, is a really interesting idea about who should take over Hillary's spot in the Senate: Bill.
Hey, why not? Observers back to John Quincy Adams have wondered why we don't make more official use of the experience of ex-presidents. He'd be more likely to give up his foundation and its shady financing. And, if he were busy in the Senate, he'd wouldn't be a fifth wheel tagging along on Madame Secretary's world trips.

Digest that.

- George Pyle/Editorial Writer

Create new file: Sarah who?

John McCain has made news with another act of political non-conformity, picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential candidate. [Her official Web page is here, but it was jammed Friday afternoon.]

Why pick a national unknown, who is only 44 years old and has served only two years in statewide office? To appeal to the women who are miffed about Democrats not picking Hillary Clinton? To mollify social conservatives who will like Palin's pro-life, pro-gun record?

Or because, to paraphrase Monty Python, "She's beautiful, she's conservative, she's got huge ... deposits of oil and gas." [Original line, dealing with tracts of land, delivered in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" by Michael Palin, no known kin of Sarah.]

Chances are that Gov. Palin, leader of a state where the economy is based on oil, whose husband works in the oil fields, who once served on the state's oil commission, who favors drilling in ANWR, was picked to appeal to the ever-larger segment of the American electorate that wants to drill, drill, drill.

There's a lot to be learned about Sarah Palin. It will help the voters that the big newspaper in Alaska, The Anchorage Daily News, is owned by the McClatchy chain, which operates one of the best serious news operations on the planet.

Some instant blogalysis:
-- The AP's Ron Fournier: John McCain's risky choice of Gov. Sarah Palin gives him a running mate who doubles down on his maverick image, may appeal to "hockey moms" and other women, and counters Barack Obama's aura of new-generation change. But he may have undercut his best attack on the Democrat. If Obama is an empty suit, as McCain has suggested, is Palin suited for the Oval Office herself?
-- The Detroit Freep's Ron Dzwonkowski: Youth, gender, a background entirely outside the Washington Beltway, and enormous energy as a campaigner. She's a working mom with five children, has been in business and is a hunting and fishing enthusiast. She can claim a record as a government reformer and a tax cutter and someone who cares less about partisanship than about getting the job done.
-- The Dallas Morning News' Michael Landauer: Five reasons why Sarah Palin is a laugh-out-loud choice for VP.
-- Slate's The XX Factor: Never Underestimate a Woman with a French Manicure and the Smell of Fish.
-- The Washington Post's Gene Pool: Sarah problem here?
-- The San Francisco Chronicle's Below the Beltway: Sen. John McCain's long-ball choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was both brilliant and a clear and convincing sign of his total desperation heading into the Twin Cities after Sen. Barack Obama's knock-out convention.

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer

Farm Fresh: Recalled beef, real milk

Two more new stories in recent days about how local food is better for you and better for business.

Even such organic food powerhouses as the Whole Foods chain [closest store to Buffalo: Toronto] can have supply problems. Last Friday, Whole Foods became the latest supermarket chain to recall ground beef it had bought from a faraway processor -- specifically Coleman Natural Beef. Seems Coleman had bought a new slaughterhouse in Omaha and neither Coleman nor Whole Foods had checked to see if its operation was up to their supposedly high standards. Supposedly, that's now changed. But it just shows how even the highest-quality chain can lose track of its own standards in a way that direct-to-consumer meat won't.

And it can only be seen as good news that Monsanto, the leading creator of gene-spliced foods, has announced that it will be getting out of the artificial cow hormone business -- at least as soon as it can find someone foolish enough to sell out to. Monsanto's press release is here. A Cornell University study defending the hormone sold under the brand name Posilac as a way to blunt the environmental impact of dairy operations is here.
Seems that there was enough consumer resistance to the idea of spiking perfectly healthy cows with an artificial growth hormone known as BST and/or rbST, while enough marketers defended their right to label their packaging "BST-free" even though Monsanto tried to get state agencies to ban such truth-in-labeling as a slam on their product, that the line is no longer seen as a winner by the St. Louis agrichemical giant.
There was no particular reason to believe that BST was bad for people. But there was even less reason why anyone should take the risk. Turbo-charging cows to produce more milk does put the cows' health at risk, and supply shortages have never had as much influence on price as the federal government's complex pricing formulas.
This is a clear case of the marketplace choosing quality over quantity and good karma over corporate profits.

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer

The Neighborhood Diner

The cover package of today's Buffalo News Viewpoints section is entitled "The Neighborhood Diner." [I wanted to call it "Eating Buffalo," but was wisely overruled.] It's all about the thriving local food scene in Western New York -- farmers markets, community supported agriculture and the fact that, despite its urban image, New York is, and ought to remain, very much a farm state.

The main articles are supplemented by a piece about the contrast between the thriving Lexington  Cooperative Market and the moribund Broadway Market, and an editorial encouraging public policy that allows small-scale farming to prosper and provide us with healthy food, grown in ways that are easy on the planet.

We've also posted two videos, one from a visit to the Downtown Country Market, one about the Lexington/Broadway divide.

Have a look, and please let us know what you think. Or what I've missed.

More information about area farmers markets and community supported agriculture is available on the Internet.

* The Farmers Market Federation of New York has directories of markets, farmers and vendors around the state.
* The state's Pride of New York program has an extensive list of products, farms, restaurants, etc.

Erie County local food outlets with their own Web sites include:
Farmers markets
* Alden Farmers Market
* Bidwell-Elmwood Farmers Market
* Buffalo Place Downtown Country Market
* Clarence Farmers Market
* Hamburg Farmers Market
* Holland Farmers Market
* Kenmore Farmers Market
* University Community Farmers Market
* Williamsville Farmers Market

Community Markets
* Broadway Market
* Lexington Cooperative Market

Community Supported Agriculture
* Porter Farms - Elba
* Native Offerings - Little Valley
* Promised Land - Alden

Other sites of interest include:
* Slow Food Buffalo
* Buffalo Rising
* Feed Your Soul Buffalo

The New York State Constitution, Article XIV, Section 4, says: The policy of the state shall be to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty and encourage the development and
improvement of its agricultural lands for the production of food and other agricultural products.

Bon Buffalo apetit.

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer

All News Is Local: Census shows...

Word -- it might be a stretch to call it "news" -- that the population of Buffalo and most of upstate New York shrank slightly last year, pushed its way up to the front of the City & Region section of today's Buffalo News.

But it was the big-deal front-page splash in Cleveland's Plain Dealer because: More people left Cleveland last year than any other major city in America, the U.S. Census Bureau will report today. Since 2000, only hurricane-ravaged New Orleans weathered a sharper rate of population loss.
What's really got to hurt the folks trying to puff up Cleveland is that, while New Orleans was the biggest population loser in the U.S. over the past seven years, it was the biggest gainer for the 12 months ending July 1, 2007.

The Census numbers were also big news in St. Louis [down], Dallas [up] Tucson [moving to the 'burbs], but oddly didn't get that much play in New Orleans [way up, after being way down].

Elsewhere, Indianapolis joins Buffalo in dealing with a horrible spate of murders.

And, the Headline of the Day: "TV anchor promoted sludge deal" - from The Detroit News.

--George Pyle/Editorial Writer

Extension of Remarks: Do we need a war president?

The lead op-ed in today's Buffalo News is a provocative one from the seemingly omnipresent Fareed Zakaria [left] of Newsweek/The Washington Post/CNN.
He points out how President Bush has claimed so many extraordinary powers for himself and his administration on the grounds that he is "a war president." Even most of the criticisms of the administration by Democrats are more in the vein of attacking Bush's conduct of the war, suggesting his missteps have increased the danger of terrorism rather than reduced it. They don't question the suggestion that we are in great danger.
Zakaria does question it. Life in America hasn't changed that much. Violence and terror are down. Al Qaida hasn't come anywhere near taking over the Muslim world, much less the rest of the planet. Even the CIA says the terror networks are on the ropes.
In fact, America is an extremely powerful country, with a unique and extraordinary set of strengths. The only way that position can truly be eroded is by its own actions and overreactions — by unwise and imprudent leadership. A good way to start correcting the errors of the past would be to recognize that we are not at war.

Elsewhere:
* A review of Zakaria's new Sunday morning talk show, with the necessary Tim Russert mention, from The Los Angeles Times.
* Example of how the Boy Who Cried Wolf Administration isn't going to be believed so easily in the future: A federal appeals court known for a conservative bent has rejected Pentagon claims that it can hold someone as an enemy combatant just by "saying it thrice," after Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits."
* At the Philly Daily News, Will Bunch tells the story of CBS war correspondent Lara Logan, who one minute was complaining that the American media have forgotten to cover Iraq, and the next minute is embroiled in a cheap sex scandal that may or may not have any substance to it. Payback?
* Whether this is a war or not, it has become more deadly to be standing in the middle of whatever it is in Afghanistan than whatever it is in Iraq.

--George Pyle/Editorial Writer

Extension of Remarks: Seal the deal

The lead editorial in today's Buffalo News notes that, as it is in the movies, a real-life happy ending can depend on last-minute actions by doctors. Or a judge. Or, in the case of the long-simmering, state-mandated joining of Erie County Medical Center and Kaleida Health, both.
It was the doctors’ decision to intervene that changed the dynamic. To hear the other principals describe it, the group of more than 12 influential physicians — some of whom practice at both ECMC and Kaleida — presented themselves as interested parties to [Supreme Court Justice John M.] Curran and let hospital leaders know, in unmistakable terms, that they would not tolerate any failure to take advantage of the public and private dollars that are available to reshape health care in Erie County.

Tuesday's News story announcing the deal is here. Today's follow-up is here. Donn Esmonde's commentary is here. The Kaleida Health press release crediting the doctors, some of them by name, is here.

There are still details to be worked out, State Health Department approval to win, etc. Of course, nobody's talking about the fact that, if we had the kind of health care financing structure that is found in civilized nations, we'd have never had this fight to begin with. It was, after all, all about the money, of which there is never enough in the right places. Money that was being offered by the state and federal governments, if the hospitals would get their collective act together.

One question: Does anyone else think that this News photo of the principals announcing the deal Monday looks like the Madame Tussaud's version? Nobody's looking at anybody else. Oh, well. We've got peace. We'll keep working on love and understanding.

-George Pyle/Editorial Writer