Unca Darrell

DECEMBER 31 / Samuel Huntington (1927-2008)

He wrote in [Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity, 2004,] of the "American Creed," and its erosion among the elites. Its key elements -- the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals -- he said are derived from the "distinct Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers of America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."

DECEMBER 30 / By the numbers

19 -- Number of Houston Chronicle editorials from December 17 through today.

0 -- Editorials about international affairs.

2 -- Editorials about Hollywood (Texas should spend more to attract movie makers (12/19); the Screen Actors Guild should not strike. (12/29)).

DECEMBER 27 / Job well done. Thanks.

MOLDOVA is the poorest country in Europe. Winters there are bitterly cold, and the budget for the state orphanages is tight. Many children in these institutions are true orphans, but others are economic orphans (their parents have gone to Western Europe to try to make a living) or children of unfit parents.

DECEMBER 24 and 25

    

DECEMBER 23 / Another reader response

HERE's a reader comment, lightly edited, that offers several clues to the Chronicle's circulation problems and to the circulation problems of newspapers generally. It was written by "Phoenix" in response to "First, Newsweek." 

It is no secret I despise the Houston Chronicle. I stopped reading the opinion pages long ago. They really depress me. Not because their opinions differ from mine, but because they think the people who read their work are either too stupid to see their motives or they are just teeing off on anyone who doesn't agree with them.

DECEMBER 22 / Reader response

UNCA D has a small, but lively, group of readers. Here's a comment from one of them that deserves to be (and hereby is, lightly edited) elevated to a full post.

Thanks for deconstructing Thursday's editorial. I gave it a quick once over Thanksgiving morning and was bothered by it, although frankly it was not interesting enough to warrant a line-by-line determination of the exact problems.

After reading your critique, I surmise that either it was written by committee, and thus suffered a collective schizophrenia (at the Chronicle, sometimes it takes a village to be an idiot), or the staff decided at the last moment to do a "Thanksgiving" editorial and gave it to a writer who is not good on deadline (and if that is the case, I have a notion who it might have been).

DECEMBER 16 / Mom's in the hospital

SEE YOU again when she's better.

DECEMBER 16 / More on the Community Reinvestment Act

THIS BLOG HAS hosted a mini-debate about whether the Community Reinvestment Act is responsible -- or shares responsibility -- for today's economic troubles. I say yes. The Chronicle says no.

DECEMBER 15 / First, Newsweek

READERS WITH conservative political, economic, cultural, and religious views face a difficult choice today. To stay current, we often subscribe to mainstream publications such as the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, and Newsweek (my line-up, along with the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, National Geographic, Foreign Affairs, and a few others).

When we pay our subscriptions, however, we support, in the first three cases, news publications that to varying degrees have ceased to operate entirely as traditional newsgathers. Instead, again to varying degrees, they are advocacy journals for the cultural and political left. Their editorials and columnists almost exclusively reflect the opinions of a liberal monoculture. Our local newspaper, for instance, has zero columnists and editorialists who might reasonably be characterized as conservative or traditional. And too often, the editorial-page biases also distort the news coverage.  

When we subscribe, then, our money helps to pay the salaries of men and women who, at best, don't understand us, our opinions and beliefs, or our vision of America and Western Civilization. At worst -- and this is not too strong a statement -- they loathe these things.

DECEMBER 15 / The new majority

FOR THE FIRST time in history, unmarried people head the majority of U.S. households. . . . Countries around the world are experiencing similar trends.