Among other things, the beginning of the year is an appropriate time to do some counting, to make an assessment – are we doing better or worse than we were at this time last year?
A month ago, a small story in the New York Times about AIDS fit that category. AIDS is not the hot news item in the U.S. it was a decade ago. There’s still no cure, but by swallowing the right combination of pills, people with AIDS seem able to arrest the disease’s progression and relieve its symptoms.
Continue reading
Presidential Sex Lives
Thomas Jefferson’s sex life was in the newspapers again last week. The New York Times ran a piece in which Mr. Jefferson’s stalwarts said they had reviewed the recent DNA evidence and had profound doubts as to whether Mr. J did indeed have a sexual relationship and children with Sally Hemings, whom he owned. History, revised last autumn, is being revised again.
This hardly qualifies as “news;” the debate is a very old one and does not seem likely to be settled soon. The accusation about Ms. Hemings was familiar to Mr. Jefferson; it was originally levied in the midst of a political campaign. In that respect, at least, nothing has changed in 200 years. We still can’t seem to find clean candidates.
Continue reading »