The Icepick Cometh

Shafer bats about .700 in my book. I agree with him a lot of the times, and then there are others when the guy infuriates me, or I just say "meh" (get off the anti-Meth-stories kick, Jack, no one reads Meth stories anyway).

But like I said, there are plenty of times when I agree with him. And on this one, he bats it out of the park, hitting into The Black like Reggie's third homer in Game 6 of the 1977 Series.

No, Pat, no, don't sit on that!

(Shafer's column includes some choice rips).

Why the hell not endow a newspaper, as Shafer sort-of uses as a throw-away line at the end of his column? It's worth a try, about as worth it as The National was (and I loved that paper's 16½-month run, which ended 16½ years ago). It would certainly be a lot better than the fucking corporate-owned bullshit printed in nearly every city in America that is in full pandering mode while running the industry into the ground.

Don't get me wrong: There is nothing wrong with honoring journalists who died in the line of duty, who were attacked and killed for doing their job and reporting something unpopular or something someone didn't want the public to know in overseas countries. Remember that the next time some sportswriter bitches about covering the Knicks. But a fitting monument in D.C. is a better way to go, and not an overbuilt, overblown dumb-ass playland (with Gannett connections, natch) [UPDATE: My bad. corpo-journo factory Gannett has nothing to do with the Freedom Forum, according to a Newseum press release.].