Purgatory Awaits?
A Virginia man and woman endeavored this week to use St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York as their own personal love shack. The couple coupled in a nave, while a nearby voyeur provided a play-by-play to a morning radio show, which broadcast the tryst nationwide.
New York cops arrested the man, woman and announcer. But, Infinity Broadcasting, which syndicates the show in question, has done nothing to the hosts who encouraged the act.
Racial Rhetoric
Jim Estepp, a white man, is seeking the Democratic nomination to become county executive for Prince George's County, Maryland -- a prosperous Washington, D.C. suburb with a predominantly black population.
At least two of Estepp's four black opponents are not amused. Candidate Jack Johnson's campaign manager says electing Estepp would "be like turning back the clock. It would be like Israel electing an Arab." Candidate Tommie Broadwater chimes in: "We should be controlling our own destiny; we don't need a white father doing it for us."
Equal?
The New York Times announced Sunday morning that it will announce gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies in the section formerly reserved for traditional weddings, and will accord such ceremonies precisely the same coverage given marriages -- meaning that snooty, well-heeled couples get coverage; average folk don't.
Howell Raines, managing editor of the paper, acknowledges religious and legal controversy over same-sex unions, but adds: "and our news columns will remain impartial in that debate ... The Styles pages will treat same-sex celebrations as a discrete phenomenon meriting coverage in their own right."
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