Akkam’s Razor

• I hope this is in good taste - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Likewise, I was looking at this picture of Obama's grandparents and thinking how much he looks like his grandfather. And suddenly, for whatever reason, I was struck by the fact that they had made the decision to love their daughter, no matter what, and love their grandson, no matter what. I'd bet money that they never even thought of themselves as courageous, that they didn't give much thought to the broader struggles in the the world at the time. They were just doing what right, honorable people do. But the fact is that, in the 60s, you could be disowned for falling in love with a black woman or black man. There is a reason why we have a long history of publicly biracial black people, but not so much of publicly biracial white people.

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• Brian Tierney Uses the Inquirer to Spread Right-Wing Talking Points, and Settle Old Scores | Young Philly Politics - This is almost too bizarre to be true. For those that don't know, Brian Tierney did communications for Sam Katz on his Mayoral campaign. His counterpart in the Street campaign was David Axelrod. Tierney The dissenter is so small that he is using an op-ed to settle a score with the guy- David Axelrod- who beat him 5 years ago. And he is too cowardly to do it in the open.

Having never made an effort to either listen to or read Michael Smerconish, I foolishly tossed him aside with all the other Right-Wing Radio flunkies.  After reading his inaugural Inquirer column, I came away suprisingly indifferent.  He comes across as someone I largely agree with on a majority of issues, but I suspect if pushed for clarification, the differences would be more apparent.  

In his "Suburban Manifesto" column in this Sunday's Inky (amusingly filed under Philly Women), he starts off predictably, stating that the editorial page is "[too] liberal too often", and that he is in not a "Kool-Aid drinker".

Karl reports the following at PhillyFuture:

Dan Rubin, the Inquirer's first blogger to engage the local blogosphere, announced the Inky was promoting him into a columnist position, and shutting down Blinq.

Congrats to Dan Rubin for the move, but as I said in his comments thread, Blinq should live - either with a new blogger keeping it on, or with Dan using it as a tool for his new column. The shuttering of the URL, of the community that rose around Dan's engagement at Blinq, is self-inflicted wound.

To which I say Inky management is STUPID STUPID STUPID!

I've noticed that the "Currents" section of the Philadelphia Inquirer has moved to the right lately, and frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing.  The remaining readers of the Inquirer are likely "learned" enough to separate the wheat from the chaff, and if CEO Brian Tierney squelches his promise to not interfere with editorial content (other than changing the editors and staff), there would likely be a further exodus of readers and a loss of profits.  No, I expect the Inky and many "moderate" conservatives to follow the Lou Dobbs script of xenophobia and protectionism, targeting the middle-class.  

Furthermore, Attytood reports that Michael Smerconish is now writing weekly columns for both the Daily News and the Inquirer.  I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea.  I commented the following on his post: