The James Logan Courier

By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the right of small-but-loud Westboro Baptist Church to demonstrate provocatively near military funerals.

In a free-speech ruling that challenges popular opinion, the court ruled that the First Amendment protects even deliberately obnoxious funeral protests. The justices stressed that the court's 8-1 ruling was no endorsement of the church's infamous "God hates fags" message.

"Given that Westboro's speech was at a public place on a matter of public concern, that speech is entitled to special protection under the First Amendment," Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)


In "Willful Blindness" journalist and businesswoman Margaret Heffernan asks, "Why, as individuals, companies and countries, do we so regularly look at the mirror and ask how, 'How could we have been so blind?' "

When she asked people about the concept of 'willful blindness,' they gave examples on their own — abuse, divorce, Ponzi schemes, subprime mortgages. "Almost everyone mentioned the Iraq war and global warming: big public blunders caused or exacerbated by a reluctance to confront uncomfortable facts."

From wikipedia:
Morris "Moe" Berg (March 2, 1902, New York, New York – May 29, 1972, Belleville, New Jersey) was an American professional baseball player who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he spent 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, Berg was never more than an average player, and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball' than for anything he accomplished in the game. The Bergs were never religiously observant, although being Jewish did contribute to Moe's sense of being an outsider in mid-twentieth century America. Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball."

Learn more about Moe Berg at the Jewish-American Museum.