Two things from the Times

This op-ed made me cry. The diseases of the mind are terrible, terrible things.

Nothing, for example, can bring back the life of Carol Ann Gotbaum, 45, whose terrible end in a holding cell at the Phoenix airport was chronicled in a Times report by Eric Konigsberg. Depressive and fighting alcoholism, Carol missed a connection by minutes. She became hysterical and was subdued, handcuffed, shackled, abandoned and found dead with the shackle across her neck.

All this happened fast. We can hear her cry: “I’m not a terrorist. I’m a sick mother.”

Note to everyone: don't let your mentally ill loved ones fly anywhere alone when they are in a crisis. Flying is too stressful, and people are no longer tolerant of strange behavior in airplanes and airports. Anyone remember that poor guy who was shot to death in the Miami airport a couple years back? You would think that reasonable people would remember that someone acting strangely is far, far more likely to be mentally ill than a terrorist, and that while some mentally ill people ARE dangerous, most are not. And even the dangerous ones could use some compassion. But compassion and reason are out of favor these days. So: if you have to, pay an aide to fly with your sick loved one. Don't send them off alone to face airport security.

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Second thing from the Times. Krugman. I love that, besides being right-on as usual, he riffs off a Talking Heads song here:

Now, as they survey the wreckage of their cause, conservatives may ask themselves: “Well, how did we get here?” They may tell themselves: “This is not my beautiful Right.” They may ask themselves: “My God, what have we done?”


But their movement is the same as it ever was. And Mr. Bush is movement conservatism’s true, loyal heir.

In 50 years, that will have to be footnoted in his collected works. Or it won't be, and the reference will be lost in the mists of time.