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The 152 comments, 5,238 people reached and numerous angry faces let us know that we had a problem. A column by Nicholas Kristof, who took issue with how President Trump is responding to the recent coronavirus pandemic, had drawn a lot of attention on social media. First of all, let us just say we are sorry for not making it clear that it was an opinion piece. Second of all, part of our responsibility as a news organization is to explain why we do what we do. This is the first in a series of editorials aimed to do just that.

On our viewpoints page (4A) we strive to present opinions from a variety of sources. Approximately, 60 percent of our column writers are conservative. We run columns from liberal writers, too, since about 40 percent of our readers tend to vote Democrat.

One thing that we have learned over the years, is that both sides will complain about what is in the paper. If both sides are complaining/commenting, then we know we have done our job.

Another question may be if we know the majority of our readers are conservative why dont we run all conservative columnists? Here at the News Messenger, we believe in provoking thoughts, education and we aim for about a 60 percent conservative/40 percent liberal split on columnists. Our conservative columnists include Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, George Will, who runs twice a week and Byron York. Locally, the conservative viewpoint is led by Jerry Hopkins, who runs on Thursday. On the left, we have Nicolas Kristof and Bret Stephens. Also provided is a daily Bible verse and the thoughts for the day.

Ross Ramsey writes for Texas politics and Ed Sterling who writes capital highlights, an always up-to-date Texas happening on the state level.

From a local standpoint our focus is and always will be local news coverage. That is our strong suit and what our local readers want the local coverage of city hall, county government, schools and sports. Some of our local columnists that run in the paper that provide information about happenings and events are John Moore, Jack Dillard, Matt Garrett, Seth Buckner, Sam Smith and Louraiseal McDonald who offer important local information for our readers.

Buckner and Smith are our religion columnists. They go on the religion pages either on Wednesday or Saturday.

Moore adds humor each week and is printed on page 5A. McDonald, Garrett and Dillard all provide information about agriculture, but it is written from their points of view. We also print a daily political cartoon just because they are funny. Once again, we try to alternate between conservative and liberal points of view.

One thing that is disheartening in todays world is how quickly fights begin on Facebook. The state of the world today drives some of this thinking. We cant we have a civil discussion without calling each other names and making caustic comments. Viewpoints are great, but lets have a civic discussion. We miss the days when you could respectively disagree and still be friends.

As part of the opinion page, you can write a Letter to the Editor. We like letters! Please feel free to send some our way. We do not accept anonymous letters and nor letters that endorse or oppose specific candidates. Issues of the day are excellent letters and have great value to us and our readers.

Two other features on our opinion page that may be confusing are called Another View and Our View. Another View is an editorial picked up from another newspaper written by that publications editorial board. We try to stay Texas specific if possible.

Our View are editorials written from our editorial boards point of view and include the opinions of those individuals. This board does not include any of our reporters who work diligently covering the local news of the community.

Most importantly, we heard your voices.

As a result of this feedback, The Marshall News Messenger will no longer be sharing non-local columnists on our social media pages. While its easily identifiable because of its location and header in the print edition, it is difficult on social media to make sure people understand these are opinions featured on the opinion page.

Excerpt from:
Our View: Why we choose to run items on the Opinion page - Marshall News Messenger

Before audiences got a chance to see it, The Hunt entered theaters on Friday as one of the most polarizing and notorious films of the year. The movie is a dark satire in which a group of conservatives are kidnapped and hunted for sport by sadistic liberals, and it was originally scheduled to be released by Universal last September.

But the studio suspended advertising for The Hunt over the summer, after mass shootings in Ohio, California and Texas. And the film, written by Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse and directed by Craig Zobel, drew criticism from political pundits and potential viewers who felt it was mocking red-state Americans. President Trump appeared to condemn the film in tweets that did not mention The Hunt by name but referred to a movie he said was made in order to inflame and cause chaos. In August, Universal canceled the film then, after reconsidering last month, decided to open it on March 13.

This unpredictable chain of events came as a shock to Betty Gilpin, who stars in The Hunt as Crystal, a resourceful Southerner determined to fight her way out of that mysterious battlefield. Gilpin, a star of the series GLOW and Nurse Jackie, never imagined The Hunt would be seen as divisive; she has variously found herself eagerly awaiting its opening and reconciling herself to the possibility it might never come out at all.

As Gilpin explained in a recent phone interview, I wanted to take the internet by the lapels and say, This is the exact opposite of the movie that you think it is. In fact, if these are the things youre interested in, you would love this movie. You in particular you there, screaming.

Gilpin spoke about why she wanted to make The Hunt and how she reacted to the vehement debate before its release. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

How were you approached about The Hunt?

I had worked with Craig Zobel on American Gods, and when Craig said, I want you to star in this studio movie, I said, Thats not really how actor-movie math works. Its like the first time you get a credit card and they ask, Whats your credit score? Well, Ive never had a credit card before. And I read the script and completely fell in love with it.

What did you think the film was trying to say?

I would say its a satire of our present moment where, politically and culturally, were getting farther and farther away from each other, that the walls of our respective bubbles are suddenly turning to steel, and its harder and harder to penetrate either side. Its supposed to be a movie that you can take your family member who you cant make eye contact with at Thanksgiving and you sit next to each other and laugh at each other and laugh at yourselves.

What was your own political upbringing like?

I come from a liberal family. I also know that my particular avocado-toast world is hardly a reflection of the rest of the country. I think its important to make movies where you can just escape from it all. But I also think that if we avoid ever asking uncomfortable questions in the movies, thats a misstep because movie theaters are the last place were all coming together and watching the same thing.

How did you feel when Universal decided to pause the films marketing campaign, when it was still planned for release last September?

I think if this had happened when I was 19, I would have had to be airlifted to the Blanche DuBois it almost happened for me hospital. But at 33, I already know youre never going to be shown to a room where theyre going to Emerald-City away your problems and your ex-boyfriends are all lined up ready to apologize.

Metaphorically, it felt like I was a biology teacher who was doing the papier-mch-baking-soda volcano experiment, and out the window behind me, a real volcano went off. So now more than ever, we should learn from these volcanoes, but maybe well wait until the lava dries.

When you saw The Hunt become a political lightning rod, and being characterized in ways that didnt fit with what you thought was its message, did you want to tell people that they were prejudging it unfairly?

Well, as a personal rule, I think a great way to decide if I like a movie is to see the movie, but I also didnt know if adding my voice to the fray might deter that possibility. I didnt know if, several years from now, our movie was going to be put on lampsandtirescleaningservice.com. We had no idea what was going to happen.

How did you feel when you learned that the movie was for the time being canceled?

The most evil cell in my brain is thinking, Will I be 80 and coaxing the UPS delivery guy into my house to show him production photos of my canceled movie, sobbing into his sleeve? But Im not interested in that narrative.

A couple days after the movie was canceled, my dog died. That felt way more meaningful than any sort of dull sadness over my IMDb StarMeter.

Now that you have come full circle and The Hunt is getting released after all, do you still have the same enthusiasm for the project that you did at the outset?

I think the entertainment business flies on the idea that if you just keep running, right around the corner is Eden a paradise where you just keep trying to be the thinnest, youngest, memoir-chapter-iest version of yourself, and the next role is going to open that door. The sooner we all agree that is a fallacy, I think the more interesting all of our work will be.

In some ways, this cancellation cut out five more years of me chasing a thing that doesnt exist. I love what I do, and I want to continue to be an actor, and I want health insurance and appetizers and the fleeting moments of catharsis punctuated by moments of self-loathing. But I know that theres nothing on the other side of the door, and actually, the hallway is where its at.

Youre going to play Ann Coulter in the new season of American Crime Story about Bill Clintons impeachment. Do people assume, because of your role in The Hunt, that youre going to play her as a caricature?

Im definitely not trying to mock her. Im trying to play her authentically. Even though I have my set of opinions and feelings, Im not interested as a viewer in watching echo-chamber propaganda where its a bunch of people who look like me agreeing with each other and complimenting each others yoga pants. Im more interested in doing work that does the opposite of that.

Do you see any connections between Crystal, your character in The Hunt, and Debbie, the enterprising pro wrestler you play on GLOW?

A through-line with Debbie, Crystal and myself is that were being asked to do 10 percent of what we can do. But we tell ourselves, if I were just given the opportunity to do the full 100 percent, maybe it could be magnificent. Maybe I could feel like the superhero I tell myself at night that maybe I could be, if I were just given the chance.

So when the movie was canceled originally, I was like, Oh, dont worry I already canceled it in my brain. Sorry, Twitter, youre no match for my inner self-saboteur.

Youre about to start filming what will be the last season of GLOW. How do you feel about that show coming to an end?

Its bittersweet. Maybe people feel this way around their family, because youre around people who know you youre the bravest, loudest, most comfortable version of yourself, and youre able to audition a version of yourself thats a little more turned up than who you are in the world.

That is how I feel on the GLOW set. It has been an experiment where weve all rehearsed our empowered selves, and Im hoping that will last that that sort of empowerment training can bleed into my work in the real world. If I dont end every email I send with an apology, it would be a start.

See the original post here:
Betty Gilpin Is Proud of The Hunt, the Years Most Controversial Movie - The New York Times

In recent weeks, fear of the coronavirus has spread as rapidly as the disease. Confusion and speculation have also festered. Where did the virus originate? How dangerous is it, really? Are we responding appropriately to the virus, or are we giving in to hysteria?

Some people think we should trust doctors, scientists, and health officials to answer these questions. Others think the truth can be found from talking heads on cable news.

I decided to cut out the middle men and go directly to the source. I reached out to the coronavirus, who is currently living in an undisclosed location on the East Coast and everywhere else on the planet. He immediately agreed to an interview if we could agree upon an appropriate location.

Initially, he suggested getting coffee in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport. I asked if we could chat someplace cleaner and less depressing, so we met inside a medical waste dumpster at Hackensack University Hospital. What follows is our conversation.

FIENE: Im not sure what to call you. COVID-19 seems a little formal, but some people have said its racist to label you the Wuhan virus. Does that name bother you?

VIRUS: Not at all, Im very proud of my Chinese heritage. But Im also really into the whole international thing these days. So if you want to call me the Wuhan virus, cool. But I have lots of other nicknames now toothe Persian Pestilence, Mussolinis Revenge. People in New Jersey have started calling me the Jabronis Roni. Those are all good.

FIENE: One of the things thats caused some confusion is people comparing you to the seasonal flu. Some folks point out that you are perhaps ten times as lethal as the flu, while others have noted that far more people have died of the flu this year. How do you make sense of that?

VIRUS: Its like when Aerosmith had Guns N Roses on their bill back in 88. The sell-out, hacky headliner may have sold more tickets because theyd been around longer, but the opening act rocked way harder and got way bigger once they came into contact with people.

The flu is lame. Hes old news. Stick me in a room filled with 30,000 sweaty people all sharing Miller Lite and Marlboro Reds and Ill slay way more than he can.

FIENE: Where would you find a room filled with 30,000 sweaty people all sharing beer and cigarettes?

VIRUS: I dont know. A Guns N Roses concert, I guess.

FIENE: Many people, like Ann Coulter, have suggested that fears of contracting you are overblown because youre only a serious threat to the elderly? Is that a fair point?

VIRUS: Thats a very fair point if you are fine with old people dying. Which I am.

FIENE: Sticking with the conspiracy theory questions for a moment, Jerry Falwell Jr has suggested that people are making you a bigger deal than you are in order to defeat President Trump. Any truth to that?

VIRUS: In a technical sense, no. In a please believe that so I can kill you after you fail to take reasonable precautions in order to show loyalty to the president sense, yes, its completely true. Please believe it. Hand washing is for socialists.

FIENE: So the medias not using you to defeat Donald Trump?

VIRUS: Well, as all the people Ive killed can tell you, the media arent manufacturing a crisis. But yeah, many of them are framing the crisis in a certain way to make the president look bad. I mean, good grief, did you see Paul Krugman celebrating the Down Jones dropping below 25,000 a few weeks ago? I havent seen anyone rejoicing over a collapse like that since Socratess enemies watched the hemlock kick in.

FIENE: In his address to the nation last Wednesday night, President Trump urged us not to politicize you. But the next day, he and Joe Biden were attacking each other over the crisis. What do you think? As youre becoming a bigger problem, should people put aside partisan squabbling?

VIRUS: No, people should definitely fight over me.

FIENE: In what way?

VIRUS: Preferably hand-to-hand combat. With spitting.

FIENE: According to doctors, you dont cause diarrhea or similar problems. Do you have an obligation to tell people they should stop buying a nine-month supply of toilet paper?

VIRUS: Im actually in contract negotiations for an endorsement deal with Charmin right now, so my lawyer has advised me not to answer that question.

FIENE: You managed to get the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NCAA to suspended athletic activities. Why?

VIRUS: Some people may be surprised to learn this, but Im a trans exclusionary radical feminist, and I was getting fed up with biological men preventing women from being able to succeed in their athletic competitions. And I just sort of figured you cant have men in womens sports if you dont have sports.

FIENE: With no sports to watch, how would you suggest people pass the time while theyre quarantined at home?

VIRUS: Spend quality time with your children. Read classic works of literature. Make sure to lick your neighbors mailboxes.

FIENE: Some people have suggested that you are Gods way of punishing mankind for certain sins. Is that true?

VIRUS: Whenever disaster threatens civilization, you humans have this weird habit of concluding that God is punishing other people for their sins. Amazingly, hes never punishing you for yours.

Look, heres what you guys need to understand. Youre all sinners. Youve all fallen short of the glory of God. And whenever some kind of pandemic sweeps through the world, you should each see this as a reminder that we live in a world of sin and corruption, that you are a part of that sin and corruption, and that you need the forgiveness of Jesus that was poured out for the world on the cross.

Its like what Christ said in Luke 13: those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.In other words, if Im floating around outside your door, dont go to God whining about the sins of your neighbor. Go to God asking Him to take away your sins.

FIENE: Wow, as a pastor, I have to say, thats a very theologically accurate take.

VIRUS: Well, you are writing this fake conversation.

FIENE: Good point. Last question. Considering that many people have died of you, do you think its inappropriate for people to make light of the coronavirus?

VIRUS: I get it. Im scary. Theres no vaccine to inoculate you against me as of now. I can infect nursing homes faster than the term cisgender infected academia. Im shutting down your kids schools. Im in danger of destroying your economy. Im taking the lives of your loved ones, so I understand why some people think its inappropriate to joke about me.

But its important to remember why people make jokes in troubling times. Humor is often the only weapon that the powerless have against the things that threaten them. As the old saying goes, we laugh so we dont cry.

So go right ahead. Mock me. Joke about me because, next to prayer, making fun of frightening things that feel out of your control is just about the best coping mechanism you guys have. And I greatly respect you guys for using it.

FIENE: Really?

VIRUS: I mean, not enough to not kill you, but sure.

The rest is here:
Exclusive Interview With Coronavirus: 'I'm Very Proud Of My Chinese Heritage' - The Federalist

Amid all of the current Coronavirus-induced hysteria, the time-honoured practice of shaking hands has come under intense scrutiny due to the possibility that it might aid the transmission of the disease. One of the more fascinating phenomena to arise from this is that a number of prominent people are now outing themselves as perennial handshake-phobes and asking whether we cant all just dispense with the custom once and for all, even after Coronavirus has run its course.

Famously-frenetic broadcaster, Jeremy Vine, tweeted, Can we all just stop shaking hands anyway? Its a practice that started centuries ago to ensure men didnt reach for their swords its a really shite custom regardless of #coronavirus and we should retire it permanently now weve got the excuse.

Agreed! chimed-in Matt Ridley, the brilliantly-erudite author, science journalist and Tory peer, whose forthcoming book, How Innovation Works, I await, feverishly (but not in a Covid-19 sort of way).

Can coronavirus finally end the disgusting practice of shaking hands? asked US arch-conservative, Ann Coulter.

Even that rhetorical savant and now-former MEP, Daniel Hannan, saw fit to pen a piece for the Telegraph in which he proposed the return of the bow and the curtsy as the silver lining of Coronavirus.

Its as if the Coronavirus epidemic has finally given them the validation theyve secretly always craved. But, with the greatest of respect to Jeremy, Matt, Ann and Daniel, they really need to get a grip. Preferably, a firm one.

There are compelling reasons why the handshake has endured and should continue to do so as the preferred form of greeting or signifying an agreement in much of the world ever since it originated 2,500 years ago in Ancient Greece.

A handshake is a powerful ritual a symbol of trust, goodwill and peace. Extending an open hand to another person and grasping theirs in return, maintaining full and sincere eye-contact all-the-while, is a clear, outward reminder to all concerned of the mutual desire for fair, honest and friendly dealings. Its true that any dastardly cad is equally-capable of participating in a handshake, in full, cynical foreknowledge of their intention to deceive, defraud or harm. Nonetheless, for the worlds honest and decent majority, the ritual of the handshake plays an important role in reinforcing the bonds of our shared values.

Human civilisation has had ample opportunity over the past two-and-a-half millennia to R&D the best possible ritualistic technique for people to greet each other or solidify an agreement. There is a reason why the handshake has prevailed and achieved near-global ubiquity as the preferred option. The bow is too aloof and deferential. The fist bump or its prophylactic variant, the elbow bump is too jocular. The furnishing of Namaste-style praying-hands is insufficiently-secular to serve as a universal greeting. The spread-fingered Vulcan salute is too well Vulcan.

The handshake, on the other hand, strikes the perfect balance: personal and cordial, while neither too formal nor too relaxed. It has been the favourite PR tool of politicians for decades. Nothing less than a handshake could have conveyed to the world the reconciliatory aspirations of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un at their historic summit in 2019. A fist bump simply would not have sufficed.

There are few better litmus tests for the measure of a persons character than the way that they shake hands. Do they square up, face-to-face, with conviction and aplomb or do they linger, afar, with uncertain intent and their torsos askew? Worse still, do they demonstrate a profound absence of self-awareness and respect for social norms by intruding too closely upon their opposite numbers personal space? Is their grasp reassuringly-firm, poised and confident or is it as my father calls it a floppy and limp wet fish? Do they convey their engagement and openness by maintaining eye-contact or do they avert their glance, evasively? Like a crystal ball into a persons psyche, the handshake reveals all.

Nothing unites us all in the fabric of human connection like the handshake. In an increasingly atomised world, with our growing reliance on technology, with the furious, howling tribalism of social media, the simple act of clasping palms with another person brings us all that much closer together. It rekindles, daily, our sense of fellowship with the rest of humankind.

By all means, lets take whatever precautionary measures are reasonable and warranted while the spectre of Coronavirus looms over us. But, the handshake has survived the profoundly more-deadly Plague of Justinian, Black Death and Spanish Flu, and it should prevail after coronavirus. So, can we please agree to resume this most important and indispensable of customary social practices, once the current viral scourge has moved on? Lets shake on it.

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Will the handshake outlast coronavirus? - Spectator.co.uk

HONEY, WE MOLESTED THE KIDS!

I wonder if any liberals are re-thinking their insistence that the Boy Scouts allow gay men to take 13-year-old boys on overnight camping trips.

HEADLINE: Boy Scouts Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the Face of Thousands of Child Abuse Allegations

The Boy Scouts of America have long been on the lefts hate list. Any organization that has the temerity to train young men in the virtues of integrity, patriotism and self-reliance is putting itself on the fighting side of liberals!

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, a little group of Boy Scouts took the stage as part of the opening ceremony and were promptly booed by the delegates.

For decades, the BSA has fended off lawsuits demanding that they embrace the holy trinity of Gs: girls, gays and godless atheists. (If only it had occurred to the plaintiffs to start their own organizations! They could have given them names like The Girl Scouts.)

Why would any liberal want to join an organization that was, according to them, sexist, Bible-thumping and bigoted? They didnt. The lawsuits were kill shots.

For the left, whats not to hate about the Boy Scouts? Their oath is: On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Nearly 200 NASA astronauts were Boy Scouts. The great outdoorsman, Teddy Roosevelt, was such a BSA booster than he was made the one and only Chief Scout Citizen, a scout for life.

A Louis Harris & Associates study in 1996 found that men who had been scouts placed a higher value on honesty than those who had not.

But now the lawsuits have killed them. Congratulations, Democrats, The New York Times and corporate America. (I hope all their future employees steal from them, after being raised on Grand Theft Auto instead of the Boy Scout oath.)

From the beginning, BSA has had to deal with child molesters eagerly signing up to go camping with 13-year-old boys in isolated areas away from all observation.

Within a decade of its 1910 founding, the BSA began keeping internal files on ineligible scouting volunteers, known as the perversion files.

Scout leaders were not to be alone with boys and, starting in 1988, all adult applicants were subjected to aggressive background screening. The organization promptly removed any scout leaders based on mere suspicion and alerted law enforcement in about a third of the cases.

Nonetheless, between 1970 and 1991, up to .04% of Boy Scouts may have been molested. Thats about 2,000 out of several million boys.

Given all of this, what sort of escaped mental patient would demand that the Boy Scouts admit openly gay scout leaders?

Yes, we know most gays arent child molesters. How could we not? Its part of our secular catechism, along with the one about most Muslims not being terrorists and most immigrants not being criminals.

But men who molest boys are a small slice infinitesimal really! within a larger category known as gay. Its not two totally different things, like an architect and a dentist. Some men like blondes. Some like brunettes. But theyre all within the category of heterosexual.

No parent is going to send their young sons camping alone in the woods with an openly gay man for the same reason they wouldnt send their adolescent daughters to be alone in the woods with an openly heterosexual man.

And now the BSA has been whiplashed into bankruptcy by liberals demanding, on one hand, that the scouts allow gays to be troop leaders and, on the other hand, filing lawsuits accusing the scouts of not taking strong enough measures to prevent gay troop leaders from molesting boys.

Couldnt liberals get together and decide for themselves whether the Boy Scouts should have been more aggressive in preventing child molestation or less?

For their defense witnesses, the Boy Scouts should call New York Times editors, Democratic politicians and corporate CEOs.

Back in 1980, when a gay guy lost his lawsuit against BSA for dropping him as a scout leader, Wells Fargo, the United Way of San Francisco, Levi Strauss and the Bank of America cut off funding to the organization. San Francisco and Oakland schools prohibited the scouts from using their facilities on weekdays.

After the Supreme Courts disturbingly narrow 5-4 decision in 2000 holding that the Boy Scouts could not be forced to admit gay scout leaders, the Times denounced the decision in an editorial, calling the courts ruling one of its lowest moments of the term.

The following month, the Times ethicist, Randy Cohen, advised a reader to pull her son out of the Cub Scouts, saying it was the ethical thing to do. The ethicist explained: Just as one is honor bound to quit an organization that excludes African-Americans, so you should withdraw from scouting as long as it rejects homosexuals.

Also in response to the Supreme Courts decision, Chase Manhattan Bank, Textron Inc. and dozens more United Way chapters withdrew millions of dollars in contributions. More cities dropped their support of the Boy Scouts.

In his pre-Super Bowl TV interview in 2013, President Barack Obama was still harping on the Boy Scouts refusal to allow gay scoutmasters: Gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does.

On CNN, host Carol Costello haughtily informed a guest opposed to gay scoutmasters, Well, Ill just say that the American Psychological Association has studied the issue that you just mentioned. Homosexuals arent any more likely to molest kids than straight men.

Throughout the lefts 30-year assault on the Boy Scouts for discriminating against gays, the Catholic Church was embroiled in its own molestation crisis. More than 80% of the molester priests were accused of victimizing teenage boys.

Instead of saying, Oh I see what the Boy Scouts are doing, liberals responded to the gay sex-abuse crisis in the priesthood by blaming ... celibacy!

Isnt it a thought crime to question whether sexual preference is determined at birth? But liberals not only believed gayness was the result of an adult lifestyle choice celibacy but they knew how to cure it: Allow priests to marry!

Since the one thing we know is that men molesting boys has nothing to do with being gay, I guess this time its camping that causes sodomy.

Ann Coulter is the writer of 12 best-selling books,

including In Trump We Trust.

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ANN COULTER:The Boy Scouts have long been on the left's hate list - MDJOnline.com