Signs of Revolution (NYT)

appoint HIV positive blind person next time

By LEAH HAGER COHEN

When the Gallaudet University board voted to revoke the appointment of Dr. Jane Fernandes as the institution’s next president, it was a just and commendable decision.

Making Meals Count in New York (NYT)

eliminate the name of the food entirely

The idea of having calories listed alongside prices at fast food chains makes sense.

Pay to Obey (NYT)

intellectual property disparaged

Businesses are receiving patents for devising ways to obey the law — the tax code, to be more specific. What’s next, a patented murder defense?

Assessing the Damages (NYT)

what will ``more reasonable'' mean to a leftist?

no way to tell

it's like a short person calling somebody ``tall''

you wonder what ``tall'' means to him

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that offers a perfect opportunity to pull back to a more reasonable position on punitive damages.

The Untracked Guns of Iraq (NYT)

3 day waiting period, registration and background check proposed

About the last thing the United States ought to be doing in Iraq is funneling weapons into black-market weapons bazaars.

For Staten Island and Brooklyn (NYT)

dire needs enumerated

Two retirements in the New York State Legislature offer an opportunity to bring fresh faces and ideas to a State Capitol in dire need of both.

Turn North Korea Into a Human Rights Issue (NYT)

islam not mentioned

By VACLAV HAVEL, KJELL MAGNE BONDEVIK and ELIE WIESEL

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the North Korean government is responsible for one of the most egregious human-rights and humanitarian disasters in the world today.

Remember to Vote, Hope It Counts (NYT)

it doesn't count.

the odds of something you care about being decided by your single vote are nil.

if everybody thought that way, it would be worth voting, but they don't, so it isn/t.

the profit is in persuading other people to vote your way.

a message you won't find anywhere.

By MICHAEL WALDMAN, WENDY WEISER and OPEN, N.Y.

Examples of ways the vote could be suppressed next week around the country.

A Lung Cancer Breakthrough? (NYT)

column inches required

The use of annual CT scans to screen for lung cancer is either an enormous breakthrough or an unproven tool whose real value is yet to be determined.

New Jersey’s Senate Race (NYT)

organized crime family more favorable to the NYT

In his race with State Senator Thomas Kean Jr., there is no question that Robert Menendez is the better choice.

The Fence Campaign (NYT)

beltway problem is voters

A border fence is the product of a can’t-do, won’t-do approach to a serious national problem.

A Windy Wal-Mart (NYT)

people not good enough to move to new york live there

By LUIS ALBERTO URREA

Chicago gets a big-box store unlike any other.

On the Rio Grande, the World’s a Stage (NYT)

unable to read the nyt

By PAM HOUSTON

Hunkering down for winter in a one-act town.

Pick Your Poison (NYT)

doom for mid america spelled

By BOBBIE ANN MASON

In rural Kentucky, where the health of the land once meant plowing manure under the soil each spring, the future is not in cows and corn.

Sweet Home Omaha (NYT)

nyt influence nil in omaha

By RICHARD DOOLING

What if it is time to cash out of the housing market? Where do you go?

Nicaragua Bans Abortion (NYT)

also the US before 1973

If Nicaraguans want to see the possible consequences of their new law, they can look next door to El Salvador, where all abortions have been banned since 1998.

The Senate Race in Connecticut (NYT)

whatever is worst for Bush is best for democrats

The New York Times endorses Ned Lamont for Senate.

Future Tax Shock (NYT)

lower spending unthought

tax receipts differ from tax rates

it doesn't matter, these are democrat thinkers, the plotline is fixed forever

The president and his supporters have laid the groundwork for higher taxes and hamstrung government, no matter who is in office in the months and years to come.

Stuck in the Canal (NYT)

desperate play for european circulation

By DAVID FROMKIN

The Suez crisis was a divide in the history of the Middle East, a moment when America pushed out the Europeans and then tried to take their place — and the reverberations are still felt today.

Preparations for a Flu Pandemic (NYT)

news cycle slows

Neither America nor the rest of the world is ready to handle a worst-case pandemic.

Building Better Citizens (NYT)

democrat voter base increased

Allowing former convicts to vote strengthens democracy, and helps them to integrate into society and move beyond a life of crime.

No Taxes Until After the Election (NYT)

suspicion disturbance does not rise to level of dot connection

The possibility that I.R.S. commissioner Mark Everson is wielding power in ways to please his boss, President Bush, is especially disturbing given that he has courted that suspicion before.

Conserving That Compassion (NYT)

judy garland praised

If the last month has taught us anything about the Republican Party, it is that homophobia is campaign strategy, not conviction.

Will Play for Food (NYT)

foods of bangladesh suggested

By HARLAN COBEN

Let’s do something for the youths of this country and end the American Snack Tyranny.

Staying the Course Right Over a Cliff (NYT)

everything is a nail to linguist

By GEORGE LAKOFF

To fully understand why the president’s change in linguistic strategy won’t work, it’s helpful to consider why ``stay the course'' possesses such power.

For New York Comptroller (NYT)

a comptroller controls the movement of elevators

With some trepidation, The New York Times endorses Christopher Callaghan for New York comptroller.

Compounding a Political Outrage (NYT)

the only entertaining attack ad on the air

it's not racist, it mocks male interest in women

the same thing that women honor by watching beauty contests

men, given their choice, enter a pig, as commentary

A campaign commercial transparently honed as a racist appeal to Tennessee voters has remained on the air, despite assurances from Republican sponsors that it was pulled down.

Real Timetables for Iraq (NYT)

wrong, of course

but it ensures media material in iraq

more beheading videos

small cost, to get at Bush, for a liberal

We hope it’s clear to President Bush that Americans have already lost patience with his bumbling conduct of the war, and the remaining grace period can be measured in months, not years.

Editorial Observer: The Supreme Court’s Crusade: Fairness for the Powerful (NYT)

arbitrary fines suggested

By ADAM COHEN

The Supreme Court should develop a constitutional theory of excessive punishment that covers human and corporate wrongdoers equally.

Weakening the Fight for Mine Safety (NYT)

there's no such thing as safety except to a bureaucrat and a tv reporter

President Bush resorted to a recess appointment to place Richard Stickler at the heart of enforcing new safety reforms that, in earlier hearings, the appointee himself had claimed were not at all that necessary.

A Ruling for Equality in New Jersey (NYT)

NYT core readership

The New Jersey Supreme Court decision that committed same-sex couples be accorded the same rights as married heterosexual couples is an important step forward.

Money Down the Drain in Iraq (NYT)

stunning reversal : NYT deplores money down the drain!

generally you get it when the urgency is getting things done fast and the cost isn't so important

it's a sign of competence to get the priorities right, as to what sort of waste you'll trade off for what sort of gain

compare the war on poverty, where money spent made poverty more attractive, as predicted

As Americans look for explanations of how things went so horribly wrong in Iraq, they should not overlook the shameful breakdowns in reconstruction contracting.

The Wrong Partner in Israel (NYT)

higher wall needed

Creating new obstacles to peace with the Palestinians is the last thing Israel needs after the Lebanon fiasco.

Throwing Back the Big Fish (NYT)

editors' ill-starred 401(k)

Two Senate committees are investigating whether the Securities and Exchange Commission staff held back when it came to taking the testimony of a prominent Wall Street player.

A Congressional Endorsement (NYT)

appeasement doesn't work on leftists anywhere

fatwa issued anyway

Christopher Shays has been a good congressman, but not good enough to overcome the fact that his re-election would help empower a party that is long overdue for a shakeup. We strongly endorse his opponent, Diane Farrell.

First, Rename All the Lawyers (NYT)

call them aclu

By JOHN FABIAN WITT

If a rose would smell as sweet by any other name, will trial lawyers smell better with a new one?

Trying to Contain the Iraq Disaster (NYT)

strategy to expand the conflict not considered

Today we want to describe a strategy for containing the disaster in Iraq as much as humanly possible. It is hardly a recipe for triumph.

Puerto Rico, an Island in Distress (NYT)

democrat economic policies tried

After decades of economic progress, Puerto Rico is struggling, and the mainland has both missed this horrific economic slide and contributed to it through benign neglect.

Brown University’s Debt to Slavery (NYT)

slavery exists today in the democratic party base , namely mindless black voters who therefore have no vote

the welfare bloc

vote for the white people who will give you stuff

then wonder why you don't seem to have any dignity

A long-awaited report on Brown University’s 18th-century links to slavery should dispel any lingering smugness among Northerners that slavery was essentially a Southern problem.

For Connecticut’s Governor (NYT)

NYT nothing-to-say code : any of the verbs ``squander,'' ``shirk,'' ``abdicate''

the human face of their moral posture

Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut should not squander the opportunity to aim high. With that admonition, we endorse her for governor.

A Reason to Drill in the Gulf (NYT)

a better idea : use revenues from sales of the new york times

a swamp tax

The best chance of saving the vanishing wetlands and barrier islands along the coast of Louisiana is a bill that would guarantee the state a share of oil and gas revenues from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rethinking Judicial Elections (NYT)

must be an op-ed

The 80-year-old system that has allowed New York’s Democratic Party leaders to pack the state Supreme Court with their handpicked favorites is about to expire.

Editorial Observer: Low Fidelity: The Collision of Loyalties in Real and Virtual Football (NYT)

modern times scold

if newspapers were better people would read them instead

By NICHOLAS KULISH

To gloat over a fantasy player’s success against your buddy’s real team would have been roundly condemned 10 years ago. Now it is tacitly accepted.

The Promise of Eliot Spitzer (NYT)

populist nannyism longed for

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s goal — a goal we share as we endorse him for governor in the Nov. 7 election— is nothing short of restoring New York as a model for other states, the way it once was under Al Smith or Nelson Rockefeller or Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Blowing in the Wind (NYT)

maybe, maybe not

wouldn't that be true?

he seems less likely to take popular media positions than the press, so far

that's his attraction, if you hate the media

What finally caused President Bush to very publicly consult with his generals to consider a change in tactics in Iraq was the fear that his party could lose in the Congressional elections next month.

Group: Congo Park Hippos Face Extinction (AP)

hippocracy

Government soldiers, as well as Hutu rebels who fled Rwanda's 1994 genocide and took refuge in the dense forests of eastern Congo, also have been blamed for killing hippos and other wildlife in parks around the country.

Bus Crash Kills 29 in Bolivia (AP)

``plunge'' not in column-filler headline, a rarity

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- A bus plunged off a mountain road in central Bolivia early Saturday, killing 29 people and injuring 25, police said.

Fire on the Water (NYT)

rare fish threatened

Turning the Great Lakes into a live-fire zone is the kind of decision that says little to terrorists but speaks volumes to the rest of us.

The Governor and the Station (NYT)

profit deplored

A complete solution is needed in the redevelopment of part of Manhattan’s grand old post office building into a railroad station.

China’s Milestone, Our Millstone (NYT)

paper is not wealth

The size and growth of China’s holdings of foreign currency and securities, which will soon top $1 trillion, mean increasing vulnerability for the United States.

Flexing Our Muscles in Space (NYT)

violence not caused by gravity

The old notion that space might provide the perfect arena for international cooperation may be yielding to a new era of competition - one not seen since the cold war race to the moon.

Appreciations: A Survivor’s Optimism (NYT)

whining leftist

By MAURA J. CASEY

Sigmund Strochlitz, who died Monday in his home in New London, Conn., typified the determination of so many Holocaust survivors.

Consolidating Food Safety (NYT)

food safety apparatus reorganization crisis

it's compound noun day at the NYT

it ceased to exist in the real world at the second noun, ``safety.''

code for rules.

It should not take a health crisis to force a reorganizing of America’s food safety apparatus.

It’s Voter-Fooling Time in America (NYT)

left stung by offhand remark

Voters need to pay ever closer attention to what the candidates say in this world of mixed media and mixed messages.

Closing in on Hedge Funds (NYT)

editors' 401(k) hit hard

It is time for Congress and federal regulators to take an unflinching look at how deals really get done in today’s markets.

Supertax Me (NYT)

the suggestion tax

By MARTIN B. SCHMIDT

I have a modest suggestion to reverse the obesity trend: enact a tax on drive-through food.

The G.O.P.’s Bad Bet (NYT)

allied themselves with indian casinos, major lobbyists.

By CHARLES MURRAY

A month before a major election, the Republicans have allied themselves with a scattering of voters who are upset by online gambling and have outraged the millions who love it.

Behind the Veil (NYT)

blessed are the beekeepers

The issue in need of serious discussion is not the niqab — the veil that covers all but a woman’s eyes — but the larger question of the place of Europe’s Muslim minority.

Mr. Pombo’s Map (NYT)

must be proposing drilling for oil somewhere

The America that Congressman Richard Pombo of California has in mind for us is a nation committed to devouring itself, one barrel of oil at a time.

Touting the Benefits of Fish (NYT)

code for lesbian lifestyle

Even vulnerable groups, like pregnant women and young children, could benefit by eating more fish if they avoided the most contaminated species.

A Dangerous New Order (NYT)

courts packed by the left bypassed

Administration officials and Republican leaders in Congress wasted no time giving Americans a taste of the order created by the new law on military tribunals.

Hoyer Remark 'Racist,' GOP's Steele Charges (WaPo)

an Uncle Tom Swifty

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele accused a leading Democratic congressman yesterday of racial insensitivity for saying the Republican candidate has "slavishly" followed the GOP.

No Spoils for the Victors (NYT)

hopefully advanced age of some supreme court wingbats unnoticed

By BRUCE BARTLETT

Congress will be on automatic pilot for the next two years regardless of which party is in control.

Monitoring a Little-Noticed War (NYT)

Dafur unnoticed

All countries with influence, starting with the United States and Japan, should push the Sri Lankan government to allow international human rights monitors.

A Treat Worthy of Cinderella (NYT)

cinderella syndrome

rescue by people of good intentions figures large in the plot

Walt Disney company has announced promising new guidelines for the way it promotes food to its impressionable clientele.

If the Price Is Right (NYT)

works like government, and every, bureaucracy

Too often with leveraged buyouts it is the public stockholders who end up getting the raw end of the deal.

The Odor From Capitol Hill (NYT)

no elections for NYT editor

Congressmen caught in wrongdoing at this time of year like to complain that they’re the victims of election-eve politics. If the looming elections inspire whistleblowers, we say bravo.

Congress’s Charity Cases (NYT)

organizational attractors not recognized

for example, the compassionate left and the editors of the NYT

By FRANCES R. HILL

Charities serve many indispensable purposes, but financing the livings of the powerful and privileged is not one of them.

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? (NYT)

connoisseur of death squads

By JEFF STEIN

Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just don’t care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy we’re fighting.

Paying for Better Parenting (NYT)

legalizing prostitution suggested

New York is searching for new ways to fight persistent poverty, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Commission for Economic Opportunity has recommended useful reforms.

France in Denial (NYT)

we owe finding absurd and cynical to the French

We found it absurd and cynical when the French National Assembly voted to make it illegal to deny that there was an Armenian genocide.

Energy Shortage (NYT)

one warning sign of passivity : no lines at gas stations

Under President Bush, the Department of Energy has been more passive than ever.

And the Winner Is ... Me (NYT)

deceased voters hardest hit

Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy.

Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize (NYT)

apparently has not spoken against global warming

Mr. Pamuk, the Turkish novelist who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, lives in a world where the freedom to speak the truth has to be reasserted every day against political forces that would rather not hear it.

Great Candidates? That’s Debatable (NYT)

the sound bite newspaper

This year in New York, when it comes to debates, the magic number seems to be two. We’d like to see more.

An Alzheimer’s Treatment Debunked (NYT)

vast supply of funds proposed

taken from what?

Discouraging results from a new study speak to the desperate need for effective new treatments for Alzheimer’s.

Faith-Based Profits (NYT)

intrasystem goals come first

they're less corrosive in faith based systems

A recent Times series showed that the wall between church and state is being replaced by a platform that raises religious organizations to a higher legal plane than their secular counterparts.

Ending a Housing Giveaway (NYT)

rent control is in elementary economics textbooks as a perfect example of certain failure

not for leftists

the failure in fact is a source of continuing crisis demanding their intervention

A strong push for reasonably priced apartments is needed if New York is going to hold on to its middle class.

Waging War, One Police Precinct at a Time (NYT)

exit polls

By PHILLIP CARTER

Counterinsurgency is more like an election than a military operation.

Poisoned Justice (NYT)

unmentioned religion involved

The investigation into the death of human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib was an important test for Indonesia’s still young democracy. It has failed several times over.

The New York Senate Race (NYT)

the moonbat endoresement

We enthusiastically endorse Hillary Clinton for re-election, while watching with interest to see if she can convince the country that she has as much aptitude for the presidency as she does for her current job.

Guilty Until Confirmed Guilty (NYT)

al qaeda votes democratic, they figure

Our nation is outraged when an authoritarian government jails an American on trumped-up charges and brings him or her before a phony court. Surely that is not the model we want to follow in our nation’s prisons.

A Writer Above Politics (NYT)

double cliche introduces a negative, always a sign of literary insight

By RANDY BOYAGODA

One can only hope that the rush to conscript writer Orhan Pamuk of Turkey as a literary mediator in the clash of civilizations will fail.

Behind Enemy Reactors (NYT)

clinton apologist

By JON B. WOLFSTHAL

The 1994 United States-North Korean nuclear agreement known as the Agreed Framework delayed the acquisition of nuclear materials by North Korea. To argue otherwise is to play politics with history.

The Politics of Power (NYT)

regulation effect when you vote for regulators

all regulators

The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control has conveniently delayed the announcement of rate increases, widely seen as inevitable, until after the November election.

A Medical-Legal Travesty in Libya (NYT)

Libya angers the NYT editors, indicates Bush support

Rather than acknowledging the negligence of its health system, the Libyan government charged five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor with deliberately infecting hundreds of children with H.I.V.

Science Ignored, Again (NYT)

white lab coat is proof

Stephen Johnson, the administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, should pay more attention to the scientists in his own agency and less to the political strategists in the White House.

AIDS Tests, Everywhere (NYT)

third world medicine suggested

Governments need to follow Botswana’s lead and make AIDS testing routine in every health clinic and hospital.

Something in Hong Kong’s Air (NYT)

poverty preferred

The air throughout Hong Kong’s tropical landscape has grown steadily more polluted — tainted by dark, unhealthy clouds from power plants, traffic and underregulated smokestacks from the Chinese mainland.

Tragedy on the Skyline (NYT)

handwringer lobby

The deaths of Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor laid bare a troubling situation unknown to most New Yorkers — a treacherous free-flying corridor over the northern stretch of the East River.

A Growing Free-for-All (NYT)

standard of living rises

The Bush administration has again abdicated responsibility for protecting consumers when huge companies combine.

Mulch Madness (NYT)

wetland quagmire

By STEVE FLEISCHLI

The safety of our nation’s already depleted wetlands comes down to sellers and consumers of cypress mulch.

Kim Jong-il’s Suicide Watch (NYT)

giesha girls

By B. R. MYERS

To understand North Korea, think hard about fascist Japan.

Foolish Vaccine Exemptions (NYT)

the value is in vaccinating other children, not your own

States need to work harder at educating parents about the value of vaccination and should get tougher in granting exemptions.

Armies of Children (NYT)

what's next on the deploring list, suicide bombers?

The International Criminal Court is now drawing attention to a widespread, yet widely ignored, horror: the recruitment of child soldiers.

Doubting Inhofe (NYT)

sex change

hystera means uterus

as in panties in a wad at the NYT

If there is such a thing as a hysteria of doubt in the debate over climate change, then Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is its master.

The Age of Impunity (NYT)

squandering deplored

but not as bad as shirking, in the NYT moral authority scale

President Bush has squandered so much of America’s moral authority that efforts to shame or bully the right behavior from adversaries (and allies) sound hollow.

Solving the Korean Stalemate, One Step at a Time (NYT)

more mush from the wimp

By JIMMY CARTER

What must be avoided is to leave a beleaguered nuclear nation convinced that it is permanently excluded from the international community.

300 Million (NYT)

300 million democrats seen

America has big problems, but it also has 300 million reasons to be hopeful.

An Impossible Job (NYT)

uselessness of UN proved

Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, the next United Nations secretary general, cannot succeed without Washington’s active cooperation, or without pushing through the reforms that fell short in the current term.

The Cost of Doing Your Duty (NYT)

whistleblower wrongdoing

Consider the fate of the Navy lawyer whose integrity helped spark the debate over fair treatment for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Photos and a Fair Trial (NYT)

elephants banned from room

Physical materials in a courtroom that send a message run the risk of prejudicing the jury against the defendant.

A Farm Race in Iowa (NYT)

either gay farmers or environuts drive editorial

There is a governor’s race going on in Iowa, but the race to watch is the one for secretary of agriculture.

Ready for Its Close-Up (NYT)

newspaper deplores competition

risky risky

For Google, acquiring YouTube is hardly risk-free.

Another Killing in Moscow (NYT)

must be a journalist

journalists are more favored than even brutal dictators, by the left's journalists.

We may never know who killed Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist, because politically motivated crimes have a way of never being solved in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

North Korea and the Bomb (NYT)

moonbat idea follows

Let us all agree: North Korea’s government is too erratic, too brutal, and too willing to sell what it has built to have a nuclear bomb.

Looking Over the Wall (NYT)

good people against bad people

The wall builders have made their point, and it’s a lousy one. Now it is time for those who want serious immigration reform to look beyond them.

The White House and Mr. Abramoff (NYT)

page scandal hits lobbyist scandal

``no lede'' problem solved

The idea that disgraced former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff exerted no influence with the Bush administration seems about as believable as Mark Foley's claim that his only interest in 16-year-old pages was "mentoring."

Protecting a Freedom to Insult (NYT)

everybody wants to set an example or be wise when young

how great is the debt owed to cliches at the NYT

When it comes to one of the most basic tenets of democracy - freedom of speech and the press - Iraq is not setting an example that even the youngest of democracies would be wise to follow.

Editorial Observer: American Elections and the Grand Old Tradition of Disenfranchisement (NYT)

guest voter program threatened

By ADAM COHEN

Poll taxes and literacy tests are unconstitutional today, but the forces of disenfranchisement have come up with creative new methods.

Roller Coaster at the Pump (NYT)

count the economic errors in this one line

1. supply equals demand

2. elasticity determines how much the price moves to regulate supply and regulate demand. If people are really reluctant to cut back when the supply is reduced, then the price moves a lot, as it has to, to get them to cut back.

3. if the demand grows faster than the ability to supply, then the price goes up so it doesn't.

4. there is no absolute ``demand.'' There's a demand at every price : the higher the price, the less the demand. There's a supply at every price : the higher the price, the greater the supply. Draw the two curves, and where they agree on a price for a quantity of gasoline, that's the supply and the demand you see.

If you can't get that right in your mind, you can't reason about anything economic.

As long as the demand for oil and gasoline grows faster than the ability to produce and refine them, the slightest shocks to supply will keep sending prices rocketing higher.

Speedy Lines for Trusted Fliers (NYT)

unless the screening is pointless in the first place, in which case it's a fee for bypassing a useless roust

It is imperative that registered travelers not be allowed to get by with less intense security screening.

Canola Oil Reduces Risk of Heart Disease (AP)

once known as rapeseed, before political correctness

niger seed is now nyjer seed, so careful are the seed people these days. You never know who will take offense.

The U.S. Canola Association, which petitioned FDA for permission to make the claim,

Firefighters Find House Full of Garbage (AP)

woman firefighter vs bachelor apartment

Amish Schoolgirl Hoped to Spare Others (AP)

drizzle represents sadness to AP reporters milking every angle

GEORGETOWN, Pa. -- Under a cold, steady drizzle, the Amish drove in horse and buggy to a farmland cemetery Friday to bury the last of five girls shot to death by an intruder as new details emerged of heroism inside their schoolhouse.

Gallaudet Students Protest New President (AP)

chant-free protest

``hey hey ho ho / provost Jane has got to go''

for instance.

WASHINGTON -- Protests over Gallaudet University's choice for president of the school for the deaf escalated Friday as about 200 students blocked access to a campus building.

Students at Gallaudet began blockading the campus building Thursday night in protest of the selection of Provost Jane Fernandes as president. Many stood on the stairs in the rain, holding signs with slogans such as "Stop the Oppression."

Homeless Men Are Aging on the Streets (AP)

the aging is really bad out there

That has implications for governments, which may find housing the chronically homeless is cheaper than treating the health problems exacerbated by aging on the streets.

Chemical Plant Fire in N.C. Losing Spark (AP)

why evacuation compliance is low

Worried officials urged more than 17,000 people to leave their homes, but were unsure how many complied.

Those who did won't be allowed back home at least until the fire is fully extinguished.

Good Grief (NYT)

good news for females

By AMITAI ETZIONI

There is no set form for grief, and no ``right'' way to express it.

Oh Dear, Too Late for the White Rabbits (NYT)

NYT reader's testimonial

By SIMON WINCHESTER

I have been set free from well near 60 years of obsession and compulsion, born of a mother’s lesson to a small and highly impressionable child.

We Can’t Go Home Again (NYT)

it's all about me

By SAM BAHOUR

The Israeli authorities have decided that my life in the Palestinian territories has come to an end.

Steve Reich’s Fascinating Rhythm (NYT)

black stereotyped

For those of us raised on beat-heavy pop, rhythm and blues, and rock, Steve Reich’s infectiously rhythmic music was a path into ``serious music,'' a realm that might have once felt closed.

Good News From Northern Ireland (NYT)

potato imports resumed

With the threat of renewed I.R.A. terror at last put to rest, Northern Ireland should be moving forward toward a self-governing future.

Kicked While Down (NYT)

actual money that's actually yours deplored

We are getting closer and closer to a work force with no benefits and no substantive protections.

The Mayor's New Job (NYT)

spoils of disaster go to the political

in charge of the memory hole

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation finally has a leader who can get the job done - Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A Bad Start in the Parks (NYT)

not checking NYT editorials

The biggest challenge facing Mary Bomar, the new head of the National Park Service, is to take politics out of parks management.

Falling Into the Doughnut Hole (NYT)

saving money perversely involves saving money

The new Medicare prescription drug program contains a gap in coverage that will force millions of elderly Americans to pay for their medicines out of pocket until they qualify for catastrophic coverage.

North Korea and the Dominoes (NYT)

change follows military defeat

or bankruptcy, in the case of newspapers

What’s needed now is real pressure and real diplomacy to get North Korea out of the nuclear weapons business.

The Irony of NASA’s Nobel (NYT)

why doesn't the NYT notice this for charter schools, faith based welfare, and a thousand other alternatives to grandiose leftist programs?

no moral advantage.

they ignore that NASA means well when judging its waste of resources.

Scientifically important, small-scale missions were disproportionately cut to free up money for more grandiose programs.

Deeper and Deeper (NYT)

it's not paying anything to foreign creditors.

they roll the debt over, like everybody else.

otherwise they'd have to spend the dollars in the US economy, and the reason they bought the debt is that they didn't want to.

For the first time in at least 90 years, the United States is paying noticeably more to foreign creditors than it receives from its investments abroad.

Real Scandals, and Fake Ones (NYT)

NYT notices it's a gay guy

When it comes to sexual scandal, American voters tend to be more rational than American politicians.

Get Congress Out of the Page Business (NYT)

no queers in the page pool

most unlikely idea of the day

might as well turn it over to priests

By JONATHAN TURLEY

The task of supervising Congressional pages should be given to a board composed of former pages.

A Better Diesel (NYT)

leaf-burning diesel

the smell of autumn

The answer to the very immediate problems of auto emissions and fuel efficiency is going to lie in a mix of vehicles — hybrid cars, more efficient gasoline engines, and highly improved diesels.

Bayer's Duplicity on Drug Testing (NYT)

register editorial ideas

Drug companies should be required to publicly register all safety studies so that they can’t be suppressed later if their results displease the sponsor.

An African Dumping Ground (NYT)

atomic testing range and indian reservation deplored

manhattan atomic testing range proposed at higher cost

Without strict, and strictly enforced, international rules on waste disposal, dangerous cargoes will find the course of least resistance, least cost, and least regulation.

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda? (NYT)

morality pose foreign to NYT

House Republicans do not seem to appreciate how serious the Congressional page scandal is, especially for a party that poses as the arbiter of morality.

How to Fix the Global Economy (NYT)

how long can the grocer endure having a trade deficit with me? I buy stuff from him and he buys nothing from me.

yet we both have a higher standard of living from it.

By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ

For how long can the global economy endure America’s enormous trade deficits or China’s growing trade surplus of almost $500 million a day?

Three School Shootings (NYT)

299,999,999 people not shot, rights protected by guns

In these killings we see an open society threatened by the ubiquity of its weapons, in which one kind of freedom is allowed to trump all others.

The Chair Out From Under Them (NYT)

large box-style newspaper threatens

If Wal-Mart wants to avoid increasingly onerous legislation, regulation and scrutiny, company executives are going to have to learn that human beings are not machines.

Justice for Immigrants (NYT)

guest voter peril

The Supreme Court starts off its term with arguments in a pair of immigration cases that turn on a technical issue but could have a considerable impact on the real world.

The Foley Matter (NYT)

higher suspiciousness of gays urged

watch for lifestyle choice backlash

That House leaders knew Representative Mark Foley had been sending inappropriate e-mail messages to Capitol pages and did little about it is terrible. It is also the latest in a long, depressing pattern for Republicans.

When Spinach Isn't Good for You (NYT)

editorials not better because they're in the NYT

An outbreak of bacterial contamination in bagged spinach reveals how silly we were to assume that spinach in sealed bags would necessarily be safer than fresh spinach exposed to the environment.

Curing the Debt Addiction (NYT)

borrowing removes the very same money that spending adds

removing it by taxes instead is favored by the left

spending less will not occur to the NYT

America's borrow-and-spend ways have juiced the global economy. But the resulting indebtedness makes the country vulnerable to protectionism.

Whose Court Is It Anyway? (NYT)

moonbats watch court

The Roberts court officially began last year, but the term that starts this week should give the first clear picture of what kind of court it will be.