<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[SANITY FROM A CHICAGO TRIBUNE&nbsp;READER]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;I have religiously read the Tribune daily for nearly 41 years. I have enjoyed most of the op-ed columns because they made me think, sometimes because I disagreed with them. I look forward to arriving at the editorial and op-ed pages each day, but I may have to do something else with my time if a particular writer continues to appear. The first time she appeared, I tossed it off that the editor had a lapse of judgment. When it happened again March 8, I had to write you. Even the Sun-Times does not consistently have such poor writing with no redeeming value as the tripe that I have found in the two articles by Molly Ivins&#8230; In 41 years of reading your paper I have never commented on a single writer, but Ivins is just blather that I once mouthed when I did not know any better. Some of the more liberal writers come dangerously close to my just ignoring them, but I usually read them anyway. Please, no more of this excuse of a writer.&#8221; &#8211; today&#8217;s <a HREF="http://chicagotribune.com/news/commentary/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-0103160149,FF.html" TARGET="NEW">Chicago Tribune</a>.</p>
<p><span style="color:#7c7ca6;font-weight:bold;">BEGALA AWARD NOMINATIONS:</span>  Two new entries for excessive, overblown and often untrue blather from the left.<br />&#8220;If you had a recount today, Al Gore would get 90 percent of the vote and Bush would get 10 percent, and Bill Clinton would be the honorary Treasury secretary and we wouldn&#8217;t have this economic crisis, because the way the stock market was going we&#8217;re all going to be wiped out.&#8221; &#8211; Harvey Weinstein, Miramax macher. (Memo to Weinstein: Bush&#8217;s approval ratings are at 60 percent.)<br />&#8220;Today, the AIDS czar was axed; by the time you read this, more serious damage will undoubtedly be done. So just as the AIDS community battles with demon downsizing, a more dangerous foe &#8211; the People With Aids-hating right wing &#8211; has seized power.&#8221; &#8211; Walter Armstrong, editor of POZ magazine, for people with HIV and AIDS. (Memo to Armstrong: the AIDS office hasn&#8217;t been axed.)</p>
<p><span style="color:#7c7ca6;font-weight:bold;">PILL-POPPERS:</span> Some fashionable delusions about curing AIDS in Africa examined opposite in my latest TRB. Check it out.</p>
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