Thanks, Nerd: I must admit that I don't buy USA Today every day. I miss once every couple of weeks for one reason or another. It's part of my morning ritual to drive down the hill to get a paper, and stop in at Walmarts to shoot the breeze with some friends. Last week, the vending machine in front of Walmart that sells USA Today wasn't in operation, so I picked up the paper where I could, and read the New Haven Register the day I couldn't get a copy. If I thought about it, I could probably figure out which day you and your wife saw the article.

Yeah, I don't like the way they phrased their commentary. It made it sound like dishonesty is the norm, but there are exceptions. And, I would never present USA today as the paragon of newspaper reporting, although its leagues ahead of papers like The New York Post and Daily News out this way. One of the things I really like about it, though, is that they do print editorials from a variety of newspapers around the country, and I find them determinedly balanced in presenting opposing views... usually the exact number on each side of the issue.

I also don't doubt that newspapers in the Midwest may be reporting it differently, just as newspapers around here will report a local story with their own "angle" for area viewers. I also don't doubt that there is prejudice against Irish Travellers.

Just for a little lightness, I'll share a true story with you. I knew someone in Graduate School at USC many years ago, who told me this story. A Jewish student at USC was using his "jewishness" to blackmail professors into giving him higher grades than he had earned by threatening to charge them with discrimination if they didn't. He apparently succeeded a couple of times, and tried it on another professor. When he told the professor that he was going to charge him with discrimination and report him to the Dean if he didn't raise his grade, the professor told him to go ahead. The student filed a formal complaint about being discrimated against by the Professor, and then discovered that the Professor was Jewish. As was the person who told me the story. :-)

Jerry