JTS writes with some corrections and observations:

Czar, I have a few items for you:

1) It’s Eric Cantor, with a “C”: “New, powerful figures will emerge, like Christie and Ryan and Kantor and names we may not know yet.”

Freaking ‘Puter. He knows what he did. He sent the Czar an email, spelled Kantor with a K, and the Czar pasted it right in to save himself time. Didn’t even catch it. No, better yet: it’s one of our secret codes. See if you can figure it out. Hint: potassium.

2) Your post today on the Sun-Times columnists was perfect. Steinberg used to be by favorite columnist writing in Chicago, and I would regularly write in to him with slavish praise and only the mildest of criticism. usually concerning his irrational hostility to religion (this is back in the middle oughts). As time went on, he became more and more liberal and then one day I wrote in defending Sarah Palin against what I thought were unfair media attacks. That was the straw that broke the camels back—he told me he didn’t want me as his number one fan anymore and that was that. I’ve tried writing into him since then defending this or that conservative position and each time he basically dismisses me as if I was crazy. I still think his transformation is sad, because his writing can be really, really good. If you’ve never read his books, I can’t recommend them enough, even though he’s become a liberal jerk.

You aren’t crazy. Steinberg used to write on a bunch of conservative themes, and at one time even advocated that people get into firearm ownership. But then Obama got elected, and he jerks whichever way the wind blows. His transformation began in 2006 when Congress was overtaken by liberals, and he went full bleeder in January of 2008. If he doesn’t descend into total unimportance by 2012, we will see what he does then. You also aren’t alone. And he knows it.

3) Your Canadian reader is awesome.

Yes! All our readers are awesome, particularly those who write us. And it is delightful to get an email from what is, technically, overseas. Hey, reader: do you want to be awesome like JTS and MH? Send us email. We will make your freaking day.

4) You Czar, are also awesome.

Yes, we are. And dread and awful. And we are humbled. As the Czar’s grandmother always used to say, “Почему собаки лизать мои раны? У меня есть много служащих для этого задания.” Don’t be too impressed. She said that repeatedly to the exclusion of anything else. Actually, it was quite unnerving to hear that every ten minutes or so. It got so that the Czar’s father ended it with a sharp word one misty morning. And by “it,” we mean her. And by “word,” we mean axe.

5) In yesterday’s Sun-Times, they ran an AP article with the following title: “Montana GOP wants to outlaw gays.” Can you say liberal media bias boys and girls? Laws against sodomy regulate an act of behavior. How would a law ban someone’s self-identification as gay? The AP is ridiculous.

The Sun-Times bears some blame here. The headline is exactly as you have it, and the news item consists of three brief paragraphs.

In point of fact, the original item has a real author, and is not a three-paragraph press release. The author, Matt Volz, covers that the mainstream GOP opposes the idea of outlawing so-called homosexual practices. It is the AP editor who presumably wrote the headline. The article itself not only quotes Republicans condemning the idea, it also avoid quoting Democrats. The article also points out that the item in question was legally overturned in 1997, but that for some reason, no Republican committee ever deleted it from the official Montana GOP platform list of positions—which was reaffirmed in June. Seems no one bothered to take it out.

Equally curious, Volz wrote the article on September 18th, but the news item in question goes back to June. A bit of a delay: it took AP that long to identify the story? Or just that the liberal media is trying to bring out any gun it has to scare people about Republicans?

Either option suggests incompetence. The first is obvious. The second one, of course, makes the assumption that a GOP voter will be scared off from voting for anti-gay Montanans. This is dumb, because by this point, you are either voting Democratic or Republican: recent primaries show that people have made up their minds already. The mythical centrist, undecided, swing voter? Well, you know already the Czar thinks he doesn’t exist.

And really, what good does this accomplish? Montana voters are going to vote Republican even if the local GOP thinkers there announce the Moon is composed of styrofoam.

However, the first paragraph of the original AP piece reads this-a-way: “At a time when gays have been gaining victories across the country, the Republican Party in Montana still wants to make homosexuality illegal.” But then the rest of the piece refutes that, quoting heavily from primary sources. So AP is guilty as hell.

But the Sun-Times decides to amp that up. Here is how they rewrote the first paragraph: “Gays have been gaining victories across the country, but the Republican Party in Montana still wants to make homosexuality illegal.” Catch the difference? Four words have been dropped. The original AP phrasing provides a sense of irony, allowing the reader to see how strange the event is. The edited version eliminates that connotation, and effectively promotes that the Montana GOP is introducing legislation.

Now, the Czar does not know Mr. Volz at all; however, the weird opening paragraph plus the badly done headline suggests the possibility that Mr. Volz wrote a piece effectively clarifying the oddity of the situation—but that his editors decided to make it an anti-GOP piece without comprehending what the author’s intent was.

The Czar hates AP for exactly this kind of crap. And the Sun-Times, really ought to know better.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.