I usually try to avoid posts like this, but there's a list of things I've been meaning to blog about and I just haven't been able to find the time. So, some quick hits:

- The Yankees have pulled within 1 1/2 games of the Red Sox in the American League East. On May 30th, the Red Sox lead was 14 1/2 games. Just two weeks ago, the lead was 7 games. Ah, September baseball...

- Former President of Harvard University, Larry Summers, has been uninvited to speak at the University of California at Davis due to pressure from a group of female professors who signed an online petition. The petition called Summers a "keynote speaker who has come to symbolize gender and racial prejudice in academia." Leaving aside the idea that they're preventing someone from speaking because they're offended by his views (a concept that seems completely antithetical to free speech), note that their concern is his symbolism regarding gender and racial prejudice, not the prejudice itself. I think that speaks volumes about the protesters' real intent here.

- Speaking of turning down visitors, New York City has denied a request by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero. I think this is the right answer, both because his presence would offend the many, many people who think of this space as hallowed ground, and also because of the official reason given by the New York City Police Department: security. There is no doubt in my mind that President Ahmadinejad would encounter an angry mob if he showed up at the site. On the upside, Ahmadinejad apparently acknowledges the existence of 9/11, as opposed to the Holocaust, which he famously regards as a hoax. Also note that while I'm glad Ahmadinejad will not be visiting Ground Zero, I'd be fine with him speaking at the University of California at Davis.

- Dan Rather - September 10th, 2004:

"I believe, I know that this story is true. I believe the witnesses and the documents are authentic. We wouldn't have gone to air if they had not been."

Dan Rather - September 18, 2007:

Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit Wednesday against CBS, alleging that the network made him a 'scapegoat' for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service. The 75-year-old Rather, whose final months were clouded by controversy over the report, says the complaint stems from 'CBS' intentional mishandling' of the aftermath of the story.

Is it me, or is he really not helping his own credibility here?