If Only Nicholas Kristof Wrote About Swollen Scrotums

In a shrewd bid for that public service Pulitzer, the New York Times has been running a series of articles about five diseases that, while extinct in the developed world, continue to afflict Third World nations. In Sunday’s paper, the Times reported on filariasis, a disease of the lymphatic system that causes swelling and fever.

The Timesfolk know how to get their readers to care. They hit them where it hurts, namely, in the balls:

[Ten] times as common [as swollen legs] is the symptom that is almost never spoken of: the engorged scrotums, known as male hydrocele (Greek for water bulge). In cities like Leogane, more than a quarter of the men are tormented by the condition, their scrotum swelling to the size of a softball, or a basketball in severe cases.

OWWW… When this article was mentioned at dinner last night, the men at the table doubled over in vicarious, imagined pain. (Yes, this is what passes for mealtime conversation at Wonkette.)

We predict that donations to charities fighting filariasis will far outstrip those for the four other profiled diaseases. If you’d like to learn how to help, information will eventually be available here. (It appears that the Times hasn’t updated its Health page with information about organizations that seek to eradicate filariasis; hopefully they will do so soon.)

Beyond Swollen Limbs, a Disease’s Hidden Agony [NYT]

READ MORE: Media, balls, diseases, filariasis, new york times, nicholas kristof, scrotums, third world

Hey — Does Denmark Make Maple Syrup?

Jeffrey Hinzman is a U.S. soldier applying for political asylum in Canada based on his refusal to fight in the Iraq war. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Hinzman case has infuriated many Americans, who say that members of a voluntary military have no right to pick which orders they will follow. Some critics note that the volunteers sign an “enlistment contract” that details terms of service and includes an oath to obey orders. Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly has advocated a boycott of Canadian-made goods if Canada doesn’t send deserters back to the U.S. to stand trial.

Uh, what Canadian goods?

Oh, Bill, you and your bright ideas! Why don’t we just pack you off to Darfur…

Update: Yes, we know, the United States imports massive amounts of oil and natural gas from Canada, as well as a wide range of agricultural products. We are informed by Wikipedia — which hopefully hasn’t been tampered with by some wily Canadians — that Canada is, in fact, the United States’s largest trading partner.

Give us a break! We were just trying to be glib — which is in our job description.

Will War Deserters Find Asylum in Canada? [WSJ]
Panhandling Pundits: Help Nick Help Bill Help Us All [Gawker]
Helping Bill O’Reilly [NYT]
More Good News for Bill O’Reilly [Nicholas D. Kristof: On the Ground]

READ MORE: Media, bill o’reilly, canada, darfur, denmark, jeffrey hinzman, nicholas kristof

Pay No Attention to the Columnist Behind the TimesSelect Curtain

A federal appeals court greenlighted former Army scientist Stephen Hatfill to proceed with his libel action against New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof yesterday. Kristof published a series of 2002 columns accusing the FBI of dragging its feet in investigating Hatfill as a full-blown suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. You know, it was also Kristof who was the first person who reported on Joe Wilson’s charge that the Bush administration’s Niger yellow-cake cause for invading Iraq was bogus, thereby setting in motion the inadvertent chain of events landing Judy Miller in jail between extended bouts in Scooter Libby’s (merely metaphorical, we’re sure) lap. We’re not advancing an argument here, just noting an odd congruence. But we will note that if we were Times senior management, we’d closely heed Kristof’s veiled appeal in today’s Editor and Publisher piece on the TimesSelect fiasco:

I want to be read, and this makes it much harder. But that is tempered by a concern that we come up with a business model to pay for my trips to Africa.

Because we’re pretty sure that “trips to Africa” is Kristof-speak for “someone’s going to jail.”

Oh and one other thing. Times attorneys should probably lay off this line of argument:

The dissenting judges also wrote that they believed the Times was only doing its job, emphasizing the public’s right to know as more than a “matter of voyeurism, titillation, or idle curiosity.” … David McCraw, counsel for the Times, said the paper was disappointed the court declined to rehear the case and noted that the dissenting justices addressed important issues relating to free speech and defamation.

Yeah, uhm, you see, the thing is, it doesn’t seem like those dissenting justices have been following the news all that closely. — —HOLLY MARTINS

Appeals Court Allows Hatfill to Sue Times [AP, via WaPo]

TimesSelect Draws Mixed Reviews From Columnists [Editor and Publisher]

READ MORE: anthrax, libel suits, nicholas kristof, stephen hatfill, the public’s right to know