Items

Some new weekly items:

• The clash between the South Bend Catholic Worker group and some neighbors over zoning continues to get some press there, although there’s no news to speak of. Here’s an op-ed with some history of the house, and a South Bend Tribune article via Loaded Mouth.
• Film fans: here’s Victor Morton’s “Catholic Version” of the Aristocrats joke.
• Spotlight on Darfur 1 is a continuation of a project to highlight the diversity of blog posts on the Darfur crisis, a crisis that Eric Reeves calls “the first great episode of genocidal destruction of the 21st century.” Things continue to go badly there.
• You can read about national attitudes toward the war many places, but what about local opinion?

  In Worcester in recent weeks, we’ve seen a surge of anti-war feeling. For example, in today’s daily paper, the Telegram & Gazette, there are three anti-war letters to the editor, and none supporting the war.
  

  You can’t just say, “Well, that’s Massachusetts,” because the state is not as liberal as it’s cracked up to be, nor are liberals as anti-war as they’re cracked up to be.

  A front-page story in the T&G captures the mood at a recent peace rally. From M. Elizabeth Roman’s “Peace getting better response”:

  During an hourlong protest yesterday, a group of young, short-haired men in a sedan passed and shouted, “Woo-ho,” as they pumped their fists in the air, honked and sped by.

  A man in a white crisp business shirt and tie looked over, then flashed a firm thumbs-up.

  Then followed a U.S. mail carrier, a tow-truck driver, a man holding an American flag, several cars with magnetic yellow ribbons on their trunks and a family in a large white SUV. The passers-by all offered long horn-toots, waves and smiles.

  “If Cindy Sheehan can stand in a ditch, I can stand on a pavement in Worcester,” said Alice M. Canty, 65, a Worcester resident and peace rally participant. “So many people are just asleep about the whole thing.”