Opinion: Tracking back

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Here’s this week’s snapshot of the ripples that the Times’ Opinion Manufacturing Division caused in the blogosphere:

Monumentality points out President Obama’s apparent backpedaling on his pledge to eliminate wasteful spending and earmarks from the Federal budget once he signed the $410 billion omnibus spending bill. The post includes a link to this Opinion L.A. blog item that also chides the president for not vetoing the ‘bloated’ bill.

An online column by Ryan T. Anderson at National Review Online proclaims that ‘the Prop. 8 debate is not a clash between civil liberties and religion.’ The column mentions a Times’ editorial that offers ‘a way of of Prop. 8,’ endorsing the idea that California should simply license civil unions and let the couple choose a religious institution to sanctify their vows -- an idea floated by California Supreme Court Justice Ming W. Chin during oral arguments on the proposition before the court in early March.

In a post by Medical Cannabis’ Kris Hermes on revisions to federal policy of medical marijuana, she notes the Times’ recent editorial calling for the Obama administration to consider a more comprehensive policy, rather than one that would simply eliminate the raiding of medical marijuana dispensaries. (What that policy should be is still a matter of some debate by the Times board....)

Capital J’s Ron Kampeas offers this post on the controversy surrounding Chas Freeman and his withdrawal from consideration as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, blaming the Israeli lobby. It cites this Times editorial, which calls for more voices to be heard in the shaping of U.S. policy. The Israel discussion continues over at Israel Policy Forum with a post by MJ Rosenberg that also highlights the editorial, saying it provides ‘more evidence that the get-Freeman effort was both misguided and, perhaps, even worse than that.’

And what kind of roundup would this be if there wasn’t mention of Nadya Suleman?! The mother of 14 continues to be a hot topic of discussion. A recent post at Dear Bloggery provides a list of reasons why Octomom is “undeserving of media fanfare.” Included is her resemblance to Angelina Jolie — funny, I would think that would be reason enough. Nonetheless, the post includes a link to this recent Opinion L.A. blog post that chronicled a surreal encounter between yours truly and Ms. Suleman at a Whittier nail salon. But, if the author of the post truly believes Ms. Suleman is undeserving of media attention, why dedicate a blog post to her?