News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.
Amid all the fun finger-pointing, the least we can do is acknowledge that we all, Dems and Reps, libs and cons, have failed the mentally disturbed among us.
If mental disturbance is at the root of the shootings in Tucson, that leaves another question: what's at the root of all the rancor about political rancor?
Balance costs and benefits -- this sounds so reasonable that it might seem unobjectionable. Unless you've had some experience with one federal agency that has long used "benefit-cost ratio" as a supposed guide to decision-making.
