Top Trumps

Big news. I have a new favourite columnist.

The honour goes to Robert J. Samuelson of the Post.

Nick Kristof didn’t do himself any favours by first ignoring the human rights factor (which, accompanied by the persistent moral pleas, is what essentially drew me to his writing in the first place) in his comparison of China and India. Even worse was his assumption that if couples were given a choice, sexism would significantly impact the number of male versus female births in those countries, but not in America. He even stuck to this claim in his response to the comments on that particular column:

And in these troublesome ethical areas, I have a strong bias toward letting parents decide. That also explains why I would let parents use PGD to choose a boy or girl (in this country, though not in China or India because of the son preference in those countries).

As if the “son preference” is archaic in American culture.

In comparison, Samuelson mostly does an excellent job of balancing journalistic accountability with moral high ground, as evidenced by the column I referenced on Tuesday. This piece on climate change also attempts a reconciliation.

But the icing on the cake is this column. I absolutely love it.

Yeah, I’m a major nerd. But if you’re reading this, I’m going to go ahead and make the assumption that you like me because of – or in spite of – that fact.