Are bobblehead dolls becoming the new gold watches?

News of the arrival  of a bobblehead doll in the likeness (sort of, if you only consider the black suit and yellow tie) of retiring University of Akron president Luis Proenza  may foretell a new era in which these novelties will become the traditional gold watches once handed out for long years of service.

Not that the sparkling  watch will be missed by  Proenza, who will be leaving with a future  adequately  sustained by a golden parachute that could have  easily covered the school's enormous debt.  Bon voyage

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One of the highlights of the past week's cable shows was the appearance of neocon mogul William Kristol on  Bill Maher's Friday evening show. When Maher  asserted that much  of the opposition to President Obama was the result of his being a black man in the White House, we got a less genteel  version of the usually suave, smirking Kristol seething in a voice-over:  "That's bullshit.  That's bullshit!"

Well, now.  Is that any way for a pompous  pundit to talk?  Yet here he was, fuming as the  profound sage  who has erred so often in  facts and judgment that the New York Times was forced to rid itself  of his column.  Two egregious ones come readily to mind: a hawkish, Cheney-like  defense of America's  invasion of Iraq that he guaranteed would bring enormous glory to the U.S.; and his burdensome influence in recruiting Sarah Palin as John McCain's veep candidate.

But Kristol will continue to present himself with that self-satisfied smirk and his followers will bow  in appreciative  genuflection. In the gated realm of Kristol 's conservatism, errors of fact don't matter that much.

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The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a decision by Federal Judge John
Adams in the suit by then-Stow firefighter Anthony Rorrer  against the city of Stow.  Rorrer based his suit on a serious  eye injury suffered in an accident, blinding him in one eye.   Adams dismissed the suit.  However, the appellate court questioned Adams' handling of the case.  In a rare rebuke, the appellate court  "actually misconstrued its own discovery order"  with apparent bias toward Rorrer  and  remanded the case to the district court, calling  for another other judge to hear it.

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Who knew? Rush Limbaugh  came on in another  racial burst after  "12 years a Slave" won the Best Film Oscar.  Rush said the picture won only because slave is a "magic word".  Anybody remember  how Rush downgraded a black NFL quarterback by accusing sportswriters of promoting African American QBs. (As I recall, a black QB led Seattle to a Super Bowl championship a few months ago.) Isn't it time that we stop referring to this crowd as the "far right" and call it instead the "far wrong"?