Fact

Assuming that it's true that "roving mobs of black youth" terrorize Baltimore, why should Del. Pat McDonough apologize for saying so ("Baltimore and bigotry," May 18)? If anyone should apologize, I think it should be the Rev. Cortly C.D. Witherspoon, who according to the article in The Sun "said that McDonough's remarks were 'below the belt,' culturally insensitive and intended to exploit Baltimore's challenges for his own political gain. " ("Delegate says focus shouldn't be on his 'black youth mobs' comment, but on city violence," May 18.)

Readers of this blog know I have been grinding my teeth for years over President Obama's masterful manipulation of TV. It's not about Obama, it's about the press looking the other way, rolling over and refusing to critique and deconstruct the way Team Obama uses the media and the media allows themselves to be used. And so, I sat down to watch him on"The View"  Tuesday loaded for bear after hearing the disingenuous press bashing he did in his commencement address at Barnard Monday.

In response to a recent letter-writer claiming that the Navy SEALs, rather than President Obama, deserve the credit for killing Osama bin Laden, there are few sadder things than watching Republicans try to play down the facts ("SEALs, not Obama, deserve credit for bin Laden death," May 9). Here are the facts: President Obama is commander-in-chief whether his opponents like it or not. He was the one - and the only one - responsible for ordering those SEALs into action. They did not make that decision on their own. He was the one in charge.

The news that Governor O'Malley and the top leaders of the General Assembly are now considering two special legislative sessions is unheard of and preposterous ("Annapolis leaders considering two special sessions," April 24). It's bad enough that even one special session is being considered. Passing a balanced budget should have been the highest priority during the three-month regular session. Since the legislature didn't manage to do that, taxpayers are now faced with paying $20,000 a day for every day of the special sessions.

Marta Mossburg wrote in a recent Frederick News Post column that "people like easy answers" where "facts … often play a minor supporting role in our decision-making process. " Ironically, she proves her point in a different column appearing the same day in The Sun ("General Assembly elevates the trivial, neglects pension reform," April 10) when she notes that Del. Andrew Serafini, a Washington County Republican, has a novel proposal in search of a problem: outsource the duties of the State Retirement System's Chief Investment Officer to a consultant - an idea the facts do not support.

The shad, America's founding fish, has started its annual run up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Susquehanna River, and here in Maryland, Land of Pleasant Living, there's been a run of foolish facts, too. My email box has been full of them lately, a sudden spring run stirred to life by recent columns on Maryland's many millionaires and the wild idea that they should pay income taxes at a higher rate than the rest of us. "Your commentary this...

Here's something for Maryland drivers younger than 18 to consider: Did you know that because your parents sign a consent form allowing you to obtain a license, they can also have your license revoked by withdrawing that consent? "I knew that," said Ally Dickstein, a junior at Mount Hebron School, who recently attended a safe-driving presentation with her mother, Debby, at Glenelg High School. Howard County students must attend the presentation with their parents to obtain school parking passes.

Imagine a report that reached the following three conclusions: In Maryland, 35 percent of males passed Advanced Placement exams, but only 8 percent of females passed them; 70 percent of males who took the AP exams could pass them, but only 28 percent of females could; and nationally, an estimated 79 percent of females who could succeed in AP courses were not even being offered them. The outcry over such differences by gender in achievement and access to AP tests would result in a massive public outcry over obvious systemic failures to educate males and females equally.

Two years later, George Huguely is barely recognizable from either his mug shot or his lacrosse team photo. In the way that photos like that "read," based on what we all thought we knew, in the former he looked sullen, in the latter he looked smug. Huguely enters the Charlottesville Circuit Courthouse these days noticeably lighter, at least physically, but with sunken cheeks and heavy eyes. It could just be that, often, he seems to be looking down or away, perhaps to avoid the apparent glares from Lexie Love, sitting in the first row of the courtroom where he is standing trial on charges that he killed her sister Yeardley.

In a recent column, Dan Rodricks ("The absurd arguments against same-sex marriage," Feb. 2) failed to interact with the actual points I made in my testimony against redefining marriage in Maryland. I pointed out that "the law is a teacher" and predicted that "birth rates would fall" because "[w]e would teach that procreation is no longer a uniquely important public interest. " Mr. Rodricks responds that "gay and lesbian couples have found ways of having babies. " This says nothing about whether we would maintain a "replacement rate," or plunge into demographic crisis, like we see in Japan and many European countries.