Media confusions

1. The next time you listen to a media item (newspaper, TV), think about whether it's about politics or policy. Politics is argument or speculation about who will win the next election. Policy is about the specific effects of what actions incumbent politicians might take. About 99% of such items are of the first type. If that's what you're looking for, fine, but don't think you're learning anything about how to make the world a better place.

2. In discussing social issues like same-sex marriage or abortion that impinge on many people's religious beliefs, a pundit recently said that we have to choose between religious freedom and discrimination (in the sense of one group circumscribing the behavior of other groups). That's true if religious freedom means that we can pass laws that conform to rules laid out in the Bible, for example. Laws forbidding same-sex marriage on such grounds certainly discriminate against those who wish to practice it. But religious freedom in the Constitution only establishes the right of a person to practice whatever religion (or no religion) he chooses. It is strictly personal, and does not involve discrimination.