Back when John Tierney was an Op-Ed columnist for The Times, he made the genius point that family-friendly hours would only arrive in the American workplace when men figure out it will better their lives both at home and at the office. It sucked to realize that the dudes hold our fate but at least I knew where to concentrate my lobbying efforts. If only Tierney showed similar insight in “A New Frontier for Title IX: Science.” Although quotas frighten me too, Tierney loses legitimacy by demonstrating a barely concealed contempt for gender concerns. Just imagine the ensuing brouhaha if, in the race realm, he described unconscious bias as a “supposed” issue. Even a seasoned hellcat like Tierney wouldn’t dare.

Whatever you think of The New Yorker’s Obama cover, you’ve got to admit that the blogosteria has been eye opening, not only by blowing the lid off the media’s struggle to satirize our first black major-
party candidate — chronicled in today’s really good Times story – but also by highlighting the rise of the commentariat, discussed in a different context in Kurt Andersen’s New York column this week. There are so many opinionators, it’s become nearly impossible to form our own thoughts, especially when a situation requires absorption time, as I certainly need with the Obama cover. A further problem with the commentariat — of which, I suppose, I am a wee part — is that it leaves little room for reflection, much less shades-of-gray opinion about shades-of-gray issues. The thing is, it’s sometimes enough that an image just really made you think.