The QT: Donald Trump's political flirtations, Obama's Keystone indecision, and more

News Headline: "Trump's Iowa trip sparks speculation on presidential bid"

You can be forgiven if you greet the news with disbelief.

Then will come anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

***

News Headline: "Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act"

And the court doesn't want to hear a lot of whining.

Who do these would-be voters think they are, corporations?

***

The Case for Zero Tolerance of Modern School Administrators:

A primary school in Aveley, England, will ban parents from a children's sports day because the presence of onlookers might prove "stressful" for the children.

***

News Headline: "Pelosi booed for defending NSA surveillance"

Yet another overreaction to scare talk about a surveillance society.

And do the people who booed realize how it will look in their dossiers?

***

+ G.K., a Channahon, Ill., reader, regarding Kim Kardashian and Kanye West naming their baby girl North, writes:

"Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt should name their next child Gravel."

+ Mike Oelrich, a Chicago reader, writes:

"Should NeNe Leakes have named her son Wiki?"

Stop it.

Stop it now.

***

News Headline: "Obama hints at Keystone approval"

News Headline: "Obama hints that Keystone XL may be rejected"

Say this about our president: Like him or not, you know where he stands.

***

News Item: "Beijing police have recently started cracking down on a prohibition against 'large and vicious dogs' — a ban that includes breeds such as golden retrievers, Labradors, and Dalmatians."

Not a surprise from a government that likes to keep 1.3 billion humans in a sit-stay.

***

News Headline: "Man found running naked, screaming"

As reasonable response as any to the news of the day.

***

QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language:

Bob Crystal, a Rochester, N.Y., reader, regarding another reader's mention that Roman Catholic bishops often put a + in front of their names, writes:

"Episcopalians also indicate ordination with a + added to the name, and we do it with women, too."

QT has been talking with church officials.

It comes down to this:

Roman Catholics bishops may put a + in front of their names, while Episcopalians put a + after a name as a sign of ordination and a + in front of a name for bishops, while presiding bishops rate a ++ before their names.

Q+T will take all this under advisement.

There is always a "the" in front of Rev., as in the Rev. John Jones, by the way.

Just as there is always a "the" in front of the Mahatma Gandhi.

While we are at it.

***

Write to QT at zaysmith.qt@gmail.com

QT appears Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.