Longtime readers of the Washington Post, among whom The Scrapbook numbers itself, will be familiar with the Post’s quaint custom of observing anniversaries and holidays with what might be called counterintuitive stories. For example, on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (2,403 American dead), the Post will run an article on the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans. Valentine’s Day will feature tales of wife-beating or romance gone horribly wrong. Christmas will feature an interview with a scholar who claims Jesus of Nazareth never existed. On Thanksgiving Day we’ll learn that the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony were racists and religious bigots. And so on.

Now, we understand what the Post is intending to do here. Since Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley once declared that the job of newspapers is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” the Post labors under an ethical obligation to afflict the comfortable.