In this week's Phoenix, I size up the ongoing feud between Herald columnist Howie Carr and "Ernie Boch, III," his mysterious Blue Mass. Group-based tormentor. (Note: EB3, as he's frequently called, is no relation to car magnate Ernie Boch, Jr.) In the process, I argue that Carr doesn't really seem to understand his nemesis--and that, despite some strong ideological and biographical differences between the two, there are some noteworthy similarities as well.

Until today, I thought Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was just a gratuitous European swipe at the Bush Administration.

But now I know better, thanks to Herald columnist Howie Carr, who today identifies the Nobel as the race-based handout it really is:

Barack is a guy who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.

That group includes 14-24 year olds who "lack basic skills"; are parents or are about to become parents; have dropped out of school; are homeless; didn't grow up speaking English; didn't grow up in this country; or have run away from home.

Oh yeah--youth with legal problems fit the bill, too.

Howie Carr actually doesn't seem to mind the fact that the program panned on the Herald's front page--a federally funded program for kids of families currently linked to the Department of Transitional Assistance--helps low-income people.

Quick: guess which Boston paper is marking Barack Obama's win with a 32-page glossy publication, titled "Boston Celebrates Barack Obama: Reflections on a man, his life and our times," on sale tomorrow for just $2.99?

No, it's not the Boston Globe. It is, instead, the Boston Herald--which, in endorsing McCain last October, suggested that it would be a bad idea to put a "naif in the Oval Office."