Are these the 'droids we're looking for or what?

that came to mind when I read Mr. Klein's puzzled query - the conversation the Producer/"Expert on Teenagers" fellow has with George -- the Expert is dumbfounded and indignant when an actual "teenager" says of Producer's latest It-Girl creation "She's grotty - whenever she is on the television we turn the sound down and say rude things about her." If I recall correctly, the Expert has to get George to tell him what "grotty" means. It is pretty funny. (I wasn't even born when that movie was made - plus ca change, eh?)

What we have here is at least several coffee-shop-fulls of actual American citizens going to a certain amount of trouble and even (w00t!) using STRONG LANGUAGE to say to Mr. Klein, Mr. Broder, and others, "We don't think you're doing the fine job you think you're doing. Please do better, if you're so all that and all."

Well, if the experts don't agree, then I suppose Americans are supposed to conclude that we don't think what we think we think.

Thanks! I can't YouTube here and could not check.

Meanwhile -

Who wants make a whole bunch of those candles-in-cardboard-holders for the big vigil we're going to have somewhere just outside one of those highway exits so we can all feel connected and in awe of the total righteousness of oppressed white guys who know way better than us!!!!

Mssrs Broder and Klein can even come out on a balcony and tilt their heads graciously in our general direction and we'll ooh and aah and everything.

It will be awesome. I love feeling just like an inconvenient detail.

to Mr. Rosenberg - good call, and now "What Keeps Mankind Alive" will be playing in my head all the rest of today -

to prunes, for general badassery and saying of things that need saying

to Gator90, for reminding me of my plan for American IMPROVEMENT - instead of mandatory Military service, all Americans (especially rich ones, including pundits and future presidents) should be required to work and support themselves for at least two years after high school by working retail. With no health insurance, no money from the folks, and no car.

A-and Shooter, it's really just asking the IMPROBABLE. That's OK, right?

This column and these comments are so like the opening of french doors (freedom doors?) in my frustrated mind that I gush needlessly. Three things -

I. Mr. Klein

Look, at this point, we're pretty well battered. We're losing advertising revenue.

(emphasis added)

Gosh. I didn't go to business school, but I thought that revenue going down means you aren't supplying what the demand is wanting -- or that you are not doing a good job.

I think Mr. Klein is going to have a tough time convincing Willie Nelson and Bono to put together a big "Pundit-Aid" show for him and all the other "first rate" news organizations that are losing advertising revenue because of the nasty bloggerses.

II. No Bread, Just Circus

And, how is it that these first rate reporters keep failing to grasp that many Americans are perfectly well aware

(1) that we are not in a position to find out the answers to so many very important questions about this administration, the war and much beyond, and

(2) that THEREFORE we are angry that the people who COULD question the people who might know the answers DON'T ASK ANY QUESTIONS.

?

III. Mixed similes, or, Mr. Alter, Mr. Alter, Let Down Your Hair

Regardless of whether one is Ivy League or Ivory Tower (or, indeed, ivy tower), it is possible to open conversation and even debate without coming off like you are the editor of a neighborhood association newsletter outraged about that one family that keeps leaving their kiddie pool on the front lawn.

Where is Marshall McLuhan, now that we really need him.

True! Now that the Media is the Massage instead . . .

good call - in-crowds are only "in" from the outside.

if one is inside an in-crowd, one realizes quickly that it is all pretend and there really is not an in-side after all . . .

but if one is outside an in-crowd, it is nearly impervious. The scrappers who have clambered up onto the shoulders of others (only to learn there is nothing up there that isn't down here) are bound to take whatever action they can to prevent anyone else discovering that they (the accomplished ones) have not in fact accomplished much of anything beyond excluding people from the imaginary group.

longer, more explicit Edsall?:

"I test all those around me -- I keep people from knowing whether I am 'joking' or 'serious', and show approval only of those who put on a show of knowing exactly what I mean even when I have communicated nothing. That way I will always have a leg up on the competition, can never be called wrong, and can unexpectedly cast anyone into the outer darkness."

It is a game, but whether it is Id or Ego I do not know. And what the hell do you win besides getting to keep playing it?