King, I think you've hit the head on a bigger nail than you intended. This isn't simply an issue of FOX's soft-headed pre-game show, this gets right to why we're in this god-awful fix in this country everywhere you look. It's the marginalization of competence to make room for lowest common denominator bullshit. Poor put-upon Americans at the end of their hard working day just want to open a six pack and chill out. They don't really want to hear about what technical adjustments a real professional has to make in order to perform a job right under trying conditions. Six-packers don't want to hear how much thinking and actual work might go into pitching...or fixing the economy, or dealing with the Middle East or protecting the Constitution. It's all of a piece, my friends. There are small glimmers of hope today that the effing era of Archie Bunkerism in America is finally drawing to a close...if we're lucky, just in the nick 'o time. Sarah Six Pack, may you be its last hurrah.

Critics insist on comparing a director's apples, (i.e. Melvin and Howard) to a director's oranges ( i.e. Silence of the Lambs) as matter of professional privilege, I guess. But when Stephanie dismisses Silence of the Lambs as a "stiff exercise," she's begging to have her critic cred questioned. You can take the Michael Medved Moral Majority approach and claim that this very supple film debases human existence, but "stiff" suggests an aesthetic problem with Silence of the Lambs that I doubt the estimable Ms. Z. could support beyond this cheap cocktail chatter put-down.

If there's an office pool going on out there on how many enraged responses Paglia will garner with this post, put me down for 1000. We all know that she's the official Salon Freak Show--ooh, let's all go watch Camille bite the heads off chickens--so who couldn't see her geeking on Palin coming a mile away? So effin' predictable.

Maybe when W passes into his lion in winter stage, he'll realize his dream of becoming baseball comish and institute your changes (and there's a scary thought for you...what if he had indeed landed that job instead of the one he got, what would be the state of the game today? Armed invasion of Wrigley in a vain search of leaded bats. Manny playing in Japan. Big Papi in Italy. China owning the Yankees. The Sox in bankruptcy. No more night games, resin bags, or fungo bats. Canseco overseeing the league drug policy. Scott Boras as Dick "The Dark Side" Cheney calling all the shots. The mind boggles.)

Joan writes:

He called Obama "that one." Really. Asking if the audience knew who voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill, he pointed at Obama: "That one." My first reaction was that it was slightly racist -- depersonalizing...

Really, Joan? Really? You write this while PAYING your house harpy Paglia to call Katie Couric "a viper" just for doing her job? I'd say we have a little bit of disconnect here.

Two other critical points missing from Crowley's crack-headed analysis:

1) The number of mainstream former Republican offcie-holders who are alarmed by the wretchedness of the McCain/Palin attacks

2) Any assessment of how heavily armed and dangerous the McCain/Palin mob is

By the way, Glenn, your kind words about Dean Barnett help solidify your standing as the best blogger of all-time. It's damn near--what's the word I want here? Christian?

Yes, we might have had final scores of 9-4 and 14-6. I'm glad I've reached a golden age in my fanhood to be amused by all this. Weren't all the experts opining after the Sox opening win in this series that, like the champions they are, they were playing their best ball at the right time? KK has it absolutely right of course--we really have no idea how this is going to play out. If Dice-K puts together another gem and Beckett and Lester bounce back, we'll be wondering how we could ever have doubted them (I think this is why they play the game). All that being said, the Rays are damn good, and no matter how this turns out, they--NOT the Yankees--are the team the Sox have to worry about in '09.

Jesus, who's passing them out today...even one for the racist guy.

D'oh! (Thanks for the clarification...I thought our editors were coming down with the Palin flu.)

I'm like on a morphine drip these days for my political fixes, so during commercial breaks, I'm flipping over to MSNBC to see if Chuck Todd's electoral map changed in the past 10 minutes. And at one point I tune in to find John McCain doing stand-up comedy for a roomful of rich Catholics and Obama sitting in the audience next to a grown man in pink laughing his ass off. I say, wow, this is an entirely different universe I've wandered into. I get mesmerized, totally forgetting that my Sockies are getting their brains bashed in. By the time the O-man has finished his own Cos routine, I remember the boys I left back in the burning house on Yawkey Way. So I switch back to TBS just barely in time to see Coco driving in the tying run, thus essentially missing the maybe greatest comeback.

Ah, yes, another thing I can blame on George W. Bush.

Scariest effin' Salon letter of all time.