...sorry! I didn't know there was a 200 word limit in the comments...my OT rant must look odd here. In my original post I did wind back to Teddy but let's go with the truncation...and cheers again for a great spirit reminding us of the good things of life...

Thanks much for highlighting the Teddy story. Yes, very much worth hanging around for...

My thoughts of the past week keep coming back to the near total collapse of the media. No reporter could identify any helicopter much less what each machine was made to carry out. No reporter could identify the various types of gunfire much less the types of guns being carried by law enforcement, speaking of which, no reporter could identify the varied law enforcers and what each was created to carry out. Don't reporters study "Jane's" anymore? Aren't there bulletin boards with all this information in pictures tacked up in newsrooms?

It's not just the reporters, it's also the producers. Experts are to hand at any of the above areas of knowledge; what happened to Rolodexes?

And the weird incuriosity of the media. After the identities of the two boys became known; did they attend mosque? If so what mosque did they attend? Who is the imam at the mosque? Did they attend any youth groups or activities at the mosque? Islam is nothing if not social -- between Friday prayers and frequent gatherings everyone at mosque knows everything about everyone else.

That were funny Senor Carter (please don't tell us that those wild examples of college-level expository writing were culled from really real actual reality!).

Toobin wears a toupe.* But then again so do some conservatives so I guess that takes the sting out of my ad homi...say, why don't we do a study: who wears more toupes: liberals or conservatives...?

* This is the level of intellectual discussion J. Toobin deserves...

When men of words, in this case journalists, resort to this kind of name calling and invective they have failed in their calling. They want the power and immediacy of simile - for simile is a kind of mental shorthand -  but they don't want to do the work of really coming up with effective imagery. Such exaggerated, idiotic comparisons reveal lazy minds,  hasty fingers at the keyboard (to borrow a figure from Nabokov).

Shouldn't that be 'Como les parece? (see we haven't even started and we're already fighting about grammar! Ay Caramba!)

Ahoy Edward Smith!

I was just asking...not painting...a bit-tongue-in-cheek at that...forgive a bumbling newcomer's faux pas...of course I agree with you that this is the place for cogency and clarity...

Would an American naval officer be able to write that well?