On Sunday, I caught some of the morning political TV talk while the girls were upstairs playing "Kids." Nothing but big statements and exclamation points related to the recent events in France.
The phrase "conservative temperament" formerly referred to something recognizable in public life. We'd be counselled by "conservatives" to "get a grip" and not jump into the sea on account of The Most Recent Big Thing That Happened. Those days are gone. Today, the "conservatives" are the frothing gesticulators, and the whole country is soaking in the spittle.
A clash of civilizations!
We must invade Iraq!
If Obama is president for another week, we shall all die of Ebola!
It's gotten so bad that George Will, who once cultivated a public persona made mostly of cool disdain for his intellectual inferiors (a demographic whose members, voting as a bloc, could elect a Democrat president), has thrown in with the shouting rabble. He's sure that climate science is bunk and that Ebola can be spread by airborne particles, such as are emitted in a sneeze.
Yes, and twice two would be five if you said so loud enough! Our president has been criticized for having a temperature that runs cool but I think his opponents make that look like a highly desirable trait.
