Do Be-s and Don't Be-s

Which one is Nooners smoking?

Our press corps in those days was more like Americans than our press corps is today. They were both less self-hating and more appropriately anxious: Don't be killing our leaders in the middle of a war, don't be disheartening the people. Win and do the commentary later.

Don't be goin' there! You don't wanta be messin' wit' my bidness! Talk to the loafer!

May I suggest, instead, "don't kill our leaders..." "don't dishearten the people." And don't separate two entirely unrelated concepts with a colon.

So moderately difficult, fact-based questions are "killing our leaders"? Which leaders are those? And are those leaders fit to lead if they can't answer moderately difficult, fact-based questions?

Contrary to Pegaloon, the press corps is not un-American, except to the extent it is more obsequious to Bush than its fellow citizens would wish. The corps was asking questions Americans want answered. Questions which are matters of life and death to many of them. And if Bush can't answer those questions, Americans need to know.

There's a lot more in Nooners' latest tantrum: Dykey female reporters with mustaches, and this unintentional admission: "[The media] could have done some damage to the president with a grave and honest spirit of inquiry." Rating: Three talking dolphins.