It may be true that Cramer was merely a bit player in the meltdown of our economy, but one of the reasons the for the early KO is because Cramer mostly agreed with everything the man said. Stewart said multiple times that the issue had little or nothing to do with Cramer. His overall point was that the whole network merely played cheerleader for more risky behavior by the uber wealthy.

Frankly, I am a little surprised a former business editor doesn’t agree even to a small extent. If they call themselves journalists, do they not have some responsibility to verify the accuracy of what they are reporting? Seems to me that Cramer was admitting they’ve invested little in doing so.

I would suggest that CNBC has committed the Cardinal Sin of simply getting too far out front of the other networks in condemning President Obama’s financial plans (cue Rick Santelli’s meltdown on the floor of the stock exchange several weeks ago - {sorry I don’t have a link} – directed specifically at Obama).

This serves as yet one more in a long line of examples as to how the media keeps their own in line. Diversity in all things but thought. It well reminds me of the past posts here that discuss the oppression of thought, and the consequences to dissenters, at the N&O.

But how could a naive, and freedom-loving world expect a lone conscript, manning a lonely border outpost, to stem the scourge of a Nazi blitzkreig? Man, I haven’t used that line since my ninth grade world history report. It still wears well.

Suppose Jim Cramer had been warning us for the past three years that we were on the verge of an epochal financial crisis? Do you think it would have mattered? Wouldn’t he have been discredited as a loon, or a malcontent with some kind of twisted personal agenda? Nobody likes whistle-blowers. Especially when their tune is as ugly as Cramer’s woulda been.

“Hear me now, or believe me later, my children. Decades of ham-handed social engineering, spend-thrift government, Wall Street shell-games, greedy CEO’s, mortgage-backed securities and impotent regulators are just about finished preparing the giant shit sandwhich from which we all must take a bite.

Look at poor old Al Gore. He was a serviceable VP and a paragon of virture compared to his boss - speaking of which - has anybody seen Clinton’s nose lately? What the hell is up with that? Maybe the Pinnoccio stuff is true. It just takes a decade or so before it comes to fruition.

So anyway, Gore even invented the internet in his spare time.

How do we treat him now? Some of us admire his visionary admonitions about our abuse of the environment. Others treat him like a pompous alarmist with a carbon footprint as wide as his ample ass. I guess that makes him a hypocrite too.

Reasonalbe people not only disagree, we also tend to deny, deny, deny until it’s too damned late to prevent, prevent, prevent.

Or as a great man, Barney Fife, once said, “Nip it. Nip it in the bud!”

And I very much appreciate the link to the gladiator picture, Dan. I love homoerotica in the morning. It smells like…???