[rrpjr]

The state of American humor has certainly hit upon lean times. Trace the line of declension from Will Rogers to Garrison Keiller, from a true humorist to a pinched sophist of homespun malice spinning out the certain verdicts of a future "world." And what world is that, exactly? All we know for sure is that it is his world, which will in any case make its own history, or go down in denial trying, as it is doing now. Not even a chance, Garrison, that the painful decisions made now by those with a clearer and, yes, more generous, moral vision than yours might assure a world safe for other mediocre artists like yourself? No? Whither the "fascism," Garrison? -- look around to the real world rather than the one of your future fancy, to whose moral judgment you so arrogantly lay claim.