Complaint

So I've finally done it.

I've made the Wall Street Journal my editorial page of choice. Don't get me wrong. . .I still read the Times and the Post, but I've come to accept that there is a perspective achieved by the WSJ columnists that is simply not represented anywhere else in the journalistic spectrum. It is as if normal columnists were boxed in by the liberal arts intellectual mentality that caused them to become writers in the first place (Maureen Dowd being the most obvious example). There is a sort of "worldliless-ness" that characterizes these outlooks to which I find a welcome relief in the cynical, but grown up opinions of the Journal.

Not that I agree with all of it, mind you. I just enjoy the hard-nosed perspective. There is more teeth in these views and less impotent declaration. ("China must immediately cease its human rights abuses," would be a typical flaccid injunction from the Times.)

So what am I complaining about? Is it that the Journal folks are a bunch of assholes? Well, while that is certainly true, I have given up complaining about it.

My real complaint, and my greatest reservation about "switching sides," as it were is the utter lack of sense of humor on the right.

"Pepper. . .and Salt" is the name of the cartoon column in the Journal, and it is bad. So bad. I mean, like, bad bad. Not funny, not even yuk yuk funny, just painfully not funny- and not in the good way, you understand? Lay this side by side with 90% of the New Yorker cartoons*, and you have to start asking questions about what kinds of people read the Journal. Do they think this stuff is funny? And if so. . .what the hell is wrong with them?

The sad truth is, historically, the downtrodden have been the ones with the best sense of humor. Jews, Amerindians, and Blacks are famous for their sense of humor, long suffering apparently the cause. Could it be that the business community simply makes too much money to be witty? Seems possible, but that would be truly sad.

So I'm lodging my complaint. Pepper. . .and Salt (what the hell does that mean, anyway?) is simply not up to snuff. Not even remotely.

The Journal needs to do an awful lot better if we are truly meant to laugh.

There. That can be my final self-righteous exhortation from the left.



*That remaining 10% would be the complete works of Roz what's-her-face. Who the hell is she sleeping with? Not even remotely on par.