K.O. is O.K.

One unanticipated consequence of my recent time on the road is that I got to view the nightly "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" show on MSNBC. Now, I hate bland, pompous, stuffed-shirt liberals as much as the next guy -- _more_ than the next guy, in fact. I'm talking about people like Dan Rather, David Brinkley, Uncle Walter, and the like. But Olbermann is none of these. For one thing, he actually has a sense of humor -- rare among liberals these days, unless you count Al Franken, who traded in his sense of humor years ago, following in the footsteps of Dick Gregory. And sure, Olbermann gives a free pass to most liberal politicians, and has, on a regular basis, guest commentators from outfits like Air America. And yes, he considers people who are religious, or who espouse family values, or who are anti-abortion, to be nut cases. I will grant you all of this. But hey, he is second to none when it comes to skewering the folly, cynicism, and sheer criminality of the Bush administration and of the Neocons and Evangelicals, and that is no mean thing. And he does it with over-the-top hilarity on a fairly frequent basis. He is, in fact -- dare I say it? -- the Rush Limbaugh of the left, in that he totally has the number of the other side, even if he has a major blind spot for the follies of the people on "his" side. In other words, if you want to know the truth about liberals, tune into Limbaugh, and if you want to know the truth about Bush and the Neocons, tune into Olbermann. It's as simple as that. And you can safely ignore anything either of them say in _favor_ of anyone, or anything. And if this be a "via negativa", so be it -- it beats putting up with the pap on the "big 3" networks or the newsmagazines.