Good News: Juan Williams Fired

I do not know if Juan Williams' indelicate words about Muslims on planes warranted his termination. I do know that his years of spewing idiocy dressed up as commentary did warrant his termination. Sometimes, one need not examine overly closely the motives for an act to relish its result.

Whenever I hear Williams speak, I am put in mind of a passage from Brideshead Revisited. Anthony Blanche has taken Charles Ryder to dinner and towards the end of his truly extraordinary soliloquy, (pp. 47-57 in the first edition), he says, "Tell me candidly, have you ever heard Sebastian say anything you have remembered for five minutes? You know, when I hear him talk, I am reminded of that in some ways nauseating picture of 'Bubbles.' Conversation, as I know it, is like juggling; up go the balls and the balloons and the plates, up and over, in and out, spinning and leaping, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them. But when dear Sebastian speaks it is like a little sphere of soapsuds drifting off the end of an old clay pipe, anywhere, full of rainbow light for a second and then - phut! - vanished, with nothing left at all, nothing."