Quickies: When The News Is The News Dept.

     Ace notes what might be the most blatant appeal to envy ever seen in print:

     "The growth of the more premium part of the market for breakfast sandwiches is something we've been looking at for a while," said James Russo, who is the senior vice president of global consumer insights at Nielsen, a market research firm. "It's really resonating with wealthier consumers."

     Over the past five years, high-end and mid-scale restaurants have become particularly fond of adding new fried egg concoctions to their menus, swapping in bitter greens, spicy aiolis, and hard-to-pronounce cheeses. As a result, more than 63 percent of all fine dining establishments and 66 percent of their mid-level counterparts now offer at least one breakfast sandwich, according to data from market research firm Nielsen. That's almost the same menu penetration that breakfast sandwiches enjoy at fast food restaurants, where it's just shy of 70 percent....

     The role that convenience has played in the rise of breakfast sandwiches rubs up against their gourmet counterparts. Many of the fancier versions, including those sold at BEC, are better eaten with both hands, a seat and a handful of napkins. They're sit-down breakfast sandwiches and run contrary to the very nature of the food. They have created a sort of bizarre form of food inequality.

     Aha! So persons with greater incomes can afford fancier food – arguably better and better prepared – than persons with lesser incomes! This must not stand! Man the barricades!

     There are aspects to this that are, shall we say, not funny. Ace goes on to note:

     Before quoting any of this extraordinarily stupid little dry fart of a piece, it's worth noting the academic-aligned left (which mostly includes academic poseurs) does very little these days except "problematize" minor and mundane elements of daily life.

     That's a real word. To problematize something, to put it through the process of "problematicization," is to pick nits about tiny things which are themselves of sub-nit dimension in hopes of sparking a class consciousness and hopefully that left-wing revolution Marxists pray for.

     If I may recur to my favorite Thomas Macaulay quote:

     The day will come when a multitude of people will choose the legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of a legislature will be chosen? On the one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for rights, strict observance of public faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalism and usury and asking why anyone should be permitted to drink champagne and to ride in a carriage while thousands of honest people are in want of necessaries. Which of the candidates is likely to be preferred by a workman?

     Envy has justly been called “the deadliest sin,” as it easily gives rise to all the most destructive, hate-filled human behaviors. The deliberate excitation of envy is among the foulest things any “journalist” ever embarks upon – and for a century at least, every “journalist” to the left of H. L. Mencken has done so. It makes a strong argument for the mass execution of the entire species.