Good comment at Brad DeLong's

"I'd like to throw out an observation, tangential to this conversation, which I've been itching to share. Doesn't it seem to you that the public is not as agitated as you would expect, given the myriad of economic worries, the war, global warming, etc.? If you're like me, you've had said to yourself one day ---perhaps several times a week, these days---"This is the final outrage. Surely the people will not stand for THIS. Even the reporters for the corporate media will feel a responsibility.. blah blah". By now, of course, you realize that your feeling is an illusion.. but maybe there is another cause. It it possible, just barely, that the reason nothing penetrates the consciousness of the American is that a layer of fat protects him from bad news? No---really. I think the presence of cheap, filling, fatty foods has had a chemical effect on the national spirit, weighing us down, so to speak, with millions of tons of complacency.
I'm going to check out my theory by eating an eclair next time Bush commits another outrage---I mean, opens his mouth. I'll let you know."