I live in Northeastern Oklahoma. This is in many way millions of light years from the great opinion setters in Washington and New York. I must admit how much I envy them. After all who expects intelligent observations and good writing from the middle of nowhere?

So, I was delighted to be once more the recipient of the that vast embodiment of Establishment wisdom, David Brooks. It is so kind of him to wander down from the plains of Olympus to cast a few minor pearls in my direction.

In this case, the pearls were cast in the form of a “tweet,” in which he complained that his meal at the Newark Airport was 78 dollars. Clearly the decline of the United States, even perhaps all of western civilization, can be observed in this travesty pricing. This hamburger was a vital piece of evidence in our cultural wars and disputes, and only a master of observation could have possibly realized it.

Now, there are people, just a few, who do not appreciate these thrown pearls which under any measure of objective evidence they should treasure.

And these people have been saying and, even worse, writing mean things. I hesitate to call attention to this pitiful criticism, but even in the wild country of Northeastern Oklahoma, we know that opinion setters like David Brooks are all but invulnerable to criticism from the chattering masses of humanity he dwells so far from.

So, what did these pitiful complainers say? They pointed out that a hamburger and fries run roughly seventeen dollars and that the rest of the bill was for his drinks, apparently scotch. So, seventeen dollars for food and sixty-one dollars for alcoholic beverages.

And these complainers can’t help themselves but to also suggest that a hamburger costing seventeen dollars is not quite so indicative of societal decline.

This is all very unfair and I want David Brooks to know that out here in Northeastern Oklahoma, I’ve got his back.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-brooks-78-burger-tweet_n_650cafcee4b0adc2891391b9