Well, duh. What was your first clue, where Noonan wrote:
"Everybody's shot." Those are great metaphoric words. ?
You and Marple ought to get together and grade papers. To paraphrase the estimable and highly underrated Pokey 78, this wasn't one of Noonan's better efforts. It whines. Poor, poor us. We've all been through so much. We need to keep in mind How Hard It's Been for us to watch all of this on television, sigh. We need to be like the heroic Dingell of Peggy's essay:
When the story became public, the secretary of transportation called him and apologized. Mr. Dingell waved him off and told him it was OK, he understands, everyone's doing his job. Now that's someone who knows that everybody's been shot.
Gag me.
It barely whimpers.
Probably due to lack of fresh meat. Hope it doesn't get fed again, because it will start howling next time.
You can't appreciate good writing when you've got a chip on your shoulder.