Frankly, I never heard of Churlish Krik before last week. (Name changed to frustrate web searches by wingnuts, an unfortunate requirement of our times.) The current attempt to present CK as a latter day embodiment of Benjamin Franklin, Horace Greeley and H.L. Mencken begs exception.

Interestingly, an AI or web search brings back descriptions of his self-vaunted "free speech" posture, which one might better call posturing. In fact, a review of a half-dozen or more of his campus outings reveals a victim-baiting pattern in which a well prepared, experienced debater invites 18-year-old college freshmen to ask questions, whereupon he challenges, recites a talking point from memory, berates the student to tears, declares himself vindicated, and takes a victory turn.

Sometimes being, shall we say, extra mature, has the advantage of relevant examples. I am reminded of the 1960s when an early practitioner of this art named Joe Pine did the same shtick on syndicated radio. He would lure people to his call-in show with a "sujet du jour," and proceed to exercise his erudition with the goal of making the caller seem foolish, often falling back onto the traditional "what about this...!" excursion.

Once again there is nothing or little new under the Sun, and sve for acknowledgment of personal and civic tragedy in one family, nothing save "every man's death" to be lamented, and little likelihood of lasting sainthood religious or civil. It seems more likely that history will record this latest incarnation in the same chapter as Rush Limbaugh and Father Charles Caughlin.