NY Times Paragraph of the Year

I really don't like to blog politics. It's not the focus of this blog (Bikes, Bytes, Burgh) and I'm not that savvy about it. Today I followed a link from Infinonymous to Bob Herbert's column, "Putting Our Brains on Hold". His essay includes:

But instead of exercising the appropriate mental muscles, we’re allowing ourselves to become a nation of nitwits, obsessed with the comings and goings of Lindsay Lohan and increasingly oblivious to crucially important societal issues that are all but screaming for attention. What should we be doing about (1) the legions of jobless Americans, (2) the deteriorating public schools, (3) the debilitating wars, (4) the scandalous economic inequality, (5)the corporate hold on governmental affairs, (6) the commercialization of the arts, (7) the deficits?

If I could pick The NY Times Paragraph of The Year, it would be that one. I might quibble about changing (6) to read, the commercialization of the public space, but that's a trifling.

Bravo, Mr. Herbert. You remind me why I miss Moynihan.