What's Wrong With Our National Discourse 101: A sad media spectacle has played out after MSNBC's Chris Hayes, in a great, thoughtful, nuanced Memorial Day discussion, questioned the loaded use of the word "hero" because "it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war." Facing a firestorm of outrage from the right, he issued an apology, explaining he was trying to explore "the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war." It was as thoughtful and nuanced as the original. And he shouldn't have had to issue it.

"One of (my) points was just how removed most Americans are from the wars we fight (and) how easy it becomes to never read the names of those who are wounded and fight and die, to not ask questions about the direction of our strategy in Afghanistan, and to assuage our own collective guilt about this disconnect with a pro-forma ritual that we observe briefly before returning to our barbecues."

Famous sycophant Tony Blair, now a $6-million-a-year consultant for JP Morgan, isn't clear of his self-serving past just yet. During a supposedly secure hearing about his ties to the Murdoch scandal, a protester burst in to charge Blair with war crimes. And he is facing tough questions about newly revealed secret meetings with Libya's Gaddafi. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

"Excuse me. This man should be arrested for war crimes."