I guess you can call this a rebuttal of sorts. With regard to my colleague’s recent posting of Lisa de Moraes’s column, I am slightly offended by its tone. Sure de Moraes has some hilarious quips about the death of 60 Minutes II, but her condescending over the accomplished thespian Jennifer Love Hewitt is uncalled for. Has de Moraes not seen Can’t Hardly Wait, or Love’s critical turn in I Know What You Did Last Summer? And while I am at it, where is the Emmy she so rightly deserved for her stunning portrayal of Audrey Hepburn? I always knew Love had mounds of talent ever since I first laid eyes on the budding star in the uproarious comedy House Arrest. She was an indispensable element on Party of Five–note how the show was cancelled only after she left. And do I need to remind critics that Love is also a terrific singer whose song “Bare Naked” deserved a Grammy? This new show on CBS can only increase our appreciation of ghostbusting. Columnists like de Moraes need to do a better job keeping readers abreast of this fine actress’s career. Either on film, in music, or on the boob tube. (I know what you’re thinking. I’ve milked this for what it’s worth.)

As I said yesterday, it’s becoming fashionable to hate on Nick Denton.

Could Denton be the new Kurt Andersen?

Ed Driscoll agrees with John Podhoretz about Revenge of the Sith. I saw the movie last night and will have some thoughts later. If you care.

It doesn’t get any better than this:

Replacing “Joan” on Fridays at 8 is “Ghost Whisperer,” in which Hewitt plays a woman who can talk to dead people and help them find peace or something like that. One reporter asked Moonves why he thought a show about a 25-year-old who talks to dead people would skew younger than a show about a teenager who talks to God. Moonves responded that dead people skew younger than God. Made sense.

The Law Jedi recalls that while Terry Moran is saying that the Bush White House shouldn’t criticize Newsweek in public, it was perfectly okay for Clinton White House to personally call the networks and threaten them not to run the Juanita Broaddrick story?

What is happening in the world when Andrew Sullivan paraphrases Queen Amidala without any apparent irony?

Continuing his Abu Ghraib outrage/Newsweek apologetics, Sullivan concludes, “This is how liberty dies–with scattered, knee-jerk applause.”

In the new Star Wars movie, of course, Amidala (played by Natalie Portman) notes bitterly, “This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.”

When you reach to George Lucas-written dialogue to make a sweeping rhetorical point about the real world . . .

If this is goodbye, it’s been a great ride.

Power Line has been all over the remarks by Indra Nooyi, president and CFO of PepsiCo, at the Columbia Business School graduation.

Nooyi likened the globe to the human hand with Asia as the thumb, Africa as the pinky finger, etc. The United States was represented by the middle finger. Sayeth Nooyi:

However, if used inappropriately–just like the U.S. itself–the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I’m not looking for volunteers to model.

Discretion being the better part of valor … I think I’ll pass.

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand … not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

Makes me proud to be a Coke drinker.