It was the talk of yesterday's talk shows and will probably continue to spark outrage on the air waves for some time to come. And Joel Stein's Los Angeles Times column on Tuesday titled "Warriors and Wusses" has triggered an avalanche of angry e-mails -- and no doubt some support -- for saying the unsayable: "I don't support the troops."

There was outrage to spare on Jim Villanucci's talk show Tuesday on 770 KKOB radio, on the part of listeners and the host himself, as well as some support from people who called in to say that what our troops are doing in Iraq is no different from what the Nazis did in Europe. One could even imagine some gray ponytails bobbing vigorously in agreement, longing for the good old days when you could spit on returning soldiers and call them "baby-killers" with impunity.

We read and re-read the column -- which Villanucci at one point called "subtle" -- looking for some hint of serious and sustained criticism beneath a veneer of clever satire, rather like Jonathan Swift's famous satirical essay, "A Modest Proposal," in which Swift said the answer to poverty and hunger in Ireland at the time (1729) was to have the Irish eat their children.

But, no. It just seemed snarky, stupid, and -- if it didn't give sophomores a bad name -- sophomoric.

Give Joel Stein some credit, though. He went on conservative talk show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt's radio show in Los Angeles yesterday to defend his column. He endured a prosecutorial slicing-and-dicing -- the transcript of which is here, thanks to the RealClearPolitics Web site -- and managed to lay bare his fundamental lack of knowledge and seriousness, not to mention lack of style and wit.

The 34-year-old Stein used to be a humor columnist for Time magazine and now has the same kind of job at the Los Angeles Times. The aforementioned Hugh Hewitt gives us a little more background here and here.

The first line of his biographical blurb on the LA Times site says it all: "Joel Stein is desperate for attention."

Well, he has gotten plenty of that.

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