I like this op-ed's irreverence. But I think it could have been wittier and more sardonic. Poses a good question, but doesn't really grip me.

The only way that this piece could be more effective would be to wrap it around a piece of lead pipe and beat J.T.P. about the head with it. And the person who published J.T.P.'s "book."

Although it's not original, it does strike a chord and goes to the question most asked in medicine and science; Just because we can do something, should we?

A real writer makes some (bitter sounding) comments about the writer wannabe Joe the Plumber.

Entertaining and well written. Complains about the trend of celebrity being more important than skill to get published in a humorous way.

I'm not too confident about the journalistic merits of this column, but I agree to the point that I want to add to it. Something has been lost in our society over the past 50 years which I railed against when I was young. There were sober and opinionated people who by virtue of peer consensus where deferred to when decisions had to be made about the quality and merit of individuals who sought promotion. Sure, some deserving talents were quashed, and the process wasn't fair, but you didn't have audacious idiots rising to the top like Joe, Sarah, Rod, and Rush either, did you? Its a free-for-all now with all this publicity. Nobody is in charge.