During these tense times for The New Republic let me say that I agree entirely with Jonathan Chait that Ezra Klein doesn’t understand the point of Baby Einstein videos for the vast majority of people who use them. Their appeal isn’t that they will turn our kids into super-geniuses, it is that they are the least like videos to turn our kids into mental mush. I have nothing but admiration for parents who manage to ban TV entirely from their kids’ lives. But for most parents the trick is to find the least harmful television possible for those moments where parents desperately need a half hour to breath.