Over at the Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel insists that advertisers are the real “nanny state.”

Er, except that government controls through regulation, taxation, and penalties up to and including jail time for disobedience; advertisers attempt to persuade through the use of jingles, pretty pictures, cleavage, and talking geckos.

Then there’s this sentence, desperately begging for an editor:

So when a child begs for fruit-free Froot Loops, he’s simply doing what he’s been commanded to do, clean-your-room style, by the marketing nanny. This advertising juggernaut is proving to be a governess with influence not seen since Maria convinced the Von Trapp kids that the Anschluss could be fun.

This is what happens when attempts at clever and obscure references go horribly, horribly wrong. Thankfully, no one was injured in vanden Heuvel’s mangling of The Sound of Music; no one should attempt these without first thoroughly reviewing the Dennis Miller Handbook to Obscure References. Don’t try this at home, kids.