SOMEONE MIGHT: With tongue held firmly in cheek, Slate's Jack Shafer tweaks the "Wall Street Journal" for suddenly using passive language in its usually no-holds-barred editorials.

Here's the offense: After making a stirring call for action, the editorialists mewl that somebody else might want to inform the people in charge about their ideas. The Journal indulged the tic most recently in Tuesday's editorial about the farm bill, which it opposes (correctly) as "one of the porkiest farm bills in history." The editorial ends, "Someone might want to tell Karl Rove that a Senate victory will be pyrrhic if President Bush manages to alienate his GOP base, voter turnout falls as a result and Republicans lose the House in the process." [Emphasis added throughout.] For Christ's sake, you're the Wall Street Journal editorial page! You can call thunder and A-10 Warthog gunships down from the skies. Pick up the phone and tell Karl Rove yourself!