John is an amazing character, isn't he? Not what we would expect as we come up to Christmas. What if, riding atop the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist dressed in a glorified burlap sack? Even the perpetually perky Katie Couric would wince as she offers parade commentary from her reviewing stand, not quite sure what to say.

But this is not mid-town Manhattan and this is no Macy's extravaganza. It has been something of a parade though, as people trekked out to the desert to hear this strange man. He IS an astonishing preacher, we have to grant. Not many would start out the way he does - he stands before the assembled crowd, stares at them with a look of scarcely-disguised disgust, then bellows, "You are a …