By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Timothy Noah's 2001 review of Bill Ayers' radical-years memoir, "Fugitive Days," helps put Barack Obama's association with Ayers in context. Noah (HT: Kausfiles.com) writes that he's never read a "memoir quite so self-indulgent and morally clueless..." as that of Ayers, who helped set off bombs in half a dozen places including the Pentagon.

Much of what Ayers self-interestedly leaves out of his book is more personally embarrassing than illegal. Ayers takes care not to dwell on his own Establishment credentials. (His father was chairman of the energy company Commonwealth Edison, a fact Ayers conveys only by writing, "My dad worked for Edison.") Ayers omits any discussion of his famous 1970 statement, "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at."

Yeah. Kill your parents. As is obvious by now,Obama wasn't too picky about who he associated with, and it should be fascinating to see, if he wins Nov. 4, how this la-de-dah attitude will be expressed in the 3,000 plus federal appointments he will have the power to make.