Telling you about something that happened is reporting. Telling you about two things that happened is punditry.

Part of the pundit’s job is to analyze current events, draw connections, and identify trends you might not have spotted. To do this properly, the pundit cannot extrapolate a trend from a single event. No, that would be silly and unscientific, not responsible punditry at all. Most of your better pundits have the good grace to wait for two events to transpire, before divining the portents. Whatever similarity these two events may share becomes the “trend” (or in journalese, the “hook”).

For example, a reporter might tell you: “Michael Jackson was found not guilty.” But a pundit would say: “Michael Jackson was found not guilty. Ten years ago, O.J. Simpson also was found not guilty. Whither our courts?”

Or another. Compare this: “Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.” to this: “George Bush invaded Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. The man has no conscience.” Did you spot the punditry there?

I mention all this to prepare you to recognize outstanding punditry when you see it. You may see it soon.

Every once in awhile, I cruise the “Okie blogs” blogroll of fellow Oklahoma bloggers over at Mike’s Okiedoke blog. As I was doing this the other day, I noticed that “Jen,” a female Oklahoma blogger, had put up a farewell post, on Friday, Aug. 19.

I’m done. I have a lot of good things going in my life and blogging’s not one of them. So… I will finally let this coughing, sputtering, dying blog rest in peace. It’s been good, but this just isn’t my place anymore. Love you all!

A pity. I don’t pretend to have been one of Jen’s regular readers, but I always think it’s a shame to kill a blog. A few minutes after reading that, I found another blog, by “Jill Vatican,” also a female Oklahoma blogger, who had also chosen August of 2005 to commit blogicide.

I’ve bought the disk farm. Been assimilated. It’s curtains. I’m off to the happy hunting ground. Hanging up my tack. New information superhighway roadkill. Kicked the bucket. Jill has left the building. Pulled the plug. Gone gently into that good night. Wearing concrete galoshes. Hanging up my hat. No matter how you put it, I’m done. Only one person knew my true identity and now I’ve been outed before I ever even really got started. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

So we have two female Oklahoma bloggers pulling the plug within days of each other, posting final messages expressing similar sentiments. This is a sad — and chilling — trend, which I have analyzed, with chilling portents for Oklahoma, and for the Blogosphere. The finger of blame must point squarely at none other than George Bush, who invaded Iraq.