Cal Thomas on the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles laid bare our obsession with externals. The invective hurled at the newly-to-each-other-weds may be unprecedented. Casting to the winds all pretense of "reporting," several network anchors and commentators unmercifully trashed the couple. Had the bunker wedding of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun been televised, it might have received better coverage.

For a reason, including this observation.

Beauty has replaced character. It is the goddess of narcissism. The late Diana, princess of Wales (a title she keeps, even in death), behaved badly, but she mostly gets a pass from the self-absorbed and worshipful public because she was beautiful on the outside.