I wholeheartedly agree with you that not a single American (with the probable exception of Jewish Americans, and interestingly this appears to extend yea unto the many generations) has the faintest clue about irony. It can, on occasion, make conversations with them rather difficult -- even if you are a synthetic American, like me.

Tricky thing, irony.

Doing my best to be conciliatory, I will point out that the following was aimed at your post, not Birks' (not always obvious on a blog):

"However: you're right: the system is a mess, and it's hardly unreasonable to look for solutions. Here's mine."

The other bit was just κατά τη γνώμη του παιχνιδιού.

(And no, I don't know what that means either. It just feels right.)