Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - Posts
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Overlooked? From The Charlie Rose Show Tuesday (at 8:00 mark)--
CHARLIE ROSE: How would you have lived your life differently based on what you know now?
ELIZABETH EDWARDS: Boy, I mean, there`s so many -- I certainly would have gotten mammograms more often. That was an easy one.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, of course, right.
ELIZABETH EDWARDS: You know, I would not have voluntarily put myself in a position where I thought I would lose a child...
CHARLIE ROSE: Of course not.
ELIZABETH EDWARDS: ... and that I would feel so betrayed. I wouldn`t have done that voluntarily. I would...
CHARLIE ROSE: What does that mean? I don`t know what that means.
ELIZABETH EDWARDS: That means I would have made different choices. You know, I might have married somebody else and done something else ... [E.A.]
Is this (a) a huge dis or (b) something most wives tell themselves every other day? ... Evidence for (a) is that Mrs. Edwards immediately veers into talking about her husband's "gift to stir" and leave people "moved and inspired." Make up call! ... 1:53 P.M.
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Today's Freeze-Dried CW Tomorrow: When Obama picked Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, I figured nobody else would run with the "comprehensive immigration reform" angle--i.e., that Sotomayor offers something to placate Hispanic lobbyists and politicians who aren't getting what they want on immigration (which is legalization of current illegals). The forward lean! I was wrong. The Consolation Prize Theory became Instant CW--so much so that pro-legalization lobbyist Frank Sharry was forced to blog an unconvincing denial. ... 1:33 A.M.
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Die Blingerdammerung--Crouch & Battiata 1, Coates & McArdle 0: The argument against the suggestion that Obama Presidency would kill off certain aspects of hip-hop culture was always a little desperate. (How dare you clueless bourgeois people say that hip-hop will die? Everyone knows hip-hop's already on its last legs!) More evidence from the WSJ that Crouch & Battiata were on to something that Coates & McArdle were just too hip to acknowledge. ("Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth As the Recession Melts Rappers' Ice") ...
Update: Coates, Conor Clarke and reader J. note that the Journal piece on hip-hop jewelry mainly blames the recession for the decline in demand. Hey, that's what GM blames too! But GM has bigger problems. ... All we know for sure from the WSJ story is that hip hop artists have less money with which to buy bling. That could be because of the recession, or it could be because of the decline in the music industry in general ("Internet piracy cutting into musicians' record sales") or it could be a change in hip hop fashion--or it could be because hip hop specifically has been falling out of favor and the ascension of Obama is delivering the coup d' grace. If the latter were true we would be seeing stories like this one about now--but we won't read about hip-hop reviving with the economy. We'll see. I suspect Coates will have many more opportunities to be defensive and argue that it's all too complicated (so don't go speculating that, say, when Obama says "brothers should pull up their pants" it might actually result in some people--not only brothers--pulling up their pants). ... P.S.: I don't quite understand why Coates is so bothered by the possibility that Obama might usher in a cultural era in which hip hop loses its place, since Coates makes a big point of "the disgust that black youth themselves have expressed with the music." ... 1:32 A.M.
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The Good Andrew Sullivan--religious, non-excitable--has nice things to say about Robert Wright's Evolution of God. ... 1:31 A.M.
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