March 2003 Archives

If the Democrats find someone as tough on foreign policy and as creative on domestic programs, they can have the White House again. The message is there in [Moynihan's] speeches and writings, and like all good thought it still pertains.

Geo Beach, remembering D.P. Moynihan

Fred Kaplan of Slate (that's not him, left) suggests that there are some "early indicators" that will tell us how things are going.

Read the entire article. Here's a short summary:

"I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war.

"Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country." -- Sen. Tom Dashle

Make no mistake: war is the last resort. When you go to war you are admitting that everything else failed.

But that doesn't make going to war wrong.

"The war was a mirror; it reflected man’s every virtue and every vice, and if you looked closely, like an artist at his drawings, it showed up both with unusual clarity."

Earlier, I had casually invoked an old aphorism in saying that I preferred a government and economic policy in which the poor were not robbed to pay the rich.

Rosemary Esmay went ballistic and demanded proof that the shade of the Sheriff of Nottingham yet stalked the earth. I suggested that the present system of payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare) would do. I promised a response.

Interestingly enough David Mercer beat me to it.

Recently, Rosemary Esmay, erstwhile denizen of Dean's World, dared me to take one of those silly little quizzes that tests to see if you are (truly, secretly?) a Republican or a Democrat.

I took the test and came up Republican. Like, right. I am so not a Republican that I just laughed it off. When I told her the whole thing was a crock, she sent back this comment:

I think you are in DENIAL.

I've always thought most of your views seemed rather Republican. I could never figure out why you pretended to be a Democrat. :-)

I told her that I'd give her an explanation. Here it is.

Gosh, this is like trying to read a newspaper in a tornado:

• Iraqi drone made of balsa wood and duct tape?
  
• Stones forced to go the Chinese way
  
• Serbian prime minister survives assassination attempt...
  
• Oops! No he didn't!
  
• Reports of Bin Laden's capture denied; US in the dark
  
• Rumsfeld says Britain might not fight

My good friend Dean is still suggesting that we did the right thing by dragging our case for regime change through the UN.

I thought it was a mistake right from the start. The UN lost it's credibility as an honest broker decades ago, beginning with the regime of the notorious Kurt Waldheim.

But we went anyway. And now, I think we got more than we bargained for.

Listen to what the normally sympathetic Howard Fineman has to say:

Recently read a piece over at Samizdata, a blog so good I linked to it.

Here's what caught my eye:

It may be a response to our inability to halt the ageing process that causes so many of us to plot out our memories with milestones: first day at school, first kiss, first job, marriage, birth of child etc.

I think we mark these milestones because they provide us with a certain comfort. If we cannot go back then at least we can progress. Change is an option and one never knows what tomorrow may bring.

I say this because I think it is time for me to acknowledge another milestone. Truth be told, it was raised a little while ago but it is only now that I am forced to grant it full recognition: pop culture and I have gone our separate ways. It was a passionate and intimate relationship while it lasted, but now the 'spark' has gone. We've both moved on and changed. I'm not the same, it's not the same. There's no communication any more. Time to call it a day. Not only do I no longer know who is topping the charts, I no longer care....

You can read the rest here...

It prompted the following response from me:

In my opinion, we love dearly the things we discovered when we were young, not necessarily because they were good, but because youth is such a rush.

For example, I love the music of the 60's and 70's because I was a teenager and in my twenties then.

But I'm like a shark swimming in an ocean of music. I have to keep going or I'll die. To say I love all music is an understatement. To me, music is the language of emotion.

That said, I've often wondered whether music stimulates an emotion in me or perhaps provides one. I can't say for sure.

So for me to shut the door on contemporary music because I'm not "young" anymore would be ... unfortunate.

In part, that is why I am intensely interested in the music my two kids listen to. (The other part is that I'm their dad). They are both teens. My oldest, my son, loves movie soundtracks, Broadway musicals and classical music. I loved all of that when I was his age. It's easy for me to advise him, pointing out worthwhile stuff.

On the other hand, my daughter is completely absorbed in radio pop music, as was I at her age. But her taste is contemporary; so her favorite music is more ephemeral compared to my son's. For example she loves hip-hop.

She advises me on what she likes. When we're in the car, she controls the radio; we listen together and I grill her on who is singing which song. Being a parent, I also get a chance to gently steer her away from the crap and NC-17 stuff.

In turn, I advise her on worthwhile oldies; she likes the Beatles and the Beachboys, among others.

We crack up talking about how, when she's my age, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Nelly and Avril Lavigne will be on the oldies stations. Hee!

Someone made a comment about rap drawing the generations together. Maybe that's what's happening here. I can't say.

What I do know is that music is the language of emotion. And if a piece of music makes me resonate, then I listen to it.

And if it makes my kids resonate, then we listen to it together.

After all, age is just mind over matter -- if you don't mind, it don't matter.