Yesterday President Obama nominated Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court. At first blush, she looks like a politically safe choice since she was nominated to the district court bench by President George H.W. Bush and to the court of appeals by President Clinton. However, conservative activists are focusing upon two soundbites from her eighteen year judicial career to demonstrate that she is a dangerous liberal. In one instance, she said that she hoped a Latina woman would have better judgment than a white male who did not have similar experiences. In another case, she said that the courts of appeals were where policy is made, although she clarified that she did not endorse that position. These are cases of soundbite truth, easily digestible bits of data that are used as evidence of a broader truth. They may actually point to the truth, but they can just as easily be manipulated to point the other way.
As an exercise, let's assume that President George W. Bush had nominated Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Here are some charges that liberal activists could make to try to derail her nomination.
* She endorses Justice Scalia's strict reading of the Constitution as shown by the statement in her first confirmation hearing that, "I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it."
* She is no friend of a woman's right to reproductive freedom. In one ruling, she allowed anti-abortion protesters to sue police who intervened to protect women at an abortion clinic (although the police may have engaged in a bit of over the top brutality in the process). Amnesty America v. City of West Hartford, 361 F.3d 113 (2nd Cir. 2004). In another case, she threw out a case brought by activists seeking to challenge the Bush administration's policy of refusing to fund foreign non-governmental organizations which provided family planning services. The Center for Reproductive Law & Policy v. George W. Bush, 304 F.3d 183 (2nd Cir. 2002). How dare she side with the anti-abortion movement!
* She is anti-gay. She once sent a man back to prison merely because he had homosexual literature in his apartment. Farrell v. Burke, 449 F.3d 470 (2nd Cir. 2005). How dare she support the right-wing jihad!
* She is a lock them up and throw away the key conservative who frequently affirms criminal convictions and decisions to deport immigrants.
Of course, these examples are intentionally misleading. Rejecting a defense of qualified immunity asserted by police officers who beat anti-abortion protestors does not mean that she sides with the anti-abortion movement. Sending a child molestor back to prison because he violated his probation by possessing gay pornography does not make her anti-gay. Similarly, most criminal and immigration cases are routine and do not raise difficult issues. As a result, ruling for the state does not necessarily make her a jackbooted fascist. These are all cases where a little bit of the truth can be used in a misleading way.
In an important debate, such as appointment of a Supreme Court justice, both conservatives and liberals are quick to rely on "truthiness" when it suits their purposes. As a result, you should always accept soundbite truth with a grain of salt, especially when it comes from blogs.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
"Dude, you're old"
I was at the grocery store the other day buying a bottle of wine. Behind me in line were a couple of scruffy 20-somethings buying a case of beer. When the clerk asked them for their IDs, I asked why I didn't have to provide ID. One of the scruffy beer-buyers turned to me and said, "Dude, no offense, but you're old." The truth hurts.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
High School Soundtrack: 1975-1979 (Part Three)
New Wave
No discussion of the music of my high school years would be complete without talking about New Wave. New Wave was punk which didn't take itself so seriously. It was ironic rather than angry and you could dance to it, well sort of. As I was getting ready to graduate, artists like the B-52s, Elvis Costello, Blondie, the Knack, the Talking Heads and the Cars were coming on the scene.
I remember going to the disco with my friends sometime after we graduated. I didn't like disco, but there were girls there and it was something to do in El Paso on a Saturday Night. I remember hearing "Rock Lobster" come on and seeing the dance floor clear. It was clearly the vanguard of something new, something the mainstream wasn't ready for, but I was. Unfortunately, New Wave lasted about 15 minutes. Here are a few reminders.
No discussion of the music of my high school years would be complete without talking about New Wave. New Wave was punk which didn't take itself so seriously. It was ironic rather than angry and you could dance to it, well sort of. As I was getting ready to graduate, artists like the B-52s, Elvis Costello, Blondie, the Knack, the Talking Heads and the Cars were coming on the scene.
I remember going to the disco with my friends sometime after we graduated. I didn't like disco, but there were girls there and it was something to do in El Paso on a Saturday Night. I remember hearing "Rock Lobster" come on and seeing the dance floor clear. It was clearly the vanguard of something new, something the mainstream wasn't ready for, but I was. Unfortunately, New Wave lasted about 15 minutes. Here are a few reminders.
High School Soundtrack: 1975-1979 (Part Two)
The Rockers
During the 1970s, it seemed like rock and roll was in a death struggle with disco. However, as vapid as "YMCA" and "Bad Girls" were, they could not drown out the fact that there was a lot of really great rock and roll being made from 1975-1979.
It is a closely guarded secret that I was born in Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, I have only been back twice: once to visit and once for depositions. My family came back to visit friends in 1976, the Bicentennial Year. It was also the year of Boston's eponymously titled debut. To say that Boston was a big deal in the area around Boston would be an understatement. If the songs weren't playing on the radio, someone was playing a cassette or 8-track tape. Boston stood for the proposition that even if you got good grades and were a perfectionist engineer (like band founder Tom Scholz who worked for Polaroid), you could still form a bar band which became an overnight sensation. With cosmic guitars and feel good lyrics, Boston was one incarnation of the ultimate rock band.
Wayne's World 2. So true. Peter Frampton defied convention by launching his solo career with a live album. However, Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) with its classic single "Do You Feel Like We Do?" effectively captured the 70s. Now when I see Peter Frampton shilling for auto insurance, I don't know whether to feel embarassed or nostalgic.
Blue Oyster Cult was another hard rocker who epitomized this time period. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Godzilla" were darker rock songs, but still maintained a sense of fun. BOC was immortalized in the More Cowbell sketch from Saturday Night Live (which unfortunately I can't find a good version of on YouTube).
The Who were already well established when they released Who Are You
(1978). However, this album was enough to make them my favorite band of all time for a long time. I am pretty sure they are still on my top 10 list.
Finally, who can forget Van Halen? I once wrote an article for the Eastwood High School Sabre debating whether Van Halen or the Cars represented the breakout band of 1978. I don't remember my conclusion. However, there is no disputing that songs like "Dance the Night Away" and "Runnin' With the Devil" marked the start of a rock and roll franchise. Of course, Van Halen was only Van Halen with David Lee Roth. As Bowling for Soup famously asked, "Who's the other guy singing in Van Halen?"
The thing about the rockers wasn't that they were very deep. Usually, they weren't. They didn't ask deep questions. They didn't emulate classical riffs. But they sure were fun. However, now instead of my parents, it is my daughter telling me to turn the music down.
During the 1970s, it seemed like rock and roll was in a death struggle with disco. However, as vapid as "YMCA" and "Bad Girls" were, they could not drown out the fact that there was a lot of really great rock and roll being made from 1975-1979.
It is a closely guarded secret that I was born in Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, I have only been back twice: once to visit and once for depositions. My family came back to visit friends in 1976, the Bicentennial Year. It was also the year of Boston's eponymously titled debut. To say that Boston was a big deal in the area around Boston would be an understatement. If the songs weren't playing on the radio, someone was playing a cassette or 8-track tape. Boston stood for the proposition that even if you got good grades and were a perfectionist engineer (like band founder Tom Scholz who worked for Polaroid), you could still form a bar band which became an overnight sensation. With cosmic guitars and feel good lyrics, Boston was one incarnation of the ultimate rock band.
Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive!: if you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide.
Wayne's World 2. So true. Peter Frampton defied convention by launching his solo career with a live album. However, Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) with its classic single "Do You Feel Like We Do?" effectively captured the 70s. Now when I see Peter Frampton shilling for auto insurance, I don't know whether to feel embarassed or nostalgic.
Blue Oyster Cult was another hard rocker who epitomized this time period. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Godzilla" were darker rock songs, but still maintained a sense of fun. BOC was immortalized in the More Cowbell sketch from Saturday Night Live (which unfortunately I can't find a good version of on YouTube).
The Who were already well established when they released Who Are You
(1978). However, this album was enough to make them my favorite band of all time for a long time. I am pretty sure they are still on my top 10 list.
Finally, who can forget Van Halen? I once wrote an article for the Eastwood High School Sabre debating whether Van Halen or the Cars represented the breakout band of 1978. I don't remember my conclusion. However, there is no disputing that songs like "Dance the Night Away" and "Runnin' With the Devil" marked the start of a rock and roll franchise. Of course, Van Halen was only Van Halen with David Lee Roth. As Bowling for Soup famously asked, "Who's the other guy singing in Van Halen?"
The thing about the rockers wasn't that they were very deep. Usually, they weren't. They didn't ask deep questions. They didn't emulate classical riffs. But they sure were fun. However, now instead of my parents, it is my daughter telling me to turn the music down.
High School Soundtrack: 1975-1979 (Part One)
For some reason, my upcoming 30th High School reunion has caused me to do a lot more reminiscing than 20 or 25 did. Lately I have been thinking about the music that I used to like back then. If you look at the charts, the most popular artists were Elton John, the BeeGees, Andy Gibb, Donna Summer and Rod Stewart. It was the era of disco and bland, syrupy pop. However, that wasn't what I listened to.
The Triumvirate
The three most formative bands of my teen years were Kansas, Styx and the Electric Light Orchestra. What they had in common were more of a symphonic sound and (what appeared to my unformed teenage brain to be) deeper lyrics.
ELO's Face the Music (1975) was the first record which really blew me away. From the first strains of "Fire on High" which featured creepy strings and voices played backward to rocking guitar, it furnished the perfect overture for a stunning concept album. (The backmasked vocals say "The music is reversible, but time remains the same. Clever, but not profound). My friend David Dettman could talk for hours about the Electric Light Orchestra, explaining how their founder was shot by someone who feared that he would destroy classical music and how they were going to change the name of the band to the Electric Laser Orchestra, but someone leaked the information so that the plans had to be dropped. Alas, ELO degenerated into pop and then into disco within a few short years. Their later work was overproduced and overly commercial.
Styx was another favorite of my high school years. The Grand Illusion (1977) featured lyrics which appealed to an alienated youth:
so if you think your life is complete confusion
'cause your neighbor's got it made
just remember that it's a grand illusion
and deep inside we're all the same
--"The Grand Illusion." Their signature tune, "Come Sail Away" was clever. It started off with an almost classical piano riff exploring sailing as a metaphor for carrying on amidst life's disappointments while building to to a crescendo about climbing into a spacecraft with aliens. It was a bit silly, but it was very dramatic.
However, the band that made the deepest impression and which I still listen to today is Kansas. Leftoverture (1976) and Point of Know Return (1977) appealed to me for their orchestral arrangements and searching lyrics. Although I didn't know it at the time, the lyrics in songs like "Closet Chronicles" and "Dust in the Wind" reflected the spiritual searching of Kerry Livgren in his pre-Christian period. The theme of searching for truth was very appropriate for me at the place I was then--and remains profound today.
Two of the high spots of my high school years were seeing Kansas and Styx at the El Paso Country Coliseum (where they would later hold our high school graduation ceremony for all 800+ of us). The Coliseum will always be a place filled with memories of really loud music and the smell of smoke and spilled beer. (My parents showed remarkable restraint in not burning my clothes after those concerts or asking more probing questions about why they had such a peculiar smell to them.)
The Triumvirate
The three most formative bands of my teen years were Kansas, Styx and the Electric Light Orchestra. What they had in common were more of a symphonic sound and (what appeared to my unformed teenage brain to be) deeper lyrics.
ELO's Face the Music (1975) was the first record which really blew me away. From the first strains of "Fire on High" which featured creepy strings and voices played backward to rocking guitar, it furnished the perfect overture for a stunning concept album. (The backmasked vocals say "The music is reversible, but time remains the same. Clever, but not profound). My friend David Dettman could talk for hours about the Electric Light Orchestra, explaining how their founder was shot by someone who feared that he would destroy classical music and how they were going to change the name of the band to the Electric Laser Orchestra, but someone leaked the information so that the plans had to be dropped. Alas, ELO degenerated into pop and then into disco within a few short years. Their later work was overproduced and overly commercial.
Styx was another favorite of my high school years. The Grand Illusion (1977) featured lyrics which appealed to an alienated youth:
so if you think your life is complete confusion
'cause your neighbor's got it made
just remember that it's a grand illusion
and deep inside we're all the same
--"The Grand Illusion." Their signature tune, "Come Sail Away" was clever. It started off with an almost classical piano riff exploring sailing as a metaphor for carrying on amidst life's disappointments while building to to a crescendo about climbing into a spacecraft with aliens. It was a bit silly, but it was very dramatic.
However, the band that made the deepest impression and which I still listen to today is Kansas. Leftoverture (1976) and Point of Know Return (1977) appealed to me for their orchestral arrangements and searching lyrics. Although I didn't know it at the time, the lyrics in songs like "Closet Chronicles" and "Dust in the Wind" reflected the spiritual searching of Kerry Livgren in his pre-Christian period. The theme of searching for truth was very appropriate for me at the place I was then--and remains profound today.
Two of the high spots of my high school years were seeing Kansas and Styx at the El Paso Country Coliseum (where they would later hold our high school graduation ceremony for all 800+ of us). The Coliseum will always be a place filled with memories of really loud music and the smell of smoke and spilled beer. (My parents showed remarkable restraint in not burning my clothes after those concerts or asking more probing questions about why they had such a peculiar smell to them.)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A Commencement Address
I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
--T.S. Elliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I didn’t get T.S. Elliott when I was in high school, just as I didn’t get a lot of the larger lessons of life. As my 30th High School Reunion gets closer, there many things I wish I could tell my 18 year old self. Not that I would listen. I don’t remember much from the three commencement addresses of my academic career, except that Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby compared newly minted lawyers to hamsters. At any rate, here is the commencement address that I will never be asked to deliver and which I wouldn’t have paid attention to if I had heard it.
High School Is Not Life
The first thing I would tell myself is that high school is not life. I remember one day in the cafeteria listening to two girls who agreed that high school was the best time of their lives and that everything would be downhill from there. My thought at the time was shoot me now, because I don’t think I can stand it if things get much worse. My high school years were an awkward time for me. I didn’t have the right clothes or the right friends (or many friends at all to tell the truth) and I didn’t have a driver’s license until my senior year. I cultivated the persona of a cynical outsider partially because it helped to rationalize the alienation that I felt and partially because I was just a jerk. When I dared to return for my first reunion twenty years later, I found out that many of the people I went to school with had become pretty decent people or maybe they were that way all along.
Regardless of whether my perception of high school as a hellhole where the jocks and the popular kids and the bullies crushed nerds like me under foot was real or a self-induced hallucination, life did get better. While Bowling for Soup wrote a really catchy song to the contrary, high school does end and my life got better. I got a job, I went to college, I fell in love. While the path wasn’t always linear, I am reminded of George Carlin’s comment in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where he said, “They do get better.” The same could be said for my life. It did get better.
Life Is Fickle, So Keep a Sense of Humor and Be Willing to Do Some Things Badly
I spent a lot of my life being very driven. I was a National Merit Scholar. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from college. I got into one of the best law schools and was awarded Order of the Coif (which is a big deal). However, no matter how much I achieved, I was never number one. Someone else was always valedictorian or class president or got the best job out of law school. I think that’s how life is. No matter how much you achieve, there is always someone who is smarter, stronger, is more popular or has more money. Since being perfect is not a realistic option, try to keep a sense of humor and have some fun along the way. Law school was both an exhilarating and frightening time for me. I had to work really hard just to keep up. I lived in an apartment in a not so great part of town. However, what I really remember were the silly movies that my wife and I went to see at the UT Student Union. I remember Tony Randall proclaiming “I’m king of the elevator,” a drunken Jimmy Stewart calling out for C. K. Dexter Haney in “The Philadelphia Story” and Cary Grant being suave and silly in “Bringing Up Baby.” Even if the air conditioning in our apartment couldn’t quite keep up with the summer heat or I made a C in Torts (despite the fact that I was taught by Bill Powers who is now a really important dude at the University of Texas), those movies made life fun.
As I have grown older, I have had the courage to do some things badly just to see if I could do them. In high school, I was a gangly, un-athletic kid. Today, I am an overweight, middle-aged un-athletic adult. However, that hasn’t kept me from playing soccer badly or trying to run a half-marathon. After a while, I have come to realize that some things are worth doing just because you can. I wrote a series of legal articles on Shakespeare just because I felt like it. We went to visit a family in Ukraine when our children were 2 ½ and 5 just because they invited us. Our lives have been richer because we did some things which were absurd or improbable or unlikely on the surface. I never got the job with a big law firm or became wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. However, we did find some interesting things to do.
Let’s see, did I have a point here? Don’t expect to be the best all of the time, since you won’t and can’t possibly be. Strive to excel, but don’t self-destruct if it doesn’t happen all the time. Be willing to have some fun and do some things badly.
A Third Point
All good motivational speeches should be built around three points. However, after 30 years, I have really only come up with two so far. As a result, I will leave you with this: “Oh... one other thing. If you guys ever have kids and one of them when he's eight years old accidentally sets fire to the living room rug... go easy on him.” All right, that’s not very practical even if it s stolen from a great movie.
Probably the most profound thing I can end with is learn how to be friends. This is bittersweet because it is a lesson I did not learn well. I spent much of my high school years obsessed with girls, but I wasn’t friends with many girls. As a result, my romantic life suffered (until I was in college when I met my wife and we became friends and fell in love all in the space of a very short time). When I look at my older daughter, who is now in her high school years, I am amazed at how effortlessly her group of friends interacts. They date each other, they break up, but they continue to be friends. Whether it is bouncing on the trampoline in our back yard or floating down the Guadalupe River, they are like this living organic unit. I never had that experience. Of course, I passed Geometry on the first try so maybe it’ s ok.
If I had to sum it all up, I would say, don’t despair if you don’t have it together by high school, because there is a lot of life which comes after and it can get better; achieve, work hard, strive, but don’t get bummed out when you’re not perfect; don’t be afraid to do some things badly; remember lines from silly movies; and try to chill out, be friends and be happy. Oh, and also, listen to your dad and try to pass Geometry.
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
--T.S. Elliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I didn’t get T.S. Elliott when I was in high school, just as I didn’t get a lot of the larger lessons of life. As my 30th High School Reunion gets closer, there many things I wish I could tell my 18 year old self. Not that I would listen. I don’t remember much from the three commencement addresses of my academic career, except that Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby compared newly minted lawyers to hamsters. At any rate, here is the commencement address that I will never be asked to deliver and which I wouldn’t have paid attention to if I had heard it.
High School Is Not Life
The first thing I would tell myself is that high school is not life. I remember one day in the cafeteria listening to two girls who agreed that high school was the best time of their lives and that everything would be downhill from there. My thought at the time was shoot me now, because I don’t think I can stand it if things get much worse. My high school years were an awkward time for me. I didn’t have the right clothes or the right friends (or many friends at all to tell the truth) and I didn’t have a driver’s license until my senior year. I cultivated the persona of a cynical outsider partially because it helped to rationalize the alienation that I felt and partially because I was just a jerk. When I dared to return for my first reunion twenty years later, I found out that many of the people I went to school with had become pretty decent people or maybe they were that way all along.
Regardless of whether my perception of high school as a hellhole where the jocks and the popular kids and the bullies crushed nerds like me under foot was real or a self-induced hallucination, life did get better. While Bowling for Soup wrote a really catchy song to the contrary, high school does end and my life got better. I got a job, I went to college, I fell in love. While the path wasn’t always linear, I am reminded of George Carlin’s comment in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where he said, “They do get better.” The same could be said for my life. It did get better.
Life Is Fickle, So Keep a Sense of Humor and Be Willing to Do Some Things Badly
I spent a lot of my life being very driven. I was a National Merit Scholar. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from college. I got into one of the best law schools and was awarded Order of the Coif (which is a big deal). However, no matter how much I achieved, I was never number one. Someone else was always valedictorian or class president or got the best job out of law school. I think that’s how life is. No matter how much you achieve, there is always someone who is smarter, stronger, is more popular or has more money. Since being perfect is not a realistic option, try to keep a sense of humor and have some fun along the way. Law school was both an exhilarating and frightening time for me. I had to work really hard just to keep up. I lived in an apartment in a not so great part of town. However, what I really remember were the silly movies that my wife and I went to see at the UT Student Union. I remember Tony Randall proclaiming “I’m king of the elevator,” a drunken Jimmy Stewart calling out for C. K. Dexter Haney in “The Philadelphia Story” and Cary Grant being suave and silly in “Bringing Up Baby.” Even if the air conditioning in our apartment couldn’t quite keep up with the summer heat or I made a C in Torts (despite the fact that I was taught by Bill Powers who is now a really important dude at the University of Texas), those movies made life fun.
As I have grown older, I have had the courage to do some things badly just to see if I could do them. In high school, I was a gangly, un-athletic kid. Today, I am an overweight, middle-aged un-athletic adult. However, that hasn’t kept me from playing soccer badly or trying to run a half-marathon. After a while, I have come to realize that some things are worth doing just because you can. I wrote a series of legal articles on Shakespeare just because I felt like it. We went to visit a family in Ukraine when our children were 2 ½ and 5 just because they invited us. Our lives have been richer because we did some things which were absurd or improbable or unlikely on the surface. I never got the job with a big law firm or became wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. However, we did find some interesting things to do.
Let’s see, did I have a point here? Don’t expect to be the best all of the time, since you won’t and can’t possibly be. Strive to excel, but don’t self-destruct if it doesn’t happen all the time. Be willing to have some fun and do some things badly.
A Third Point
All good motivational speeches should be built around three points. However, after 30 years, I have really only come up with two so far. As a result, I will leave you with this: “Oh... one other thing. If you guys ever have kids and one of them when he's eight years old accidentally sets fire to the living room rug... go easy on him.” All right, that’s not very practical even if it s stolen from a great movie.
Probably the most profound thing I can end with is learn how to be friends. This is bittersweet because it is a lesson I did not learn well. I spent much of my high school years obsessed with girls, but I wasn’t friends with many girls. As a result, my romantic life suffered (until I was in college when I met my wife and we became friends and fell in love all in the space of a very short time). When I look at my older daughter, who is now in her high school years, I am amazed at how effortlessly her group of friends interacts. They date each other, they break up, but they continue to be friends. Whether it is bouncing on the trampoline in our back yard or floating down the Guadalupe River, they are like this living organic unit. I never had that experience. Of course, I passed Geometry on the first try so maybe it’ s ok.
If I had to sum it all up, I would say, don’t despair if you don’t have it together by high school, because there is a lot of life which comes after and it can get better; achieve, work hard, strive, but don’t get bummed out when you’re not perfect; don’t be afraid to do some things badly; remember lines from silly movies; and try to chill out, be friends and be happy. Oh, and also, listen to your dad and try to pass Geometry.
Monday, May 11, 2009
More Thoughts About Taylor Swift and William Shakespeare
No, they're not a celebrity couple. Taylor Swift is a country singer whose current hit "Love Story" alludes to William Shakespeare's play "Romeo & Juliet." In my last post on this song, I talked about what a doormat the Juliet character was, waiting passively to be rescued by Romeo. While it is a cute song, I thought it sent a bad message to girls. This time I want to write about how the song takes the character names out of the play but otherwise misses the point.
In Taylor Swift's "Love Story" (aka the Romeo & Juliet song), the main characters are a strong-willed boy, a starry-eyed girl and Juliet's stern father who wishes to keep them apart. In William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the romance takes place amidst the backdrop of the deadly feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. It's not just that Juliet's father wants to lay down the law about dating his daughter; rather, Romeo and Juliet's families have devoted their lives to hating each other.
Taylor Swift's ending in which Romeo mans up and asks Juliet's father for her hand, would have been absurd in the context of the play. In the play, Romeo would never have been let in the front door, let alone given permission to marry Juliet (especially since Juliet's dad was trying to marry the 13 year old off to a nobleman).
However, by the same token, you couldn't have a pop song in which the young lovers end up taking their own lives because of their families' feud; it just wouldn't get mainstream airplay. Indeed, a pop song which conveyed the emotional punch of Romeo & Juliet would likely spark protests and outrage, even if you could contain the complexities within a a three minute pop song.
Thus, what you have on the one hand is a sugary sweet pop song in which love prevails (albeit with a darker message about the need for girls to sit around and wait to be rescued) on the one hand and a darkly tragic play in which lots of characters die (albeit with an opportunity for redemption as the two families reconcile while they grieve over the loss of their children). In the end, I would have to say that I don't know whether Swift gets Shakespeare. However, it doesn't really matter because a pop song could never pack the punch of a Shakespearean tragedy. They are just two different things. It would be like complaining that a Bud Lite was not a vintage wine.
In Taylor Swift's "Love Story" (aka the Romeo & Juliet song), the main characters are a strong-willed boy, a starry-eyed girl and Juliet's stern father who wishes to keep them apart. In William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the romance takes place amidst the backdrop of the deadly feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. It's not just that Juliet's father wants to lay down the law about dating his daughter; rather, Romeo and Juliet's families have devoted their lives to hating each other.
Taylor Swift's ending in which Romeo mans up and asks Juliet's father for her hand, would have been absurd in the context of the play. In the play, Romeo would never have been let in the front door, let alone given permission to marry Juliet (especially since Juliet's dad was trying to marry the 13 year old off to a nobleman).
However, by the same token, you couldn't have a pop song in which the young lovers end up taking their own lives because of their families' feud; it just wouldn't get mainstream airplay. Indeed, a pop song which conveyed the emotional punch of Romeo & Juliet would likely spark protests and outrage, even if you could contain the complexities within a a three minute pop song.
Thus, what you have on the one hand is a sugary sweet pop song in which love prevails (albeit with a darker message about the need for girls to sit around and wait to be rescued) on the one hand and a darkly tragic play in which lots of characters die (albeit with an opportunity for redemption as the two families reconcile while they grieve over the loss of their children). In the end, I would have to say that I don't know whether Swift gets Shakespeare. However, it doesn't really matter because a pop song could never pack the punch of a Shakespearean tragedy. They are just two different things. It would be like complaining that a Bud Lite was not a vintage wine.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thoughts About Phyllis Schlafly and Social Justice
Back in January, Phyllis Schlafly wrote that she was shocked that 32% of evangelicals aged 18-29 voted for Barack Obama. Many of them cited "social justice" as the reasons for their vote. According to Ms. Schlafly:
There are so many things which come to mind when I read this, but I will stick to the most obvious one. I am no theologian, but I am pretty sure that there are a lot of references to social justice in the Bible.
When I think of social justice, these are the texts that jump out at me, the ones about loving your neighbor as yourself, serving the least of these and staying humble about it. Jesus was pretty clear that this is important stuff.
You can argue about whether government is an efficient mechanism to advance social justice. As someone who is generally conservative, I have my doubts about how much government can accomplish, believing that government is generally more effective in restraining evil than committing good. Regardless of questions of efficacy or means, you still can't dismiss social justice as leftwing jargon without throwing out a whole lot of the Bible.
To go back to Ms. Schlafly's concern about the fact that only 68% of young evangelicals voted against Barack Obama, I would like to offer an alternative suggestion. Neither candidate was an ideal Christian. It has become unfashionable and perhaps even dangerous for Republican Christians to talk about social justice. (Remember how quickly George H.W. Bush's thousand points of light and George W. Buah's compassionate conservatism were forgotten when it came time to woo the base). Barack Obama was willing to use explicitly Christian language and advocate social justice. Perhaps these enthusiastic young dissident evangelicals were willing to look past President Obama's flaws and give him a chance since conservatives had ceded the moral high ground with regard to anything other than sex.
Many of these young people identify "social justice" as the reason that led them to relegate the prime moral issues of life and marriage to the back burner. But the term "social justice" does not define a moral cause; it is leftwing jargon to overturn those who have economic and political power.
What caused young evangelicals, the children of the so-called "religious right," to change their moral imperatives so dramatically? Most likely it's the attitudes and decision-making they learned in the public schools, which 89% of U.S. students attend.
There are so many things which come to mind when I read this, but I will stick to the most obvious one. I am no theologian, but I am pretty sure that there are a lot of references to social justice in the Bible.
'What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.'Micah 6:8.
35 And one of them,a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."Matthew 22:35-40.
35'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'Matthew 25:35-40.
37"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'
40"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
When I think of social justice, these are the texts that jump out at me, the ones about loving your neighbor as yourself, serving the least of these and staying humble about it. Jesus was pretty clear that this is important stuff.
You can argue about whether government is an efficient mechanism to advance social justice. As someone who is generally conservative, I have my doubts about how much government can accomplish, believing that government is generally more effective in restraining evil than committing good. Regardless of questions of efficacy or means, you still can't dismiss social justice as leftwing jargon without throwing out a whole lot of the Bible.
To go back to Ms. Schlafly's concern about the fact that only 68% of young evangelicals voted against Barack Obama, I would like to offer an alternative suggestion. Neither candidate was an ideal Christian. It has become unfashionable and perhaps even dangerous for Republican Christians to talk about social justice. (Remember how quickly George H.W. Bush's thousand points of light and George W. Buah's compassionate conservatism were forgotten when it came time to woo the base). Barack Obama was willing to use explicitly Christian language and advocate social justice. Perhaps these enthusiastic young dissident evangelicals were willing to look past President Obama's flaws and give him a chance since conservatives had ceded the moral high ground with regard to anything other than sex.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Star Trek Tribute
I am going to the new Star Trek movie tonight. In order to get ready, I watched a few classic clips. Hope you enjoy.
New Wave Kirk
First up is the classic New Wave song, "Where's Captain Kirk?" performed by Spizzenergi. The clips show some of the cheesiest scenes from the tv series.
Kirk on the Constitution
One of the hammiest aspects of the original tv show was Captain Kirk's dramatic speeches. Here we have Captain Kirk expounding on the Preamble to the Constitution.
Shakespeare Kirk
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard was played by a Shakespearean actor. However, here is a little known scene of Spock reciting a sonnet to Kirk.
Farewell to Kirk
Although Captain Kirk made it through many close scrapes, he finally succumbed in Star Trek: Generations. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
New Wave Kirk
First up is the classic New Wave song, "Where's Captain Kirk?" performed by Spizzenergi. The clips show some of the cheesiest scenes from the tv series.
Kirk on the Constitution
One of the hammiest aspects of the original tv show was Captain Kirk's dramatic speeches. Here we have Captain Kirk expounding on the Preamble to the Constitution.
Shakespeare Kirk
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard was played by a Shakespearean actor. However, here is a little known scene of Spock reciting a sonnet to Kirk.
Farewell to Kirk
Although Captain Kirk made it through many close scrapes, he finally succumbed in Star Trek: Generations. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
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