A good article in the Washington Post analyzes left-wing condescension towards conservatives. To summarize the main aspects of the condescension:

1. Conservatives are part of a vast conspiracy seeking ends other than what they proclaim.
2. Conservatives are stupid and ill-informed.
3. Conservatives are racist and bigoted.
4. Conservatives are driven by emotion and anxiety rather than by reason.

Usually I hate “educational” versions of rap songs (where are the wide screen TVs and girls shakin’ they thang?). That said, this does have something going for it….

What a day job inevitably means, of course, is spending the majority of your waking hours not doing the thing you love: making art.

Very true; having a day job inevitably means I spend the majority of my waking hours not doing the things I love: drinking whisky and meeting beautiful women.

It’s from the Guardian, unsurprisingly.

A great little article in the New York Times discusses a few women who are having trouble finding a man.

“I’m not married, I would like to be married, and my friends are all in a similar situation,” said Dr. Rajalla Prewitt, a 38-year-old psychiatrist in New Jersey. “We’re having difficulty finding someone where there’s a meeting of the minds, where we can have the same goals and values.”

“Particularly, African-American men who are educated want a traditional home where they are the breadwinner,” said Dr. Prewitt, who is a black woman.”

Now, I’m no genius, but it seems fairly clear to me that whatever this lady’s goals and values are, they aren’t going to help her to reproduce. So maybe, just maybe, it’s her fairly advanced years which are the turn off: after all, why get married if there is no prospect of the pitter patter of tiny feet?

But some women find that the dating pressures are intense. Syreeta McFadden, a 35-year-old Columbia and Sarah Lawrence graduate who is between jobs after working in real estate development, said: “With men of any ethnic group, it’s a little intimidating for them to encounter smart women. Money is tricky.

“But, I think for me, it comes down to compatibility,” Ms. McFadden said. “Can you grow with me? Or as my genius friend the textile designer says, she asks on first dates or meeting men in bars, ‘Do you have a passport and a library card?’ ”

Same criticism. I’m guessing her “genius friend” the textile designer doesn’t consider that maybe the guy might be put off by the fact that he turns out to be on a date with someone who is old enough or stingy enough to actually use public libraries. Can he “grow” with her as they explore the world with their passports and library cards as creaky and fading tourists of reality.

Elaine Richardson, who is in her 50s, is divorced and owns a health care consulting firm in Westchester, said that men “call you high maintenance if you look like you don’t need anyone to take care of you.”

Maybe not high maintenance now, but give it a few years…

It isn’t right to hate people for what they write, but I come mighty close with some people. One thing that drives me into a cold fury is the demand that private education be banned. Some people argue, in all sincerity, that the nurturing and natural instinct of parents to spend money on educating their children should be forbidden. They wish all students to be locked in a state monopoly of education with all the attendant mediocrity and horror.

David Thompson has a stronger stomach than yours truly and he mocks these nasty, vicious people here.

“Why would you hand the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch and then walked away from the scene of the accident?” “For the Republicans to say vote for us and bring back the guys who got us into this mess in the first place, I don’t think it’s a winner.”

Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, discussing tomorrow’s Senatorial election for the seat of the late Ted Kennedy of Chappaquiddick fame.

Rather beautiful and very sad:

Mr. Eugenides rips into the modern left’s impulsive assignment of moral blame to the West:

“In a fundamental sense” may just be the axiomatic Comment is Free phrase. In one sense, responsibility for throwing acid in a schoolgirl’s face may lie with the acid thrower; in a fundamental sense, however, it is actually ours. In one sense, killing innocent people may be the reponsibility of the killers; in a fundamental sense, though, it’s really the fault of Danish cartoonists.

Read the whole thing, very good indeed.

This is pretty funny. It relates to the special Senate election taking place in Massachusetts. I found it here.

Jay Nordlinger at the Corner:

I’ve been thinking lately that it’s been a while since Obama fielded questions from the press (except in a loose, on-the-fly way). And then I spotted this headline on Drudge: “Obama Hasn’t Held Press Conference Since July.” (Story here.) You know what I’d like to see Obama asked about? I have yakked about this in Impromptus, but will do so again here. I’d like to see him asked about his bowing: before the Saudi king, the Japanese emperor, and the Chinese premier. He did not bow before the British queen, the Norwegian king, and others. So, what are the rules? What are his criteria? How does he decide? Is there a diplomatic calculation? Is it simply spur-of-the-moment?

I don’t believe he has ever been asked about this. And I’m not interested in “gotcha” (honestly!). I’m genuinely curious. Aren’t you? It’s especially interesting that the president bowed before the Japanese emperor, since we were all taught that MacArthur’s physical behavior with the Japanese emperor was huge — hugely important. Did Obama mean to signal a new era? Make some statement about history? What?

Perhaps other Cornerites have questions they would especially like to see asked of the president, when he opens himself up to questions again. Has he ever been challenged on his behavior toward Honduras? Has he been asked about the Iranian demonstrators in the streets, and what we owe them? Is Hugo Chávez still his “amigo” (which is what Obama called him, when they met)? Etc.