Watching McCain at the DADT hearings and thinking about getting old.

In listening to McCain posturing, fighting, bluffing?,  at the hearings to repeal DADT, I keep wondering Why?

Is he just pissed at Obama and will be on the otherside of any issue?

McCain doesn't seem to be a man driven by deep religious convictions, so it is hard to believe that any biblical injunction is the reason. Surely he doesn't think that he is on the right side of history here. He can't believe that 30 years from now people will cheer him.

Maybe it is just because McCain is old and doesn't want any change. I'm old and I like to think that I love change - shit! I do love change, it is what makes life interesting - and I have found it very hard to relate to Rap. I mean, I have tried. OK, maybe not really, but I have sort of tried.

A couple of days ago, I read an article in the New Yorker, Jay-Z's "Decoded" and the language of hip-hop, that talked about the complexity of the rhyming schemes in Rap. It said, among other things, The best MCs - like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others - deserve consideration alongside the giants of  American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense. The article opened a world and showed a complity that I know nothing about and, after reading it, I can intellectually admire  Rap, but that doesn't make listening to Rap and easier. And I think it is just because I am too old.

In a fascinating  article in the NYTimes on why Oregon State is the number one collage football team in the country, is this paragraph This style has been easier for Kelly’s players to adjust to than for his coaches, most of whom have spent many more years than he has at the major college level. Aliotti, the defensive coordinator, is 56 and in his third stint on the Oregon staff. He has also coached in the N.F.L. “It’s insanity for a coach,” he said when we talked one morning after practice. “You’ve got the music blasting, you look around and your kids are dancing and you don’t want to stop the fun. But when you’re an old-school guy like me, it takes patience and change, because you want to make yourself heard. I want to correct a guy, but we’re already on to the next play. Don’t get me wrong. This has been good for us as a team. But I have to be real with you. It’s still hard for me.”

Maybe McCain is just too old to change. Maybe a kid, say somebody who is 50, should take his place in the Senate.

 

Comments

[Laura]

Steve,

You're just not listening to good rap; to me it's like any other genre of music. All are good - with some artists that are great, others that are not.

I have a cd of tunes I'll share. It's from one of the members of NWA (Niggers with Attitude) and is called Jazzmatazz. This musician created a cross-over which can lead you to other rap.

Still all those kids listening to tunes with buds in their ears, well they'll go the way of Pete Townsend.

It's all music.

Best,

Laura

[steve]

Thanks, Laura. I think I'll give it another try.

[Malcolm]

This piece reminds me of the utter futility of my vote in the 2008 election. We had perhaps the most leftist zealot candidate in recent history who was unprepared for the job of president, and I had no choice but to vote for him because the alternative of a senile old man was even worse.

If this were the only time I had such a shitty choice, I'd let it go. But it was the case in 2004 (John F Kerry? are you kidding?) and 1996 (Bob Dole? come on). I have come to realize that sometimes one party or the other finds it in its best interest to put up an unelectable candidate and let the other guys stew in their shit for 4 years and then set them selves up as savior. Its unsavory. Its like tanking games to get the top draft pick next year.

In sports its called unsportsmanlike. In presidential politics, I think its treason.

[steve]

Interesting comment, Malcolm. As a lefty - I type myself a lefty libertarian - I am amazed that you consider Obama a leftist zealot. Are you just saying that as a general slur or is there something, in particular, which has led you to that conclusion?

And Bob Dole? What do you have against Bob Dole?

Either way, I am glad you read the post. BTW, did you read the posts on the Mullin Museum? I had a great time.

Steve