"It's the end of an era," said Professor Gates, who himself is considering an offer from Princeton. "You can't lose Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, or Kobe and Shaq, and no one notices." 

Hyperbole anyone? I mean, Gates is referring to West and Anthony Appiah, both of whom are in the academic stratosphere, but still. Kobe and Shaq? I only wish our culture valued its intellectual stars as much as it values its sports stars. West is making aroun $200k/year. I'm thinking I don't even want to know what Kobe or Shaq make. Money doesn't even need to be used as the arbiter of value here; how many people even know who Cornell West is?

10:52:58 AM      comment

 Many Democrats in recent months have accused [Gore] of squandering opportunities to take on Mr. Bush. But Mr. Gore has also been mindful that if he is too strident in criticizing the president in wartime, he risks appearing like a sore loser and, worse yet, unpatriotic.

As evidence of the touchy spot Mr. Gore finds himself in, 8 in 10 Democrats nationwide said he should say nothing critical of Mr. Bush, according to a USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll released on Friday. Forty-three percent of the Democrats said they would back another candidacy by Mr. Gore; that is down from 65 percent last August. 

My response to those numbers is that prominent voices must take the lead in shouting loudly that patriotism requires that we critique the president, especially in wartime!! These polls are like an echo of the Republican agenda these days, simply because that's the only agenda getting any air time. Gore is someone, one of the few, who could give serious weight to an alternative agenda. But he won't. Who will?

10:38:32 AM      comment