Recreational Poli Sci
hedge industries from yesteryear, combined with politics and politicology from deepest suburbia
Moving beyond his usual job at the Times, A. O. Scott serves up an introspective today. The headline, “Gen X Has a Midlife Crisis,” pulled me in of course, but having not read Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask yet, I’ll refrain from jumping in too deeply on Scott’s attempt to hogtie Coupland, Hot Tub Time Machine, and a bevy of other recent takes on my generation into one article. Let me read The Ask first.
What I wanted to know straightaway, were what temporal parameters Scott uses to describe Generation X by years. The self-proclaimed experts of the hive mind have temporarily agreed that Gen X refers to people born “during the later years of, and the decade following the Vietnam War.” I have always sort of thought of 1965-1975 or so, but A.O. Scott (self-) describes us as with birth years between Tonkin Gulf and Tehran. I’m fine with the years (it keeps Obama out, whom I feel to be too old for Xers and too young for Boomers), but I’m uncomfortable with the events, as if they somehow marked a shift in something germane.
Legal legacy of WWII service
From Unger, I got a point toward an interesting bit on out-going justice Stevens. Elements of personal experience (gasp!) apparently shape jurisprudential rationalizing decision-making irrespective of, or perhaps through, ideology.
“few of us would march our sons and daughters off to war to preserve the citizen’s right to see ‘Specified Sexual Activities’ exhibited in the theaters of our choice.”
There are a few MDs running for Congress this fall. I doubt the candidates’ degrees will attract any more vote share ceteris paribus, but will engender media attention.
Should coverage of polling info be so smug?
From the tail-end of an NYT story on Tea/Party/whatever supporters:
I was under the impression that polling was meant to measure public opinion rather than guide it. Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.
Others could not explain the contradiction.
“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”
