I'm a Sonic Generator

I've got no beef with Gwen Stefani--she's talented and a star with No Doubt or on her own. But I was kinda queasy when I read in Entertainment Weekly that her new look--"coke whore"-- is based on Michelle Pfeiffer's character in Brian DePalma's "Scarface." From the EW article it's clear that Stefani is just having fun putting on the bad girl image, but she does has a huge following amongst the tween and teen girl set...she's kind of a role model whether she likes it or not (and she's a new-ish mom to boot) and with that has to come some responsibility, right? Then again, the folks that rail against (black) rappers for glorifying misogyny and the thug life are curiously silent in the presence of this 37 year-old blond white woman from Orange County who likes to dress up like a Hollywood-ized crackhead.

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From Salon.com:

George W. Bush, speaking today on the Iraq Study Group report: "The truth is a lot of reports in Washington aren't read by anybody. To show you how important this report is, I read it."

Asked whether he's still in "denial" about Iraq, Bush shot back: "It's bad in Iraq. That help?"

Warms the heart, don't it?

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According to the New York Times, VP Dick Cheney's daughter Mary--you know, the (whisper, whisper) lesbian one--is pregnant (with her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, a former park ranger). Personally, I wish them the best. But, how does the anti-gay marriage, anti-premarital sex, anti-children-out-of-wedlock Bush administration spin this? The Times was unable to unearth exactly how Mary Cheney was impregnated. (Thank god for Dick's obsession with secrecy.)

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Speaking of the hypocrisy among our nation's leaders when dealing with their own, check out Michael Kinsley's column from the Washington Post on the Bush Twin's nightclubbing while American troops are blown up in Baghdad every day:

From what little has leaked out, it seems that Jenna and Barbara are party girls who like to drink and dance until the wee hours with aristocrats and frat boys. Jenna is interning for UNICEF in Latin America (not actually teaching kids, as originally reported, but involved somehow in education). The twins recently took a trip to Argentina. Their first night there, partying in Buenos Aires, Barbara lost her purse to a thief.

So it would appear that George W. Bush's daughters are not Amy Carter or Chelsea Clinton or Karenna Gore. So what? Are you surprised?

Nevertheless, there is a war on. It's a war that has killed 3,000 Americans, most of them around Jenna and Barbara's age or younger. It has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis of all ages. And even more Americans and Iraqis have been injured, lost limbs, suffered terrible pain. President Bush can be quite eloquent in talking about the sacrifices of American soldiers and -- he always adds -- their families. In the Reagan style that has become almost mandatory, he uses anecdotes. He talks of Marine 2nd Lt. Frederick Pokorney Jr. "His wife, Carolyn, received a folded flag. His two-year-old daughter, Taylor, knelt beside her mother at the casket to say a final goodbye."

Bush says truly, about the American dead, "They did not yearn to be heroes. They yearned to see mom and dad again and to hold their sweethearts and to watch their sons and daughters grow. They wanted the daily miracle of freedom in America, yet they gave all that up and gave life itself for the sake of others."

Living your life according to your own values is a challenge for everyone, and it must be a special challenge if you happen to be the president. No one thinks that the president should have to give up a child to prove that his family is as serious about freedom as these other families he praises. But it would be reassuring to see a little struggle here -- some sign that the Bush family truly believes that American soldiers are dying for our freedom, and that it's worth it.

Who knows? Maybe they have had huge arguments about this. Maybe George and Laura wanted the girls to join the Red Cross, or the Peace Corps, or do something that would at least take them off the party circuit for a couple of years. And perhaps the girls said no. But I doubt this scenario, don't you?

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At first it seemed a brilliant strategy -- repellent, but brilliant -- to isolate most Americans from the cost of the war in Iraq. It's starting to seem a lot less so. As the deaths and injuries mount, more and more people are touched by the war -- and become understandably resentful of those who are not. Bush, in his speeches, is eloquent about what no one doubts -- the sacrifice -- but banal about what most people have come to doubt: the purpose.

But no amount of eloquence can overcome the bald contrast between that rhetoric and how his own family lives. His daughters are over 21, and he can't control them, but that doesn't let them off the hook. They are now independent moral actors, and their situation requires that they either publicly oppose their father's war or do something to support it. Is it unfair to expect Jenna and Barbara to shape their lives around their father's folly? Of course it's unfair. If this is war, then unfairness comes with the territory.

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Also, check out these interesting articles about Mick Jones from the Clash (most recently in the music press for producing the Libertines' two albums) and Jarvis Cocker from Pulp (who has a new solo album--"Jarvis"--that's only available in the US as an import). Oh, and Billy Idol has just released an album of Christmas standards. No word on if it bites the big one or not, but his track record since "Rebel Yell" has been spotty, to say the least.

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This post's title comes from Elastica's song "Generator" from "The Menace."