Friday

"Who could notice the cheekbones, the nose and the smile with the loaded distractions of that washerwoman crown of braids? " is how Robin Gihvan, fashion editor of the Washington Post ends the article on Cynthia McKinney's bad hair day. Again, questionable. Ms. Gihvan is a very good writer who tends to wax poetic on very politically charged issues, and sometimes it backfires. About Ms. McKinney's hair, all the polemic has very little to do with race or gender and all to do with class. If you want to belong to the "club" you had better look the part. You do not see white congressmen with long or disheveled hair. Ceasar divorced his wife not because he doubted her seriousness, but because she ignored public opinion and the importance of appearance. Lest one forget, pages and pages were written about Abramoff's poor choice of garments, at the time of his first court appearance. Why the Jewish mobster look was the buzz around the issue. One's image is fundamental to emphasize who and where we stand. Disheveled never ever goes over well and that was Ms. Mckinney's appearance. It's fine for lounging around the house but not for press conferences and probably not in the venerable halls of Congress.

Charles Krauthammer, the man I love to hate once again in the simplest language possible offers a clear way out of the immigration conumdrum. The outlines of it are, very much like what he did with Harriet Meyers, (who remembers her?), simple and seemingly plausible. Short and to the point, this admirable writer can convince me of just about anything. His intelectual prowess leaves few loopholes with which to strike back. He is the humane face of the neoconservatives. And it seems to me that when he writes people listen. Either that or his intuitive analysis of the zeitgeist allows him to fullfill that role.

In the Slate , an eery piece, On Patrol with the Minutemen, makes one wonder what kind of people are these m(eye)nutemen.

The ethics of gold in the New York Times: We this Ethical Ring, I thee Wed

It's official, being green is hip! Vanity Fair Hip! No longer the domain of uncombed, hippy types, it has arrived in the fashion salons of New York, and Vanity Fair, publishes the green Gospel according to the beautiful people. A green issue!
Cynthia McKinney, image and hair, minutemen,Charles Krauthammer, ethical gold, Vanity Fair,ecology,