Week of Oct. 22, 2007

In the"60s, the left introduced the"non-negotiable demand" into our politics. It's still with us. It's political infantilism. In real life, the non-negotiable"demand" usually ends about age six.

History has a rude way of cocking a snook at temerarious souls who claim to have deciphered its movement and mastered it.

[W]hat does rock mean to a new generation of uptight (if updated and wired) squares, afraid of the open road, who have little fight in them? What does rock mean for a generation that has never been allowed to be young — let alone hope to die before they get old?

For my students, the answer is simple. Rock and roll is about family happiness.

I discovered this disturbing undercurrent of rock-as-the-soundtrack-of-familial-bliss when I began teaching a college writing class this semester.

Analogies with the past are never properly accurate . . . but, in pure chronology, I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s or 1930s again,” he said. “There is a tendency . . . to believe they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone. I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone. They have made their choice and leave us with only one - to be forced into retreat or exhibit even greater determination and belief in standing up for our values than they do in standing up for theirs

History shows that leaders’ personalities and policies are inextricably, and sometimes tragically, entwined. L.B.J.’s DNA led to Vietnam as Nixon’s led to Watergate as Reagan’s led to Iran-contra as Bill’s led to Monica as Hillary’s led to her health care fiasco as W.’s led to the Iraq imbroglio.