Sometimes Received Opinion is Received for a Good Reason

[Stupid political quote o' the day, by Christopher "Look At Me, I'm Dancin' Crazy" Hitchens, thanks to Leah Garchik's "The In-Crowd" column in the Chronicle:]

["Most celebrity response (Hitchens) said, is 'skin deep. It reminds me of the way the richest ZIP codes in the country are all with the Democratic Party. It's not going to cost them anything. They can painlessly say they are against tax cuts.'"]

[What? WHAT?! Yeah, coastal Orange and San Diego counties are hotbeds of liberalism, as are suburban Contra Costa and Alameda counties. (And that's just California.) What Hitchens fails to mention is that the poorest parts of the country are also all "with" the Democrats; that is, its heart. Personally, I don't mind if Martin Sheen or Warren Beatty make shallow, if correct, political pronouncements: more people pay attention to them than, say, Barbara Lee. As long as the entertainment industry keeps people's interest (and the money flowing), they can have a place on my soapbox anytime. (Yeah, yeah, I know; that way lieth Reagan.)]

[Is it just me, or are there a lot of commentators out there who say contrary things just because they think they're contrary? There seems to be more effort put into saying the non-mainstream thing - to get attention, to stand apart from the crowd - than to saying the right thing, the true thing.]

[(No asparagus cast on Garchik, whom I read religiously, by the way, and whom I seated at the Friendly Neighborhood Cabaret a few weeks ago. She was cool.)]

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