Posted 5:33 PM by Gene

I had hoped to be finished for today, but suddenly I became annoyed. I was pondering that, whatever his foibles, and they were many, Leonard Bernstein was undoubtedly a genius -- a genius in the true sense of the word: "extraordinary intellectual power especially as manifested in creative activity." No, I go beyond this: Bernstein was a genius exactly as Mozart was a genius, and if he composed too little or too indulgently, or displayed too much Barrymore in his conducting, all his music making was infused with the spirit of true genius.

Knowing Bernstein was a genius, I did a Google search. "'Leonard Bernstein' genius" yielded a respectable 96,100 links. But a gnawing doubt quickly emerged, and I did a second search, for another "genius", which yielded 882,000 links. One of them -- second from the top -- was to a Volokhhead, whom, against my better judgment, I quote:

EMINEM AND THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT: One of the more satisfying experiences of this past week: reading Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language while listening to Eminem's amazing new CD, The Eminem Show.

The Language Instinct was on the The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice list of the "11 Best Books of 1994" and named one of the Top 100 Science Books of the Century by American Scientist in 1999.

Praise for The Eminem Show has been more sporadic. There are the usual problems: I could read aloud from The Language Instinct on the metro or the street, but listening to The Eminem Show in the office requires both headphones and a closed door, on the off chance the headphone jack slips out, causing my speakers to start blaring White America, or worse. Much worse. His own website states:

For Eminem, his potentially controversial and undoubtedly offensive songs will strike a chord with a multitude of hip-hop loyalists who believe they have little to lose and everything to gain.

The lyrics are offensive, although I am not offended, in part because it is in the evocative and compelling nature of his songs that Eminem's GENIUS reveals itself. The power flows from the combination of the lyrics and his choice of word emphasis and rhyme. I hesitate to include the written lyrics without an audio file because, like good poetry, his words must be heard to be felt.

More on both of these later, including what Pinker would recognize as Eminem's perfect grammar.

What a typical Volokhhead combination: a toady and a pedant, combined with a healthy dose of euphemism. This proves SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGERS are too often CW-prone, the bigger their names, the more CW they're prone to -- and can be just of unworthy of our patronage as any NEWS HACK.

P. S. She works for Dubya now. Does that mean this GENIUS is a CON-SER-VA-TIVE?

P. P. S. I found one more swoon from this future Appeals Court judge or superlobbyist, and at least this time she had the guts to quote from the genius -- but given the quote did she know what she quoting? No, or else she wouldn't have been a VOLOKHHEAD.