A prominent platform by the president of the United States? Determined to find out, I delved into various news archives. Imagine my surprise to discover: This isn't even the first time the occupant of the Oval Office has behaved in this manner!In a video that has somehow escaped the attention of the conservative press, President Obama can be seen presenting a medal to a foreign singer whose co-wrote a song with the lyrics, "I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man." Another of his compositions depicts a serial murder on a killing spree that involves bludgeoning a teacher to death with a hammer. He also wrote a song that glorified the Soviet Union at the height of its Cold War power. Alas, President Obama is far from the first American leader to favorably highlight performers who've sung bawdy lyrics.In an interview about his iPod, President George W. Bush once revealed some of his favorite illegally downloaded songs, including one with the lyrics, "Such a dirty mind/I always get it up/for the touch/of the younger kind." The disrespect shown the White House by such presidential preferences arguably reached its zenith during the tenure of Bill Clinton, when a man known for singing about cocaine -- and shooting not a mere police officer, but a sheriff -- performed a concert at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "It took place in a marquee on the White House lawn," he wrote in his autobiography. "I remember being desperate to pee, but since finding a toilet would have meant going through complicated security and back into the main building, I decided to sneak out and water the lawn."
Age discrimination affects us all. Who cares about youth? James Hamblin turns to his colleague Jeffrey Goldberg for advice.