Monday, January 25, 2021

Nonsense, As Far As We Know


The New York Times received a lot of criticism for a recent article which begins

President Biden may cast his arrival in the White House as a return to business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but there’s at least one way he’s breaking from prevailing presidential tradition: he wears a Rolex.

At his inauguration, Mr. Biden laid his hand on the family Bible wearing a stainless steel Rolex Datejust watch with a blue dial, a model that retails for more than $7,000 and is a far cry from the Everyman timepieces that every president not named Trump has worn conspicuously in recent decades.



In the competition for expressing ostentatious materialism, the self-declared "Middle Class Joe" is a piker compared to Donald Trump. However, there is nothing that says "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdomof God" than a wrist with a $7,000 watch perched upon a humongous Bible.

At least the article was entertaining and well written while failing to put Biden's taste for expensive things into perspective coming off the Trump presidency. This tweet, however, takes superficiality to a whole new level:

Already a big change, writes (types) a guy who expects to be taken seriously as a New York Times reporter and frequent guest on MSNBC.

Baker may not be consciously helping Biden reinforce the latter's image as Middle Class Joe, though he should realize that it is possible to get a decent meal as a resident of a home with the address of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.

We now know that President Biden favors expensive watches, a point made a little critically; and that he patronizes small businesses, an endearing trait. We're privileged to have learned from journalists two things, though one positive and one negative, which are without proper context unworthy of the (arguably) greatest newspaper in the country.

 

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