Who Died and Made You Elvis?

Hello. Just wanted to drop by and say that this is a good post by Amanda at Pandagon. The love of good music is a perfectly good foundation for patriotism.

If you're ever feeling disillusioned about your identity as an American (or as a red-stater relative to the blue states), think of the music. Jazz, blues, country, and rock are maybe America's greatest lasting legacy.

I have a friend and mentor who is a sociologist, but with a sense of humor, and he has some favorite jokes about the uses and misuses of social science and statistics. (He likes to tell about the man who drowned in a lake whose average depth was six inches.) I came across a funny statement a couple of days ago: if current trends continue, by the year 2019 one-third of the earth's population will be comprised of Elvis impersonators. Think about it: in 1954 there were no Elvis impersonators. Today there are tens of thousands. Sociology in action.