Baroque Boutique

The other day I heard a radio pundit montage that could be only be described as Sean Hannity’s station break victory dance. It contained this recent quote from Bill Maher:

“Democrats have become to a lot of Americans a boutique party of fake outrage and social engineering and they’re not entirely wrong about that.”

The quote came to mind again when I heard this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. (Obama’s 123 nominees amount to over 25 percent of the nominations since Kennedy.)

The Medal of Freedom Awards were meant to recognize meritorious contributions in national security, world peace, American culture and our economy. Yet more than 300 of these awards have been given to nominees from the music, media, sports and film industries. (Only three have been given for computing.)

Of the 600 recipients since 1963, fewer than 20 have received awards in categories such as education, medicine and space exploration. More awards have been given to heads of foreign governments than to members in our own services. About one hundred politicians, presidents, First Ladies, members of Cabinet and Congress also stood in line to receive this honor, although it all sounds rather boutique to me.