Live 8

I haven't had anything to say about Live 8 because, quite frankly, I don't get it. I'm as much in favor of big concerts as the next guy (unless the next guy is Bob Geldoff, who's clearly more passionate on the subject than I am), but what are they trying to do here? They don't want money (which, we've come to find out, doesn't always go where we expect it to when it's raised in these kinds of contexts), but instead they want to influence the G8 leaders. That's all well and good, I suppose, but why do they think that over a million people going to concerts on the same day around the world will do that? How influential were the hundreds of thousand who marched against the Iraq War in cities around the world and barely even got a nod of recognition? And those were people coming out because they believed in a larger cause than the chance to see Beyonce. I support the cause, and if George W. Bush and the other G8 leaders meet in Scotland next week and say, "You know, we weren't planning to do much about poverty in Africa, but Will Smith changed our mind," I'll stand corrected. But until then, I remained unconvinced.

For a much more negative take on the whole venture, have a look at Eric Alterman from yesterday.