“In 1976, I wondered why TIME didn’t have a triumphant Patti Smith on its cover,” writes Michael Stipe. He also suggests they put her on the cover now. For now, she’ll have to settle for being one-hundredth of the annual Time 100 Most Influential People.
Thirty-three of said influentials are women; one, Kate Middleton, shares a slot with her betrothed. (Above, Amy Chua, with the real tigers the magazine apparently sprang for.) Last year, the number was 31. Who says women’s progress has stalled?
Every year, Time applies its considerable access to get famous people to write about other famous people, as well as a few non-famous sorts who stand in for movements or causes. It’s a mix of glad-handling and actual inspiration, with a little WTF thrown in (Blake Lively? Poor Leighton.)
Here is Germaine Greer on Julian Assange:
Egregious to the last, he is convinced that his prosecution for rape in the Swedish courts was engineered by vengeful U.S. intelligence, unable to grasp the plain fact that his callous treatment made two women angry enough to seek redress.
On the spectrum of interpretations of what happened in Sweden, this ranks somewhere between that of Naomi Wolf (this is just like when a guy didn’t notice his girlfriend got a new haircut) and that of the Swedish prosecutors (rape), but closer to the former.
Women on the list include Biologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon; Maria Bashir, 40, Afghanistan’s only female prosecutor; Air Force Major General Margaret “Maggie” Woodward (who “ran the opening 11 days of the war against Libya”); and Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards (celebrated here by Nancy Pelosi, who once had Richards serving as deputy chief of staff). “Barack Obama” writes about Gabrielle Giffords, Jamie Oliver on Michelle Obama, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet about current Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey remain constants. Strangely, Michelle Duggar writes on Heidi Murkoff, the author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting; nothing in the writeup suggests why she’s on the list this year — did I miss something?
Because this country is not just full of craven, godless liberals, Rush Limbaugh is summoned to praise Michele Bachmann as such:
If she were liberal, she’d be celebrated from the mountaintops. But she’s conservative. So because she is smart, talented and accomplished and a natural leader — not to mention attractive — the left brands her as a flame-throwing lightweight.
And the left-controlled media totally ignores her “influence,” too! There is no justice in this world.
Time 100 [Time]