Noonan on bland affluence

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist, writes today describing a lifestyle she says will end and will be replaced by a non-affluent, down-to-earth, religious, smoking and drinking lifestyle. But the lifestyle she describes, the one she says is ending, characterized by Botox, face lifts, brow lifts, dyed hair for both women and men, thin hard bodies, gyms and personal trainers, is a lifestyle that never was except perhaps in New York, where Noonan lives and works, and among the very rich elsewhere. How many of us know people who have had Botox treatments, face lifts or brow lifts?

Noonan has a tendency to write about stuff she knows little about. Last week, she passed judgment on people who work on Wall Street, as if all were little Bernie Madoffs. She must come up with a column each week. Maybe she's running out of material.