The Weak In Rock

Bill Maher’s got it nailed here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qkhd1bCb534 

Technorati Tags: Bill Maher

French President Nicolas Sarkozy got up and walked out in the middle of an interview with Leslie Stahl that was being taped for 60 Minutes and I say right on.

Sarkozy is in the midst of a divorce from his wife and had stipulated that he would not discuss his personal life during the interview but Leslie Stahl and the producers of 60 Minutes are apparently unable to behave themselves any better than any other segment of the American press can these days.

The reason to interview Nicolas Sarkozy is because he is the President of France, a major economic and political power in Europe.  What’s going on in his personal life is not only irrelevant, but uninteresting.  But our media have become obsessed with celebrity scandals, and even go so far as to try to make the mundane scandalous in order to stoke their perverse and idiotic fires.

Sarkozy called his press secretary an idiot in the French press for even scheduling an interview for him with 60 Minutes after the incident, and I have to agree with him.  There is precious little actual news in the American press these days, and little or no interest in anything but gossip and trivia.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some good gossip, especially about overpaid and underbrained pop stars and Hollywood types, but that stuff traditionally had fit neatly into a very specific bucket.  That’s what The Star and National Enquirer are for - cheap, vaguely soiled rumor and innuendo about folks who are famous for mostly being famous.  It’s fluff, and there’s little wrong with fluff if it stays with the other fluff in the fluff bucket.  It goes very wrong when a formerly serious news outlet like 60 Minutes, famous for hard hitting investigative journalism, delves into that bucket o’ fluff.

It would be nice if all serious public figures would simply refuse to interact with the American media unless they behave themselves.  Our major political and social figures should take a page out of Mr. Sarkozy’s book and simple get up and walk away unless the media behave themselves.

Technorati Tags: Nicolas Sarkozy, Leslie Stahl, 60 Minutes, President of France, The Star, National Enquirer

Well, they did it again.  It was something of a given that the Red Sox were going to win the World Series again this year, but why, oh, why did they have to do it with another sweep.  Red Sox fans are annoying and arrogant enough as it is.  They do not need the encouragement provided by their team not simply winning their second World Series in three years, but by winning their second via a sweep in such a short amount of time.

Still, it’s rather amusing that in a roundabout way the Yankees upstaged this Red Sox victory when it was announced during the 7th inning of the game last night that Alex Rodriguez had opted out of the remainder of his contract with the Yankees.  The happiest people on earth to hear that news will be the folks in the front office of the Texas Rangers, who were just let off the hook for $21 million dollars that they would have had to pay to the Yankees if A-Rod had stayed with them for the remainder of the contract.  Second happiest, unfortunately, are the folks in the front office of the Boston Red Sox who are, no doubt, already negotiating with Scott Boras, A-Rod’s agent, to bring him to Boston.

Technorati Tags: Red Sox, sweep, Yankees, Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers, Scott Boras

Apparent, Viagra, Cialis and similar drugs may have the unwanted side effect of making the person taking the drugs lose his hearing.

The only thought that crossed my mind when I read that this morning was - nice synergy.  Now middle aged women will have to deal with overly amorous partners who can no longer hear them when they say they’re not interested in fooling around.

Technorati Tags: Viagra, Cialis

This country just gets stranger and stranger by the day.  Here’s the latest from the Department of Homeland Security - a cute logo:

I saw this on Boing Boing this morning and just about fainted.   There’s a part of me that says that this just cannot be serious.  Our tax dollars are actually paying for this junk?  One of the comments on Boing Boing actually notes that they didn’t even bother to use the international symbol for NO.  In that symbol, which we all see hundreds of times a day just driving down the road the slash goes from left to right.  D’oh!

What’s next?  Is McGruff the Crime Dog going to morph into McGruff the Terror Stopping Dog?  The mind simply reels.

Technorati Tags: Department of Homeland Security, McGruff the Crime Dog

I’m really not going to say very much right now.  While I’m excessively pleased that Al Gore has just won a Nobel Peace Prize, this also just rubs a very raw wound.

Congratulations, Mr. Gore.  I guess we’ll just have to live with the biggest political what if that any generation in American history has ever contemplated.  That is unless we can convince you that none of us really wants to vote for Hillary.

*sigh*

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize, Hillary