"Last Time I checked, This Was Still America. But If I'm honest, That Was A While Ago." The Onion
- Are we becoming a nation of knuckleheads? I ask myself that question several times a day especially after watching the news or almost anything on television.
- I asked myself that question yet again several days ago when it was reported J. Lo performed a concert for a dictator. His name is not important considering no one can pronounce it anyway (He's a dictator from one of those countries whose name sounds like it's a goof. In this case, it was Turkmenistan. If more than 10 people in America know this country actually exists, I'd be surprised). Nevertheless, after J. Lo performed and even sang "Happy Birthday" to the thug, her representatives apologized. After hearing that news, I was obliged to ask myself: Do J. Lo's handlers even know about Google? In other words, they could have found out everything they needed to know about the dictator in less than 2 minutes by simply doing elementary research.
- Of course, J. Lo is not the only celebrity who has performed for creeps. The list is a long one. Beyoncé and Mariah Carey performed for the late thug Khadafy. Just a few months ago, Dennis Rodman was buddy-buddy with Kim Jong Un, South Korea's current tyrant. We've also witnessed Hollywood nitwits like Sean Penn, Oliver Stone and Danny Glover who were chummy with Hugo Chavez. During South Africa's apartheid period, many celebrities also performed for that racist regime.
- More recently, we've seen how many "reality's shows like "Jersey Shore" had (have) huge ratings.
- And then these same celebrities offer up a countless number of award shows where they keep giving themselves meaningless awards and cheap statues. Yet, even these brainless offerings usually have good ratings.
- Perhaps nowhere is this vapid phenomena more apparent than watching Barbara Walters doing one of her meaningless interview shows with some of the most shallow celebrities on the planet. Babs still manages to capture some good ratings.
- The same can be said for politics. We've all heard about the "low information voter." In fact, not long ago, I wrote a piece about those voters at the risk of appearing elitist myself. In short, these are voters who have no interest in what is going on in the world around them unless it's on Jerry Springer or The View. Yet, when former disgraced politicians like Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer re-enter the political game, they're actually treated like serious candidates (In fact, Spitzer is now leading in the polls). We have many citizens who actually believe and support the idea of government telling us what size sodas we can drink or what kind of food we should be eating. We also have people preaching tolerance as long as we agree with their views. We're either knuckleheads or very forgiving.
- Unfortunately, we've also been accursed by countless politicians who add new meaning to the word "knuckleheads." These are the same people who continue to spend money we don't have. The same people who reward people for not working with disability checks, Medicaid, food stamps and even free cell phones. The same people who throw billions at a failed education system. The same people who give billions to foreign countries as many Americans still suffer through a 5 year long recession. You get the picture. But with all our bitching and complaining, we continue to re-elect many of these same yo-yo's. Former D.C. Marion Berry comes to mind as well as former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford who was recently re-elected to the House.
- Perhaps it's even more simple than I think it is. Perhaps we just get what we deserve.
