Air France Crash versus "Bruno's" taint & Susan Boyle

Two hundred people died in the ocean this morning. But we weren't even talking about GM's bondholders swapping out for stock. Nope. We were mumbling about Susan Boyle's new career and her supposed physical/emotional swoon after loosing "Britain's Got Talent." If you don't know who Susan Boyle is, congratulations. Or Kobe. Or Kimora Lee (nee Simmons) having a baby. And then there was the two hour long commerical/tweener hypefest called the MTV Movie Awards. "Twilight" and Zach Ephron dominating the show? Andy Samburg hosting? Remember when adults who didnt have to fabricate irony/cool attended the program, had their films nominated...and adults made up the viewing audience? When they had creative parodies such as anything Ben Stiller did to open the show, or the send up of "Pulp Fiction" with the cast of the old "Welcome Back, Kotter?"

No. Just as Kanye, Beyonce, too many rappers and a lot of wanabee stone cold killers in Philly and Chicago didn't get the memo about Barack ( and that brains and common sense were now "in"), the general commercial culture didn't get the message that we're in an economic cesspool. This type of mindless, manufacured hype and 'tude was the corollary to the non-regulation from W. and the Wild West business practices that swamped our national boat. Time to put away the childish, prurient crap and exhault the creative gray matter of our youth, not exploit it. Think of this political analogy: the GOP didn't get the memo that becoming a cadre of fanatics and trivial fools doesn't play well outside of the small tent of well, fanatics and trivial fools.

You tell me which is more compelling. This:



Or this:



For too many of us--and indeed a whole generation of youngsters who are being trained to be rabid and vapid buyers and not diggers, the answer is, well, "Bruno's
taint. Perhaps my wingnut pals have a point about lauding fanatics and trivial fools as the key to Republican resurgence. They seem to know something the rest of us refuse to admit. I'm sorry if I'm all over the place but this pisses me off. Dozens of families wait in anguish for word of their loved ones on that plane. Thousands of families in angst because a bunch of hotshots couldn't adapt to the changign auto landscape, now whole towns will die. And we're talking about Sasha Baron Cohen, and an old Limey hag's stage career. It sells. Lovely.