Cheap Ploy or Are People Just Fucking Nuts?

I know the media is making Hillary Clinton's campaign out to be explosive, but sheesh- I had hoped not literally.

I'm sure by now you've heard ad nauseam that some crazy fuck held Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office hostage, demanding to speak to the Fembot herself. My roommate questioned immediately if Hillary's campaign had planned this themselves to divert attention from the question planting controversy.

[Oh, and pay no attention to the fact that Bush frequently plants questions and, oh yeah, requires nothing short of a loyalty oath for people to even see him "speak." I use the term "speak" loosely, as what Bush does when he opens his mouth can hardly be considered speaking.]

This country is in a sad state if we think that every news event is a publicity stunt.

Certainly I think Hillary is taking advantage of the situation- who wouldn't? But I think the unsettling aspect of this story is not that politicians would do anything for a photo op, but that this country is full of Grade-A, All-American apple pie nutjobs.

Aside from obvious mental illness, obsession with celebrity and notoriety is dangerous one. Julia Roberts recently chased down paparazzi after they were harassing and endangering the lives of her children (and rightly so). Obsession with celebrity has provoked countless chemical dependencies, even ended lives.

Why do we care?

I'm certainly not feeling sorry for these poor celebrities - they live their lives in the public eye to a certain extent, and are well compensated for it. I'm just saying we take the obsession too far.

Let me back up here.

I think, actually, that the underlying point is a lack of respect for privacy. I recall discussing in at least two of my classes last week that younger generations brought up in the computer age have no problem with volunteering information about themselves online and in fact do not even expect a basic level of privacy. These are people just a few years younger than me.

Advertisers especially have jumped on this. They have even ruined Christmas for one man. If advertisers can do this in the name of "market research," what's to stop the government from compiling data about your every move? And what's to stop Wal-Mart or Google from running our country anyway?

I have no solutions.

And thus, on this bleak note, I close my blogging venture and leave it at the mercy of my professor.

You know I'm no optimist.

Dear Cloon, I'm Sorry.

I know I'm heightist. I know. I dated a guy who was an inch shorter than me but in the end I just couldn't do it. I dumped him.

It might have had more to do with the fact that he disappeared on me for a month while trying to get back together with his ex-girlfriend who had just come back from Namibia than it did with him being an elf.

You might recall that earlier I semi-ranted on George Clooney being short. I stand by my word - he is a shorty. But that does not make him any less attractive or intelligent. Notice, for example, this fact I so blithely left out: the father of all my crushes, Jon Stewart, is a fucking munchkin. And I loooooooves it.

[Side note: I'm slightly disturbed by the fact that the three men I've mentioned having a crush on in my blog are all grey-haired and twenty years my senior, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm]

In a Rolling Stone interview- perfect bathroom reading, I might add- The Clooney had this to say:

"The Information Age? It's great, it's readily available, and it's also dangerous. The bloggers think they're the Murrows of the future, and that anchormen and news organizations are archaic. Here's the problem: If you're a blogger, who's your ombudsman? Who do I go to when you're wrong? Who can I hold responsible?"

Okay, first: some people who read this quote, and the interview as a whole, are going to think The Clooney is drunk with self-importance. He's just an actor; what the hell does he know about improving the world?

Second: given that our politicians are the most corrupt this country has ever seen, I'm pretty sure anyone could do a better job, even actors.



Look what a He-Man he is.

Third: he's right. Blogging is not subject to the same accuracy standards that broadcast news is. This is not to say broadcast news is better; in fact, I don't think you can even call it news today. But blogging can be irresponsible and dangerous. There are a bunch of nutjobs out there who believe in genocide or just live in their Mommy's basement with their erectile dysfunction and their middle age and spend their days trolling around the internet leaving incoherent ideologies and insulting everyone. Just ask Tyler - we both have experience with the crazies.

[Side note again, more of a rhetorical question, really: why does insurance cover medication for erectile dysfunction but not birth control? Why is it more important for a man to achieve an erection than to provide women with control over their own bodies? If it's a matter of money, wouldn't it be cheaper not to have the cost of a child? Why is this country so ass-backward when it comes to sex? Oh yes, it's because men like this, who repeatedly anally rape their wives while preaching to evangelicals about the sanctity of marriage, are part of the FDA.]

If people are to take blogging more seriously, there needs to be an avenue to ensure accuracy and fairness, as The Clooney laments. But the expense of that would be astronomical, and near impossible on a strategic level. Perhaps the future is collective action - that is, policing each other on social norms. It already works for Wikipedia, why not for blogs?