The Dumbing Down of the American People (St. Patrick's Day edition)

Best wishes on this St. Patty's Day.

I found this video from a news report about a leprechaun in Alabama. I am not sure what is more stupid and disturbing: that the people in this news report actually buy into the fact there my be a real leprechaun or the fact there is a news director that felt this warranted a 2 minute spot on the local news.

As my friend sptmck would say, "Stunning".

Raise a glass of Guiness or Jameson in honor of St. Patrick.

Erin go bragh!

WTF!

This post is my Republican bashing one. I waited to post as not to jump the gun. But, I waited and waited for the media blitz and onslaught regarding this item, but it never came.

Let me clarify. This weekend, conservative political commentator Ann Coulter spoke at the American Conservative Union meeting, about Presidential candidates. Coulter’s words when it came to Democratic hopeful John Edwards, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word faggot." 


Excuse me?!?!?!!? Did I hear you right, Ann? Come again?

I could not believe my ears that someone who has the ear of the people and is on television, and is a supposed living breathing human being used that word on TV to describe someone who is running for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination.

In light of the recent Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame’s recent public flogging of using the “N-word”, I waited to see what kind of punishment the media and public would heap on Ann.

CBS and other mainstream news outlets did sound bites on it, but really nothing has come of it and here it is Tuesday evening and this happened on Friday. These items were merely blips on the media radar.

ARE YOU SERIOUS!?! I mean, Richards, while I am not defending his use of a word I l-o-a-t-h-e, was being verbally attacked during a performance and out of anger, verbally struck back, but in a wrong and racist way. Richards couldn’t have found any place in the world to hide from media cameras. He tried to publicly apologize to the African American community and explained how he was provoked, but was hounded for many days after and made headlines of even small, local newspapers and newscasts. Richards’ career as a stand-up comic and actor is barely salvageable at best.

Other pundits, including other conservations like Alan Colmes, on web blogs and news shows, have questioned Coulter. Republican Presidential Nominee hopefuls Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have even said she was wrong, but the outrage has never caught on like that of the Richards’ incident. And she still has a job … on TV!

Why? Is 1% More Conscious’ better half in her Outrage of the Week entry right? Are we already feeling a Dem-overkill months before the primaries so no one cares? Has the media been so over saturated with Hillary and Obama’s doings and feuding that people just don’t care? Or is it deeper than that? God, I hope not.

Let’s get something clear. Hate speech is hate speech. Coulter is trying to say she was joking. PLEASE! A joke makes people laugh and not nervously. Everyone, whether they know it or not, knows or is related to someone who is gay/lesbian. As an educator and a mother, I teach about tolerance and the fact that certain words need to be eliminated from their vocabulary. Ann, you are not helping fix the ignorance that is in this country.

If Ann is going to say these things and get away with them, I think she needs to go balls to the wall and show her true colors. She needs to go to her attic, open that dusty trunk, get out her white sheet and hood, and wear them. Hey, that’s who she is – a bigot who shoots her mouth off without having all the facts, doing as she please because she “knows” best, and is superior because of (in this case) her sexual orientation.

Hopefully, people will realize who and what Coulter really is (a crazy egomanic), and give her the boot to the curb.

I hope this is not a sign of things to come for the 2008 elections. Light a candle…

The Inconvienient and Hypocritical Truth

When it comes to politics, I study the information and make a decision based on that study. I am not a registered Democrat or Republican – I am an Independent.

I am considered liberal with my views on issues such as birth control and a woman’s right to choose. I am a conservative when it comes to education.

So, this entry is no way a Dem-bashing session. I want to clarify that. Plus, my next entry will show how I am an equal opportunity basher when it comes to ignorance and double-talk.

My son wants to save the world. He has been a Creature Crusader, wanting to save endangered species since he was three and found out what endangered species are and why they are endangered. As he got older (he is 12 ½ now), he realized in order to help he creature friends, he need to do his part to save the planet.

When Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth came out on DVD, I bought it as a family Christmas gift. We watched and my son was even more inspired and convinced that his mission is life was to help find a way to save everyone and everything. (I am hoping he does, patents it, and takes care of me in my old age.) I also found the statistics and evidence of global warming interesting and stunning.

I cheered for Al as he won the Oscar this year for Best Documentary. Prior to his winning, the Former Veep announced The Oscars were Green this year and making an effort to “reduce its ecological footprint”. Gore went on, with Leo DiCaprio, noted Hollywood environmentalist, by his side that The Oscar’s website could furnish folks in the viewing audience with tips on how to do their part. Awesome! We are all for that and for coastal New England to not be flooded by the melting Polar Icecaps.

But does Al walk the walk? No, according the Tennessee Center for Policy Research’s findings, Gore’s yearly utility bill was $30,000 in 2006 which means he used nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours, more than 20 times the national average.

The Gore Camp scoffs at these finding, saying yes they do use this much energy, but they work out of their home and they are working on installing solar panels. Ummm, yeah and what are the Gores doing about the heated pool, the electric gate, and other things he and his wife use. Solar panels... yeah, we need more of an effort Al

I have a problem with Al being toted by Melissa Ethridge (who actually looked as she may jump him at the Oscars) et al. as the “Environmental Messiah” when it appears he isn’t making a conscious effort “to do his part”.

Al, you want people to take you and global warming seriously like my son who is part of the future generations you talk about who will inherit this environmental mess of a planet – walk the walk.

Or better yet, make another documentary showing us all how difficult it is to make lifestyle changes in order to be more environmentally friendly. It isn’t easy, especially when most of American do not make tens of thousands of dollars of speaking engagements nor are making millions off of their new Oscar-winning documentary.

Try and get a grip on reality Al.

I Got a Case of the Mondays (on Thursday)

After to talking to my colleague over at 1% More Conscious, I felt like raging here about office politics, or, as I lovingly call it “Office pol-i-dicks”.

So, here I sit, feeling like the guys in Office Space when they know they are going to get screwed, and wanting to rant and rave about it.

Then I visited one of my fave websites for a giggle and got one from what I was thinking about – Office Space. A parody of it over at www.angryalien.com (sorry the blog here doesn't "like" the link; so copy and paste the URL, then scroll down to find the Office Space clip) cheered me up and reminded me of two things: to laugh in order to keep perspective and what comes around, goes around.

So, I post this clip in honor of my colleague and friend at 1% More Conscious. Bud, we will live to fight the good fight tomorrow. Keep the faith…