If the Shoe Fits Wear It

As we approach Christmas the news seems to get sillier and sillier. Angelina Jolie recently criticized President Barack Obama because he had not gotten around to her treasured issue. (Frankly, I did not even bother to look at what the issue was).  BTW, Angelina, I think he has been a bit busy. There have been two wars to fight, health care reform, and saving the US economy from the brink of a depression. Though I doubt you have noticed any of that.

And it seems that Bill O'Reilly of Fox News (I have put news in italics because I believe it is misused) feels he has been maligned in an episode of Law and Order: SVU. The episode deals with a serial killer of illegal immigrants. In one scene, a character named Randall Carver, played by veteran actor John Larroquette, is sitting on a park bench talking to Fin, the detective played by Ice-T. In defending the actions of the man who killed the immigrants’ children, Larroquette's character says, "Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, all of 'em, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate...They've convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system..."

Well, yes. So what is your point Bill? O'Reilly called the "far left" Wolf (creator of the show) a "despicable human being" whose show is "out of control." I wonder if it has yet occurred to Mr. O'Reilly that most of us viewers would have hardly noticed if he had not called it to our attention? But then that would require thinking. My father used to always say, "If the shoe fits, wear it." Obviously O'Reilly has chosen to wear this particular pair of shoes left hanging casually hanging around a television show. A fictional television show.

In the top news stories on Yahoo's News page the O'Reilly story was first. Lady Gaga's (who in the #@$@ is she?) reindeer hat was second, and the "shocking" news that Tiger Woods was taking a leave from golf to tend to home matters was fourth or third. There was a story about a ten year old iceberg drifting toward the Australian coast that merited a read.

Definitely the silly season! Except this is beginning to seem the norm on news shows and news internet sites. Maybe the word news needs to be in italics all the time.

One Bright Spot of Sanity

I noticed this morning that it had been a while since I had done a new post for Travels with Charley. So I went searching for something newsworthy that the talking heads had not masticated to death. And finally found myself totally out of the political realm.

Richard Wright, a 49 year old painter and muralist, has been awarded the Turner Prize. The Turner Prize is awarded annually to a body of work by an artist under 50, and born, living or working in Britain. I find it very hopeful that in an age of multiple wars, continuing threat of global nuclear anniliation, global warming, governors using jets to visit mistresses in a foreign country, wives taking after their mates with golf clubs, Barbie and Ken sneaking into the White House to get a reality tv show, and car bombs in Iraq that art is still being created and awards for it continue.

Why save the human race if there isn't art, music, literature, scientific discovery, higher callings, and thinking outside the box? If we are just squabbles on the Senate floor over health care, vain seeking of attention with potentially hazardous pranks, acquisition of wealth for the sake of acquisition only, murderous actions over differences in religion, power for the sake of seduction, and midnight fights over our mates indiscretions then set off the bombs. We are a waste of air.

I applaud Richard Wright. And the foundation that awards the Turner prize yearly. Let's follow their example and praise art and not war.

That said I think I am going to change the primary focus of this blog. No politics for the sake of politics. I will instead focus on news and issues that crave attention while the media runs endless retakes of Tiger Woods' predawn motor accident and Sarah Palin's electability in 2012. That isn't saying that I will not from time to time have something to say about Sarah (especially if she has an affair with Tiger) but I want to focus more on the positive in the news in 2010 and I might as well begin now.