You've Got to be Kidding!

Hey everybody,
It's been a good few days for cynical bloggers like myself. My rather bleek view of American culture has come to fruition.

Thursday, Anna Nicole Smith passed away. I'm not taking anything away from the tragedy of a human life coming to an end. But, here's how I found out about it. I turned to CNN to catch the daily reports from Iraq and Congress, etc. However, instead of keeping up with the daily events in this complicated time we live in, I was watching all-day coverage of Anna Nicole's death. Now, Anna Nicole Smith lived a hard life and I'm sure she wasn't a bad person. But, CNN? You've got to be kidding!! This person is only famous for being in Playboy, marrying a dying billionaire, getting fat, starring in her own drug-induced reality show, getting hot again and dying. Meanwhile, thousands of children are dying everyday because they don't have enough food. As I watched CNN newsreporters talk about who out of four men is the father of Anna Nicole's baby, American and Iraqi casualties for the week went scrolling across the bottom of the screen so fast I blinked and missed them. Seeing Wolf Blizter talking about Anna Nicole led to my sermon for this week..."Don't You Have More Important Things to Do?" Matt. 25, the parable of the sheep and goats...the answer is yes, there are many, many more important things to do.

The biggest night in music was last night. While I missed the reunion of the Police going to dinner with my family (a much more important and rewarding thing to do, by the way), Lynz, my sister and I saw most of the end of the show. The Dixie Chicks??? You've got to be kidding? First of all, who the hell knows the difference between Album and Record of the year. Second of all, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mayer, John Legend, Gnarls Barkley and countless others made exponentially better albums this year than those twangy sisters and that loud-mouth psycho lead singer. Now, I haven't given much regard to the Grammy's since Jethro Tull beat Metallica's Black Album for the first best metal album. But, come on. It's supposed to be based on music, not on taking a stand against a president and standing up for yourself. Neil Young, Pearl Jam, the Boss, Green Day, etc. all have SONGS dissing the president, not just a few words said on stage during some European concert. Awful, just awful. That's bushleague, Grammy acadamy, that's bush.

That's all folks,
B