Entertainment News

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One of my former students wrote this about some recent celebrity news in a Facebook status:

Oh I'm sorry, you were completely mistaken when you assumed I gave any fucks about Kim and Kanye's baby

Some of the comments left in the thread discussed what the issue of a Kardashian/West coupling might actually look like.  Some of the other comments mentioned West’s poor rap stylings.

I pretty much feel the same way about any celebrity news.  Our nation has become obsessed with the lives of people we will never meet let alone get to know as friends or neighbors.  Read any of the grocery store tabloids.  Watch any of the half-hour “entertainment news” shows after the evening news.  Someone is pregnant again, even though she’s not married, and nobody knows who she’s been seeing lately.  Someone else has been arrested on the latest of a bazillion drunk driving incidents.  Two people are getting married after they’ve been dating for about two weeks.  Two other people are getting divorced after being married for only four months.

Is it any wonder that teenage unwed mothers are more common in schools?  Or that the national divorce rate is 40-50 percent?  We spend far too much time watching and reading stories about who’s pregnant and who’s breaking up.  Granted there are not that many entertainment couples who are still on their first marriage and have been together for a long time, but when they come along maybe the tabloid and fake news shows should be spending time celebrating the milestones in their lives such as births and anniversaries. They should certainly spend less time covering human failures.
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And what’s the deal with the American fascination with British royalty?  We kicked King George’s ass over two hundred years ago.   Some paparazzi takes a picture of Kate Middleton sunbathing topless and it takes up half of a nightly news broadcast. 

All right.  Prince William’s wife is a babe, and any teenage boy would drool over her as much as they once drooled over the old Farrah Fawcett posters.  They'd hide the digital copies on a thumb drive so their moms won't find them, or print them out and stick them under their mattress with their copies of Penthouse and Playboy. And any red blooded American man wouldn’t mind seeing her naked either. 

But the royal family is upset, and Americans are pelted nightly for a week with the broadcast news, both the national and entertainment variety, like we should all be outraged.   Why is this stuff important?

Prince William should have released one statement that would have stopped all the coverage and probably the hounding paparazzi.   It would read something like:

To the press.  Okay you have some nude photos of my wife.  Go ahead and publish them you perverted twits.  Masturbate to them all you want.  Know this though.  I am married to that sweet hotness and you’re not.  While you're wasting your sperm on pictures, I get to see her that way everyday, and I get to get up in all that hotness whenever I want.  And you don’t, suckers.  It’s good to be the King.

Stopping blood

I've hunted and killed animals.  And I have enjoyed both activities, even when I didn't even get to see a deer let alone take aim at one.  I don't do those things anymore, but I don't begrudge anybody their right to do the same, nor their right to own and use the weapons which allow them that opportunity.

Still, enough is enough.

The majority of firearm deaths and injuries occur in cases where victims know the person who shot them, and a large portion of those are relatives.

I wish people would actually read the entire 2nd amendment.  It says a well-regulated militia is necessary.  Now you can argue all you want that the populace is what comprises the militia, but the truth is, today, we have the largest and most advanced military in the world, and, along with police departments, they are pretty damned well-trained.  You can also argue that the military is different from the militia, but the key phrase remains "well regulated." 

Right now the populace is not, despite what the NRA and the "pry it from my cold dead hands" crowd say, well regulated and certainly not disciplined or trained.  There is absolutely no reason private citizens need clips larger than ten shells.  There is absolutely no reason private citizens need assault rifles that are solely designed to kill people in a random fashion rather than actually aiming at a target.  There is absolutely no reason that gun shows should be allowed to sell weapons or ammunition without a stringent background check and waiting period.  Will this stop the flow of illegal guns to criminals?  Probably not much, but it will decrease the easy access to weapons to the people who do the majority of killing in this country, namely the people you know.

The recent school shooting in Connecticut, the theater shooting in Colorado, the shopping mall shooting in Arizona have all cost lives.   By most accounts, young men with mental problems were the killers.   By most accounts, they purchased high capacity weapons legally and with relative ease. 

Probably Congress will do little if anything to stem this tide of violence.  Oh sure, they will wring their hands decrying the fate of so many lives cut short.  Collectively as a nation we will also wring our hands.  Some will demand that something, anything be done. 

But like so often before, nothing will change.  Already, as Christmas Day approaches, the hue and cry for gun control is fading in the noise of the Fiscal Cliff. 

We are much to blame ourselves, I think.  We watch with horror at the outrage of murder, yet death comprises our most popular television and film.  Our children double tap the zombies in video games.  We become fascinated with the 24 hour coverage of death and put another pork chop in our mouths.