6-10-04

Richard Jeni on whether it's better to be single or married. "It depends on whether you prefer to be lonely or annoyed."




If a candidate has an overwhelming disproportion of the billboards and TV ads, that person will be elected over 9 times out of ten. What that too often means is simply that they have co-opted themselves the most in order to get a larger share of contributions (payoffs) from businesses and special interests.




While affording a high degree of legal fun for sexually frustrated men (and latent and closet homosexuals), much of the treatment of young men in the military and on the athletic training fields is an exercise in sanctioned sadism.

These deplorable practices create scars of the psyche in the less physically and emotionally adept. Some never get over the shameful traumas perpetrated on them by bullies in the guise of leaders, and become permanently locked into their lowered self esteem. For others it serves as a template for their treatment of their weaker associates, their eventual children, even their girlfriends and future wives. (Or prisoners put under their care.)




The mass media in the U.S. has found it a very successful practice to create celebrityhood. With the media's fevered ministrations, people are magnetized to these celebrities. They develop a need to know what they have done, are doing, will do, might possibly do, what their houses look like, who they are sleeping with, and what their opinions are. This kind of gushy gab and gossip fills untold billions of column inches in newspapers, magazines and books and has caused millions of trees to be sacrificed on the altar of celebrity buzz.

Television is likewise consumed with celebrity news, gossip and interviews. Lousy movies are made and dutifully attended based on star power. Billions of dollars have been spent on posters and products which celebrate these celebrities, whether they're from the world of music, acting or sports.

And once a celeb, always a celeb. Actors from long-gone sitcoms are still the subject of media interest. Even the relatives of stars are news. If Jennifer Lopez's brother or uncle were involved in a traffic accident or a crime, that would be a national "news" item.




Save me from these snooty wine club types, gargling and sniffing and declaring their pretentious opinions. For God's sake people, it's rotted fruit!




Someone should do a study of the IQs of children whose parent or parents smoke in the house. The kids I've come into contact with whose mother and/or father smoke were particularly dim-witted.

Then again, it may be difficult to separate out the fact that the children were born to stupid parents to begin with, i.e., people who would not only smoke, but do so into the air their offspring is trying to breathe.




When I was a child, all the TV shows were not only antiseptically clean, but insultingly unrealistic. My favorite programs were Superman and Zorro, in which the hero always triumphed against the evildoers. I'll never forget one episode of Superman where he made a list of the top 10 gangsters in Metropolis and proceeded to capture them all and send them to jail. The civic leaders put a huge medal around his neck! (Meanwhile, in the real world, the Mob had its greatest growth decade.) Then George Reeves committed suicide. Talk about disillusionment!




People worry and complain about a lot of things that aren't as important as the fact that a staggering number of children are going through 12 years of "education" and coming out only slightly more useful than a chimpanzee.




The U.S. federal government deals with the needs of the corporations (and some large special interest groups) with its right hand, and with the needs of the populace with its (less coordinated) left hand.




You can't show someone giving the finger on network TV. So glad they're holding the line on that gross indecency. I mean, I don't mind countless references to unfettered sex, and brain-splattered murder galore, and more and more gratuitous nudity, but Heaven (and network Divisions of Standards and Practices) protect us from the sight of an exposed middle finger!




As for the so-called trickle-down theory of economics -- tax breaks for the corporations and rich which supposedly benefit the lower class members of a citizenry. What it should be called is "tinkle-down," as that is what the wealthy are perpetrating.