June 5...and the politics of distraction

I watched the news today, Oh Boy....

I feel deeply for the parents of the girl who is missing in Aruba, the hell they must be going through. I remember what I went through when my daughter wasn't where she said she'd be on a trip she took once...I didn't sleep that night, as her last call had been of a worrisome nature.

But, in the same period since this girl's disappearance became national news (and don't defend this as a sort of "Amber Alert" thing, she was missing in Aruba, not Ames, Iowa) there have been several soldiers killed in Iraq. Kidnappings, murders, rapes, of hundreds of American women who are not pretty blonde 18 year old honor students.

Yes, Fox, CNN, (is MSNBC still on the air?) I know you guys have to sell "product"...but come clean and stop telling us that this is "news". It isn't.

North Korea has nuclear warheads. And the missiles to deliver them. That's news.
On an average day in America, 60-75 men, women and children will die in automobile accidents. A sizable portion involving alcohol or marijuana intoxication (anyone for Coors? Maybe the "twins" advertisements for beer should include at least one of them permanently disfigured by a drunk driving accident? I mean, for truth in advertising, it would only be reasonable...) That's news.
Rape is epidemic. That's news.
AIDS is still with us. While we're ont he topic. So is breast cancer. But, we do have drugs for flaccid penis and eating too much cheesecake. That's news.
We have ten year old girls trading sex for Meth. In the suburbs. That's news.
We are still in Iraq. The population of a small town of our men and women now dead so our President can avenge an insult to his father. That's news.
The US is about to send a lunatic to represent us to the world at the UN, a man with no concept of professional conduct or personal decorum, to amplify our reputation as "ugly Americans" and therefore make recruiting by terrorist groups much easier. Put Bolton at the UN and within weeks we'll be having boyscouts from Alabama join Al Qaeda in disgust. That's news.

Yeah...there's some news for you. Problem is, most news organizations are busy "selling" what they think you want to watch, not what you need to know. Try voting in 2008 based on what happened to a girl partying in Aruba.

And we get the leaders we deserve. Thus endeth the lesson.