I'm Afraid

Maybe the voice of the Everyman has become a little too loud.

I'm fine with micro-demographics bringing back TV shows. I'm fine with insignificant people making videos in which they knee other insignificant people to the groin and then posting said videos in the public domain.

What I am not fine with is ordinary people affecting the lives of extraordinary people by making them second-guess their choices.

Who says that this is not a stunning and significant photograph? Not Vanity Fair. Not her family. Some soccer mom in Texas? No. 4 million soccer moms in Texas. And now, thanks to the internet, they all get to say so. And suddenly, a beautiful, candid photograph that makes useless teeny-bopper Miley Cyrus look like she might have something worthwhile to say someday about something (maybe) is what? Degrading? Exploitative? Please. That girl's life has not been her own for years now. Don't make her feel "embarrassed" for having a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz. Don't make her put "artistic" in quotes when talking about the photoshoot. Don't knock on the French windows of our Elite, middle America. And Elite, please please don't let us in.

As I See It: Hills v Obama

I heard this old crusty pack-a-day lady call Hillary Clinton as “mensch” at a post-Pennsylvania Primary party on NPR the other day. She was so happy and human, and yet so instinctually off-putting to me. And I thought…God, I am such an elitist. Maybe I should be supporting Obama. That’s what I DESERVE. Because honestly, the thought that this middle aged, probably-doughy, slouchy, mottled woman is as supportive of Hillary as I am was horrifyingly, uncomfortably, but unmistakably, like…repugnant to me.

PLUS, when I heard Obama say that stuff about po’ folks clinging to religion and guns I was like, “Right on, Obama. Maybe I DO want you to be my President if you’re going to actually say the stuff most of us silver spoon folks just think to ourselves all the time.”

I have a choice to make here. I mean, it's a choice that's going to be made for me in two months anyway, but due to my socio-economic background and age bracket, I've been feeling lots of pressure to reassess my personal position every second of every day. It's akin to the deep-seated compulsion I feel to repeatedly hit the refresh button on the Go Fug Yourself homepage.

Let’s get back to that lady. That $10.50 an hour lady is the key, I think. If I want to keep loving myself some Hills, I need to give that lady a hug. I need to throw open my arms and drink her in. Smell the cigarettes and the Bud and the stale sweat between the folds of flesh around her pink and white neck and just squeeze.

And honestly, I think that’s what I want to do right now. Because I have a feeling that to jump ship and love Obama, I might have to go kick that woman in the junk and run away cackling. And that just ain't right.

For Godsakes, People, Know Your Credit Crisis

I've found that NPR's Fresh Air, usually reserved for insightful interviews with the smart and famous, is also an excellent if unlikely well-spring of knowledge regarding the snowballing credit crisis.

If you have no idea what's going on with our current economic state or why, please start with Terry Gross's interview with Alan Greenspan:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14500893

and then proceed to today's even more illuminating explanation of the horrors of deregulation

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89338743

Just doing my part to spread the word.