Rosie O'Donnell--Less Cutie, More Patootie

Rosie O'Donnell has been intellectually overboard for quite some time now. In fact, I don't know that there was ever a time when she was not. Her recent comments regarding the supposed joint British/American naval prisoner conspiracy is only more evidence that this is the case. She claims that the truth behind the facade is that the U.S. wanted to bully Iran into escalation, so we pressed our old fallguys, the British, into doing the dirty work for us. Now, I don't admit that this is beyond the realm of possibility anymore than, say, Hugo Chavez being hired to drive Al Gore around in an all-electric Toyota Prius. It could happen if the planets align just right.

Unfortunately, Rosie has turned The View into her bully pulpit, or Big Rosie's Playpen. She is one of those people who just has to speak their mind without consideration of others. I watched a show not too long ago where the gals interviewed Dennis Miller. Now, I'm no huge fan of Miller's, but I think he is an intelligent and reasonable guy. He appeared especially so when paired with Rosie O'Donnell, who felt it necessary whenever possible to try to steal some of Miller's building gusto. Her futile effort caused her to come off as bitter and childish. Her closing remarks didn't help matters as she threw in some comment to the effect that while Miller is an okay guy, his political views are drastically different from hers. This raised an interesting question of what's worse--her views or that many people in America actually care about them.

That Rosie has so much cultural capital when one would be hard-pressed to think of any redeemable thing she has done to deserve it kinda bums me out. It reminds me of a similar situation involving another rather big, umm, creature of Hollywood's imagination--the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. In Ghostbusters , Ray is told by the villain that the first thing that comes to his mind will be the thing that destroys the world. Ray imagines Stay Puft because he thinks there's nothing more harmless than a big marshmallow. Boy, was he wrong.

At the risk of exploding my analogy, our cult of celebrity magnifies Rosie's puffery to a status it doesn't deserve and, worse, seemingly justifies more of the same.

Fair and Balanced Criticism

I like most things about FOX News, but I can't say the same about the FOX Network. Why are they giving face-time to O.J. Simpson with this two-episode hypothetical confession? This is little more than pandering to the Nancy Grace crowd in order to boost ratings.

Here's the official word from FOX:

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

Wait. He was the one responsible for the crimes; he was found guilty in a civil suit that awarded an enormous settlement to the families of his victims. He still hasn't paid them.

And yet, here's Orenthal again. On national television. Because he can't stand being out of the public eye. FOX doesn't have to show this program; it is an informed and deliberate decision. And it's one that I hope Americans will hold them accountable for.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Sir Elton the Tolerant

From Drudge:

Sir Elton John wants religion banned completely -- because he believes it promotes hatred of gays.

Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine the singer said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings".

This is just another hypocritical rant by the so-called tolerant set. Elton has no problem preaching that we all should be tolerant, but ol' Candle in the Wind doesn't seem to want to practice it himself. To borrow his logic, if one wants religion banned because it promotes a "hatred of gays," then how is that so different from someone who wants homosexuality banned because it promotes a hatred of religion, as exemplified by E.J.? And if in Sir Elton's example one is made into a homophobe by organized religion, does this make him a religiophobe because of his sexuality?

Faith Hill Waxes Ballistic

Faith Hill expresses her, erm, displeasure over losing to Carrie Underwood at the CMA awards last night.



She's on the inside track for this week's Bitter Root award.

Bill Cosby Making News Again

Cosby's critique of African-American parenting can be applied to all parents, regardless of race. Many of the policies liberals and conservatives call for might be unnecessary if parents would take more responsibility for rearing their children.

Brad Pitt=Concerned American

Brad Pitt has come out and said that he is "shocked" at the way America is perceived in the world. According to Pitt, while he was in Amsterdam filming Ocean's Twelve, a group of Dutch toughs threatened to kill him simply because he was American. Now, I don't know Pitt's biases, but if he's like other Hollywood types, then he won't blame the Dutchmen for their irrational attitude; instead, he'll focus his anger on why we've "made them that way."

Now, I might understand if the guys actually paid to see Ocean's Twelve...

Lady Madonna with child

I'm usually far from sympathetic toward celebrities like the UK's own Madonna. Besides a feeling that one should do his or her good deeds in secret, I'm not impressed with the reinvention these kinds of acts usually signify. However, in this particular instance, I think Madonna is being attacked unfairly.

I'm not convinced that this adoption is such a bad idea. Sure, Malawi has a strict policy regarding adoption to foreigners, one which Madonna undoubtedly abridged, but given the economic straits of the country, is that a good thing? Wouldn't one less mouth to feed only help?

Then there's the question of the boy's father, who claims he's been duped during the whole process. Madonna disputes this, saying that everything was on the up and up in her face-to-face meeting with him. A translator was provided for the father, so his post-adoption complaint about not understanding English seems to be moot.

My initial reaction to all of this was to question Madonna's adoption of a single child, when she could donate enough money to assist many Malawians instead. Apparently, though, she has been quite the philanthropist where Malawians are concerned, donating large sums of money in the past.

So I guess the question remains for me, why are the media so obsessed with this particular adoption?