Civilization Teeters on the Brink

Lots of annoying things have forced themselves onto my radar.  Michael Bolton, Yanni, Kenny G, and Cher for example.  Knowledge of the existence of Sylvester Stallone (he of the third testicle) is lodged in my brain, and I know of the oeuvre of Pauly Shore.  I am also aware of lesser mediocrities like Adam Sandler, Mandy Patinkin, and the perpetually-overrated Garth Brooks.  I have been dragged,  kicking and screaming, to a Stevie Nicks concert, and I lived.

On the other hand, I’ve expended lots of effort to avoid knowing who Hannah Montana is - until the Vanity Fair kerfuffle, I didn’t know the name Miley Cyrus.  I had never heard her speak nor had I heard her sing. I was blissfully unaware that Hannah was the spawn of the bathetically awful Billy Ray Cyrus.  If pressed, I could not have picked her out of a lineup.

But no more.

Coverage of this proto-slut is everywhere - it cannot be avoided.  Even worse - the Miley march-to-the-sea has displaced real news:

[Monday] night, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams allotted eighty seconds to yesterday’s momentous Supreme Court ruling that there’s nothing unconstitutional with Indiana’s law requiring a photo ID to vote. Meanwhile, during the same broadcast, it spent over two minutes on the concern caused by photos of teen star Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair.

Who cares that the Supreme Court said who cares if people likely to vote for Democrats get disenfranchised:

Never mind how the Supreme Court’s decision will directly affect the Indiana Democratic primary, the presidential election in November, and, potentially, voting rights of US citizens for years to come. NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams provided their viewers with a much more valuable piece of information: the “ruckus” over teen sensation Miley Cyrus’ photo spread in Vanity Fair and an answer to the question that’s keeping most Americans awake at night:

Disney and Miley have been heard whining that Vanity Fair “manipulated” this Lindsay Lohan wannabe, but the truth is that the only manipulating taking place will be when little Miley turns over Vanity Fair’s check and signs it on the back. Yet another sign that our civilization is in rapid decline.  These people must be stopped.

Miley Cyrus Trumps Voter ID Ruling on NBC Nightly News; On Same Day, NBC Anchor Slammed NYT’s Fluff [Media Bloodhound]

Comments

[mandt]

Stevie Nicks is always at her best, wired, singing and burning down her backyard in Marine. Vanity Fair's gone high Fashion pedophile---uggg!

[Tata]

I regret that I had but one childhood to give to my depraved country.

[Frederick]

A Nation of kid fuckers could care less what the supreme court sez. That is unless they crack down on the FDLS. Then it's, "I want my first amendment rights, freedom of religion and tweenage brides!"

[tafka pb]

The Today Show dedicated a segment about "How to Talk to Your Kids about the Miley Cyrus Photos."

Um, my kids (5 & 3), love Hannah Montana, but they don't read Vanity Fair. In fact, if not for the "I've got the vapors" prudish media, my kids would have never had the chance to know that Miley Cyrus showed her back flesh in a grown-up magazine that Daddy reads from time to time.

And, even if they had seen it, it's not that big a fucking deal. She's not fellating a horse or massaging a Great Dane's testicles. There's nothing to talk about.

Stupid media.

Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid.

[Lisa]

Blogenfreude,

I am so absolutely with you here about the things I do not want to know. How could we care, why would it matter? Mountains out of molehills, whipping something out of pipesmoke. People have time for this tripe?

[willis]

The nerve of Hannah going bare. How the hell can she wear a lapel flag that way? Why does Hannah hate the troops?

[Lisa]

Hannah can wear a flag pasty, or temporary tattoo. Hannah loves the troops because she bears her womanhood for them.

All women love men in a uniform, but not necessarily in the biblical way.