Singing, Dancing, Waste, Racism, & Censorship

Happy Hump Day!

Today begins season 11 of American Idol, the flagship of those reality shows that crush the dreams of millions across the country.  I hoped that American Idol would fade mercifully into the sunset after the its creator left to start a copycat reality show; alas, it refuses to die and we are stuck with yet another singing and/or dancing show polluting the airwaves during prime time television.  Now I'm starting to wonder where the saturation point is.  We have American Idol, X Factor, Dancing With The Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent, etc. etc. etc.

I suppose, however, that reality shows such as these are good for demonstrating to young people that, in real life, everybody doesn't get a trophy just for participating.  On the other hand, I fail to understand the twisted allure of watching adult role models open fire on the esteem of naive, idealistic young people...or the fanatical worshiping of these shows by their fans.  If only they demonstrated the same passion and interest toward what's going on around them in America, our country might be in better shape.

Meanwhile, from the Department of Federal Waste and Imprudence, it seems that the federal government deemed it worthy to spend $1.6 million in taxpayer dollars from a transportation fund in order to restore hundreds of Chicano "murals" from the 1970's that were painted onto freeway underpasses in California.  These murals began as simple graffiti borne of "rage" from Hispanics that believe half of the United States should be taken by force and made a part of Aztlan, a fictitious nation that is to be inhabited exclusively by Mexicans.  Some of this graffiti that our tax dollars are being used to restore include glorifying murderous and oppressive asshats like Che' Guevara and Fidel Castro.

Evidently, the funds earmarked for this restoration project were approved in 2002; however, the focus on Aztlan - one pillar of the Mexican supremacy doctrine - was a concern for our government.  But the Obama administration, cozy with the overtly racist group La Raza (The Race) and willfully ignorant of the fact racism  actually IS perpetuated by people that aren't white, released the funds and work has begun to restore these murals.

I marvel at how racism is allowed - and encouraged - to flourish among minority groups, while Caucasians are taught to be ashamed and guilty in perpetuity because of our ancestors' actions.  In order to be politically correct, it seems one must acknowledge that racism is just a white thang...and it warms my heart knowing my tax dollars are paying to spread the word.

Moving on...there have been two bills introduced in Congress recently, informally known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act).  The idea behind the legislation is fighting piracy of songs, videos, and other artistic works that one would normally need to pay for before downloading.  These bills were poorly written to say the least, and if they became law they would effectively become legal justification for subjective censorship.  Websites with even a crumb of questionable content would get shut down immediately, and questions would be asked later.  Guilty until proven innocent.  

As a result of these bills, many internet content providers have chosen to black out their websites today as a form of protest against the proposed legislation.  If you were to try using Wikipedia today, for instance, you'd be out of luck.  Other sites, such as Craigslist, have added front pages drawing attention to the issue and asking surfers to take action by writing or calling their congressional representatives urging them to vote "no" on these bills.  I'm glad that they're using their prominent position in society to protest this idiocy, because we must be extremely careful proposing anything that could come anywhere close to censorship.  We have already lost freedoms and liberties in the name of security with the Patriot Act and similar legislation, and the same encroachment and oppression simply cannot reoccur when it comes to our free speech rights.

As a side note, these artists and owners of the material in question have been pushing for something like this because they don't get paid when their works are copied and shared freely (and illegally).  I find it ironic and slightly hilarious that many of these artists are leftists, and they would just as soon wipe their asses with exact same capitalist system they are trying to exploit.

As another side note, I'm pretty disgusted by the embarrassingly poor job that our legislators are doing in writing bills over the past few years.  There's little doubt in my mind that some of it is by design, but when reading the SOPA and PIPA bills, they reek of their authors' incompetence.  Could it be that the special interests (RIAA, MPAA, etc.) wrote the bills on behalf of the legislators?  The concept is not so far fetched; I'm certain that it's happened before...but the politicians that put their names on this stuff really need to do a better job editing the bills before they're published for everyone to see.

Enjoy your Wednesday!