The new American Past-Time..

Baseball is not the great American Pasttime. It never has been. What is? I'll tell you.

Complaining.

Complaining the the great American Pasttime. If we aren't complaining about the person on top, we're complaing about the people complaing about the person on top. "The Liberal Media". Please. When Clinton was in office, it was the "Conservative Media". And when Bush Sr. was in office, is was the "Liberal Media." Sheesh. Do you honestly think that Sam Donaldson, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather et al. change their views 180 degrees everytime the legislative and executive branches change hands? Give me a break, will ya?

They are reporting about the person on top, and how they're getting into trouble. We love it. They report what we want to see, read or hear about. They report the train wreck not because it affects us, but because we want to see the cars all strewn across the fields and the bodies dangling from the trees. We love to see the carnage. They know it, and so do their advertisers. If the news only reported stuff that actually affected you, how much ad revenue do you think they'd net? Zero, zilch, zip, nada. As in nada damn penny.

When was the last time the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis actually effected your day? What I mean is, have you ever had to skip a day of work because some nutjob strapped a bomb to his body and blew up a pizza shop in Tel Aviv? No. I didn't think so. But you want to know about it, because like the train wreck, you're horrified but you can't look away. That when they take a break to urge you to talk to your doctor about Viagra.

The Clinton-Lewinsky "scandal" was reported because the networks knew we wanted to hear about it. We loved hearing about the infamous cigar. Even the Democrats loved it. It was nobody's business at all, except between Ms. Lewinsky and the Clinton family. It most certainly wasn't Congress' business. But they reported about it.

And we all got to complain. "The Republicans are just trying to make Bill Clinton look bad!" Yes. "The President lied under oath!" Yes. Yes, yes, yes. We were all so happy.

Just a side note here: Democrats, listen to me right now! If you're accused to doing something wrong, corrupt, illegal or immoral, just say "I'm sorry" and be done with it. The Republican's learned this a long time ago... Learn it, live it, love it.

When Newt Gingrich served his wife with divorce papers while she was on her death bed, and then later, used govt. money illegally, the press didn't really glom onto it as much as things the President was doing around the same time. Why? Simple. Newt admitted to it. The news broke, Newt said "you're right, I'm sorry." and the story went away. Just recently, soon-to-be-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was accused of treating some women in an inappropriate manner. What happened? Simple, he said "I'm sorry" and the story went away. Just like that. Again, Rush Limbaugh was accused of being addicted to prescription drug medications after having a VERY hard line on addicts. He said "You're right." and said I'm sorry by going to treatment. End of Story. The only story left for Rush is whether or not he obtained those drugs illegally in any provable fashion. He probably didn't. Rich people get other people to do the illegal stuff, most of the time.

By the way: Rush, if you happen to read this; good luck with your treatment. I mean it. It's some really nasty stuff you got mixed up with, and I wish you the best in kicking the habit.

SO, we all get to complain all of the time. We should be thrilled.