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Priorities, People!
By Charlie
So I’m in the chow hall today, eating my KBR food, and minding my own business. Then, from out of nowhere, I was bombarded with the cable TV news feeding frenzy that spun around an American beauty queen who boozed it up, and the subsequent Donald Trump/Rosie O’Donald spat.
I cast a casual eye over to a nearby table, looking at some of my multi-national coalition partners, then to a table in the corner where our terps were avidly watching the anonymous lip-glossed blond chick reading us the breaking “news.”
So I thought to myself: is this really the image that America wants to project to the world? Flaunting the corruption of our youth for all to see, and celebrating the newfound “victimhood” of alcoholism (at 20?). We have displayed one of our “best and brightest” as nothing more than a frolicking harlot drinking herself silly, and she’s got the title “Miss USA.” Let me throw some caveats in here, lest you think I am being too harsh on Ms. Conner: two girls making out is hot, and there’s nothing wrong with underage drinking (in my opinion, if an 18 year old can enlist and fight for his country, he should at least be allowed to buy a beer –hell, he should get them for free.)
My point here is that America projects a negative image of itself to the people of the world. Instead of showing ourselves as hardworking people, caring people, or anything that may portray us positive light, we hold up the Tara Conners for all to see –an example of our opulence and self-absorption. When people from other countries and cultures see this kind of thing continually flaunted, obsessed over, and fawned over, they begin to form a very different picture of America from the one that we all currently know.
What we need is a PR Firm to sell the real America, like the one that put me here to make this place I’m stuck in better before I leave. All of the locals I meet here love Americans, because they know us personally: we’re individualized. The problem is that the individualization of the average American may be Tara Conner to many people who have never met an American. This is a bad thing.
We’ve got real problems to deal with in the world, and yet America is navel gazing at a beauty queen. How many soldiers risked their lives today? How many people were killed in the jihad in Sudan? How many lives were saved by doctors and emergency responders? Once we solve all of the pressing issues of our time, I promise that I will start to care about the plight of Ms. Conner.
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Comments
Yet another example of Rome's decay. Our legions are on the realm of the empire fighting the barbarians and all the mob at home wants is more American Idol and Miss USA scandal.
Stay safe, Centurion...
OK, three words, "Page Two Girl" ... this is nothing new for the Brits, too! SkyNews is no stranger, nor is the BBC. I am not giving this a pass, I am saying that there is more to our own PR than dolts like this bimbette bring to the party.
Even more decay: the fact that shows like The View and Oprah continue to drive us down into the depths. C'mon, these talk shows (?) are what we provide to enrich the world? And folks actually watch Jon Stewart for their news that a real news broadcast - and that is a stretch for even the MSM! (calling them real)
Sad that one has to choose between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell in this cat fight ... ugh ... :|
I agree this story makes the west look like a group of bumbling idiots, but you've gotta admit that it's a good thing that there's such a stir over it. I would be more upset if she turned up as an alkie and nobody cared--that would be the real travesty.
...And that blonde can read me the news anyday...
Tally Ho
SV
It may look bad to you, but if you see some of the things you see in the pop culture and television shows of other countries in Britain, Europe, and elsewhere you'll get a whole new meaning of decadance. You have to see some of this shit to believe it. When you do, than you'll begin to appreciate Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnel A LOT more.
These guys at least don't play around with their own feces or eat placentas or prance around naked on television. I won't go into it too much because some of the shit you see in places like Britain on their television is just fucking EXTREME.
Baby! You are beating your head against the wall. There is no helping this. The MSM are always, always, always going to pander to the part of the viewing public that eats this up. They have to, it's simple economics. How much TV are you watching? How much am I watching? What's the average number of hours that your fellow bloggers and commenters are racking up? I would guess it's far less than the national average. TV advertisers aren't making much money off of us. But they are making money off of regular watchers of "The View" and those who know who the heck Miss USA is (I didn't).
Sorry Charlie, but your priorities don't matter on Madison Avenue.
Rosie it is about time someone took and brought the "DONALD" down. This guy probably has a bigger ego then any "NORMAL" person and I bet Rosie's ratting are much higher then The Apprentice (which I think is so boring). Maybe if Survival wants to really have a show how about a Survivor show with "The Donald Tribe" and the "Rosie Tribe".........boy not that would be a show and a must see TV.
Why do you think the hordes are knocking at the gate? They can smell the stench of the rot behind the shiny steel. You're in iraq fighting a holding action, nothing more. It's the two centuries of military tradition demanding we go on the offensive before reality catches up to the politicians in D.C. and they draw the legions home and wait for the enemy once more to sack the last great empire and raise up the minerets. Oh wait ,i already see minerets, never mind stay where you are it'll be the same here as over there pretty soon.
Why do you think the hordes are knocking at the gate? They can smell the stench of the rot behind the shiny steel. You're in iraq fighting a holding action, nothing more. It's the two centuries of military tradition demanding we go on the offensive before reality catches up to the politicians in D.C. and they draw the legions home and wait for the enemy once more to sack the last great empire and raise up the minerets. Oh wait ,i already see minerets, never mind stay where you are it'll be the same here as over there pretty soon.
My friend, Micah, died in Iraq on December 7th and for a week all the news did was screech and panic over three recreational mountain climbers getting lost on Mt. Hood. It's only been a couple of weeks and forty soldiers have been killed since Micah. Where's the screech? Where's the panic? The world has gone insane.
Patricia, I am sorry to hear about your friend Micah and I agree with you. There should be so much more written about both the tragedies and the triumphs of our troops in Iraq.
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"So I thought to myself: is this really the image that America wants to project to the world? Flaunting the corruption of our youth for all to see, and celebrating the newfound “victimhood” of alcoholism (at 20?)."
No.
"We have displayed one of our “best and brightest” as nothing more than a frolicking harlot drinking herself silly, and she’s got the title “Miss USA.”
Hardly our best and brightest.
But your point is spot on.