Easy...

I have watched too much TV since I've been home. Probably not as much as most people watch, in general, but too much for me. One thing I've noticed (and I realize I'm about to sound like one of those "hate the liberal talking-heads" people, but hear me out) is that most of what passes for "thought" in the media and on television is not all that well thought out.

I saw Comic Relief was on TV and thought, "oh boy...Comic Relief...I remember this from my youth" and expected the same as I remembered--comics doing their thing to get money for a good cause. This time, it was Katrina Relief. Midway through a fairly touching monologue that Billy Cristal was doing (oddly well considering the monologue was in the voice of an old black man), he said something like, "Mr. President, give the money from the war to rebuild New Orleans." And the crowd went wild! But...seriously? What is he recommending? I mean, sure, it sounds like a great idea, and from a simplistic view, you look at the numbers (trillions for war and a much smaller number for Katrina) and it seems imbalanced and an easy fix--take money from one and give it to the other. But, that can't happen...that's not a viable idea. People cheered, and I'm sure, felt good about themselves because Billy Kristal had really just "stuck it to the man" but, in all honesty, what good did he do? Nothing.

Matt Damon is going to be on Hardball, the College Tour (I'm not kidding) and said this:

I don't think that it's fair as I said before, that it seems like we have a fighting class in our country. That's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or , I don;t think that that is fair. And if you're gonna send people to war, ahh, if, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war then that needs to be shared by everybody. You know and if the President has daughters who are of age then maybe they should go too…

now...again, maybe he has a point, maybe there is an imbalance of who is in the military, but is calling out Bush's daughters really all that ballsy? I mean, hell, he's in front of an audience of college students. If he really wanted to be ballsy and take a stand, maybe he should have told them to "go"...whatever that means.

I saw a lady at the post office yesterday with a license plate that read, "USNA 66" and she had on a shirt with this picture on it

I believe I've talked about this before, but again...read what he actually said, have some common sense and don't mis-represent. But, I don't know if I can blame the USNA lady. Odds are, all she knows is what she heard on FOX and read in the San Diego Union Tribune. I mean, how many people actually take the time to verify what they read/hear on the "news" (especially FOX"news" watchers)?

I guess my point is, across the board, I feel like I'm surrounded by people with opinions (on both sides) who don't take the time to educate themselves, but are more than happy to share their opinions. Worse still, it seems as though the majority of society is fine with that...so, we listen to Matt Damon or Comic Relief or Bill O'Rielly and they rail about what is "wrong" with society and offer no solutions. I guess I'm just...annoyed. Particularly with the left side of the spectrum today. It's so easy for us to fall into the trap of self-aggrandizement and "preaching to the choir". Sitting around and watching Michael Moore movies and patting ourselves on the back for being so "enlightened" without contributing anything toward a solution is useless (which isn't to say there's moral equivalency between doing nothing and actively hurting the country...but that's another posting altogether).