after laying off this emission from the depths of my sordid brain for a couple of weeks, i have decided to return for a brief look at some of the events that pollute the public space these days:
between the sexual indiscretions of dominique strauss-kahn and those of arnold schwarzenegger, i can't decide which is more ludicrous and more worthy of disdain.
the first, who is head of the international monetary fund and prospective opponent next year to nicholas sarkozy for the french presidency, seems to have timed his escapade especially poorly: exactly when discussions for resolving the greek debt crisis are really beginning to get interesting. he's a dude with a reputation, of course, which makes the allegations all the more believable -- except for those of us who've grown cynical bordering on bored with the evil machinations of the ruling elites when it comes to getting inconvenient players out of the way.
julian assange found out...
now, the trial of strauss-kahn proceeds apace in the press, with the predictable prurient interest among the american mob with the sexual peccadilloes of its ruling elites. the school-marmish mentality of the press establishment, holding european politicians up for heightened scrutiny in the american way, is almost incomprehensible to their home constituency -- where there exists no impossibly hypocritical view of politicians as moral paragons. the new york papers are all over it, of course, because even after elliott spitzer, there can be no satiating the need for cheap titillation by way of tabloid and 24-hour "news" channels.
did the dude "do" it? who the fuck knows, but if he did he's a lot stupider than anyone had a right to expect. so i figure at the worst they slipped him some kind of extra-strength viagra and he had a bad, bad case of priapism. after all, that is a side effect...
on the other hand, what of the arnold? just when donald trump ran out of gall on his quixotic quest for ratings for this cheap and exploitative "reality" show, we have the former gov of cali first separating from his celebrity wife, before all shit broke loose in revelations that he fathered a "love child" with a "servant" back in the late 90s.
this has chickenshit soap opera written all over it... arnold was well known to be a pig from back in his body-building days, and in the race for "governator" after the recall that toppled grey davis, it was alleged and alleged once again that the arnold was a beastly chauvinist with an inability to keep his hands to himself -- and an equally repulsive aversion to telling the truth.
and yet, the american public, in living up to its deserved reputation for complete lack of taste, coupled with its sick fascination with all things having to do with celebrities, could do nothing but elect this sorry sack of shit to the governor's office of america's most culturally trend-setting state. as a movie star, he may have had his charms -- can't say, cuz i've never watch one -- but as an administrator and a leader dealing with the complex issues facing the nation's most populous state, he came out leaving the state vastly poorer and in worse shape than he found it.
then, come to find out his personal life is in just as much a shambles as the state of california. it figures. what'd you expect?
as for the long-suffering spouse, maria shriver, they made such a perfect couple for the mass-media dreamscape that exists in the minds of EW.com and People magazine readers, defying all the odds and overcoming all the challenges of rich celebrity couples -- until, of course, the entire matter is revealed as a sham. shriver, for her part, goes to be consoled by oprah, before having lunch with her children in hollywood. here's one sliver-spoon shipwreck that will be refloated in the popular mind in two bats of the bitch's eye. this might be the biggest career move in her life -- even bigger than marrying the stupid lummox in the first place!
is this a great fucking country, or what?
meanwhile, while our two celebrity clowns deal with the downside of not being regular joe anonymous, we watch in trepidation as the nobel-prize-winning champion of change we sadly believed in is on his way to institutionalizing the permanent warfare state, including the deployment of combat troops in the homeland, as well as the use of pilotless drones as a fixture of "law enforcement" in the skies above american cities. while we're pleasantly entertained by the great follies of the powerful and famous, the very foundations of the american republic are being eaten away as wood by termites.
there's nowhere to go any more but down. so make the most of these last few months of relative normalcy, before you find yourself under siege and very, very afraid.
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