Celebrity Worship for Wisdom, Fun, and Edification
Here is a fascinating article about celebrity health tips:
In an annual list of what it sees as the year’s worst abuses against science, the Sense About Science (SAS) campaign group debunked diet and exercise suggestions made by actors, pop stars and others in the public eye in an effort “to help the celebrities realize where they are going wrong and to help the public make sense of celebrity claims.”
The article debunks such wisdom as reabsorbing sperm and wearing silicone bracelets to boost energy. Global warming? Well no, all real scientists agree that it puts us in mortal danger.
People love celebrities and listen to what they say. Want Lady Gaga’s wisdom on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? On the horrors of global warming and how to deal with them? Katie Couric and her dreams of a Muslim version of The Cosby Show (with no blasphemy, of course)? The MSM in general? They are difficult to miss and, if even modestly attentive, so are their ideological foundations. Propaganda is much more easily swallowed (without bothering to chew) than is fact. It would be easy, useful, and refreshing to laugh at such nonsense, so I hope for a mainstream article debunking celebrity wisdom in many areas; politics would be a good start. It will not likely appear there anytime soon and that’s unfortunate. Like it or not, the MSM is in the bag and could doom any efforts to elect a competent president in 2012. As pointed out here, it will be difficult in any event.
We love to laugh, and that’s why humor can be highly effective for both good and ill. But after political correctness, who can still be the butt of jokes? Incongruity is the soul of humor. How about a pretty white (anything else would be racist) female who doesn’t fit into the mainstream conception of a politician but impudently had the audacity to seek the second highest office in the land? Someone living way up in the wild north somewhere — Alaska would be great. Maybe she could fish with her husband, hunt cuddly wild animals, be energetic, have a bunch of kids so they could be fair game for disparagement and some really odd notions (can we hope for someone pro-life and pro-family?) making her the antithesis of a legitimate feminist so reasonable people couldn’t possibly see poking fun at her as sexist.
Tina Fey, who achieved fame by becoming a Sarah Palin impersonator, managed to turn Governor “I can see Russia from my living room” Palin into an object of scorn — a walking, talking blond joke; best not actually to be blond because that would mean stereotyping. It turns out that many of Ms. Fey’s countless fans attributed her stage persona to Governor Palin, possibly rendering her thereafter unelectable for any office higher than Moose Control Officer in some remote corner of Alaska. The silly demented girl still doesn’t even know the meaning of some simple English words — such as defeat. Not only that, she’s pretty, dammit. No effective female politician can be pretty and have gravitas too and besides, she’s religious and isn’t a Democrat! She is also, according to a Newsweek star, a “borderline lunatic.” Roseanne Barr says she is “loon and I think she’s kind of a traitor.” Not only that, those who think otherwise are the “dumbest people on Earth [and] … on the government dole.” (Ms. Barr later apologized for her remarks about Mrs. Palin’s ignorant supporters, who had been duped.)
Saturday Night Live is among the front rank contenders for first prize in the modern humor category — and Tina Fey (a.k.a. Sara Palin) gets first prize at SNL. Sarah Palin was an almost perfect butt of jokes; still, maybe someone even better might come along later; how about another pretty white female opposed not only to abortion but also to masturbation? Maybe someone who as a teenager had dabbled in witchcraft? Nah, that wouldn’t be possible.
Governor Palin may remain unelectable, and not solely because of Tina Fey’s antics. As questioned here:
[I]s Palin electable? The next two years will determine whether she will be able to counter the slanderous media campaign against her candidacy and her competence, and so convince enough people that she has the right stuff to lead the country in perhaps its most perilous historical moment since the Civil War. Clearly, she suffers more than her share of antagonists among the megabuck left and their myriad satellites, Ivy League academics, mainstream journalists, public intellectuals, union impresarios and henchmen, and the entitlement-addicted segment of the public. They are terrified of her. She even has the panjandrums in the Republican old guard shaking in their Guccis.
As Victor Volsky writes in American Thinker, “in the eyes of the political/cultural aristocracy, [Palin] is the embodiment of its worst nightmare: the revolt of the masses against their masters.” And she knows that the master class will mobilize its considerable reserves against her. The question is whether, by sheer force of character, will, and charisma, like an American version of Delacroix’s Marianne leading the charge at the electoral barricades, and by pursuing a tireless itinerary, she can prevail against overwhelming odds and bring to the American people authentic change and genuine hope for the future.
In stark contrast to Governor Palin, Senator Obama was featured during the 2008 election campaign as a progressive and the very soul of gravitas; an intellectual chap. He still is even though the label “progressive” has lost some of its luster. The word “progressive,” like liberal, has changed in meaning so greatly over time as to be of little use as a descriptor for anyone’s political views; to apply it to President Obama distorts what’s left of it. In The Progressive Presidents, John Morton Blum addressed the “progressive” natures of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. TR, the Republican Roosevelt, was in many respects unlike the other three — all Democrats — and would, I think, have found insulting or farcical most comparisons with President Obama. TR, sometimes referred to as “that damn cowboy,” was a “Bull Moose” just as Sarah Palin is a “Mama Grizzly.” There are striking similarities and differences.
I personally don’t take anyadvise, nor do I read anything these idiots have to say at all. It’s a waste of time, and they have their issues for sale, which I’m not interested of buying.
I think, and believe, the majority of americans tune them out too.
Celebrities today remind me of the club of “cool” kids in high school. If you were one of “them,” you were accepted, they agreed with everything you did, and you could never do anything wrong in their view of the world. But if you were not part of their “club,” then you needed to be attacked, ridiculed, and in some cases destroyed. And it simply wasn’t enough to destroy you, they convinced everyone else in school that, if you didn’t agree with their view of things, then you must be as “stupid” and as “lame” as the person they were making fun of.
Sounds like what the far left and the main stream media did to Sarah Palin? Anybody who takes all of their political views from celebrities deserves what they get, which is usually some really bad political leaders. After all, Obama was and still is the darling of most of the celebrities out there. So how is that working out for America these days? How’s that “Hope and Change” thing working out for you?
Oh, and by the way, another insidious thing about celebrities. They will never admit that they were wrong. Ever. Same thing with those kids in school. Need I say more?
Exactly.
I wish the ‘celebrities’ would speq their opinions prior to reaching the stars so they’d not become rich nuts.
Celebrities are the ultimate followers; in fact, very few are leaders. I can name just a few on one hand who are truly leaders in the sense they do not like the spotlight to simply be in the spotlight. However, the ones that do just became parodies of themselves.
Lady Gaga is a good example. She’s an amalgam of Madonna, Dale Bozzio, & the comic book character, Dazzler, fused into one being. Her shtick is old before she even uttered one word. I don’t seek advice from celebrities. They have no real value beyond their entertainment thing.
Couric could be a producer of a muslim version of “Leave It To Beaver”.
Ward could be a used-Koran salesman who comes home at the exact same time every night to smoke sheesha and read the Islamic Gazette.
June comes down from the attic where she is made to pray separately from the family, serves grape falafel’s and gently chides Ward into having a talk with Beaver whose drawer of t-shirts are not folded in a manner that is Sharia compliant.
Wally could be an extremely popular boy who disdains the company of girls or even looking them directly in the eye and is a star soccer player at Yassir Arafat Madrassa High School he studies religious dogma and cell-phone technology at.
Eddie could pull pranks like pointing Beaver’s prayer mat towards Las Vegas instead of Mecca and get his buttocks rapped with a rattan cane at the end of every episode accompanied by a verse from the Koran as subtitle.
Judy could constantly get Beaver in trouble at madrassa by shaking hands with him or pretending he yanked off her head scarf and called her a “smelly old camel”, and Whitey could be a sleepy-eyed buck-toothed Christian who’s always teasing Beaver about worshipping meteors and Mohammed being Jesus’ sidekick.
Hi-jinx ensues as Beaver goes out of his way to be rebellious by holding hands with girls in public and eating pork chop sandwiches which results in Beaver confessing to old Gus the fire-starter that he’s afraid Ward will clobber him with a rattan golf club. Gus always gives Beaver a quote from the Koran to calm him.
Hilarious! Spoken by a true Leave it to Beaver fan!
I want Katie Couric to interview fire goddess, Pele; however, the trick is on Couric. In order to see Pele, she must jump in an active volcano’s crater into the molten lava. While in the lava, Couric could inhale the noxious fumes from Mother Earth to prove Global Warming exists. She might get better ratings with her Pele interview.
I have heard Couric is moving to CNN since CBS will not renew her contract; she’s also going to take a pay cut. If you put Couric & Anderson Cooper in the same room, they could almost be identical twins.
These people are professional pretenders. Why would I care what, or if, they think?
celebrities thrive and exist to be needed
at the same time, there is a desire for anonymity
so…
celeb’s, in their inherent narcissism, love to proclaim their “brilliance” and “understanding” of the wolrd but, simultaneously, must parrot the same speech from the herd of hollywood in order to maintain anonymity…
sick stuff isn’t it?
I don’t the question is whether or not Sarah Palin is electable, but rather “does she have the experience to be a good president?” Being governor of a remote, thinly populated state for less than two years doesn’t strike me as an impressive resume. I fear she may be on the receiving end of conservative celebrity worship.
Barack Obama was inexperienced before he was elected, and his presidency is a disaster. Just because you’re a conservative doesn’t mean you actually understand what you’re supposed to do once you sit in that chair.
Even though I like Sarah Palin, because she has the courage to stand up to leftist bullying, I don’t think that she is ready for the presidency. I would like to see her get more experience, like in Congress. The mainstream media has damaged her a lot in the eyes of independents. On the other hand, I don’t think it takes much to be a president, if you surround yourself with good advisers. The problem with Obama is that he has surrounded himself with lefties, Communists and Socialists. His administration has fewer business-experienced personnel than any previous to date. And he seems to forget that 50% of the voters are independents, over half who gravitate towards conservatism, and that sooner or later the voters will demand “Stop spending our money!”. Of course, the passage of Obamacare did not help.
Celebratty worship is as old as mankind’s other weaknesses. There is an inherent need for humans to worship other humans. That phenomena can scale from cheering heroics to deifying cult characters. Sometimes it is catharsis sometimes it is surrendering to weaknesses. That plentiful occurance may be why the first commandment was written in stone to be headstrongly ignored.
Palin was professionally sabotaged by pre-emptive lies, which entered the narrative and will not undo themselves. Mark Twain say, “A lie can be half way around the world before the truth can get its shoes on.”
Obama is no Teddy Roosevelt, although he may claim to continue his progressive legacy. No Marxist Utopian is ready to take up chapter and verse of Roosevelt’s book, “The Strenuous Life.”
Thanks for getting as far as the bits about Theodore Roosevelt. I agree that President Obama is no TR and that any claims that he is continuing TR’s progressive legacy are at best misguided. Among many other things, TR was a strong advocate of American Exceptionalism and American Destiny. President Obama? America has been bad and must become more submissive than even at present; only then will she gain the respect of other nations. Somehow, I prefer TR’s approach.
Baby Doc Duvalier, who ruled Haiti when I was there briefly years ago, is back!
Unpredictability and uncertainty are, of course, foreign to Haiti and if President Obama decides to take my well-intended vacation suggestion and spend some time in Haiti perhaps he can meet with him and sort out this crisis; there would be many photo-ops and it must not be wasted.
As I gaze into my crystal ball I see Baby Doc returning to get some of that “donated” money to rebuild Haiti. If O-one shows up it will be to help him get re-elected for a cut of the “donated” money.
There is nothing either one of these sell-outs won’t do for the free money.
Baby, … you might as well start talking up Pat Buchanan…
Talk about giving mouth to mouth to a dead horse.
When progressives like Cheryl Crow espouse using a single sheet of TP in order to save the planet you know they all have a seriously bad case of hypocrisy.
“Want Lady Gaga’s wisdom on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?”
About as much as I want to get hit in the head with a brick.
The purpose of entertainers, which includes athletes, as well as non-talented celebrities (Snooki, anyone? The Kardashian sisters? That Gossett woman and her litter) is to alleviate the boredom of those of us with real jobs.
That’s it; that’s their entire reason for existing. If some of them should rise above that level within their chosen “profession” to the sublime or the spectacular on occasion, so much the better (we’ll give them an Oscar or something), but not much else should be expected of them. The Romans had a category for such people: Greek Slaves. We can roll lawyers and newscasters into that category as well. None of these people are supposed to lead or have and exert power (no matter how much money they have), unless duly elected or appointed to do so.
Once this collection of decadent, intellectually lazy uber-servants learn their place in the proper order of things, the world will be a better place.
Once this collection of decadent, intellectually lazy uber-servants learn their place in the proper order of things, the world will be a better place.
When those whom they entertain learn the proper place of entertainers and cease mistaking their comedy routines for truth and light it will be even better.