February 20, 2009

Not as easy as it looked

I knew it. I knew all of the hullabaloo around Roland Burris taking the available-to-the-highest-bidder Senate seat from Illinois had died down too quickly and too neatly. No way people were just going to let it be.

Thank the lord this crapfest isn't over yet. We sure do need some more asinine controversy to distract us from important things like moms who have octuplets but can't pay the rent (I know; I'm shocked about that too!) and people-mauling chimpanzees (seriously? wtf?). And Illinois could use some more negative media coverage these days. I mean, clearly, the Land of Lincoln would look awful having the only senator in the country who puts his own self-interest ahead of that of his constituency.

Back to the Burris story for a sec, though. Take a look at the third paragraph of that CNN story. Do you remember, as I do, that after 9-11, everyone - and by "everyone," I guess I mean famous people on TV - said they were going to be really thoughtful about not overusing words like hero and sacrifice? Like that if a New York Jets linebacker made a nice tackle or a movie star lost 20 pounds for a role, we wouldn't have to hear how "heroic" they were? I liked that idea. So I know a lot of time has passed since 2001, but I don't think enough time has passed that it's OK for Pat Quinn to say that Burris giving up his seat now would be "heroic."

4 comments:

DGB said...

But if we can't define "heroic" as somebody simply doing the right thing, how can we define it?

Your escalator operator said...

DGB - That comment? *That* was heroic.

Anonymous said...

This is why I'm shying away from watching CNN now & just watch shows like "Days of Our Lives" and "The Bachelor." Nothing but stupidity. No controversy at all - well, maybe with the women on "The Bachelor," but you get my point.
:)

Anonymous said...

This is why I'm shying away from watching CNN now & just watch shows like "Days of Our Lives" and "The Bachelor." Nothing but stupidity. No controversy at all - well, maybe with the women on "The Bachelor," but you get my point.
:)