Riding the news cycle

If you've been anywhere on planet earth this week, you know Harrison Ford crash landed his vintage plane on Pen Mar Golf Course in Santa Monica. As you'd expect, the farce and con that is social media ran rampant with Han Solo, Millennium Falcon, Chewie, Indiana Jones and Brian Williams jokes. I've included a couple of my favorites.

Fortunately Mr. Ford survived the landing with a cut head, broken ankle and fractured pelvis.

He's a big star so it's a big story. But here's the thing: is this story about his wife racing to the hospital to be at his side news?

Obviously Calista Flockhart has read the celebrity wife manual, which states very clearly in section 4a, paragraph 3.1.1, that a wife must race to her husband's side if he's been in a plane crash.

It's a good thing she has the manual, because how else would she have known what to do?

It's sad when something so natural and decent and expected becomes a news story. It exploits their pain, and even though they're public figures I believe they have a right to privacy - such as it is with the interwebs - just like the rest of us.

Besides, if the news uses headlines to report on a wife going to her husband after an accident, it means I have to look harder for the story about Kim Kardashian dying her hair blonde.

Sarah Palin needs to stop talking

I usually don't get so political on this blog, but eventually everyone hits their threshold. And as far as Sarah Palin goes, I've hit mine. Enough is enough.

Enough with the media giving this carpetbagger airtime. Seriously, Kim Kardashian has more lucid opinions on the state of geo-global politics. Sarah Palin's opinions (and of course she's entitled to them) and take on the state of the world, nation, economy, health care, Obama, Cairo or whatever mean absolutely nothing.

I recently saw again the clip of her giving yet another incoherent speech (it was at the Tea Party Convention, so I suppose the word incoherent is redundant) where she asks Obama "How's that hopey, changey stuff workin' out for ya?"

Well, I have a question for Sarah: How'd that roguey, mavericky thing work out for you?

There are good, intelligent and honorable people in both parties. But people like Sarah Palin are the reason they steer clear of public service. The fact that this quitter can actually be taken seriously is just too disheartening (bonus points if you can explain what she's talking about in her resignation speech).

In every poll, I mean every poll, she trails any other candidate. She can't beat Obama (although seriously, I'd buy a ticket to that debate, wouldn't you?), she can't win the nomination from Romney (who as governor actually accomplished things, like instituting one of the nation's most progressive state-run health care plans), and she can't string five words together that make sense to save her life.

The real blame here has to go to John McCain, a once great public servant who traded his dignity, soul and reputation on a last chance run at the presidency. He tossed her into the national spotlight. He met her once - ONCE - before inviting her to be his running mate. He said she seemed "nice." Perfect qualifications for the next in line.

You know who else is nice? Betty White. At least she makes sense when she speaks.

Now, I do agree with Sarah that she's gotten some unfair press. For example the shootings in Arizona had nothing to do with her gunsight chart or her "reload" rhetoric. But it is hard to take her complaints about her bad treatment from the press seriously when she starts whining about how Katie Couric ambushed her by asking what newspapers she reads.

She's "written" two books. She gets huge public speaking fees. She had a reality show on Discovery. And she's a commentator on FOX. She's cashed in on her 15 minutes more than Kato Kaelin. It's time to shuffle on off to become another footnote to political history, like Thomas Eagleton or Ross Perot.

Why doesn't she go home to Alaska, hunt some moose (which is fine with me because they're wicked nasty abominations anyway), and give Bristol some tips on her next abstinence talk with teenagers (cheap shot - I don't care).

I fully expect some of my more conservative friends will come after me for this post, and that's fine. They'll point out people in the Democratic party who are just as objectionable to them. And they'll probably be right about some of them. There's no shortage on either side.

I do think that Sarah Palin's done a lot to change the attitudes of world leaders.

I believe because of her, as Putin rears his head and enters the airspace of the United States, he thanks his lucky stars the first place he passes over is Alaska.