News of Today....Shocking Stuff....and a Sad Commentary on Our Nation's Unwillingness to Help the Less Fortunate

Today's Headlines:

Lindsay Lohan Does 84 Minutes in Jail

Okay. May I just say....fascinating story. Really. Another Hollywood starlet drives drunk, again, and is harshly punished by having to spend less than an hour and a half behind bars. For those of you who have failed to keep up with this riveting case, let me recap: Ms. Lohan was cited for drunken driving offenses twice, the first time when she crashed her Mercedes into a tree. Both instances, Ms. Lohan was found to be in possession of cocaine. But hey, they were small amounts of cocaine so let's not get too carried away with the condemnation of the poor dear. The judge, a severe taskmaster if ever there was one, sentenced her to four days in jail, which is the mandatory minimum for a second drunken driving offense. (He then gave her credit for 24 hours already served.) Ms. Lohan then opted to complete 10 days of community service (would love to know what that entailed!) in lieu of 48 hours in jail (thank goodness she was given that choice!), thereby bringing her total plea deal to this: she had to enter treatment (and goodness knows she could afford the best in rehab/spa locations), spend a day in jail (since when did a day translate to 84 minutes????) and perform that mysteriously unknown community service. Wow. When I think of that pitiful child languishing behind bars (or rather, in the inmate reception area) for those long, painful 84 minutes, I get all choked up. Luckily, I've become nearly immune from the outrage I used to feel at the way our justice system treats sad, defenseless girls like Lindsay and Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton. I mean, after suffering along with Paris in her tribulations and then witnessing the degradation that sad little Nicole endured with her 82 minutes in jail (also for her 2nd DUI conviction, but who's counting, right?), well....I'm pretty much drained of my ability to stand up and fight against such atrocities. That's what happens when we, as a society, don't stand up and defend the first victim...it becomes that much easier to stand silently by when the next person is targeted. And the next. And the next and so on. Soon, we've lost the ability to defend even the most precious amongst us...like Little Lindsay Lohan. (heavy sigh, heavy heavy sigh). Seems like our nation's willingness to show sympathy and support for those less fortunate has gone the way of my Christmas Decorating spirit...that is to say, into a black hole from which I fear it may never be recovered. Ah well...what can you do? Lindsay, Paris, Nicole...they're all young and strong and I'm sure they'll bounce back from what our country has done to them. Now Britney? Whoa, now. That's a whole different story. Just don't even get me started!

P.S. I have got to quit reading the news online. Remember when your mom used to tell you that if you "kept rolling your eyes like that", they'd stick that way? I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me if I read one more piece of "news" like this. And what is "news" anyway? I thought it was stories of things we needed to know. But I was wrong, Scooter. "News" is whatever titillates our senses...the dumber, the more salacious and the more vacuous the better, apparently. Geez. I weep for the future of our country. I truly, truly do. The good news is, we'll be too stupid to realize we're sinking into oblivian because our I.Q.'s will have been lessened so much by garbage like this "news" story. Hey, who says there's not a silver lining in everything, eh?