Ann Coulter is saying Jews must be perfected by becoming Christians...and more and more shows are inviting her to come on their shows to say that...even it's just so they can call her foolish...and understandably upset Jewish leaders are condemning her with such strong language that no-doubt she will sell still more books...

Michelle Obama says that Hillary Clinton is a polarizing figure just because of who she is...and the media is already stirring the pot for what they are calling the "catfight" in the Democratic party.

A sitting Supreme Court justice writes a memoir that includes discussion of court procedures, something NO sitting justice has ever done, particularly not for a six figure advance...and pundits as off center as the New York Post's Cindy Adams are frothing over the internecine drama underway at the SC. An online commentator at the Post calls the uber-conservative Justice an "Uncle Clarence" who "attacks the system that got him that job" and then calls for Thomas' impeachment because he voted to make George Bush the president in 2000...

The President vetos the S-CHIP enlargement and instead of just saying it cost too much, he misrepresents the scope of the bill to beat the drums against socialized medicine. And in return, many in congress say he's a child hater...though not in those exact terms, I suppose. What could have been a legitimate disagreement over the value of the program becomes yet another brickbat for both sides.

Forces in Congress...who, last time I checked had lots of important business before them involving things that are happening right now, are about to shatter the US/Turkey relationship by passing a resolution calling what happened to Armenians 90 years ago a genocide. Notice that this actually changes nothing, except really, really fanning anti-American sentiment in Turkey...an ally we need. Hear me out...the Armenians were systematically killed in a civil conflict by the dominant socio-ethno-political forces in their country, and that may well be what some would call genocide... but is there a pressing need to do it now? And wouldn't a resolution or a bill actually doing something to HELP Armenians be more in order than this empty gesture?

Vladimir Putin is giving a master-class in the concentration of executive power (enough that it makes one wonder if he and the President are in a game of one-upsmanship on that front) and while some media are covering that angle, many more just want to show the pictures of Putin (and more recently the new President of France) fishing/vacationing without their shirts on.

From the right and from the left, people are saying and printing and broadcasting really stupid things, truly inflammatory things, utterly insipid banalities, and factually incorrect things...all without apparent consequence. One might correctly say that it has always been this way...but it DOES seem to me that the type of lowest common denominator that used to be called "yellow journalism" or "tabloid trash" is now more and more in the mainstream...both in the media and in the cultural zeitgeist.

So I wonder...have we as a society become so jaded that we just don't care what's right or fair anymore?

Is the end now making the inflammatory statement, or getting the headline or the tv news lead, or the most blog comments or cross-postings of our blog entries...regardless of the consequence? Is it now more important simply to have attention paid than to seek out what is right and what is true?

Or is this simply post-modernism at work...the fulfillment of Andy Warhol's dream of 15 minutes of fame for all caught within the framework of an Orwellian nightmare?

Or is this post so hopelessly earnest that it displays a fatal lack of perspective and no sense of humor?

I guess I'm tired of the real news (in print, on tv, and online) coming off more insane and more insipid than the fake news I enjoy on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Is NPR the only hope for civilization? Or are they slipping too?