http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1622015,00.html

i'm not gonna lie ... i'm bane to agree, ever, with al gore. he's boring, for one, and predictable. not to mention that he uses the same fearmongering scare tactics that he accuses the right of abusing when it his own pet project (global warming, which i'm still convinced is a myth.). but i digress.

he wrote a book titled "The Assault on Reason". the link above is an excerpt from the book published in TIME magazine. in it, gore makes some serious allegations - essentially that americans are overwhelmingly incapable of making rational decisions about issues because of the dumbing down of society as a result of too much television.

while i disagree with some of his examples and illustrations, largely because i recognize that he's a liberal blowhard with a different perspective than i (that is, i'm simply unable to get my head that far up my butt), i have to agree with his fundamental premise - television has dumbed down america. we stupid.

there are some that will read the title of this blog and not recognize what is wrong with it. there are some (a painfully striking majority) that are unable to name our vice president, or secretary of state. most americans can't name their congressman or even their state senators. jay leno's tonight show does a "man on the street" bit where they ask basic questions about news and current events in america, and we laugh at the stupids that can't answer the questions. while ridiculing them may be valid, we should be scared, because these people can vote.

i was in the mall last night, and asked a friend that worked there if there were a bookstore in the mall. there isn't. there are two music stores, two arcades, restaurants and clothing retailers galore, and more shoe stores than feet. but no bookstore.

why the heck isn't there a bookstore in the mall? what is wrong with society? i went to the bookstore down the street for one book and bought four, having to drag myself out before i spent even more money.

there's a problem when our society is more interested in paris hilton or KFed and brit's haircut. it's a problem when we care more about the political views of tom cruise, a moron who advocates, with a straight face, scientology as a valid religious view. he believes in effing aliens. and we listen to his political views. r kelly just announced that he's the martin luther king of this generation. (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/389909,CST-NWS-kelly17.article) he shouldn't be doing magazine interviews; he should be in jail. he videotaped himself having sex with a minor, but he's not in jail. what is wrong with our society?

that's it. i've decided. i'm going to start my own country. if you can't spell, you're persona non grata. i'm going to use that phrase, because only the people who live there will know what it means. i learned that in a high school civics course. i'm guessing most americans don't know what it means in the american system, or when it is used.

anyone want to be my secretary of state?