REALLY?!?

SNL started this skit where they make fun of stupid things that people do.

Here is the first time they did the part:



And here are a collection of links to other events they've done this on:

On Governor Eliot Spitzer

On ex-Governor Blagojevich

And my recent favorite, on Michael Phelps:




So anyways, people do dumb things. The Phelps thing is interesting, because I think it initially had more to do with some random college kid seeing an opportunity to make 50 grand than anything else (I don't know how much the tabloid paid for the photo). I think the way that sports journalists have handled this (and the A-rod stuff) is sort of disappointing, although the quality of ESPN journalism sucks anyway (see Werder, Ed). February is the slowest sports month of the year, so they're looking for anything to do, which in 2009 looks like this: Torre, Joe / Phelps, Michael / Rodriguez, Alex.

There has been a bit too much hyperbole for me. With Phelps, I don't agree with the decision to smoke weed (for me), but I mean, haven't most people done that at some point in their lives? I can almost guarantee you that the journalists writing about how horrible that was probably have.

From a really good piece by Jeff MacGregor (full article here, it's good, read it):

"The cautionary tale of Mr. Michael Phelps -- lately overtaken by the anabolic misadventures of Mr. Alex Rodriguez -- brings a few words today on hypocrisy, lunacy and the fun-house mirror of American fame. ...

At a moment in our history when, thank goodness, this country has nothing more important to worry about, clearly such outrages were serious blows to our national rectitude and had to be talked and written about very seriously. ...

The hypocrisy in all this was never clearer than when a cereal miller said late last week that "Michael's most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg. His contract expires at the end of February and we have made a decision not to extend his contract."

Left unmentioned was the fact that the company had awarded him the deal right after he'd won eight gold medals but four years after he'd been popped for an underage DUI, arguably a much greater offense to "judgment" and "image." And that the company already had chosen not to renew its contract with the other swimmers on the U.S. team. Or that its stock price had dropped nearly 30 percent this past fall, and the company might be looking to save a few bucks however it could.

And who better to judge the American character than a breakfast food company that tangled two years ago with the Federal Trade Commission over how best to sell sugared corn (the No. 2 cash crop in America, by the way) to kids during an epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes?

A nation of tax cheats, drunks and adulterers wonders."

Anyways, I like the point that there is a bigger picture.



This really pisses me off. I mean, doesn't he have bigger things to worry about?

Anyways, that Obama thing is on my "Really?!?" list.

Also on the "Really?!?" list?

That crazy chick with the octuplets. Jessie and I were laughing watching her interview with the NBC today show. She has massive collagen injections in her upper lip, a la Angelina Jolie. The money angle is interesting. In the interview, she says the she doesn't believe in welfare for herself (but that she thinks it is okay for others). Then, later, her publicist releases a statement that contradicts her earlier remarks - she receives around $500 bucks a month in food stamps and social security income on top of that, for her disabled children, of which she has several. Oh, and she said on TV that some of her behavior is due to the fact that she didn't feel that she was loved enough as an (only) child. Did I mention that her mom lets her live in a house that she owns free of rent? We'll see how long that lasts.

Also, the father of all 14 children was originally a friend who had agreed to provide the semen for the first IVF child (the first). She saved the semen...

REALLY?!?