New Widget

I have just now added a new widget-- the Huffington Post's most popular stories, to my web log. I was thinking, 'now, at the very least, if people find nothing of interest on my web log, they will see a great news story on the sidebar', like Ryan Grimm's story on the LSD use of Steve Jobs, he calling it "One of the two or three most important things I will ever do", or Nico Pitney's Iran Uprising Live-blogging series (a very nice example of the utilization of modern technology in the thwarting of Orwellian censorship).

My first glimpse was disappointing. The widget was filled with trash, not news. Three of the stories were about Sarah Palin. One of them was Michelle Obama's fashion. These, America, these are the stories that mean the most to you. This is what you live on, you feed on, you perpetuate your droll, voyeuristic lives on-- your sawdust filled grain. Can we please have steak for dinner? Why can't we just have something nice for once, that tastes good and is good for us? A salad perhaps. A sweet and salty dressing on top of crisp leaves, that leaves us refreshed, healthy, better. No, please, I don't want Taco Bell again. There's no food in those pastel wrappings. There is only trash.

I do not hate the media. The 24 hour networks do what they do because it is what we ask of them. They would not do it if it was not profitable. They are merely businesses. The reason that Michael Jackson is still crowding out the sick, the dying, the suffering, the starving, and the oppressed is because we are the ones who inflated him, collectively put our mouths to the nozzle of this giant freakish blow-up doll; and that air will be a long time in escaping, especailly after death. Especially after death because death is just the kind of drama that gets our saliva flowing. That and Sarah Palin I guess.

{update: 1 day later I have removed the widget. Over a period of 24 hours, the top stories have changed in author, have changed in wording, but have changed far too little in content. I will recommend the widget to the next fashion blogger or completely wasteful bullshit blogger I run across}