WTF America?!

If you saw the CNN homepage at the time I was writing this, you would've seen (among a few others) these three head lines.

- School Siege: hostage, gunman die
- House Passes Terror detainee bill
and
- How to turn over a 600kg cheese

I don't understand. Unfortunately I can't watch this cheese story video at work, so I have no idea what exactly is entailed in the story about the turning of the cheese. However, if it is what I think it is, I should like to know why it was the sixth listed headline in the top stories menu.

For those of you who were unaware, Typhoon Xangsane hit the Phillipines yesterday. 3 people died. But for some reason, it was listed 8th in the top stories. Why is turning a 600kg block of cheese more news worthy than a tropical storm that left 3 dead, many injured and quite a number homeless?

I only went to the CNN site to learn about the school shooting in Denver. I wanted to know what I was talking about before I began my rant on the gun laws and social situation in America which allowed yet another school shooting to occur. But this brought me to this point.

You know the "Most Popular Stories"? Those would be the ones that get the most views from the most people. And they are listed as follows:

1. Story about Denver school shooting
2. Terri Irwin's vow to continue Steve's (RIP) work
3. Woman asks to be 3rd legal parent
4. Too much testosterone kills brain cells
5. Greece adds prostitutes to GDP
6. Saudis plan fence to block Iraq's terrorists
7. Dubbya meets with squabbling allies (George "Dubbya" Bush for those who aren't savy with the Aussie slang).
8. Zero-Gravity surgery a success
9. Bankok fiannly opens their much delayed "Air-Hub"
10. New Japan PM to boost China ties

Are you picking up a problem here? Two of the top 3 stories are tripe. Heart strings pulling rubbish. This is just stupid. I had an American ask me the other day, "why is it that you Aussies hate us Americans so much?".

First of all, I don't hate America or Americans, let's make that clear. With that said, I don't like them either. I haven't met an American yet that I've liked. And I will tell you why.

Every single American I have come across fits the OC stigma. They are more concerned about bullsh*t stories with little violins playing in the background than real life issues. The Canadian lesbain who wants to be a legal parent, or the struggle of Terri Irwin dealing with Steve's (RIP) death. These should be 12th page stories, not the top 10 news headlines for today.

That's just the start of it. Have you ever watched the tonight show with Jay Leno? Personally I don't like his humour much, but there's a great segment where they go roaming the streets asking people questions about current world issues.

These people are clueless. Most of them don't even know whether their country is at war with Iran, Iraq or Khazakstan. But if you ask them whether Brad and Angelina are still together, they would be able to give you a play-by-play of every event leading up to the eventual celebrity break-up. It's really quite ridiculous.

I think the most frustrating thing of all, is that I can see people in Australia that are going the same way. It would have to be my biggest annoyance. Not stupidity, but ignorance. They have the mental capacity, they just don't care. It seems they've been using the block of news each evening as a chance to cook dinner between the day-time soaps, the arfternoon game shows, and night-time soaps.

Who's to blame for all this? Is it schools, parents, government or society in general?

I think this requires more brain power than I'm prepared to use at this time of the day. It's only an hour till knock off, then if I hurry home I can catch 'Days of our Lives' and 'Young and the Restless'.

- coops