From foolish to fools, in the news

So for a collection of events that range from the useless to abominably stupid I give you the following things I’ve noticed in the news. And I do mean that these stories are in that range. Why such attention is paid to these items I can’t imagine.

That said, here we go.

Possibly the one thing that will get the most attention deals with a revelation from J.K. Rowling revealing that one of the critical characters of her Harry Potter series, Dumbledore, is gay. Surprising to most I suppose, I just don’t understand why this came out. It’s obviously not relevant to the character or it would have been in the book. It doesn’t change the storyline, or the manner of how all the characters act. And it’s not like there is another book to go. What’s the use of giving a background that the writer didn’t feel was important enough to write about? It seems like gratuitous marketing to me.

On a note that just brings me cheer, there is Paris Hilton and the Spike Awards show. Paris was a presenter for an award along with actors from her current show Repo! The Genetic Opera. [I have to say the website makes this look as bad as it sounds. A supposed Rocky Horror-esque show, I’m just not sure what to think. Only something that seems this bad would want to have Paris Hilton as part of the cast.] As Hilton took the stage she got the kind of attention her apparently mindless, irresponsible lifestyle deserves, boos. Non-stop until she left the stage. I get giddy knowing that there are more than a few people out there with taste.

And last in the list of the bizarre comes news that Amy Winehouse refuses to stop taking drugs and drinking. An overdose from earlier in the year seems not to have fazed this woman. Her excuse for this perhaps thinly veiled display of extended suicide in slow motion? Life is too short, and

"I’m quite an insecure person. I’m very insecure about the way I look. I mean, I’m a musician I’m not a model. The more insecure I feel the more I drink.”

I have heard crackheads with better reasons for what they do. Obviously I think Winehouse has a problem. It could be said that sadly this may not be a long-term issue. But I find it hard to feel sad to someone that knows what they are doing, and chooses to go headlong into actions that will inevitably kill themselves. Perhaps this is just another act of genetics improving the gene pool in action?