My weekly random posting. . . .

So, I've come to realize that this blog will most likely be a weekly post - I'm too busy with work to really post as much as I'd like, and I'm too much of a loudmouth to do short postings.  That said, here's another random topics posting:

JFK and Mad Men - I grew up going to Catholic school, with Baby Boomer parents and with a fawning Boomer media, but it wasn't until I saw the JFK assasination episode of "Mad Men" that I really understood the psychic wound inflicted by his death.  But rather than being about the Boomer generation, this had more to do with the "Greatest Generation" - my grandfathers' generation who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in WWII.  Basically, after WWII, this group of people looked around, realized that the U.S. was the most powerful country on Earth (with the Soviet Union not too far behind) and felt pretty damn good about themselves.  JFK's election was about breaking from the past and this generation asserting themselves.  When he died, the reins of power fell to LBJ, an older and more traditional politician, and the Generation was denied its rightful place.

Carrie Prejean is now my favorite conservative trainwreck - Talk about local girl not going good.  Whether she got screwed or not during the Miss America pagent (I didn't watch, and I don't care), is one thing, but her behavior is downright odd.  From the nude pictures to the (no more alleged) sex tape to getting stripped of her title as Miss California to her recent odd behavior on Larry King, I am constantly amazed at what's going on, and I can't get enough.

I blame the "Tyson Zone."  The "Tyson Zone" was coined by Bill Simmons to describe when a celebrity has done so many crazy things that it ceases to become shocking.  Prime examples include Britney Spears, Mike Tyson, and Tara Reid.  But here's the thing - as these celebrities entered the Tyson Zone, everyone was utterly fascinated.  I feel the same way about Carrie Prejean - just when I think things have settled down, she gets crazier and crazier.  Seriously, the Larry King thing was bizarre - he asked not-too-difficult questions, she demurred, and as he tried to move on, she threatened to leave the set.  How bizarre is that? 

Does her political beliefs play a role in my fascination?  To some degree, yes.  Last week, I went to a cheese shop by my house and purchased a really good Gouda.  While watching the Chargers game, I paired said gouda with some apples and a Belgian style ale.  The pairing of the apple and beer to the Gouda was amazing, but that didn't detract from the fact that the Gouda was excellent.  In the same vein, the pairing of a celebrity who became famous for opposing gay marriage and espousing sexual purity with her utter self-destruction is an amazing pairing.  But the self-destruction is the thing of fascination, not the conservative beliefs.

Lou Dobbs' Future - In a OMG/WTF move Lou Dobbs suddenly quit CNN.  Not the, "I'm going to resign at the end of the month," thing, but the, "Fuck all y'all, I'm out of here."  Now normally, I'd think that Dobbs was going to move to Fox, but his resignation statement was interesting - he left because people were pushing him to make a positive contribution.  That makes my spidey sense tingling - someone is running for office.  So, what office?

If he is thinking about running in 2012, leaving CNN would be an awful idea - he's off of TV too soon, and going to Fox would pigeonhole him.  So, I think he's planning a run for office in 2010.  Now, there's no way in hell Dobbs is going to run for anything less than a statewide position.  He lives in Jersey, but Christie was just elected as Governor, and both Senators aren't up in 2010.  So Jersey is out.  But two neighboring states, New York and Connecticut, both have Senator and Governor positions up for grabs in 2010.

That said, Dobbs doesn't want to be a Governor - that's too much work, and it takes him too far from his core issues: trade and xenophobia-err-immigration.  So, here's my guess, Dobbs is going to run against Chris Dodd for U.S. Senate.  With Dodd's unpopularity, and Dobbs' name ID, Dobbs has more than a shot - and that's enough for Dobbs to quit CNN.