As IF Times

link RealClearPolitics – Video – MSNBCs Martin Bashir: Palin Bus Tour In “Breach Of Federal Law”.

It’s amusing to the point of farce.   So if you are minding your own business, driving around in a bus painted with the American flag visiting places of historical interest, you are in danger of breaking federal law.   Hmm.  Sarah Palin is not exactly your run of the mill individual of course.  But to our knowledge, she has not advertised her trip, her stops, nor participating formally in any political event.  It’s just that the ‘news media’ are chasing her around like pimply faced paparazzi hoping or expecting something to happen.  CBS even stated that the caravan of media hounds trailing the bus is ‘dangerous’.  Dangerous maybe to the idiots following her around counting the times she invokes, ‘shucks’ or ‘golly gee’.  Maybe they’ll catch the bus speeding.   Ooh..Ahh….

At the same time, a Democratic congressman from New York is apparently in danger of violating some kind of federal law, by virtue of having an image of his crotch in tighty whities sent to the twitter account of a Seattle student.  The ironically named congressman Weiner, is giving every evasive answer except the direct one to the question of ‘was it your hot dog?’  His inability to be frank about this is suspicious.  In so much as a crime of some kind was actually perpetrated here, by hackers or by lying about it, wouldn’t it make more sense to have a caravan of news hounds chasing the Weiner around?  Shouldn’t Weiner be the one being grilled?

On the one hand, a private citizen is just minding their own business, having a sightseeing road trip and the media are frothing.  On the other, an elected government lawmaker flashes his sheathed Oscar Mayer over the Internet and he gets a page 6 mention in the New York times.   As long as Palin doesn’t have Death to America painted on her bus, why should the media by covering her like she was Brad and Angelina on their 23rd adoption?  The derangement syndrome which has gripped the liberal media has not abated at all in over 3 years.  They pursue her like Ahab stalking the big white whale.   In the case of the brewing scandal surely to be dubbed ‘Weinergate’, shouldn’t someone be looking into the judgement of an individual who is amused by puerile displays of exhibitionism…..ok, allegedly.  I guess the media think this is a ‘small’ crime…. Hey, he’s a New Yorker; they’re prone to all kinds of wacko behaviour over there.  But enough titillation, back to the real criminal, Sarah Palin.

link Repairman Faces Charges Of Cleaning Out Bay Area ATMs, Refilling Them With Counterfeit Bills « CBS San Francisco.

 It was hard for me at first to determine my immediate response to this story.  Is it amusing because of the man’s stupidity?  Is it amusing because of the man’s creativity? Does it provoke feelings of empathy? Or outrage? Is it banal, or is it fascinating?  Upon consideration, I think the story actually stirs feelings of resignation coupled with a slight tinge of sadness.  Like many ‘headlines’ to be found in the news aggregators today, the story is just plain weird.  As  an example, take a look at some of the other nuggets listed on Drudge’s site today, I have not made up any of them:

 Postal worker caught defecating in yard keeps job, gets new route…

Reality show about swingers…

Zuckerberg Shock: ‘Only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself’…

Iron Thieves Caught Dismantling 100 Yards Of Railroad Tracks…

Naked man crashes truck into house, tenant fights off with hammer…

NYC GOES WILD: Man In Briefs, Stilettos Pole Dances On Subway; Flash Mob Dance Party Breaks Out…

Are people becoming more crazy or is it just that there’s more reporting of crazy activity in the Internet age? There’s no question that with the pervasiveness of YouTube, an entire industry of exhibitionists have emerged to display their talents and or eccentricities to the world.  It must be hard wired into the human psyche to crave attention and notoriety.   Those lucky enough to be endowed with good looks can satisfy this need by going into the entertainment industry.  Those not so blessed with obvious looks or talent use the back doors of YouTube or some other such media conduit. 

As more and more people  vy for other people’s attention, the bar of entry gets higher and higher.  Stunts and activities have to become more and more outrageous to merit any kind of attention at all to the jaded consumer.  Weird is the new normal. Years ago, some idiots made a film called Jackass, which essentially chronicled the self destructive activities of some Darwin challenging kids.  Surprisingly, or not, depending on your take on pop culture, the film became a huge hit.  A 5 million dollar ‘investment’ wound up grossing 80 million in ticket sales.  Not to mention sequels and spin offs as well as spawning imitators from everywhere.  So now, self mutilation, testicular destruction and skull fractures are mainstream entertainment.

In essence, stupid is being glorified and even worse, can be financially beneficial.  Somehow, over the past decade or so, the barrier separating people from outrageous, anti-social behavior has been totally removed!  It seems that there are no boundaries for what used to be considered decent behaviour.  There seems to be very few consequences to ‘coloring outside of the lines’ of society.  Heck, if your deed is ridiculous enough, you may even get famous or rich.  Those that breach society’s protocols are celebrated as anti heroes rather than being marginalized.   

Getting back to this poor guy who emptied cash from ATM machines and replaced them with Xerox notes,  I’m sure publicity was not his main intent.  He, however probably did consider, “what’s the downside?’  In the big scheme of things, he was probably right.  Sure he may get some prison time, but overall, he must have thought it worth a shot.   And that is the big risk.  When everybody thinks it’s worth the shot and there are no consequences.