As IF Times

link Kim Kardashian Flaunts Cleavage in Sexy, Low-Cut Top & Sassy Blazer—See the Pic! | E! Online Canada.

It’s curious how certain things wind up getting exposure in popular media. By things I’m presently referring specifically to Kim Kardashian’s breasts, as they have managed to burst onto the front page of today’s Google News.  I’m talking about the breathless headline you would expect to normally find at the magazine racks at the supermarket ( aka the rack rack ) but which now populates news sites.   Even if you were to entirely ignore the unlimited supply of news articles on every topic imaginable and focus only on ‘events’ in pop/entertainment culture, you would think that a story would have to have some point of relevance to make it ‘newsworthy’.

If an alien from another world were to land here and peruse the linked headline, he could naturally assume a number of logical things.

1. This Kim Kardashian person  has something, namely cleavage that is a rare commodity, not in abundance anywhere else.

2. Or, her cleavage is of particular interest, like a Haley’s comet or a potato that happens to resemble Elvis in profile.

3. Such pictures are a rarity and readers are encouraged to take a look with all urgency in case it disappears.

4. Or this is the first time that such cleavage has been paired both with a low cut top and a sassy blazer.

5. That this sighting of Kim Kardashian is such an exalted event that it is worthy of front page billing on Google News eclipsing lost planes and sinking ferries.

But if you look at the very short body of the piece, there is no backstory.  The mere announcement of this sighting is enough to make the headlines.  This is as if the announcement were on par with “Cure For Cancer Discovered”, or “Jimmy Hoffa’s Body Found”. We don’t discover that her cleavage was on display in public for any useful cause, or in the pursuit of some noble activity.  It’s as if you looked inside a colorful box and it was empty.

She was just taking them out for a walk.  I’m sure I’m in the very small minority who think that this is somewhat lacking in the newsworthiness scale.  It’s very possible that the world awaits with rapt attention for any view of Kim Kardashian’s life activities.   Hopefully, there will be cameras around when Kim Kardashian gets up from a chair, or takes a drink of water.

So just as a point of comparison, here are some images of some other popular entertainment personalities, all of whom have some claim to talent and ability.   Oddly, I can find no news stories about the time that they took their cleavages for a walk.  As far as I can tell, that would be equally as headline grabby as Kim’s outing.  So we’re missing something.  The fact is, there is an entire industry surrounding the on going publicity of Kim’s rather banal life as if it were the most crucial element of western civilization.  Somebody must find it all interesting.  For me, it’s mildly titillating at best.

link Reception for Obama Is More Sober Than in 2008 – NYTimes.com.

Well it has been 5 years and the comedown was bound to happen.  The swooning crowds, the breathless adulation, the rock-star persona, the trance-like state of delusion by the masses.  They are all subsiding.  We’re not talking Justin Bieber here, that’s still going on.  We are talking about an obscure senator from Illinois five years after bursting on the scene seemingly out of nowhere to reach the world’s highest office.  That the fascination has lasted this long is amazing by itself.   Justin Bieber, to his credit, at least has a basic talent.

On any given day as you stand in line at the checkout stands at the supermarket, you will be exposed to the numerous blaring headlines of Hollywood gossip magazines offering profoundly important news about the most picayune activities of the glitterati. We find that Kim Kardashian is pregnant!  It’s a miracle! We know that Justin likes Selena, but she likes someone else’s boyfriend and Taylor Swift is miffed and Jennifer’s wedding is postponed and Brad suffers heartbreak and Jessica is fat.

Gripping stuff, but mostly it’s all noise to normal and intelligent people.  Only 12 year old girls have an obsessive appetite for these morsels of drivel dressed up as fresh news on their idols.

Apparently there remains that hard core journalistic equivalent of 12 year old girls that are still intoxicated by the cloud of greatness that emanates from the incumbent healer of the earth and saviour of mankind.   According to stories such as the one in the linked article, by the New York Times no less,  journalists that are not Chris Matthews and increasingly much of the general public are sobering up.  It’s the equivalent of the realization that the Korean rapper Psy is a one act phenomenon…which he is.  Like William Hung of American Idol fame, his 15 minutes are over.   Over the past half year, there is increasing evidence that the adoring Obama fan base is falling away as it becomes obvious that beyond the ability to read off a screen, the man has no talent.  It would be as if people listened to Vanna White’s opinions on world affairs solely by virtue of her skill at turning letters on a board.

When you hear the same old banalities and cheap bromides offered again and again as sage wisdoms delivered in that same condescending pedantic tone, especially if read off a screen, the credibility is lost.  When you lose credibility, you lose audience.  When you lose audience, you lose effectiveness and influence.

When people are at raucous party and especially if they are in an altered state, every conversation is witty, every person is fascinating and the loud amorphous music all sounds intoxicatingly brilliant.  In the sober moments of daytime however, those same conversations are banal, the people are bores and the music becomes just so much cacophonous noise.  Methinks we are at that sobering moment.

Update: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/obama-second-term-doldrums-93295.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1627b9a4-e234-11e2-87ec-00144feabdc0.html#slide0