Not something I usually talk about

American Idol is back again for, I do believe, season 8. American Idol is a spin off from a British show titled Idol. I do believe there are a lot of Idol spin offs for different nation around the world now.

Now I am sure you are wondering what the hell is Rod doing talking about pop culture. There is good reason. If you are the parent of a teen or a pre-teen you will definatly understand from where I come from on this.

American Idol is, at least for the moment, the appitomy of "pop culture". It tells us a lot about ourselves, our nation and believe it or not, our government. Hell, look who we elected. We elected a TV Star. But I digress.

Idol is back and it has added a judge to the panel. I have watched Idol in the past and I have seen one episode this season so far. To tell you the truth, I have not really watched Idol since its first season. I think it is a blight on our culture and I will tell you why.

Sure they may help talented singers noticed. But all to often it is not the most talented that wins or even goes on to make it to the top 10. It is often about the superficial things such as look and attitude.

Just take a look at all the Idol winners that you don't hear from anymore. There have been 7 of them. And often even the runner up and others in the top 4 have been said to have great promise. So lets do the numbers. Seven seasons of Idol multiplied by the top 4 of each season gives you 28 "contenders". How many of those 28 do you hear from today? By far Kelly Clarkson is the most successful of the bunch but she was also the very first American Idol. I could name off a few others but most of the 28 have disapeared.

Yet these are the people that our kids and young adults look up to. Oh yes, here comes the connection. Those young people will vote. Those young people have voted. Those young people helped put Obama in office. Come on now, you must have seen at least a few episodes of Idol.

How many times has the kid with the good looks and quirky but "cool" attitude gotten the votes over the one who really had promise and talent. Remember Sanjaya? Come on, you cannot tell me you honestly think this kid had huge talent over all the others that he beat out. Not on your life. But he was very cute. He was very quirky and he had the swirling ingima of possibly being gay. Oh how cute is that?

Now you may think, "kids will be kids". At one point in time that was true. We kids grew up. But think about it. Today we have kids that never really grow up. They expect their parents and the government to do everything for them. They seem to think they are owed popularity and success. Yet they can't even put two sentences together.

Back to Sanjaya. He recently did an interview and showed off his "new" look and talked about his new memoirs book. MEMOIRS? The kid is all of what, maybe 20! Yet they did an interview with this kid. Sure he has facial hair now so he look older. Actually he looks like a 15 year old with facial fuzz and really long dark hair. But again I digress.

Listening to this interview, I was in horror. This kid can influence an entire generation by what he says. And trust me what little he does say he does NOT say it well.

Which leads me back to Obama. Now our 44th President. Get this guy off his prepared speech and he really can't speak. Articulate? Please. But he was helped by those who would think Sanjaya is cool and cute.

You still think kids will be kids and eventually grow up? Maybe its time you grew up.

If you can take it, check out the interview for yourself on Idol TV.

What Obama Believes

Now I have read just about everything. Obama seems to think that China is manipulating their money. Hmm. You think?!

This has been an issue since the Clinton Administration. President Bush did nothing to try and stop this madness and other nations that deal with China economically have done little if anything to address this issue with China.

Now Obama is going to do something about it? Didn't Obama praise the Red State during the campaign? Didn't Obama lavish praise on this nation for its really great infrastructure?

Obama loved their modern ports. He loved their new damn projects. He loved their new road systems. He loved how they were building high rise tower after high rise tower and all the underground pipes and electrical that go along with those towers.

He was beside himself because he thought the the US ports were inferior to those of China. He railed about our crumbling roads as compared to the new and gleaming roads in China. He gritted his teeth at how bad our electrical grid was designed and maintained and thought China had much to teach us.

Now he tells us he thinks China is manipulating its currency. But he probably won't do much about it at this point because it may aggravate the trade deficit we have with China.

What makes him different from Bush or Clinton in this regard? Where is the change we can believe in. It is becoming very clear that the only change this guy is for is taking away your freedom and liberty but everything else will probably stay the same.


Geithner signals tougher stance on China