Television...

I'm watching American Idol right now with, from what Ryan told us, about 30 million other people. Of the other 270 million odd americans not watching Idol with me, there is a large group, though likely not as big as they think, who like to bash television and all of it's faithful viewers.

This group of self-righteous liberals love to hang their Dukakis/Greenpeace hats on the "kill your television" hatpost. They say it rots your mind, is a waste of time and is dumbing and numbing our children. I'm actually quite liberal myself. I mean, I love whales, trees, baby seals in trees and alternative fuels as much as the next guy. I also happen to love television. I think it's great. I think too however, that not unlike driving a problem-prone car increases your chances of sputtering out on the highway, the more weak-minded the simpleton, the more likely to be influenced by the bright likes and talking pictures. But why waste time on a high horse over television? Just turn it off!

Brains are just big slimy sponges that absorb what they're stimulated by. If you take your kitchen sponge and drop it in the toilet, it'll absorb toliet water right? The less saturated the sponge, the more it'll take in. Nature is magically built with balance at it's central of laws. Pretty neat.

I think I'm a relatively intelligent guy. College educated, dean's list and fairly well read and cultured. Granted, I'm no Stephen Hawking (I'd probably be a faster typer ), but you get the picture. I'm smart enough to know better and bottom line, I think television is great. The whole concept of hundreds, even thousands of channels of useless information and contrived situations is frankly just really entertaining and fulfilling to me. Always something new to see., something to make you feel better about yourself or just make you think. Don't get me wrong, I like books, magazines, plays and other non-television driven entertainment and education media as well. But don't discount the purpose of reality tv, cheesy sitcoms or your evening news. They're all the same and should be taken for what they are. Mindless entertainment....and lots of words and pictures.