Paris obsession is hard to understand

Is anyone - other than myself - completely bored with our obsession with Paris Hilton? I'll be real honest - I just don't get it. But then again, maybe I do.

Poor Paris has now paid her debt to society and will be welcomed by Larry King and thousands of media sharks. The endless stream of Paris will bombard our miserable lives until the next celebrity steps on a landmine.

American soldiers are being killed in Iraq, the immigration issue is front and center but the media - and not just the junky tabloids - will focus instead on Paris.

Here's my armchair psychoanalysis. Most people are so shallow that they cannot understand the details of the war nor the impact of immigration. But they can follow Paris without too much effort. And the last thing the American public wants to do is to exercise their minds on something more complex than Paris. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!

Quite frankly, I'm fed up with the whole mess. And I don't mean Paris. I'm fed up with the shallowness of the American public. I'm fed up with people who are too dumb to comprehend the most simple of issues. I'm fed up with an eroding society. And we have absolutely no one to blame but ourselves.

Quit blaming the media for feeding us this daily dose of garbage. If we didn't read and watch and listen, they would move elsewhere. But this is our world and welcome to it.

I will affix some of the blame to the Internet. This massive explosion of instant information has brought out the worst in us. Average wannabes now have a forum to discuss their hygiene habits and millions upon millions waste their days following this tripe.

We have ahead of us in just over a year the most important presidential election in my lifetime. But far more "voters" can tell you the intricate details of Paris much more readily than they can tell you even one simple fact about a candidate for our country's highest office. If you think I'm exaggerating, you're wrong.

Granted, life should not be constantly serious. We need lighter diversions. We need laughter and joy and a good belly laugh ever so often.

And I'll tell you one other thing. I don't believe a person who can tell you Paris' dress size and the name of her dog but cannot name two people running for president should be allowed to vote. That may sound patently un-American but just think about it. That idiot who could care less about the future of this country gets a vote equal to the millions of involved, concerned and educated voters. If that system makes sense, then something's just plain wrong.