See how entertaining stupidity can be?

It's a foregone conclusion that dumb people are a source of entertainment in our society. How else can one explain the proliferation of "reality" TV and, indeed, the entire Jerry Springer-esque genre of talk shows?

The "buried treasure" morons in Massachussetts, however, have provided news outlets (see here) and morning radio hosts with a rich new source of material. I expect Leno will jump on this one as well. In case you hadn't heard, a couple of 20-something roofers in Massachussetts landed themselves all over the national news for allegedly digging up a buried treasure in their backyard. The booty included banknotes from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as old coins, etc. Well, as it turns out, they didn't dig up the money, they just stole it from a nearby neighbor for whom they had been doing some roofing work. So the local police were able to take the news clippings of these men's great fortune, pair them up with the report of stolen banknotes and the result was a quick arrest of these two buffoons.

So here it is, very late in the month of April, and we're getting snow today in the Denver area, and will be lucky to break the freezing mark. It's certainly not unheard of to get snow here this late in the season (indeed, even later -- I've seen it snow here in town in early June), but it's not really common either. What's making this weather exceptionally odd is how long it's lasted. The gloomy rain-and-snow mix blew into the area a couple of days ago, is still lingering, and we're getting more snow tonight, rain tomorrow, and snow again on the next day. It's like Seattle, only with fewer coffeehouses and no ocean.

Anyway, I was driving to work this morning in the slushy mess, and got behind this behemoth Ford Excursion with no less than three of those asinine yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon magnets plastered on its formidable rear end. There are entire websites devoted to how much some people hate these things, so I won't bitch about them too much here, but suffice it to say, I hate them, too. I mean, really, these have got to be the same people who went out and bought a flag that was bigger than their neighbor's in mid-September of 2001, just so they could effectively say to everyone, "I'm more patriotic than you." How does slapping a $2.00 magnet that's likely made in China and sold at Wal-Mart support our troops? Especially when they're affixed to these ridiculously huge SUVs that get about 11 mpg and, while not the cause of this Iraq mess, certainly play a part by ensuring that our country remains ever-dependent on Middle East oil. Enough with the ribbon magnets!!

I should probably get to work....

The George Speaks... well, sort of, anyway

Yes, kids, our illustrious -- if oft-incoherent -- President has deigned to lumber through one of his blessedly rare prime-time news conferences, thus pre-empting The O.C. and incurring the wrath of a nation full of 13-year-old girls. At least his staff had the sense not to schedule it last night and bump the American Idol results show.

So George hopped up there tonight and, once again, peddled his craptastic Social Security overhaul plan that he is dying to push through so his buddies in the investment realm can get rich. Even with his sliding scale idea, it is 100% certain that everyone retiring from the middle class on this plan would get smaller payments than the ones they're currently promised. Good luck selling that plan to middle America, George.

Then he carried on for a bit about how he understands the strain that current gas prices (about $2.20 a gallon here in Denver) are placing on the country, and he feels our pain, blah blah something. Seriously, is anyone buying this?? Then he boldly assures everyone that he just won't tolerate any price-gouging at gas stations in this great land of ours. Of course, as the price for a barrel of crude oil is about $53 now, it's really not the gas station owners who are gouging, is it? It's Bush's cronies in the Middle East.

So Bush's numbers are falling like a rock (mid-40s approval rating, last I checked), there's no way he's going to sell this Social Security thing, an anti-gay marriage amendment is never going to be added to the Constitution, and he's "strongly" endorsing Tom DeLay, who's not only being panned by every Democrat in the legislature, but being pushed to a distance by many members of his own party. And yet Bush got re-elected?? I can only assume the voters who pushed him over the top are the same knuckleheads keeping Scott Savol on American Idol week after week.

So welcome to the inaugural entry into my blog. Am I the only one who rather hates that word? I mean, it's just not a very appealing word, is it? "Blog." I know the origin of it, you know, "weblog" and everything, but still...