Sunday night, while America was watching the Oscars, I was over on C-Span Q&A, watching the head of Citizens Against Government Waste laundry list how the hundreds of billions of our tax dollars are wasted. I learned about the 20% fraud rate on IRS Earned Income Credits...by criminals who steal personal ID info, then claim other folks tax credits. And I learned how the National Institutes of Health spent $500 million dollars to research why people fall in love....or the $500,000 spent on how long a mountain lion could run on a specially made treadmill.
I then flipped over to CBS and watched 60 Minutes interview a number of citizens whose lives were ruined by the Social Security Administration. Seems that SSA bureaucrats mistakenly hit a wrong Social Security number on their keyboards and ended up declaring folks dead who are very much alive. As the SSA declares these folks dead they send out electronic notifications to the victim's banking concern notify all the credit agencies to never again issue credit to these "deceased" people. One poor woman was living in a trailer after living 6 months in her car...and all because her $80,000 dollar savings account was seized by the government and left her destitute. Another woman has spent the last 30 years being refused home and car loans because creditors keep punching in her credit inquiries and reading that she's dead.
Meanwhile, between learning of how our government masters waste our money, and destroy lives, I flipped over to the Oscars. During the cumulative 5 or 10 minutes of Oscar watching I was able to note that a Black hosted the ceremony, that over half of the presenters were either Black, Hispanic, or Indian, that the Orchestra leader was Black, which to my mind, certainly represented greater numbers than the 12% Black population represents in our society.
Perhaps most telling ( and I'm sure little noted) was Chris Rock's "man on the street" interviews with a number of Blacks. Seems not one Black knew of, or had seen a single Oscar movie! You see, Blacks discriminate against Whites every day; they don't go to White movies, they don't even know who the White actors are....but that's okay because Blacks are given a pass for their own racism.
I think I made the right viewing decision. While I was learning about government waste, fraud and abuse, the Oscar audience was wallowing in an orgy of White Guilt, a sin I refuse to own.
Sigh.
5 comments:
I was watching Judge Judy, which I record and then I'm able to zoom past the commercials. Seems I made a much better viewing choice! :)
That's Hollywood's way of saying "see. We're not Racist". The Black Presenters can still "serve" up the Oscar. Hollywood is a joke. We used to have Gable and Lombard, Tracy and Hepburn, The 3 Stooges and the Marx Brothers. Now we have...the Kardashians. Is it possible to sink any lower? I've been to about 5 movies sine 2000. Avatar, Lincoln and 3 I can't remember the names. Time to dust off a lot of those old movies and put them in theaters again. Thank you, old Hollywood. F-ck you new Hollywood.
Carol, indeed, you made a better choice!
Frank, I watch my movies on TCM. Totally agree with you.
What are "the Oscars", but Hollywood celebrating itself? It is merely the most narcissistic, self-absorbed tribute to an activity that is, at most, an amusement to a minority of people. In ancient Rome, entertainers were the lowest of the classes, below the Plebeians and the undertakers.... The Romans had it right. Never watched, never will....
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