sweating around the dial

It was a gym night last night, and of course, the remote was not under Lumberyard control. I did some work on both sides of the room, so I got to shake my head in wonder at two separate situations.

First there was Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil has this woman on his show who was asked, on an airline flight, to hide herself under a blanket, because her outfit was too revealing. After seeing the photos, I can assure you it wasn't. She had on a skirt that wasn't too short and a top with a little sweater over it. Granted, she filled the outfit nicely, but there wasn't anything too revealing about it. Anyway, she has, apparently, been doing the talk show circuit over the incident, eliciting outrage from audiences everywhere. Last night it was Dr. Phil's turn. Her mom, sister and lawyer are in the audience. The lawyer is there because she has some kind of lawsuit pending with the airline about this mess. In the interview, she says all she really wants from the airline is an apology. They handled the whole thing badly and if they'd just apologize, she'd be done with it. Dr. Phil produces a letter, from the CEO of said airline. He shows it on some big projector and it is indeed, a pretty sincere looking apology, and an offer to fly anywhere she would like on that airline. It's signed by the CEO of the offending airline. She smiles and pretty much says...that's real nice, but it's not over. We still might continue the lawsuit. WHAT?!? Little miss wronged just became little miss money grubbing bitch. I'm sorry. I just don't know how you do something like that...much less with a national audience. You bring that trash to trial, and someone from the airline's going to be showing the Dr. Phil tape.

If that wasn't enough, from there we move to the other side of the room and..Fox News. We got some panel discussion going about the Florida and Michigan primaries and the mess the Democratic party finds itself in, wanting to stand their ground and still not make voters in Florida and Michigan feel like they don't count. The point was made that back in September, Hillary was backing the DNC decision because all the polls said this race was going to be more like the Hillary victory tour, and it really wouldn't matter Nobody was going to touch her and those Michigan and Florida votes would be forgotten in a tidal wave if Clinton-mania. Now, of course, we have a race that's not only close, but she's losing, and she wants those votes bad. OK, whatever. The fun part comes next. Next they show two graphics showing what would happen if the election were held today. First we see who the polls say would win each state and the total results if Hillary were the Democratic nominee running against McCain. Then we see the same thing if the candidates were Obama and McCain. In both cases McCain loses a pretty close race, and the discussion starts with the question. How much trouble is John McCain in? Is there panic yet? What does he have to do to change the situation? I just had to ask...would these be the same polls that predicted the Hillary landslide? What the hell are you people putting your faith in...that crap? Didn't we just discuss how wrong they were 6 months ago? Who gives a rat's patoot what the polls say now? It's freakin' March! Not only were they wrong before. They were grossly wrong before. They'll be wrong again. The polls aren't worth doody! I realize they're all you got. Just because they're all you got though, doesn't make them worth more doody...or is that...ummm, less doody? Polls in March have as much to do with the actual election in November as Bill Clinton's definition of "is".

Oh, and don't forget to lose an hour of sleep this weekend.