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2007-09-23 -Lurid Crime Tales-
Troubled Britney faces jail sentence
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Posted by Steve White 2007-09-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11125 views ]  Top

#1 "Troubled" Britney

That's a super-polite way of putting it....
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2007-09-23 00:05|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]  2007-09-23 00:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Steve, the “child-rearing without a license” is actually a crime in England. Not that Britney is capable of doing a good job of it herself, of course.
Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow  2007-09-23 02:35||   2007-09-23 02:35|| Front Page Top

#3 A dude would have to be drunk and desperate to be attracted to that no talent. Wish that snake would swallow her.
Posted by McZoid 2007-09-23 02:36||   2007-09-23 02:36|| Front Page Top

#4 Spears personifies America's fascination with unearned wealth and unmerited fame. For confirmation of this, one need only examine how many people play the lottery or the phenomenon of individuals who are "famous for being famous". In this last category, Regis Philbin and Paris Hilton are the prom king and queen. All of this is part of hollywood's unrelenting quest to see style triumph over substance. If anyone requires evidence of this, merely consider the tremendous decline in reading, especially among adults. I personally know a few adults who DO NOT read at all. J.K. Rowling has my eternal respect for rekindling the love of reading in a new generation of children. Her personal wealth is some of the most well-deserved imaginable.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-09-23 03:48||   2007-09-23 03:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Decline in reading? I'm not certain about that. In the 1980s, when I was tutoring, I was told that the rate of functional adult illiteracy (reading at less than a sixth grade level) was on the order of 20% of the American population. As for Britney Spears, she worked very hard in her youth as a Mouseketeer and then a singer. It was only when she reached legal majority and was released from adult supervision that she went to pieces -- whether reaching for the free childhood she'd never had or innocent of the behaviours of adulthood. Were it not for the children, is she doing any worse than Drew Barrymore at the same age?
Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-23 05:34||   2007-09-23 05:34|| Front Page Top

#6 Were it not for the children, is she doing any worse than Drew Barrymore at the same age?

That's not saying much.

As to the decline in reading, and especially adult reading. Are you truly willing to argue that—despite increasing adult literacy rates—actual reading of books is on the rise in America's non-minor population? Every single indication I have seen points towards a spoon-fed, television addicted, totally non-literate (not illiterate) adult population. Far too often I watch literary references sail over the heads of "mature" people like so many typhoon wind-blown kites.

Permit me to quote Edward R. Murrow:
There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, 'When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.' The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.

— journalist Edward R. Murrow [1908-65] —

Murrow said this over four decades ago. How can it not have only gotten worse?
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-09-23 06:36||   2007-09-23 06:36|| Front Page Top

#7 Spears personifies America's fascination with unearned wealth and unmerited fame

I can't believe I'm on RB commenting about this idiot.
Spears actually produced something for a period of time unlike Paris Hilton & Nicole Ritchie who only waste oxygen, albeit over produced pop-crap.
Anyhow, I read she makes around $750k per month, that buys an awful lot of Cheetos and grape soda.
Now I feel dirty, I need to go find a thread and rant about Islamists.
Posted by JerseyMike 2007-09-23 07:59||   2007-09-23 07:59|| Front Page Top

#8 Reading. There's a lot of crap in print too. I also remember the faux horror in the '50 of the degenerating effect of comic books.

Let's remember these little characters are actually an evolution of icons to convey a concept. They originally started out as hieroglyphics. Pictures conveying interpretations of sounds and meanings. The modern version of information transfers now permits the direct form of the data without translation into coded combinations of characters and icons, also known as print. Too many confuse the process with the output. Each has its own uses, advantages, and disadvantages. The old computer adage "garbage in, garbage out" remains in effect regardless of the media employed.
Posted by Procopius2k 2007-09-23 08:42||   2007-09-23 08:42|| Front Page Top

#9 Poor Britney. If it wasn't for the 'career' thing, she would be back home in the double wide, yelling at the kids, getting fat and waiting for Kevin to come home after his shift ended at the plant. But, as they say, sick trainset Gloria Monday.
Posted by SteveS 2007-09-23 12:49||   2007-09-23 12:49|| Front Page Top

#10 There've been a lot of trash books ever since the printing press came into widespread use. Most of the romances of the 18th century were just as much cotton candy for the brain as the modern ones are. For that matter, most of volumes of sermons read by the pseudo-intellectuals of the time weren't any better than the pop psychology best sellers that spring up like mushrooms after the rain nowadays, although admittedly they did presume a certain familiarity with the Bible.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-23 13:32||   2007-09-23 13:32|| Front Page Top

#11 Oh, yes, TW, there was a lot of "cotton candy" for the brain in the 19th century - I inherited a shelf full of books that came from my grandmothers house, all the sort of popular ladies' novels from around 1900. Every bit as trashy and forgettable as the romance novels today.
And speaking of books, can I put in another plug for mine? The greatest frontier adventure that no one ever heard about - click here or on the ad which Fred so kindly put up for me. I'm not claiming it's great literature... but it is a good read and most of it really happened, too.
Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-09-23 14:50|| www.celiahayes.com]">[www.celiahayes.com]  2007-09-23 14:50|| Front Page Top

#12  I also remember the faux horror in the '50 of the degenerating effect of comic books.

One merely need examine just how many of Hollywood's major motion pictures are based on comic book characters—or low-budget 1960s television shows—to know that the "horror" may not be altogether so "faux".

Another point still remains as well. MRI scans of people reading and others watching television reveal that reading literally "lights up" areas of the brain commonly used in sophisticated problem solving, spatial projection and temporal transfomation. When compared with brain activity that arises while watching television, the result is scarily like a flat-liner. Reading even a trashy romance novel provides more "intellectual toning" than viewing some 90% of television programming. Don't even get me started about video games.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-09-23 16:02||   2007-09-23 16:02|| Front Page Top

#13 Spears actually produced something for a period of time

Do tell. Exactly what did she "produce". Was she not just another heavily engineered entertainment industry construction like so many of the "boy toy" groups like "The Backstreet Boys"? Given revelations of big record labels bribing major broadcast networks to allocate disproportionate airtime to their "artists" of choice, I'd warrant that much of the popularity enjoyed by these musical lightweights is fabricated out of whole cloth, much like their supposed content.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-09-23 16:07||   2007-09-23 16:07|| Front Page Top

#14 Spears actually produced something for a period of time unlike Paris Hilton & Nicole Ritchie who only waste oxygen, albeit over produced pop-crap.

We're sorta singing from the same sheet Zen.

Regardless of what you think of it, reams of that garbage was sold. My point was Hilton & Ritchie have their money trust funded to them, while Spears if nothing else worked for hers. It doesn't matter who was pulling the strings.
Posted by JerseyMike 2007-09-23 16:34||   2007-09-23 16:34|| Front Page Top

#15 No harm, no foul, JM. My point is that Spears' wealth more likely resulted from market manipulation than from any intrinsic quality of content. If that's the case, then all of her performances—where she actually engaged in real work—were the byproduct of corporate subterfuge and not any rightfully earned popularity. Public acclaim that is driven by contrived exposure and artificially enhanced play time does not constitute the earmarks of genuine quality. Ergo, the unmerited fame aspect.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-09-23 19:03||   2007-09-23 19:03|| Front Page Top

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