The News

I watch the news a lot, I am middle aged, so I feel as though it is a requirement. This past week there were two stories that really caught my attention. First, Mike Tyson apparently went after some guy in an airport. The second was Mariah Carey making some speech while apparently drunk. While these two stories obviously were not the most important things going on this week, I have stuff to say about both of them.

Now Mike Tyson is a boxer. He makes a living kicking peoples asses. That is what he does. When he fills out his taxes, under profession, he has to put that he is a can of whupass. We as a society have given him fame and fortune based upon his extraordinary skills at violence. I have listened to interviews that he has given, and he seems like a nice enough guy, and I feel deeply for anyone who has had to bury a child, but he is a fighter. So, should we really be surprised when he goes after some annoying reporter in an airport? In fact, in light of the stuff this poor guy has had to go through with the death of his daughter, combined with the fact that he is a pretty violent man I think we should actually be a little more surprised if he manages to make it through an airport without attacking someone.

Mariah Carey is a pop star, a musician. When the hell did a drunk musician become a newsworthy item? There was a time when we trusted our musicians to do stuff like that. Kieth Moon drove a car into a hotel swimming pool, Kieth Richards had to get a blood transfusion to enter the country. I am sure that a star like Dean Martin not only would have given a speech while drunk, but he probably would have continued to drink while doing so. This story either says that we have become so obsessed with the lives of our stars that we take a certain ammount of joy in their weaknesses, or it speaks to the double standard of the standards we set for male stars as opposed to woman female stars.