One more note on Oprah's programming for this week for this week, today she basically hauled James Frey's skinny little ass out in front of the world and asked him why he lied about his 'memoir' and embarrassed the crap out of her, his publisher and deluded millions of readers into believing something that was only partly based on fact.
My husband really enjoyed the show, because he had doubted the veracity of his story after watching his first appearance on Oprah, mostly because he wouldn't make eye contact with people, especially with the real recovering addict that he met with. My husband's number one pet peeve is with people lying to him, about anything, he takes it personally everytime. However, he himself is a fabulous bold-faced liar, go figure.
I haven't read the book, apparently Mr. Frey is a very talented writer, he just didn't live the exciting badboy life he claimed. Watching him on the first Oprah show, he honestly did not look like he had ever had any horrific health or addiction problems, his face was smooth and unmarred, there weren't even any dark circles under his eyes. And he seemed very reluctant to discuss his torrid life and amazing accomplishments with Oprah when he should have been proud to have survived such horrors on his own intestinal fortitude without anyone's help.
But, I believe Oprah has done the only thing she could to redeem herself, hopefully she or the publisher will sue the crap out of him and donate the money to charity. Her entire reputation is based on her personal integrity, on trust and honesty. I don't blame her for believing that a book coming from a publisher the size of Doubleday labeled as a memoir really was what it was presented as, I believe both the author and the publisher share the responsibility for this whole incident, not Oprah.
So Oprah for President, at least we know she won't lie to us.
Speaking of the most depressing day of the year, what did Oprah choose to show that day - what you need to know about Bird Flu. Ok, I had my pencil and notepad nearby to take notes, and the only thing I wrote down was 'have five weeks of food and medicine stockpiled'.
Soooo... the expert she interviewed basically said in a nutshell:
a. This epidemic (or a similar one) is eventually going to spread all over the world
b. There will be no effective vaccine available in time to help anyone
c. The vaccines we have today are useless
and
d. There's nothing we can do about it and thousands, possibly millions of people are going to die.
Well crap, I guess that's actually an appropriate show for the Most Depressing Day. Poor Oprah, she honestly thought the guy was going to tell us something useful or slightly hopeful, even she looked depressed by the end of the show.
The show the day before was What You Need to Know About Terrorism, which was surprisingly more upbeat and hopeful. The three experts on that show actually saw a light at the end of the tunnel (and more eventual attacks), but living in America was actually estimated to be safer than living elsewhere in the world due to the fact that most Americans are still really defensive and pissed off about 9/11 and will beat the crap out of anyone that tries to light his shoe on fire in an airplane.
And personally, I haven't flown in years, I don't hang out in large crowds or particularly popular places, so my own chances of being blown up by a suicide bomber are pretty low. My husband and I are hermits, we like our home, it's a hassle to leave it, and we'd rather stay in most nights.
But the whole health scare, global pandemic thing does sort of freak me out because my immune system is shot already, and my doctors can't solve the seemingly simple problems (like reflux and allergy) that are making my life a living hell already, can you imagine what would happen in a real health crisis? Like New Orleans, only much bigger?
The only useful thing the Bird Flu guy did say is that we need to harrass the govenment and ask them to do something. I guess the 2006 elections will be a good start. I'd like to ask them to leave and let someone else try and fix their mess, anyone, my cat could do a better job...
Well I finally got around to installing the Email Whitelister plugin and just tested it and it works, yippee! I even donated the suggested five bucks to the author.
So what this means is if you've commented on my weblog in the last year or two, your email has been added to an automatic comment approval list and you won't get the pending approval message anymore. The new version of Movable Type changed the way comments were screened and I suddenly started having to moderate everything one at a time to keep the spammers out.
If anyone has any problems with it, please email me. Unless you're a spammer, then just go away.