pop culture wars

i just stopped by yahoo! and saw the following big headlines:

Jennifer Love Hewitt splits with fiance'
Odd scene as appointee tries to take Senate seat
FBI plans large hiring blitz of agents, experts
Cities made from JELL-O and other unusual objects

and today's top searches were...from 1 to 10:

1. Rebecca Romijn (solid performances in X-Men...3 years ago)
   
2. Kelly Rutherford (whom?)
   
3. Jett Travolta (famously tragically dead child of John Travolta)
   
4. The Dark Knight (good movie...last summer)
   
5. Healthy Recipes (hummus and falafel anyone?)
   

6. Pat Hingle (whom?)
   
7. The Bachelor (seriously? people still care about this?)
   
8. Tax Forms (solid capitalism in january search)
   
9. Used Textbooks (in january?)
   
10. Hormone Imbalance (or...shall we say...slowly going crazy?)
    

conspicuously absent from the top headlines and the top searches? the fact that since i wrote my last blog (3 days ago), 200 more people have been killed in palestine. or the fact that today a 3rd UN school building was hit by an israeli attack today, killing 40 refugees. or anything pro- or anti- this current war in gaza. nothing.

i understand that bad news is hard...but this war is really happening. we turned a blind eye in the 1930s during the holocaust, in the 1980s during the aparthied regime in south africa, in the 1990s during the genocide in rwanda, and during this decade currently regarding genocide in sudan, and at great cost to us on a national and human level. let us not do the same today. be informed. seek truth. seek an historical understanding of this current, yet 4-century-long conflict.

i can't say i'm proud to be an american right now. can't say i'm proud to be a human being right now.