[accent]Stupid Americans[/accent]

Piers Morgan and CNN Plan End to His Prime-Time Show
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/business/media/piers-morgan-and-cnn-plan-end-to-his-prime-time-show.html

Okay, yes, I'm bi-national. I'm a British Citizen who received his US naturalization in 2006. I've grown up in the United States primarily, and being an anthropologist have observed all the little things that make United States Americans proud and whatnot, as well as what leaves others wanting more.

This, however, is an example of that. Americans don't want to accept anything that makes them think about anything other than the United States except for when it's convenient, trendy, or what "everyone else" is doing. So, when Piers Morgan confronts them obliquely, debating as he does or, apparently as this article states, doesn't cover what "Americans want to hear", shutting him down is a problem.

Accepting that shutting him down because he runs his show the way he does and that "everyone" flees to other networks because of that is a problem. Full disclosure: I've never watched Piers Morgan Tonight. I've never been one for talk shows period, so pretty much any of them I've stayed away from, daytime or primetime. I, therefore, have no idea if the show is (or was) any good. My judgment lies solely with the article's claims. I'd like to believe my knee-jerk feelings have some merit, though: Americans on a majority do not want to hear about things that make them change their minds.

This is sad. This is why this country is so messed-up, and this is why it makes me smile sometimes when other countries put this one in its place. The United States' priorities skew completely waywardly most of the time, and yet it expects the rest of the world to bend over and take it whenever it wants a piece. If Piers Morgan helped the United States in some part during his tenure to see that there are things beyond being the third-largest country (debatably) and the third most populous, that there are people dying *everywhere* while the majority of US residents were in their homes watching a bunch of people vie for twoish-pound pieces of metal medallions, then bully for him.

Yes, there are other countries, mostly European, that just about force their naturalized denizens to become French (or Italian, or German, or whatever) culturally and shun them if they don't adapt and make 100% a part of them all the trappings of Frenchness just as this article asserts CNN and the viewing public expected of Piers Morgan. If the United States is such a world leader, then shouldn't it lead with the example that some Britain-born dude on a US prime time show can be what he is, and shouldn't we "enlightened" Americans accept him for it? Yes, it's ratings. Yes, this is idealistic.

But this is why this country is filled with stupid people. 

Risk of Positivity

Craig Davis sentenced to 10 years
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/24788331/craig-davis-sentanced-to-10-years

You know, this really kind of gets to me. This is the second high-profile-ish "I-have-HIV/AIDS-but-I'm-going-to-sleep-around-anyway-and-btw-I'm-straight-identifying" trial that's gone on in this state since 2014 broke.

It's pretty angering, actually, because… well, okay. The supposed Bareback Brotherhood — and sorry if it ruffles feathers bringing it up — does this all the time, and I think the defense I've heard is that if people want to go around doing this at he risk of infection it's their business (For those who don't know, that group is a bunch of loosely-affiliated group of mostly gay and bisexual men who'd been rather vocal in 2010-ish on the Internet, who eschew condom use during anal sex under any conditions. The backlash to them has been strong that I think that's why I only hear ably them sporadically nowadays.). They at least seem to understand it's a risk and thus announce their beliefs and lifestyle openly (sometimes with blissful ignorance) that others might understand (or "understand") and act accordingly. 

With this case, though, these poor women, they not only could get infected themselves, but because they're women they could become pregnant, bringing something akin to what happens in a lot of the developing world — because it's almost they don't know better— to the United States. It brings the fear, hate, and uncertainty hundreds of thousands of women primarily in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa feel to the United States.

And then somehow, I think these guys do this because they may have some homosexual hangups like a lot of Black guys have: go sleeping around because they want to prove they're "not gay". And sure, they might not be. They might be intravenous drug users and sharing. They may have caught it, as low as the odds are, from an HIV-positive woman and kept "sharing the joy".

An argument for chemical castration.

I don't know what goes through these guys' heads if anything does, but they've got to stop. But then, maybe some of the women knew and it's a straight version of BBBH?

Radio Show Hoaxes

http://shar.es/QLWxZ

New York-area radio hosts apologize for fabricating story about a pair of gay dads who were chastized over young daughter's birthday party invitation

16 FEBRUARY 2014 | BY SYLVIA TAN

You know, part of me wants to blame the radio station. Why, for ratings, would you make something like this up? How long do you let it go on before saying "Well, this isn't real."

Simultaneously, how much research do the outraged do before initiating backlash and making it more than what it really is?

Taking in The Foreign Content

This half-season of two shows I like, Teen Wolf and Supernatural, decided to take different tacks than what I've known them to do: they've taken elements of foreign mythologies and made plot points out of them.

And for some reason, while I'd enjoyed that fact, it felt a little weird at first. Thinking about that underlying reaction, I had to reflect about that because I also happen to be a somewhat-passionate anime fan. Anime, the animated Japanese-originate phenomenon, often borrows elements from non-Japanese and Japanese mythology and history (often the former) to drive their stories, and it's never felt odd.

One of my favorite anime series is Digimon, and there are thousands of digimon that have names coming from all kinds of sources. For example, you have Sakuyamon, coming from Japan, Wolfmon (pronounced 'vollfmon'), from Germany, and Shinduramon, from India. Another favorite series, The Big O, borrows highly in style and feel from the American cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. Yet with Teen Wolf, bringing in kitsune, oni masks, and demon warriors into the werewolf and coyote spirit mix, and Supernatural having in its most recent episode a Peruvian/Andean beast called a pishtaco, it felt weird for the first couple seconds hearing it.

Might it have been because Teen Wolf and Supernatural, for the majority of their histories, have used United States-based (more or less) creatures, beasts, and myths? That's more than likely probable. Bringing in other bits so late into the game might have been a little jarring, though the anthropology major in me jumps for joy at the chance to learn different aspects of other culture's artefacts and how American writers use them in their creations as much as learning that one of the Pokémon, Ooper, looks like the Mexican amphibian the axolotl.

It might be as well that one's imagination can accept animated series bringing in other myths more easily than a series with human actors. I suppose I should stay tuned to see what other shows I like start importing things, especially the live action ones. 

Exciting stuff!