Yeah, I Still Don't Care

Last year I wrote about how much I don't care about the SuperBowl.
   Nothing's changed.
   I decided to give it a try this year. Maybe I'm the one who's turned around on the subject, maybe the rest of the world is tuned into the zeitgeist and I'm just flopping around like a fish suffocating on a dock.
   Nope.
   I've been watching two hours worth of pre-game show so far, and it's two hours I will never get back. There's been a lot - a LOT - of self-congratulatory back slapping, reminiscing, and blatant pandering. There's a red carpet now, which is clearly calculated to bring the ladies to the TV and keep them there. There are celebrities who have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the game like Keith Urban and Hugh Jackman (both Australian), and, God help me, celebrity douchebag chef Guy Fieri. I defy anyone to explain to me what Guy Fieri has to do with the SuperBowl, aside from shilling Ritz crackers and inspiring my apoplectic rage.
   So far it's been one big EXTREMELY commercial waste of time. Give me NASCAR, where at least they're honest enough about sponsorship to wear the product names on their uniforms.

Instead of a brief list of crap I don't care about, this year I decided to compile a brief list of things that should occupy more of your attention than the SuperBowl:
   Political unrest in the Middle East - when long-standing dictatorships are toppled, we all need to take notice. Especially when the toppling takes place in a part of the world prone to prideful displays of nationalism. This isn't going to end well, no matter which side comes out on top.
   Squalor in Haiti - a year later and they're even worse off than right after the earthquake. At least a year ago Americans were paying attention. Kind of. Now cholera is making the rounds of the shantytowns on the island. Cholera makes you shit yourself to death. Yeah. 600 miles from the US.
   Wall Street and Big Bank bonuses - with all the money paid this year to evil, evil, detestable people who aren't worth the hollow-point bullet it takes to solve their problem, the country is moving closer and closer to an hereditary aristocracy. Do we want our nation to turn into Mexico where you're either very very rich or very very not?
   Google, Facebook, and many others wiping their asses with your personal privacy. If you use gmail or have an Android phone, I hope you're comfortable with Google reading your mail and monitoring your calls, because they are. Why people take this sitting down instead of rising up in revolt I'll never understand. Or, jeez, just don't use the service or buy the damn phone.
   Anti-immigrant politics in Europe - we like to think of Europe as full of quaint, polite old-worlders, but there's rising right-wing sentiment that demonizes immigrants. Europe was never the melting pot America claims to be, but when European countries start to pick one group as a scapegoat for all their problems, we all need to take notice. And, yes, I'm talking about the mass execution of Jews during World War II. It wouldn't take all that much for that horror to happen again. And if you don't believe me, read some of the rhetoric.

Not that I'm trying to destroy your SuperBowl experience...
   Yeah, okay, maybe I am.