Archive for May, 2007

Take some time to enjoy my view

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

I’m writing this post to the now-unemployed Rosie O’Donnell.Consider it a message from one overly opinionated Irish American blogger to another.Â

Ro, I’m so disappointed in you. And I say this as someone who normally agrees with you and can’t believe Elisabeth’s blind faith in the president or his war.Â

I’d write an open letter to Elisabeth, too, but I don’t think she’s Irish and I don’t she would get it. Afterall, this is the same woman who believes we’re safer after invading Iraq. (Though I should say I normally agree with EH’s views on Dancing with the Stars, American Idol and gluten.)

But I digress. Back to the issue at hand.

Rosie, I loved what you *and* Elisabeth brought to The View. Lively, unapolgetic, female opinion. But I hate how you left the table: Emotional, petty, mean.

Basically, I think the whole messy spat — including the incident in which your producer drew a moustache on a photo of Elisabeth — is disparaging to women. The View is the one show in which women talk about world events, politics, etc. from the viewpoint of mothers, sisters, friends. And what did you and Elisabeth do with this opportunity? You acted as if women can’t have a reasonable debate without it being swept up by emotion, personal insults or petty adolescent behavior. You weren’t arguing about Iraq or terrorist troops. You were arguing about your frienship. On national television. The country is in the midst of a war that is dividing the nation and angering foreign allies. And what do you let the debate spiral into? A yelling match over who was cowardly to whom.

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Then your producer defaces a picture of EH, as if she’s 12 and you applaud. You seem like a big ‘ol Bully — which casts all women with strong opinions in a bad light.

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Quitting the View also suggests women can’t have strong opinions without personal feelings get in a way. Ro, you let your emotions and bruised ego get the best of you. It’s sad and demoralizing. Â

That said, the spat did give us the best Web moment of 2007: I loved when you used your blog to liken the fight to the Sound of Music, an awesomely bizarre metaphor in which Rosie is Leisel and Elisabeth is that Rolf, that Nazi-worshipping cutey patootie. It may have been the petty move of woman acting like she’s 16 going on 17, but it was inspired nevertheless.

The Important Things in Life

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

Sooooo….Irishbeat.com. An amazing, magical site full of wonderfulism and merrimentness. I figured I would start posting something monthly or weekly, in which I might open up some discussion. The topics will be heartfelt…a mix of subjects that are so important to society today that we just cannot afford to ignore them, and topics so dear to the soul that it is simply our moral obligation as humans to discuss. Which brings me to the first of many such subjects: David Hasselhoff. Yes, he is brilliant. Yes, he may be one of the greatest actors of all time (surpassing such greats as Humphrey Bogart, Sean Connery, Meryl Streep, and Yahoo Serious). Yes, if someone were to ask you if you were gay while showing you a picture of Sir Hasselhoff lying on the hood of a Camaro in a leather jacket, there would most likely be a very long pause before you answered. We all know and accept these things, that’s a given. But what is happening lately with His Majesty concerns me. I’m sure by now everyone has heard about Doc Hasselhoff’s drinking binge that was video taped by his daughter Taylor (well of course you heard about it, D.H. refuses to take the backseat to trivial issues in this world like war, thousands of people dying on a regular basis in Africa, the senseless violence in our universities, many of our administration’s officials, both democrat and republican, that either cannot finish 3 sentences in a row without at least 6 words that are not technically part of any human language, or have a really, really big fondness of young boys). Admiral Hasselhoff, you are the thread that has held this crazy world together. You have been the transmission to our Kit. You have been the Mitch Buchannon to our CJ Parker. I, for one, will not stand by as The Hoff falls from his pedestal of awesomeness. Please Mr. David Hasselhoff…come back to us. The world is so wrong and only you can once again make it so right. Our collective feelings can only be summarized by a line from Hofftastic’s 1989 German Pop-chart hit “Looking for Freedom”:
“I’ve been looking for freedom
I’ve been looking so long
I’ve been looking for freedom
Still the search goes on
I’ve been looking for freedom
Since I left my home town
I’ve been looking for freedom
Still it can’t be found”
The ironic thing, Sweet Hoffinator, is that we are all looking for freedom and you, Sir, are the only one that can set us free.