the writing and photography of Neil Kramer
Today is the big game. I didn’t know who was playing in it until yesterday. I didn’t even know Arizona had a football team. But I don’t like to feel left out of the excitement, so I had to come up with a reason to pick one team over the other, and root for them. I figured the best way to pick a favorite was to base it on the first image that came to my mind when visualizing Pittsburgh and Arizona.
Pittsburgh
Arizona
Go Steelers!
The latest trend in reality shows, according to the LA Times, are shows involving pets, such as Animal Planet’s “Who Gets the Dog?” in which humans compete for the love of a cutesy dog.  When most of the losers don’t get the dog, they are crushed, but I was particularly surprised by Darren O’Hare and Ania Kamieniecki’s excuse when they lost “Scooby” to another couple:
“We just thought of it as a fun thing, we weren’t looking to win” says Darren. “We didn’t have our ‘Omorosa’ strategy.”
The Omorosa strategy?  Have reality shows so infiltrated our way of thinking that the name Omorosa carries so much weight to it?  Years ago, I remember my two uncles arguing at Thanksgiving dinner over who was the greatest strategist of World War II — Churchill or Stalin?  With the greatest generation fading, will Omorosa be remembered as this generation’s Sun Tzu? Our Machiavelli?
Could it be that many of our missteps in Iraq are due to the Pentagon’s outmoded style of leadership? Did President Bush have an Omorosa strategy?  Doesn’t our government see how much reality TV could be a mirror into our geopolitical world?
For example, in Iraq, isn’t it true that we were “Richard Hatch-ed” by the Iranians with the faulty intelligence about the WMDs?
What about the UN and our French and German “friends”? This “betrayal” by our allies is not very surprising to any reality TV watcher. Has there ever been a Survivor season where the strong guy who builds the shelter for everyone isn’t tossed off the Island the very next week by all the whimpering members of his “alliance”? Isn’t the United Nations like the ultimate “Big Brother” house, all smiles when Julie Chen shows up on the monitor, but everyone gets busy backstabbing at night?
Would there be so many Iraqi uprisings if we ran things a bit more like Nanny 911?
Sure, there were some elections in Iraq and there is some progress with Syria, but can we we really win the hearts and minds of the Arab world?  Forget the neocons Paula Abdul-like optimism.   Is it really on the level? As Simon Cowell might say, very doubtful:
“Not if we continue to pick the wrong songs and sing them like we’re at a cheap karaoke bar.”
President Bush, if you really intend to succeed with your Middle East foreign policy, stop listening to those Pentagon wonks and watch some “Apprentice.”
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