Post #500!

Another milestone, as Da Comet is now halfway to 1,000 posts in just 21 months of existence.  Seems like I've done more posts than this...

THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
Check out some of the bugle oil being spouted about Alaska Gov./McCain running mate Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter being pregnant:

—"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned...We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."—Todd and Sarah Palin

—"These things happen.  You go ahead and surround the child with love, and you have the child, and the kids get married and you try to make the best of it."—Sen. Sam Brownnose—er uh—Brownback, (R) Kansas

—"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect.  Nor does it mean your children are perfect.  But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord."—James Dobson, Focus On the Family founder

I'm not trying to pass judgment on the Palin family here—this kind of thing happens all the time—but I'm merely pointing out the hypocrisy of the above statements.  Do you believe a word of any of them?  I sure don't, and you know damn well if one of Barack Obama's daughters was 17 and got knocked up out of wedlock, people like Brownnose, Dobson, along with the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Pat Robertson and all the other conservative Christian pundits would be all over this thing like flies on shit, excoriating the Obamas' parenting skills at every turn.  At least Obama himself took the high road here, saying, "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits."  I can't believe McCain knew about all this and chose Palin as his running mate anyway.  I think Big John may have stepped on his own dick (while wearing spiked golf shoes) and handed the election to Obama on a silver platter here.

ONE BUST AT A TIME
Yet another supposedly "clean" celebrity drug addict has fallen off the wagon again, as actress MacKenzie Phillips got busted at LAX over the weekend on drug possession charges.  That's her under the blanket in the pic.  Why do celebs who get busted try to hide from the cameras when they leave the jail—as if we don't already know what they look like?  Naturally, Big Mac claimed she was merely "holding" the drugs for someone else.  That's almost as good as Tatam O'Neal's "I was researching a role" excuse.

Ironically, I just got done watching that episode of "Beverly Hills, 90210" from 1994 where Phillips played the drug guidance counselor who conducted the intervention for Dylan.  Maybe she and O'Neal should get together and compare notes...

BEVERLY HILLS, 9021-NO!!
Speaking of "90210", for further proof that Hollywood is totally tapped-out for fresh ideas, I give you the new "90210" series that debuted tonight.  Some of you might find it shocking that I was a regular viewer of the original show, but I must admit it was a guilty pleasure for me.  I gotta tell ya, Jennie Garth and Tiffani Amber-Thiessen were total babes back then, and even Gabrielle Carteris as the insufferable Andrea (that's right, ON-drea!) Zuckerman wasn't hard on the eyes.  You can tell they're desperate on this new version of it by bringing back that psycho Shannen Doherty, and I'm disappointed that Garth is wasting her time with this crapfest.  Can't they just leave well-enough alone?  Of course not...

SPEAKING OF UNWATCHABLE TELEVISION...
I'm finding it more and more difficult to watch Jerry Lewis's telethon as the years go by, aren't you?  While I applaud his valiant effort to do this thing every year, good gracious, the man just looks so bad now.  And so does Ed McMahon, who also now sounds bad.  And having hack has-beens like Tony Orlando for the "entertainment" won't keep me glued to the tube, either.  At least WGN in Chicago continued their long-standing tradition of breaking up the telethon with a Cubs game on Monday afternoon...

BLACK AND WHITE AND READ ALL OVER NO MORE?
I saw Gene Simmons of Kiss doing an interview on MSNBC over the weekend, and he made the remark that the print-media is "going the way of the Edsel".  This isn't the first time I heard this in our instant-information society, especially in terms of the almighty newspaper, which like terrestrial commercial radio, is dying a slow painful death.  I still take the paper and read it front-to-back every day, but I'm currently re-evaluting this practice with an eye toward saving some money.  Anymore, I get the bulk of my news off the Internet and by the time I read the Sports page, I've usually already seen and heard all the news off ESPN the night before.  I'm thinking really seriously about cancelling my daily subscription in favor of just getting the Sunday paper every week.  I also predict the white pages and the yellow pages phone books will soon be a thing of the past...

In a semi-related development, Rolling Stone is shrinking their over-sized magazine down to the same size as Time and Newsleak.  Good thing the aging hippies at Rolling Stone haven't shrunk their rag in direct proportion to its relevance, or it would be about the size of a matchbook cover by now...

SUMMER IS OVAH!
Today's weather in K.C.:  Muggy and 88.  Tomorrow's weather in K.C.: Rainy and 64.  Where's my muff?!?