Jada Pinkett is not pleased with the media (I guess that includes College Candy) picking on young celebrities and she does have a point. She is said to be referring to Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift in the post.

“Is it okay to continually attack and criticize a famous 19 year old who is simply trying to build a life, exercise his talents while figuring out what manhood and fame is all about as he carries the weight of supporting his family as well as providing the paychecks to others who depend on him to work so they can feed their families as well? Does that render being called a cunt by an adult male photographer as you try to return to your hotel after leaving the hospital? . . . Or what about being a young woman in her early twenties, exploring the intricacies of love and power on the world stage? And should we shame a young woman for displaying a sense of innocence as she navigates through the murky waters of love, heartbreak, and fame? Are these young people not allowed to be young, make mistakes, grow, and eventually transform a million times before our eyes?”

She’s right, we shouldn’t criticize young people for essentially living their lives. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want people making discerning comments about every decision I make. Nevertheless, celebrities are more than just people, in a way they are cultural symbols. The things we say about them aren’t really about them, we don’t actually know them, the things we say about them is the stuff of mythology. The stories we tell about celebrities are the stories we tell about ourselves as a culture. We should play close attention to the ideas we articulate about these people like who we demonize (Anne Hathaway) and who we praise (Jennifer Lawrence) and why we do that. It’s unfortunate that they are real people and I am certainly sure fame is mostly crappy because we do this. Yet, I think we need celebrities (there’s a reason why they exist after all) to help us understand our society and where it’s going.

Nobody cares about Rihanna or Taylor Swift.

The NYC soda ban was so dumb it was overturned the same day it was enacted.

“Judge Milton Tingling ordered the city is ‘permanently restrained’ from “enforcing the new regulations,” which are ‘fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences.’ He added that the ‘loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule.'”

There you go.

Colorado has approved same-sex civil unions. While this is great news it isn’t clear what makes these ‘civil unions’ different from straight marriages?

This GIF of Justin Timberlake grabbing his junk on Saturday Night Live disturbs me.