A Slight Delay

So much for “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.” One game show I’d actually tune in to see would be “Are You Smarter Than An Immigrant?” Here’s why: immigrant bashing has never, unfortunately, gone out of style in this country. It seems someone’s always close at hand complaining how “they” don’t speak English/take our jobs/hate America/(insert jibe of choice here). While I can understand why illegal immigration gets under people’s skin, a number of those same people forget that legal immigration is the bedrock of American life and history.

But I digress. People also tend to forget that citizenship isn’t handed out like copies of the Watchtower. To become a citizen, you have to be at least 18 years of age and a lawful permanent resident of the United States. You also have to have lived in the United States for five years, unless you’re married to and living with a United States citizen for three years. You have to have a basic grasp of English. There’s oodles of paperwork, an interview, and a test. (more…)

We’ve been in a more or less constant election cycle since late 2003. We went from being in the run-up to the ‘04 election, to the election itself, to a protracted runup to the ‘06 election, to the run-up to the ‘08 election starting pretty much as soon as the polls closed in November ‘06. I don’t expect that will change; the only thing that will be different, I suspect, is a different opposition party doing the talking.

And there’s been no shortage of talk… the endless rounds of the Sunday talk shows, dozens of commercials (including 3 renditions of the “3am” ad, as of this writing), and 30 or so debates. (more…)

Citing low ratings–again–CBS is pulling the plug on its apocalypse opera, “Jericho.” This is, of course, the second time the network is cancelling the ratings-challenged show; the last time, CBS was beseiged by fans sending in thousands of pounds of peanuts. There’s no word yet whether those same fans are now back to hoarding Planters.

The first season of Jericho looked promising, building on the premise of a middle-American town coping with the aftermath of a limited nuclear war. But the series’ first-season flaws were only magnified in the second season; we’ve seen Jericho–the show and the town–devolve from a plot and character driven ensemble show, to soap opera, to B-movie-grade action. By now, it seems as though the writers can’t decide whether to emulate “The Day After,” “The X-Files,” “Days of Our Lives,” or some awkward combination of the three.

The show hasn’t been helped by its time slot, the writers’ strike, a truncated seven-episode season, or the fact the second season picked up after such a long layoff. If another network picks up the show, which is always possible, there’s much work to be done if “Jericho” is to live up to the promise it showed early on.