Jonathan over at Irregular Times wonders: George W. Bush is Big Brother, But Does America Care?

In the first 24 hours of the work week after it was revealed that George W. Bush has been engaging in yet another secret program to spy against American citizens that even the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee thinks is illegal, what were people thinking about the most?

They weren’t thinking about their liberty. They were thinking about Zinedine Zidane, a soccer player who gave a headbutt to another soccer player, Marco Materazzi. 5 out of the top 8 searches on Technorati in the last day have related to the incident at the World Cup.

It was a dramatic act of crude violence, to be sure, but in the end, how much does it matter to people’s lives? If the entire French team gave head butts to the entire Italian team, would it change the lives of any Americans in any significant way? Well, actually it would. It would give them something to talk about for a week instead of paying attention to the steady attacks on their constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms.

Was the news of the newly revealed government program to spy against Americans anywhere on Technorati’s top eight list? Nope. But Clay Aiken was there. News that a video blog site called Rocketboom had chosen a new host, and subsequently went offline, was number two on the list. Potc was right behind at number three.

Yeah, welcome to the New America. This is an America in which citizens have allowed multinational corporations to redefined them as consumers. Thinking about democracy and freedom as well as the struggle involved in maintaining those things, well that’s just too much work. Much easier to tune into the latest TV distraction or movie blockbuster.

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