Reality show wannabes gone wild

A New York Times headline asks the question "What Do You Want to Hear Obama Say?" Ostensibly, the question is about his expected plans for the War in Afghanistan. What we REALLY want to hear though is that President Obama is sending Michaele and Tareq Salahi abroad to star in their brand new reality series "Survivor: Afghanistan." They've made themselves darlings of the talk show circuit after upstaging the Prime Minister of India at an official state dinner, to which they invited themselves. But don't call them party crashers. Instead, call them defendants. It seems a lot of people want a piece of these two. As recognition hunger expands to all points thanks to cable TV's need for content, expect things to get much worse before they get better. One can bet though that this is one couple that's going to get voted on the island -- as long as that island is Cuba.

The Hunger Games

In the beginning, Katniss Everdeen, is not exactly the most likeable protagonist one could want. But, then again, her world is not exactly the best of all possible worlds either. It is a future in which the world in general, and North America in particular, has been dramatically altered by a series of disasters.

The new world is made up of Twelve Districts. It used to be thirteen, but a revolt led to the cataclysmic world of “The Hunger Games.” Every year, for the past 75 years, the surviving districts are required to offer up two tributes – children: one boy, one girl -- to play in the nationally broadcast to-the-death gladiatorial games, which are held in the Capitol.

This is a world in which reality TV meets the life and death struggle of the Roman coliseum. But it’s also an updated version of the story of the minotaur. Suzanne Collins has done a lot of homework on survival and hunting which makes Katniss’ skills quite convincing. Collins also has a sense for the distinct separation of her protagonist’s experience of the games and that of her audience, which becomes terribly clear at the end of the book. Collins’ use of Roman names for capital residents also lends the book a quality that is distant from our experience, which helps make us relate to Katniss when she arrives at the capital.

The book was originally published in 2008, but was recently released in hardback with its sequel, “Catching Fire.” The book does have its weaknesses. The first of which is the contrivance that brings Katniss and her fellow tribute, Peeta, together during the games, only to be withdrawn at the end. Bringing the characters together naturally, without the MacGuffin would have made their act at the end of the Games stronger and more poignant. The second problem is her use of mutants. Genetic engineering seems to have come a long way in Panem. There are a lot of mutant animals running around, and one sometimes gets the sense that like the Gamemasters, Collins has used the mutants to push the action along when maybe other options might have been considered. And while the book certainly doesn’t eschew violence, the horror at the heart of this exercise seems to be missing.

But these faults are not fatal. The Hunger Games are a strong exercise in speculative fiction that draw together the strands of what currently exists in our popular culture and blends them with a mythological narrative. The ending leads directly to the sequel, Catching Fire. And while Katniss may start out as unlikeable, you can’t help but hope she’ll bring the whole thing down, taking the Capitol and President Snow with her.

Bad Parents - no biscuit

The boy and his balloon incident has apparently been determined to be a publicity stunt according to Larimer County (Colo.) Sheriff Jim Alderden, a hoax that didn't even stand up to scientific scrutiny if anyone had thought to bother about it while it was happening. Nobody has been arrested yet, but charges may be in the offing. The charges may include three felony charges - conspiracy between the husband and the wife to commit a crime, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and an attempt to influence a public servant - and a misdemeanor charge - filing a false report. Apparently it was the television interviews that did the family in.

Central Asian militant mayhem

While Pakistan finally gets its offensive underway against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan, the militant factions continue to spread mayhem throughout the region. This time it's Iran. The Jundallah — or Soldiers of God — took responsibility for an attack that killed five ranking members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Sistan-Baluchistan region. The Iranian leadership reflexively blamed the U.S. and the UK for this attack. The region is predominately Sunni and has been involved in a struggle with Tehran for years and the officials were there to try to smooth out relations. Both the Pakistanis and the Iranians have vowed to deal a 'crushing blow' to their militant groups. Sadly, recent history has shown that this may not work out as planned.

About a boy

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Here is a story tailor-made for "The Daily Show." A silver saucer-shaped experimental balloon took a two-hour tour on national television. Based on the testimony of an older brother, authorities believed Falcon Heene, 6, was in a box attached to the balloon. The Colorado National Guard deployed a OH-58 helicopter -- at $700 an hour -- and prepared to send a Black Hawk -- at $4,600 an hour -- to rescue the boy when he was believed to be on the balloon. Turns out the 6-year-old boy was discovered hiding in a crawl space in the garage. The balloon, powered by an electrical unit that ran on double-C batteries was the property of Mayumi Heene, who's claim to fame was being featured on the reality TV show Wife Swap, and his father, Richard, meteorologist and former television weatherman and apparently a storm chaser. One consequence of this little trip up, up and away may be a prolonged episode of Child Swat.