tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post114792607496362628..comments2023-09-06T08:56:14.610-04:00Comments on Eidelblog: American Idol FarceUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1148072737275545132006-05-19T17:05:00.000-04:002006-05-19T17:05:00.000-04:00CN, you need to take a breath and realize the fals...CN, you need to take a breath and realize the false assumptions from which you've proceeded. If you're going to insult me by claiming something I'm obviously not, let alone saying I've gone off the deep end, then your comments will no longer be welcome. I don't come over to <I>your</I> blog and start acting like a horse's ass, do I? So really, dawg, chill.<BR/><BR/>I cannot help but wonder how convoluted your definition of "socialist" is. You accuse me of being one, then compare me to those who want regulation of prices and wages? You of all people should know that's a pile of shit, so knock it off. Or do you resort to cries of "Socialist!" the way others throw around "Nazi"?<BR/><BR/>You claim to know about the dangers of pure democracy, yet you cannot see that that's my major complaint. Am I a "socialist" because of that? No more than the Founding Fathers were "socialist" for distrusting what they called "mobocracy." Idol voters apparently chose Katherine over Chris, but a plurality of the American people chose Bill Clinton. Twice. These people are presumably the same electorate who continually elect 534 members of Congress who effectively lay waste to our country. (I say 534, but if anyone else is like Ron Paul, let me know and I'll adjust accordingly.)<BR/><BR/>I <I>never</I> said an elite should select the winners, so you can stop putting words into my mouth, thank you very much. However, the last two weeks showed that someone can turn in a lesser performance and be selected over a better competitor. Even Katherine, and you could see this from her body language and facial expressions, expected to get booted. The process definitely needs some tweaking.<BR/><BR/>What you call "nit-picking" is factual, substantial criticism from someone who knows what good vocals are. It's not even a matter of Katherine's high notes. There are plenty notes that should be within her range that she nonetheless screeches. There's no polish or real power, not if she has to do that. She sang "Someone to Watch Over Me" well, I suppose, but that's the only decent performance I ever heard from her.<BR/><BR/>Now, I never even said there's cheating. I simply said that that accuser's point was well taken. You point out that 99.9% of companies are not frauds, but most companies aren't of such prominence. Ever hear of "21" and its scandal? Remember the allegations some years ago, which were quietly swept under the rug, of Jeopardy!'s anti-male favoritism? I used to enjoy the show until Trebek got so obvious.<BR/><BR/>I've been checking Technorati since last week, and some people, though it's a "friend of a friend" thing, say that they called in to vote for Chris, only to be thanked for voting for someone else. I wouldn't be surprised at a glitch like this, or that a standard audit wouldn't catch it.<BR/><BR/>Would AI's producers risk distorting the outcome? At first I thought that the show would lose a lot of viewers, but the American people do have a short collective memory. This will be largely forgotten by next season. I don't see that there was much to lose, if there really was something fishy.<BR/><BR/>Now what if the auditors <I>did</I> catch a huge blunder in the voting system, or fraud? <I>That</I> would finish the show. Have you already forgotten my blog entry where someone pointed out that even Ernst & Young is so desperate for business that it will reverse its findings and suddenly assert its client's lies?<BR/><BR/>Maybe it's my fault for treating the show like a singing competition, which a reasonable person would think it purports to be. Boner is right. The show is all about overall appeal, and Kat sells better than Chris. Kellie worked for a while, but I guess she didn't want to show much skin.<BR/><BR/>Boner is completely wrong about Chris' style, though. His "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" was great. His "A Little Less Conversation" was also great, true to Elvis' style. He's not just another rocker.Perry Eidelbushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09707615907666584863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1148056900835076852006-05-19T12:41:00.000-04:002006-05-19T12:41:00.000-04:00THE KAT MUST STAY! SHE IS HOT AND THATS ALL THAT ...THE KAT MUST STAY! SHE IS HOT AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. YOU THINK BRITNEY SPEARS CAN SING? WHO CARES - I SAY MORE TATTAS AND LESS WHINING ABOUT CHRIS WHO SOUNDS LIKE EVERY OTHER PSUEDO ROCKER OUT THERE.<BR/><BR/>LORD BONER HAS SPOKEN...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1148040775488849932006-05-19T08:12:00.000-04:002006-05-19T08:12:00.000-04:00Oh my God, you are so off the deep end on this it ...Oh my God, you are so off the deep end on this it is scary.<BR/><BR/>I call you a socialist and you respond by using a socialist ruse du jour.<BR/><BR/>They use the outlier Enron (one of 17,000 public companies) to blanketly inveigh against capitalism and Wall Street. You use the same analogy to try to discredit auditing.<BR/><BR/>How about this, 99.9% of public companies are audited and ARE NOT frauds.<BR/><BR/>Yeah the show was <EM>fixed</EM> to avoid "three male finalists", but then was it fixed when Chris got voted off too? You can tell by Seacrest's immediate and repetitive comments ("by your votes America", that Idol was shocked.<BR/><BR/>Personally, I liked Chris the best. But just because the result isn't to my liking it doesn't mean that the process is unfair or fraudulent. When you start nit-picking McPhee's high notes and cynically questioning both the integrity and implementation of the voting, you sound like a typical socialist unhappy with the price of oil or the market wages of teachers and journalists.<BR/><BR/>The winner is not for an elite (you or me) to decide.<BR/><BR/>American Idol is making hundreds of millions this year, do you really think they'd risk the integrity of the show to fine tune the outcome? As far as I can tell, they don't need to.<BR/><BR/>The only thing I don't like about the voting contest is that you vote "for" people rather than against them. Obviously they get more votes under the current system, but often times I think it is easier to see who should be voted off than who should continue.<BR/><BR/>Of course I see the flaws in democracy and often rank stupidity of the masses. That's the entire basis of my blog.CaptiousNuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14440029537418230507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1148022231447418952006-05-19T03:03:00.000-04:002006-05-19T03:03:00.000-04:00I'm not sure who, if anyone, is auditing the resul...I'm not sure who, if anyone, is auditing the results, but I find it meaningless. After all, Arthur Andersen was auditing Enron.<BR/><BR/>I don't follow that you think I'm a socialist when it comes to AI. I simply point to the voting results as another failure of democracy. After all, look at how many Americans were stupid or otherwise duped in 1992 and then 1996.<BR/><BR/>In fact, to expand upon Podhoretz's analysis, Paris' departure was like Ross Perot's 1992 candidacy. Though they're different in that one left the competition and the other entered, both involved a split in the vote. Podhoretz made sense to say that with Paris gone, her supporters probably went more for Katherine and Elliot than for Chris.Perry Eidelbushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09707615907666584863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148260.post-1148003763767883862006-05-18T21:56:00.000-04:002006-05-18T21:56:00.000-04:00Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the voting aud...Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the voting audited by an independent firm? Wouldn't that debunk the "we don't want three male finalists" conspiracy theories?<BR/><BR/>Perry, I love your blog, but you are a pure socialist when it comes to American Idol.CaptiousNuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14440029537418230507noreply@blogger.com