The current public flaying of Paris Hilton does have to do with the national consciousness, but not in the way Wilson thinks. It is not some once-a-decade need to persecute blondes so we can ignore the more serious issues around us. It is because Hilton embodies two major problems that rile the Americans that are not ridiculously rich. First is the divide between the rich and the rest of us. Joe Baca ran around yesterday saying that Hilton got no preferential treatment. I have a hard time imagining that if I had been drunk driving without a license after prior offenses that I would have had my sentence halved and then been sent home because I cried a lot in prison. I am middle class, so this is not even getting into the poor person that has to use a third rate public defender. The problem here is that this illustrates that our government runs two tiered system: Those who can pay to play and the rest of us. Second is the disconnect between the mainstream media (CNN)/political class (represented by Joe Baca) and the rest of us. The LA Times Online did a poll that asked if Hilton should be sent back to jail. 90% said yes, but the media acts like this is a travesty. This is much like the talking heads who tell us that all serious people need to think and act serious and to demonstrate this seriousness we must stay in Iraq when some polls say 75% of Americans want us the hell out of there to some degree or another. Our political and media classes are divided from the rest of us and this fuels the anger even more.

Agree with other people:

The X-Files

The Jeffersons

The Sopranos

Star Trek

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Battestar Galactica (2003)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The OC

Some not yet mentioned-

Angel

Firefly

The 4400

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Golden Girls

In Living Color

How I Met Your Mother