Justice, Paris style

Today I had some consultants from Best Buy come in to give me the low down on where I should be placing the new LCD flat screen tv I plan to be purchasing in the next few months (the Samsung 13" that I bought 12 years ago is finally on the fritz and since I paid $350 originally, and since it would cost at least that much to fix it, I figured a new tv was on my horizon). For those of you who will derisively tell me that getting consultants in was a waste of money, I actually think for someone as technologically challenged, both in terms of know-how and in terms of current trends, having them here was very helpful, although they pretty much regarded me like a crazy person when I told them I was not investing in HDTV, and no, I don't have TIVO or On Demand or anything else (I pay $20 for cable and adding HDTV would be $50--why do it? I don't want that much tv, but I want to sink a tv on my wall and watch movies).

Why am I bringing all of this up? Partly to show how ignorant I am of technology trends, or maybe trends in general, which is a bit myopic for one who claims to be interested in race and popular culture.

But I just feel like I can't be bothered and it's now how I want to choose to spend my money. I mean, sure, I could spend a ton of money on a home theater system. But since I watch about 2 hours of tv a day, at most, this doesn't seem to be a good investment. And since I don't care all that much about the quality of my picture or sound, again, doesn't seem like the best way to spend my money--I even turned off the text messaging function on my cell phone because I can't be bothered with receiving, let alone sending messages.

And thus, I also don't follow certain celebrity trends and stories. Like the Paris Hilton jail thing. I mean, one can't help but hear rumblings about all of this, and yet, I never bothered to click on the link in the NY Times...until today. Because today's headline announced that after 5 days, Paris would be moved from her prison cell to her home--that she would spend her remaining jail time under house arrest.

Gross.

That's what it feels like. A gross injustice of the American penal and justice system. A gross injustice in terms of class and celebrity status. And since I pretty much feel Paris Hilton is gross herself (I just don't get why she's all that--blond, thin, and willing to wear skimpy clothing and act stupid, is that her appeal?), gross seems to be the right word to describe how I feel about this whole situation. It's gross that she was able to buy her way out of jail because of her family's power and her current celebrity status.

And really, is anyone surprised that a rich, blond white girl would be able to cry her way out of jail? I'm sure all the incarcerated prisoners, of color or not, who are poor, working class, and particularly those who are black and Latino who have been targeted, racially, I'm sure they can all empathize with poor little Paris.