I have enjoyed watching American Idol over the years. At the very begining of the season, of course, the shows features some of the bizarre and terrible auditions held across the country. Adding to the comical mix is the reaction of the panel of judges.

While judge Simon Cowell was castigated by some is an unpopular guy, I appreciated his candor. For the most part he was always right on the money as far as discerning who had talent and who did not. Unlike Paula Abdul, who is not as discriminating and sugarcoated things, Cowell didn't flinch in telling someone the unvarnished truth that they couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle.

I am amused that someone who has no talent - while believing they do - has the courage to audition and risk being placed on national TV.

Some of those auditioners like William Hung must know that they can't sing but want their 15 minutes of fame. Others perhaps believe in their heart that they sing well but are truly deceived; and nobody in their lives has told them the truth. In many instances the horrible singer can't take the truth issued by the judges. Some of the spoiled brat varieties wig out, using obscenities in front of the camera and flipping off viewers. Alexis Cohen of Allentown, Pa., actually grabbed her rump while stating to Simon Cowell: "If I could legally moon you, I would." Others cry and pout and cry as their dreams crumble in reality.

This caused me to think, how can some people get that far offbase from reality? Is it because they wanted to believe what they wanted to believe and never fully sought out truth? That leads me to this idea: If people can develop personal biases about singing abilities, certainly they have their blind spots about politics and religion. Could their emotions trump logic?

Go no farther than the left-wing political bodies in California. In 2008, the Berkeley City Council passed two resolutions attacking the Marine Corps, calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders in the city." They condemned the Marines as part of a campaign by anti-war activists to shut down a U.S. Marine Recruiting Center in Berzerkly. One of Berkeley's resolutions grants a parking spot in front of the Marine Recruiting Center to be used by anti-military activists to harass Marine recruiters.

Only in the land of freedom can you have officials who swore to uphold and defend the Constitution to actually put down a great American military institution that has defended the cause of American freedom. If it up to Berkeley, we wouldn't have the Marines and would be speaking Japanese or German today. Has the Berkeley City Council forgotten that freedom must be defended?

Then there is the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that tends to worry more about meddling in people's personal lives rather than actually govern the city. You know, things like dictate the content of McDonald's Happy Meals, or tell parents they can't circumsize their baby boys. Or that people can't have goldfish because the mass breeding of goldfish causes them "inhumane suffering." This is the same group that in 2006 voted 8-3 to banish the USS Iowa from San Francisco Bay because it was an instrument of war. The rest of the country was in disbelief.

Like Jim Mullen said in a San Francisco Examiner op-ed: "San Francisco elites are privileged, spoiled, and childlike creatures ruled by their emotions and lost in a 1960's rebellion mindset. They spend their empty lives acting up and lashing out at the establishment and middle-American values."

What about those who treat the issue of global warming as more than an unproved theory? They have adopted a concept of man destroying the environment as a religion of sorts. The same who call for man to end his polluting ways will jump in any car to go listen to a global warming seminar.
How about some American Idol truthfulness dished out to PETA (People for the Ethic Treatment of Animals)? That's the group that caterwauls about animals being equal to people; the group that would be elated if we all gave up eating meat. In my opinion - and apparently a concept backed up in Scripture - the animal was put on Earth by the Creator to work for and feed man. Most of us realize that a cow doesn't have the same rights the human does.
On a local scale, we can offer Simon Cowell's brand of truthfulness to those who insist that a Wal-Mart Supercenter would destroy life in Ceres knows it. It's annoying to hear emotionalism trump facts. They apparently weren't around when Wal-Mart was proposed for Hatch Road in the early 1990s when people made wildly exaggerated claims that Wal-Mart would destroy Ceres' economy. None of it came to pass. Indeed, Ceres has more retail today than Ceres' pre-Wal-Mart days. Be honest, if you're singing the anti Supercenter song, then admit it's not because you really believe in free enterprise but probably due to your passions for labor unions. But don't stand there whistling this shreik that Wal-Mart, as a whole, is a violator of human rights for its workers. Spare me. Nobody is holding a gun to heads of workers and saying they have to work at Wal-Mart.

I have a feeling someone, somewhere is flipping me off or seething with obscenities. I've seen this behavior on American Idol.

How do you feel? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com