America returns to normal

9/11 is over.
The war in Iraq is over.
America is back to what it does best: fun, frivolity, banality, and a little bit of scandal.
No more trauma, no more worries, bring on the bullshit, like Laura Bush's comedy turn.

How do I know this? Not only because the biggest story of last weekend was about a runaway bride. Oh no, I'm more scientific than that. I've noted that until two weeks ago, the most emailed articles from our paper of record, the NY Times, were all about serious stuff: the Iraq War, Bush administration, Social Security, etc. But now, after the last big media burp of the Pope and Terri Schiavo, pretty stupid things to get all hyped up anyway, what are the top emailed articles?

1. Daily Show Personality Gets His Own Platform
Stephen Colbert, who plays a phony correspondent on the fake-news program "The Daily Show," is getting his own show on Comedy Central.

2. A New Photoshop Makes Retouching Reality (Somewhat) Easier
Adobe Photoshop, the world's most popular photo-editing software, has added some new features. What could it possibly have been lacking?

3. All That Glisters Is Gold
The moral of the pretty duckling.

4. Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift
Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones.

5. SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors
Les Perelman worries that the new S.A.T. is teaching high school students terrible writing habits.

6. Basics: Internet Phones Arrive at Home (and Some Need No Computer)
For those with high-speed online connections, Internet calling and videoconferencing are finally taking off. So is the selection of tools.

7. India Fashion Week: More Is More, With a Dollop of Too Much
India Fashion Week, a crazily diverse showcase of contemporary Indian design aesthetics, would have been hard to imagine just 10 years ago.

8. Stuck in Lincoln's Land
Finding worth between the sacred and secular.

9. Can't Wal-Mart, a Retail Behemoth, Pay More?
With most of Wal-Mart's workers earning less than $19,000 a year, several groups have teamed up to prod Wal-Mart into paying its employees higher wages.

10. Reaping What It Sowed
The suicide bombings in Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are signs of the struggle that the U.S. attempt to erect democracy in Iraq has touched off.

Lots of frivolity there, before things turn to serious subjects. The Middle-East crops up only at No. 10! Soon we'll be more scared of shark attacks than terrorists. So light up the barbecue and fuck your neighbor's husband/wife. The good old USA is back to normal.