What Today's Headlines Tell The Cynical Me

They tell me that the United States is still interested in watching the mental and physical disintegration of Britney Spears. Somehow she has lost her membership in the human race and can now be treated as a zoo animal, or something worse, really, because we intervene when zoo animals are in pain and suicidal. We don't sell tickets for that.

Where did this thorough othering come from? Heath Ledger's death was treated as a similar entertainment show. Is it all those Reality Shows which have made it seem that it's ok to treat celebrities as if they are not human beings?

The other headline news has to do with yet another Al Qaeda leader being captured or killed. Why are they always number three? Why can't we ever catch or kill a number four, say?