The People who Shape Our World

Rarely do I read these lists .... I guess I've avoided doing so for a lot of reasons over the years, but mostly it's because for me, they have the same importance as voting for your high school class president. So, I don't know what prompted my to initially glance at Joel Stein's list in TIME magazine.

Unfortunately the list is like potato chips, you can't just take a glance! The cover defines the issue... "TIME The Most Influential People in the World." The list is hyped by the internal headline of The People who Shape Our World, followed by a teaser line of..."Here's our list of the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world."

Whoa, now that's a pretty tall order! Being one of only 100 humans who because of their talent, power or moral example is changing the entire world! I'm figuring..."Wow! This is gonna be some list!"

Boy, am I stupid!

Let's play a game...I'm going to list some names.....you tell me if they're included on the list or not. Just answer YES or No.

Remember the watch words are, TALENT - POWER - MORAL EXAMPLE - TRANSFORMING THE WORLD! This should be fun.

Dame Helen Mirren - Oscar winner.......NO
Tina Fey - used to be on Saturday Night Live, now on 30 Rock.........YES!
PM Tony Blair or President George Bush .......NO
Dictator of Sudan and Osama bin Laden.........YES!
Stephen Hawking - World Renowned Physicist and Thinker......NO
(God forgive me) Al Gore - World Renowned "Scientist and Thinker," ........YES! (holy shit!)
Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann - Fat assed, liberal, white-bread talk show hosts......NO
Fat assed, liberal, white-bread lesbian talk show host, Rosy O'Donnell .........YES!
Brittany Spears - bald pop singer.........NO
Bald pop singer who once dated Brittany Spears, Justin Timberlake........YES!
Tom Hanks, Oscar winning Actor or Stephen Spielberg Oscar winning Producer ...........NO
Sasha Baron Cohen ("Borat") and Leonardo DiCaprio ......YES!
Fidel Castro, Cuban Dictator - still alive.......NO
Raul Castro, brother of still alive Cuban Dictator........YES!
And 6 special mentions from the Hero's & Pioneers section.....
Model - Tyra Banks......YES!
Actor - George Clooney.....YES!
Tennis dude - Roger Federer........YES!
Actor and Stem Cell proponent - Michael J. Fox......YES!
Famous French soccer player - Theirry Henry.......YES!
Yankee pitcher - Chein-ming Wang.......YES!

Now, I don't want to question any of Mr. Stein's selections, but when you select a Yankee pitcher whose career record is 28 & 13 in the Hero and Pioneer section well, now you've gone too far!!! Carl Pavano is a Yankee pitcher who has more career wins than Wang with 63!

And for the love of God where's BONO??? You got The Pope ... you can't have His Holiness without Bono!

How can you include luminaries like lesbian O'Donnell and leave off lesbian luminary DeGeneris?? Tell me that?

And finally in Stein's most glaring oversight of all - If you can include Barack Obama (who hopes to become America's first black President) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (who hopes to become America's first female President), how can you possibly leave off Senator Teddy Kennedy who certainly is powerful enough, and would become America's first murderer President! Huh? How'd you miss that!

QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE, PRIUS DEMENTAT - Euripides