Easy to forget how depressing the US can be.

Here's a paragraph on current events in American pop culture that caught my eye while reading a Pittsburgh sports blog. It starts out by referring to the revelation that star baseball player Alex Rodriguez---thought to be the antidote to Barry Bonds---took steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers:

But to wrap up the steroid talk, does anything really surprise you at this point? Seriously, let's take a look at some of the things that have happened in the last week or so: a female rapper performed at the Grammy Awards while nine months pregnant; a pop star's weight gain is being covered like a national tragedy; a mother of six has octuplets; the Super Bowl winning QB claimed he played with broken ribs, a claim which isn't exactly embraced; and a male rapper beats up a female pop star, delivering injuries described as "horrific". Really, are we nearing the point where we are numb to shock as a society? It's almost become a sick game of can you top this? If Michael Phelps was the #1 story last week, he's falling faster than a BCS team losing to a mid-major this week.

I'm sure there are more examples to add, but except for a few . . . exceptions, I don't pay attention to what the kids are into back home. Of course each time I visit FoxNews.com I'm almost convinced it's reporting on modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.