What do The two political parties and Britney Spears have in common? The answer is, obviously: very little. Well, then, what do Britney Spears and Shrek have in common? The answer is: they both rank very high on the list of popular internet search words. The interesting part of this that, if you look today at a site such as Google's "Hot Trends" you are likely to find Spears and Shrek on the top ten list but not see a single political candidate or a named issue. Now, why do you suppose that is?

Why, indeed, are pop stars and cartoon characters more popular than our own real-life political leaders? Well, for one thing, you need to be able to spell it to search for it on the web. Spears and Shrek are not too tough but who can spell Giuliani? For that matter, is it Richardson or Richardsen? I don't know; is he Norwegian? Actually, he is Mexican.

Ok, so maybe folks just get frustrated trying to enter wrong names in the search block and decide to settle for Spears. But, somehow, I doubt that. Maybe - just maybe - we are bored by our own political turmoil and rhetoric. And, maybe - just maybe - we are really looking for entertainment and escape from reality. Both Spears and Shrek can give us a safe place to focus our attentive energies where we need not think too hard and, better yet, need not feel like we need to take a responsible position. Just think about the viability of the Social Security system and then think about Britney Spears' ability to be a parent. OK? Now which thought process required you to feel a sense of social or individual responsibility and which just alowed you to feel good by entertaining you? I know my answer and I know that I find it much easier to focus on Spears and Shrek than on national politics. Well, maybe that's not so bad. Can you picture Shrek sending troops overseas to make a point? It does seem to be a fact that we, as an educated and technical-minded population, will, when left all to ourselves in privacy, focus our energies on the easy stuff.

I wonder if we ought to be concerned about that. Naw, maybe I'll watch a football game.