Yahoo! Commentaries

I tend to fritter away quite a bit of time each week reading articles on Yahoo. The articles themselves aren't really what I consider a waste of time--I read lots of news articles and occasionally find some funny typos and stories. However, the comments that people leave for the articles tend to be ridiculous. I feel my time is wasted by reading them because they are so inane.

Yet they hold some interest for me, because if I read just one comment I usually can't stop. I'll read all of the comments available on that page. I couldn't possibly read all the comments on all of the articles I read because I'd have no time to get anything done.

The one thing that always somehow gets mentioned in the comments is politics. No matter what the article is about someone will blame something on Obama, the "demotards", the "republitards", the right wing extremists, the leftist nutjobs, etc. (by the way, I'm not a big fan of turning any word into a slur by adding "tard" to the end of it)

Here is a sampling of today's gems (comments are posted below the article link, with usernames removed; I added quotes to mark the beginning/end for comments; anything in red italics was added by me):

Schwarzenegger calls for same-sex weddings

"its no longer freedom of speech to express against gay marriage, but Homophobic!!!! our rights to express our opinions are slowly being taken away!!!!!! WHAT WILL BECOME OF THIS COUNTRY, IF WE NO LONGER CAN EXPRESS OUR OPINIONS WITHOUT BEING CALLED HOMOPHOBIC?"

"Christians are so retarded that they can only communicate in insults." Hmm, I wonder if this user sees the hypocrisy of his/her comment?

"You would think gay marriage is torture by the way Republicans oppose it. No wait, if it were torture Republicans would be all for it (sic)."

"diccs are for chicks you stupid turd burglers.I hope you all catch a bad disease and you're oscar myer weiner falls off."

"Most Americans are trying to get the government out of our lives. The gays want more government in their lives. There must be a problem in the gene pool!"

Man charged in NYC subway plot pleads not guilty

"Was Obamas guest at the White House. NICE!"

"All you gays better wake up. If Ilsalm has it's way your done."

"Osama & Obama will jointly officiate at the opening of the mosque near Ground Zero. Osama will then be given a grand tour of the White House. Then.....presto.......Osama 'escapes' to Pakistan right under the eyes of the CIA."

"of coures he is not guilty, our goverment let him in the usa. how can our goverment be wrong about such things? i hear muslims are loveing law abiding people. and our goverment says that they are all screened,history check before they are allowed in. seems like our imagation offices anit doing
such a good job. but our presidant,,or dictator,,needs votes and he knows the common white working
man will not vote for him,,ya all get it? our pres. hates americans"

Haiti faces a question: Who is Wyclef Jean?

"What's the fuss, he can't screw the place up anymore than it is. Who the Hell knows, he may actually do the country some good. If he doesn't just add him to the list of other dirtbags that have ripped off their fellow countrymen and stole all the forgein aid."

"just who is homer simpson? lol"

"Maybe the next earthquake will swallow the whole place, we could use a trash pit."

"Why are people complain about him running a nation. Seriously a lot of racist bigots out there. Here is my questions, if you hate black people so much why do you care about a "black" country? Hell why even care about Sean Penn? seeing you tea-braggers and republicants hate him so much for being a "libtard". Are you mad that you some how did not make 18million a year? Are you mad that you are not Haitian?
And for those saying that "why is this news?" Here is a question, why did you click on the link? Why don't you click on the link with snookie on it." I do agree with the last section--I've read so many comments bashing articles for not being "news" and saying things like "who the f*** cares?". The title of the article usually gives you a pretty good clue as to what the piece is going to be about. Also, there is an insatiable demand for new article content on the web. Writers have to create all kinds of stories from important news to fluff to feel good personal vignettes. Not everything has to be serious or important.

"I've been selling over 10 innertubes a week on Ebay BuyitNow $14.99 to Haitians."

Anyway, you get the idea. I guess maybe this is one of my guilty pleasures. It's not actually a pleasure though. More accurately, I'd label reading these comments as one of my "guilty procrastination habits".