It’s not “the media,” because the media comprises People magazine, The National Enquirer, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

People who assume “the media” is one entity are ignorant.

But I am sick of these media personalities, like “tough guy” Geraldo Rivera, who I am watching right now. This loser, never considered a real journalist (Remember Al Capone’s vault? Remember his Jerry Springer days?), is bemoaning the “pain” of the middle class. Awww, how sweet of this adulturous loser ….

Does anyone really think Geraldo, or Bill, or Anderson, seriously empathizes with “middle-class” Americans? These media assholes are going to be fine, they know it, and they don’t give a shit about average Americans.

So if you want to trash “the media” and are referring to these TV assholes — and not respectable institutions like the New York Times — more power to you.

Right now, the system is set to discriminate against anyone who is not part of a heterosexual union. Remember the so-called, repealed “marriage penalty”?

Giving gays the same legal rights as hetero couples makes an unfair system even more unfair — against singles, of any sexual persuasion.

Easy solution? Do not grant ANY person special tax benefits, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. I would make an exception for couples (gay and straight) who have kids.

But someone please tell me why any couple, gay or straight, childless, should get tax benefits that single people do not. And don’t give me this crap about “you could always get married.” Easy to say to some 22-year-old punk … not so easy to say to middle-aged, divorced people.

So gays (and Hollywood celebrities), stop screaming about “discrimination” until you acknowledge that you are not the ONLY group suffering from it. In fact, I’m guessing there are one helluva lot more single people screwed by the tax system than gays.

So go vote, true Americans. Show these assholes what we think of them.

I’m thinking of this as I watch Larry King tonight, in which Christopher Hitchens is pitted against a bunch of bonehead Republicans. Hitchens is making cogent points about Obama vs. McCain, and he is clearly the only intelligent voice on the show.

But this is the same man who recently wrote an atheistic book (haven’t read it, but he’s probably spot-on).

My point is, Hitchens is an intellectual who is leagues above his “competition” when it comes to logic and reasoning, and yet … he is the only panelist on Larry King who never gets to smile.

I believe he is right, but miserable.

Elwood P. Dowd would understand.

“Red Eye” makes sure that every episode features some conservative, Stepford-Wife-like conservative bimbo, whose job it is to look good, paste on that fake homecomng queen smile, and laugh as the adolescent boys make penis and vagina jokes.

Apparently, the other guests are required to sign contracts stipulating that they laugh like retarded orangutans at every comment that is made, no matter how inane. The result is a nightmare: five or six idiots laughing non-stop, idiotically, at every comment Greg Gutless and his cohorts spew.

This is about as low as television gets.

Billy Boy, after this commercial break, is about to pay homage to, in his words, an “American hero,” Paul Newman.

O’Reilly, who regularly pillories American movie stars as “pinheads” for their liberal views, is apparently unaware of, or giving a pass to, Newman’s status as an unabashed liberal.

But, what choice does O’Reilly have? Other than redneck country stars, he has very few conservative celebrities to honor. That should (but won’t) tell him something about Americans’ taste in culture.