Written by: Beck

Looking for inspiration for something to read about, I clicked over to CNN.com to have a look at the headlines. I was not disappointed. Right there on the front page I see the leed story, Coroner: Anna Nicole Smith Didn't Suffer.

Anna Nicole didn't suffer... and I still don't care. I just can't find it in me to care about the trials and tribulations of this woman and her bizarre entanglements. And yet I'm still fascinated by it! The number of people laying claim to fatherhood of her daughter alone defies belief. The magnitude of our collective obsession with this freakish story is equalled only by the insignificance of its importance.

So much of life is like that though. Just look at the upcoming presidential contest. Republican front runner Rudolph Giuliani is on his third wife, has had cancer, and lived for a while with a gay couple. Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton is, well, married to Bill Clinton. Barack Obama has one hell of a colorful story, and the current Republican dark horse of choice? Fred Thompson, an actor. He'll be in good company with other former actors-turned-politician Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and others.

And by "others" I mean "Sonny Bono."

And why is all of the above both true and relevant? Because, just like the Anna Nicole story, we prioritize our decision making according to criteria completely bereft of merit. Put more simply, we humans are really bad decision makers. Inexcusably bad.

Which makes you think twice about the virtues of Democracy.