By Jess Nobert | Senior Staff Writer

Miley Cyrus was a guest judge on “American Idol” this week. Since The All State goes to print before the show airs, I can’t really tell how I feel about her actual appearance.

I can, however, tell you I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. I was reading “The TV Column” from The Washington Post online when I found out about her appearance.

What does this girl have that can’t be found in an adult? Is it success as an actress? Is it her famous daddy or her latest movie set to come out next week?

I can’t lie, I like to rock out to Miley just as much as my friends would love to deny, but I just don’t get why she gets to be on Idol. (And of course, as soon as I wrote that, I had a burning desire to pull up my iTunes and type her name into the search field and press play.)

That wasn’t all I learned from the column though. “She’s also the youngest-ever multi-platinum recording artist to have four No. 1 albums in less than three years.”

Keeping with pop culture and reality TV, Kate Gosselin is on “Dancing with the Stars.” According to the story from USA Today, Gosselin said she’s “grateful to have a job and everybody who gives me work so I can support eight kids. That’s my goal in life.” Like my Miley fandom, I do feel a little ridiculous when I have to admit to my non-college girlfriends I am, or, was a fan of “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

So I can admire her desire to work, since she was doing so much work in front of a camera for those years. Granted, she did end up writing a few books, and that is real work.

I can only imagine. Either way, I just think it’s ridiculous how reality personalities become famous enough to be on a ballroom dancing show. And as far as a ballroom dancing reality show, don’t even get me started on that ridiculousness.

Octomom. Usually that’s all I have to say to bring about feelings of ridiculousness. But she’s back in the news, great. Her house is going into foreclosure, so as if to offer a helping hand, Steven Hirsch, president of Vivid Entertainment, an adult entertainment company, offered her something we will just have to see if she can refuse.

The company offered her a deal last year of $1 million, but she refused.

This time, the offer was less than half, cut back to the $460,000 she owes on her home, according to Salon.com.

My favorite part of the story was the beginning. “After all, she has the trait that is more sought-after within the industry than even [augmented body parts]: total desperation.”

I was reading a story about Tiger making a comeback to golf and potentially competing in the Masters at Augusta in Georgia when I came across something startlingly appalling.

Now I knew they only started letting African-Americans play there since the ’90s, but I did not know they didn’t allow women as members.

In the article from Salon.com, it was reported “In 2002, its chairman, Hootie Johnson, told USA Today, ‘We’re a private club. And private organizations are good. The Boy Scouts. The Girl Scouts. Junior League. Sororities. Fraternities.’”

As an alumnae member of a Greek organization, I can appreciate that part, but I just don’t see a golf club on par with those standards. We’ve all heard the term “old boys club” but it appears Augusta really is one.

I hope everyone enjoyed spring break and survived mid-terms.

Before I get into the new ridiculous stories I found, I want to go back and hit a few I missed out on while I was catching up on my Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

In early February, the first TEA Party convention was in Nashville. I am so sorry I had to miss it, but I suppose I can try to make the next one. Sarah Palin, America’s second would-be neighbor, spoke at the convention and made a fool of herself.

I understand President Obama has become a little ridiculous with his teleprompter dependency, like the one he brought to speak to a school classroom, but Palin just went over the edge. I suppose she was afraid to forget her shopping list so she wrote it on her hand. Oh wait, that wasn’t her shopping list, it was her speaking notes. Seriously?

Though I didn’t see it anywhere during her initial speech when she referred to her note hand, she made a very obvious glance at it during an interview afterward.

You know that sneak you tried to pull in middle school when you didn’t know the answer and the teacher always busted you? It was that exact thing.

How in the world is this person so admired when she can’t even think to take a piece of paper with her to a lectern? Ridiculous.

So Sarah, next time you make a joke about Barack, refer to your notes on how you can do better. I just hope they’re not written on your hand.

And I guess the Republicans were just on a roll while I was away, but they’re the stars in this story, too.

After a heavy load of Obama bashing when it comes to what they call his “elitist behavior” and spending so much time in exotic places, The Republican National Committee held its annual meeting in Hawaii.

John Oliver from “The Daily Show” did such a great job of satirizing the meeting where they really dug themselves in a hole. But don’t worry, Michael Steele, RNC chairman clarified when he said, “This is not a vacation.”

When someone gripes about spending too much money, do they usually follow it up with an island vacation?

When someone complains about how universal health care is the worst thing for our country, do they go to a place that has been successfully using it for 40 years only to say what a failure it is? Well, the RNC does.

But the simple act of having their meeting in Hawaii wasn’t enough to make them look stupid. They said a lot of great things as well. I’ll give you just a few of my favorites.

As Oliver put it, “When Obama comes to Hawaii, its because hes out of touch and elitist. When republicans come to Hawaii its because

…” The unnamed woman he was interviewing had no response.

Another attendee said the change has to start with fiscal responsibility. “The average American is having a real tough time,” said another man, as he’s hanging out in Hawaii.

Not to mention the private submarine they got to play on.

Ridiculous. You can watch the clip for yourself on “The Daily Show’s” Web site www.thedailyshow.com/videos. It’s under the title RNC Meeting in Hawaii.

Other than a few political figures gaffing worse than Joe Biden lately, I found a few short stories I just couldn’t help but share.

Straight from the AP, “Authorities believe a Washington [50-year-old Roy Messenger] was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash.”

According to the article from The Seattle Times’ Web site, authorities believed Messenger was not seriously injured from the crash.

“[Grays Harbor County sheriff’s Deputy Dave] Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn’t see the live wire. The urine stream likely served as a conductor, allowing the electricity to reach his body.”

I thought “hand-o-prompters,” hypocritical vacations and death by urinating electrocution was ridiculous until I saw this simple story about a glaring first amendment rights violation.

“A Mississippi high school faces a lawsuit over its decision to cancel its prom rather than allow a lesbian high school student to attend with her girlfriend,” reported CNN.com.

Not that Mississippi needs any more discrimination in their history, but this is just a little too ridiculous for the 21st century.

According to the article, “At the center of the lawsuit is a memorandum from the school to students, dated February 5, which states that prom dates must be of the opposite sex.”

“In a statement released Wednesday, the county’s board of education said that, ‘Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year,’” the article states.

Wow. I just couldn’t believe it. When I was in high school, not that long ago, in the South, I went with two friends, of the same sex. No one thought anything of it, and we had a prom.

We weren’t the only group of girls with “dates” who weren’t of the opposite sex. How long is it going to take to recognize that we are all different and it’s OK? I guess Mississippi just likes to take its time on these things.

Jess Nobert | Senior Writer

Like most of us right before spring break, the past week has been just as busy. The Winter Olympics, “The Bachelor” and the beer bet across the border are a few of the highlights of this week.

The first story I came across as ridiculous is one most everyone will appreciate. You’ve probably heard the song “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon. And like everyone else whose head it got stuck in, I’m sure you’ve always wondered who the song is about?

According to the story on CNN.com, “The man’s first name is David,” she told CNNRadio, “but it could be one of many Davids.”

The story went on to tell of which David is supposed to be the one who is so vain, but Simon’s agent has said it is not record executive David Geffen, who was in charge of Simon’s record label at the time. The ridiculous part, as Simon said no matter who it is, she is still amused the song is so perplexing and is still leaving people curious after almost 40 years. As she told CNN.com in 2002, “It amuses me that I’m still being asked.”

As of press time Monday, March 1, the season finale of “The Bachelor” had yet to air. But in reality, it doesn’t matter which one he picked. The rumor going around before the show was he might choose no one, according to a USA Today story.

I’ve never been much of one for cheesy matchmaking shows, so naturally, I’ve never actually watched “The Bachelor.” Isn’t the point for him to meet a girl, fall in love and live happily ever after?

So far, that hasn’t really been the case for many of the couples, except for Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, who just got married over the weekend. I only know this because of the story on UsMagazine.com.

The ridiculousness of this story is whether he will give out a rose at all. Isn’t that the whole point of the show? For him to find “love” and give her the last rose and live happily ever after only to break up six weeks later and end up on the cover of Star magazine?

No matter what happens, I’m sure it will be fine. Fans will talk about it for a few weeks, then get back to the rest of the world.

Speaking of the world, remember how for the last two weeks, nothing has been on NBC other than those sports? Well, apparently, since Russia didn’t do so hot, the president is calling for some people to quit their jobs over it.

Though he didn’t mention any names, “Russia President Dmitry Medvedev demanded Monday that sports officials step down over the country’s dismal performance at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver,” according to ESPN.com’s Vancouver 2010 Web site.

In televised comments, Medvedev said if those responsible for preparing the athletes don’t resign, then the decision will be made for them.

The article went on to say Russia has never finished out of the top five in medal standings until now. And as for the Soviets from 1956 to 1988, they were on top all but twice.

“Several Russian politicians have called for Vitaly Mutko, who was appointed sports minister in May 2008, to step down,” according to the article.

We all know the Russians didn’t do so hot in hockey either, but since the gold medal game was between the U.S. and Canada, the leaders of the two nations placed a friendly bet on the contest.

President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper bet a case of beer on the game. Obviously, Obama lost the bet, like I did with my Canadian friends.

According to the AP,

“White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had a case of Yuengling riding on the game.”

Harper wagered 24 bottles of Molson. The beer battle pitted Canada’s oldest brewery against the oldest beer maker in the United States.

There was no word on where the cross-border exchange would occur. Though I didn’t bet a case of beer — that would be insane since it’s so expensive in Sweden — we did bet if the U.S. won, in honor of the other Jack Johnson, the Canadians would make banana pancakes. But since they were the victors, I had to sing “O Canada” when their team got their gold medals.

By Jess Nobert | Senior Staff Writer

The Olympic Games were in full swing over the last week, and so was the rest of the world. I watched the U.S. win, and caught a few other interesting stories, too.

The day was Sunday. It was Feb. 21; the day the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat Canada. Facebook and Twitter were flooded with comments of the victory, and everyone cared about hockey.

Then it was Wednesday, and no one cared again. Ridiculous. As a fan of the game, even if the watching part isn’t always by my own free will, I was shocked to see how many closet, er, bandwagon fans were out there.

This was one of the great events of the games, and it’s great everyone wanted to watch and share in their two weeks of American pride, but I think it’s ridiculous how everyone went crazy when most probably don’t know three guys who were on the ice during that contest, on either team.

I watched the game with one of my Canadian friends, it was on in the middle of the night in Sweden, and we were both excited because we know how great the players are who were competing. But the difference is we both watch and care about it outside of the Olympics.

But while everyone has been up in the air about the international sport contests, NASA has been working out ways for regular people to go to space. Well, after they let the scientists go, and it’s not going to be cheap.

According to the article on Discovery.com, “Even at $200,000 a ticket, the lines for a suborbital ride into space may soon be growing longer.

The U.S. government is proposing to spend $75 million over the next five years to send science experiments — and presumably scientists — into space.” Granted this has been going on for a few days longer than the Olympics, it’s a pretty big deal if you ask me.

But how ridiculous is this? Remember back when Lance Bass was going to go to space with the Russians? Yeah, it didn’t happen. Oh, Bass is the cute one from *NSYNC who isn’t Justin Timberlake.

My guess is, the first, or maybe second, person in line for these tickets is Tiger Woods. His press conference last week sure was out of this world. He started off in a dramatic Obama-like fashion, speaking slow for emphasis, and he failed at that.

Tiger, I don’t see a career in public speaking in your future. Stick to golf. He went on about how he cheated and how it’s all between his wife Elin, who is Swedish, and himself. Don’t follow his kids to school, and leave his family alone.

But why is his 2-year-old in school? I didn’t think kids had to start that until at least 4 years old. But don’t worry, I’m leaving the kids out of it.

Now that I’ve got you thinking Sweden, I’ve been kind of torn during these games when it comes down to whom I’m cheering for.

Usually, if it’s the U.S. competing, that’s a given. Then I usually pick Canada and Japan because those countries are a “part of my heritage,” but now I have this Nordic country to think about.

So when there’s no skiing or hockey, I usually end up with curling on TV. It’s not a very common sport in the States, but l figured since the U.S. has a team, maybe I can learn a little about it.

So I Googled it, and read up, and started watching. It’s hard, to use a term from the sport, to understand here because all the commentary is in Swedish, but when they yell, it still comes out in English pretty much regardless of their home country.

What I don’t get, however, is how is this a sport? It’s a guy, or woman, throwing a rock down a sheet of ice and two others scrubbing with brooms to make it go faster, slower or take a turn.

Then a fourth team member tries to keep it in the Target logo, and at the same time, try to knock out the other team’s rocks.
I don’t get how curling is a sport, much less in the Olympics, especially when women’s softball has been eliminated from the summer contest. It just seems ridiculous to me .