Talking Heads

This is a subject I am always passionate about but during election season the talking head problem becomes an out of control plague. There are legitimate experts who opine on various things in all manner of public fora, some are interesting, some are not, some I agree with, some I don't. They do, however, have training, education, a fund of specialized knowledge that entitles them on some level to inflict their opinions on the rest of us. Then there are the empty suits; these are the apparently untrained nonspecialists who have convinced the powers that be that their opinion would be a good thing to broadcast. So I ask myself why I should care about these opinions, why I should listen to these opinions; what makes them worth anything. The answer, I fear, is that I don't know. I have opinions, why shouldn't they. But how do you elevate your opinion into something worth high pay and air wave time? This continues to be a mystery to me. Scarier yet is the fact that Americans seem to believe and place great stock in almost anyone's opinion if it is publicized; apparently if you are published you must have special knowledge and therefore should be believed. The average American does not appear to question public opinions. The beauty of America: everyone is entitled to an opinion and entitled to express it. I am free to turn them off.