Crap.

I'm of a mind that celebrities have the same right as anyone else to speak their piece when it comes to politics. Make no mistake; I believe that Rosie, Alec, and even Sean Penn can say whatever the hell that they want to say. (The obvious exception being that Alec can call Cheney a terrorist, but when he calls his daughter a pig his visiting rights probably ought to be limited.) At the same time, I've got the right to shut them off, to boycott their movies or shows, and to refuse to support networks that promote their views. At no point do I feel like the government needs to intervene, even when folks are spouting lies about our president and about our troops. Except in the most rare of circumstances, such as those handful of areas outlined in the United States Constitution, I don't really think that the government needs to get involved in much at all.

However, Sheryl Crow thinks that the government is needs to tell me how many squares of toilet paper I should use in one sitting. Now, without being too graphic, let me just say that my physiology makes it literally impossible to use less than 5 squares on a good day. I'm sure that Sheryl recognizes these sorts of situations must exist, so I assume that, because she doesn't "want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights," Sheryl would promote a system whereby, if I provide a notarized note from my doctor, I could be allowed a few extra squares. Of course, my TP license would have to be renewed on a regular basis, to make sure that the situation hasn't resolved itself. After all, it wouldn't be fair to everyone else if I got to keep using 5 squares.

Now, I used to have quite a bit of respect for Sheryl. She went on the USO tours, and was relatively mellow about the whole government-is-the-answer thing, preferring to take the individual responsibility route. I don't know if it's Laurie David's influence, or if she's just gone off her rocker the way that celebrities are prone to do. Truthfully, I don't much care. With this, I've lost respect for her.

The hypocrisy of the left on the issue of the environment has been covered elsewhere, but let me just point out that there are a hell of a lot of ways that Sheryl could reduce her carbon footprint, apart from restricting my use of TP, starting with the crap she needs for a tour. Hell, I'm not even calling for the government to force her to do anything. I'd like to see her announce that she's dropping 1 if not 2 busses. I'd like to see the plan for using all of that food and drink she demands, without having any go to waste. Nope, that would be too difficult. Better to have the government force Bob Younce use 1 square of TP than to disappoint her bass player.