Back in the USA

Go Linda! From CNN:

Singer Linda Ronstadt was thrown out of the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas on the weekend after dedicating a song to liberal film maker Michael Moore and his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11," a casino spokeswoman said Monday.

Ronstadt, who had been hired for a one-show engagement Saturday night at the Las Vegas Strip casino, dedicated a performance of "Desperado" to Moore and his controversial documentary, which criticizes President Bush and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

That dedication angered some Aladdin guests who spilled drinks, tore down posters and demanded their money back, said casino spokeswoman Sara Gorgon.

"We had quite a scene at the box office," she said.

Exactly the type of crowd I'd expect in Vegas. I've never been there, but I despise the total wastefulness of the place. No water, a hellish climate fought by untold gigawatts to chill the flashy, noisy casinos down to 68 degrees. The NBC Nightly News had a segment on Vegas' water shortage a couple of weeks ago; it will probably be the first of many western cities to become a ghost town in the next 30-50 years, followed quickly by Phoenix and LA. Still, people who've just moved there (and there are thousands of those) continue to waste precious water on their stupid grass lawns.

I've been, briefly, in the noisy, ugly, smokey casinos in Tahoe, and imagine the Vegas casinos as being just noisier, uglier and smokier. People fly and drive their SUV's thousands of miles to act like idiots, willingly giving their money to gangsters. It sounds like Linda is sick of the place too--she probably knew her praise of Moore would piss off the mostly Repug crowd:

Before her concert, Ronstadt had laughingly told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she hoped that the casino performance would be her last.

"I keep hoping that if I'm annoying enough to them, they won't hire me back," she was quoted as telling the newspaper.

I used to be Ronstadt fan; I think I am again!