...To Make a Long Story Short...

Nice hat... douche.Well, super-douche Ashton Kutcher became the first person to reach the one million follower mark on Twitter.  Some of you may be wondering what the significance of such a feat means in this day and age. I'm here to tell don't.

It's pretty fucking pointless. 

Twitter is essentially a text messaging where you don't pick who the message is going to. Instead other people choose to receive the 140 character max messages you send out by becoming a "follower" of yours.  From then on they see anything you then send out. You send out a message, your followers see it. That's it.  

Super-douche Ashton Kutcher enacted a big push near the end in the hopes to reach the 1 million mark, before closest competitor CNN Newsbreak. He announced that he would be donating 10,000 net to the Nothing But Nets foundation. An organization that helps to fight malaria by providing mosquito nets to 3rd world countries that need them the most. 

Which really got under my skin.

I should back that up a bit before getting to that specifically; his initial idea was to simply Ding-Dong-Ditch Ted Turner if he won.

This apparently didn't seem to do the trick in adding the amount of "Followers" he needed because a day later he added to that; by promising a Guitar Hero game to his 1 millionth follower.

Still not satisfied by the results he stumbled upon the thing that would eventually get him quite a bit of recent media attention by deciding to donate nets through the Nothing But Nets foundation if he won.

Now back to the part where this makes him a huge douche.

He initially offered to buy 1,000 nets on World Malaria Day if he beat CNN to one million.

"IF" being the key word there. To mean that the 1,000 kids who needed these nets would go without IF he didn't win this stupid race? Granted it could have been mistyped, or more simply he intended to buy them anyways regardless like a normal human being would. He actually followed up that Tweet about 15 minutes later with:

Oh Mr Kutcher, you say "good point" but I don't think you really get the point at all.

Now, Mr Kutcher's money belongs to Mr Kutcher. Regardless of whether or not I, or anyone else, thinks he's actually worth the amount of money he gets paid in his acting or producing roles; it's his money, and he's earned it simply because someone paid it to him. He can do whatever the fuck he wants to do with it.  If he wants to give it all away; give it all away. If he wants to keep it; then keep it.  It's his.  

The problem that I have is when he clearly has the means to help, AND has stated the desire to do so but then puts a fucking caveat in that he would withhold a portion of this assistance if he doesn't win some dick measuring contest.

That's just petty. And it reeks of a desire use this disease solely to help him win.

People dying in tents shouldn't be waiting to see if they will be getting help based on whether or not some jackass wins some meaningless race.  Malaria is a terrible disease and its treatment needs to be taken seriously. The easing of human suffering isn't to be bandied about like some stuffed bear at a carnival game.

When you get down to it there are a lot of causes out there that need people with the means and desire to help them.  I've always been of the mind that while they all need our help, it’s simply too much for one person to do. But what we can do is just pick one cause and make it ours. It would go a long way to making the world a better place. 

If you are out there and are looking for a cause to help, the fight against Malaria isn't a bad one to take up.  It’s one where even just a little bit of money can go a long way and the people at Nothing But Nets have made it easy to help.   

If you want to help; then help. These people deserve better.