Mother spent hours yesterday watching news reporting of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II's great-grandson. Literally 6 hours of television in which all they had to say was "it's a boy." No idea what its name will be, no details on the delivery, no press conference from the royal family. Just reporters gibbering at one another, "have you heard that there's a baby!?!"

CNN gleefully ran and reran footage of an American woman standing at the gates of Buckingham Palace saying how magical this event was. As if she didn't previously understand that children weren't really delivered by storks. As if this was the end of the fairy tale, and from this point forward we all lived happily ever after.

I don't get it. Kim Kardashian is as close as America gets to royalty. She has her own TV show, and her new baby hasn't gotten 6 hours of coverage.

It strikes me as a little offensive that we're already acting like this kid is somehow more important than all the other babies in the world. Once upon a time, America went to war to ensure that it wouldn't have a royal family, so what are we so excited about now? Even in Britain, the royal family isn't exactly necessary to the governance, so celebrating the birth as "continuity of succession" isn't entirely appropriate.

Hey, if the kid turns out to be the second coming of Christ or made from living chocolate, I'll understand. Otherwise, let's just say congratulations to the proud parents and get over it already.

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