Reuters is reporting that Shera Bechard, a former Playboy Playmate and one of Hugh Hefner’s many one-time girlfriends, is considered an “individual with extraordinary ability” by the U.S. government.  Her claim to extraordinariness?  She started the “Frisky Friday” Twitter trend, which has inspired “young women all over the world (to) tweet scantily-clad pictures of themselves on Fridays, with Playboy selecting a weekly winner.”  Seems pretty extraordinary to me!

Bechard, a native of Kapuskasing, Ontario, is one of thousands of foreign nationals granted temporary residence in the United States by an O-1 genius visa, an increasingly popular way for important people to come to America.  As Reuters reports, “The O-1 visa allows individuals of ‘extraordinary ability’ to come to the United States for up to three years, and can be extended.”  This has brought several young, college-dropout tech entrepreneurs into Silicon Valley, as well as granting Piers Morgan residency as he replaces Larry King on CNN.  C’mon, what makes him more extraordinary than your average American anchorman?

Mind you, the issuing of O-1s has met little resistance from government and industry, as it’s assumed that most of these folks are creating jobs, not taking them away from American citizens.  “The O-1 is one of the few visas we support,” said Kim Berry, a spokesman for the Programmers Guild. “When they need to bring in the best and the brightest and the entrepreneurs, that’s the only visa that helps America.”  As opposed to that other Visa that just increases America’s household debt…