What are the Golden Globes exactly?

Well I know what they are, but year after year, it just seems like it's a room full of idiots trying to guess what the Oscar picks are going to be. I mean we have the Academy Awards and the Emmys, so why do we need the Golden Globes? Did the Oscars and the Emmys have a bastard child of whom it is forbidden to notice the pointlessness? I mean seriously, it's *beep*