Category Archives: Culture

America’s Epidemic Of Head-Up-The-Butt Disease.

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There are many things we know that are detrimental to our society, but for a variety of reasons (mostly political) we refuse to correct them.

For example, we know that it’s dangerous to text while driving, but many do it anyway.  We know that many military contractors have been found guilty of defrauding the government, yet we continue to reward them with multi-billion dollar contracts. We know that abstinence-only programs do not help prevent teen pregnancies, but we cut funding for sex education and easy access to contraceptives.  We also know that early education programs greatly improve a child’s future, yet many are trying to defund them.

Similarly, the world’s scientists have warned us of the dangers of climate change caused by man.  Still, we refuse to address the problems even when experiencing extreme weather.  And we know that mass killings are made possible by unrestricted access to military-style, semi-automatic weapons.

All of these issues could be fixed.  It only takes a will to do so.  Yet we continue to listen to those who profit from these problems. 

We accept the oil industry’s arguments that lessening our dependence on renewable energies will be costly and result in lost jobs.  We accept the absurd notion of “clean” coal being marketed by the coal industry.  And we accept the fear-based arguments of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association that “Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.”  That may be true, but semi-automatic weapons with large-capacity magazines make it much easier.

When’s the last time you read about a mass killing committed by a lunatic carrying a single-shot rifle or a 6-shot revolver?

Of course, the NRA argues that there will be less violence when everyone is armed.  But if you take your head out of your nether regions, you’ll discover the obvious flaws in that argument.  Do you have to carry a weapon with you at all times?  In church?  In school?  In the swimming pool?

So come on, America, stop limiting your view to your inner colons.  Pull your heads out of your butts and start examining the world around you.

Juveniles, Liars and Bullies.

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Do bullies become Republicans? Or vice versa? It’s like the question of the chicken and egg.  There’s no obvious answer.  Bullies and Republicans are synonymous…especially here in Arizona.

Each election season, Republicans seem to have another treat in store for Democrats.  The airwaves and newspapers are filled with even more lies than usual.  (Not just exaggerations or little white lies, but unbelievable whoppers.)  Yard signs for Democratic candidates disappear with regularity, and if Democrats complain, Republicans remove their own signs and blame Democrats.  Last, but not least, Democratic bumper stickers are removed or defaced and sometimes the cars carrying them are vandalized.

It’s the sort of behavior that would make any junior high bully proud…as well as the ghosts of Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon and Spiro “The Felon” Agnew.

The question is why do they do it?  Why do they feel it necessary?  Do they brag about their lies and juvenile accomplishments among themselves?  Do they turn it into a competition?

If elections are a battle of ideas, why do Republicans feel it necessary to resort to tricks, divisiveness and fear?  More important, are these the kind of people you want to represent you?

Don’t answer that.  If you’re a Republican, I already know the answer.

Poll: At Least 17% Of Americans Are Nitwits.

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A new poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Life has found that 17 percent of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim.  Of course, that’s not true.  The President is Christian.  Indeed, many of the same people who want to believe he’s Muslim were originally outraged at statements made by his Chicago Christian pastor.

But that’s not the extent of the lunacy on the right. 

According to a Public Policy Polling survey in March of this year, 37 percent of Americans believe the President was not born in the U.S.  Yet another 21 percent are unsure. (They must have forgotten Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959.)

However, given the other wrong-headed beliefs of the right, none of this should come as any real surprise. After all, these are people who reject education and science.  Many think the Earth is just 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are a myth invented to test the faith of Christians.

These are people who fail to see a connection between the easy availability of military-style assault weapons and mass killings.  The same people who think that giving ever-increasing tax breaks to the filthy rich will somehow help their own financial circumstances.  People who think defaulting on US debts will benefit our economy.

Obviously, they cannot be educated and informed.  They refuse to listen to anyone but their own equally deluded brethern.  Yet their vote counts the same as yours and mine.

Do you still believe in America exceptionalism?

Let’s Help Texas Secede.

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On several occasions, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that the Republic of Texas might secede from the United States.  He meant it as a threat, but after first ridiculing the idea, I’ve come to embrace it.

Let’s consider the benefits.

If Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee (Yes, I know this isn’t all of the original Confederacy, but the others have better embraced their statehood.) were allowed to secede, the level of education in the US would improve overnight.  At the same time, the number of impoverished would plummet.  We would also improve the United States’ international rankings with regard to incarceration and capital punishment.

Moreover, the US would dramatically reduce the number of assault rifles and handguns within its borders.  We would rid ourselves of the evangelical crackpots on the Texas school board responsible for rewriting textbooks to whitewash history.  We would improve the percentage of our population with health insurance. And since most of the Tea Party crackpots in Congress come from the former Confederacy, the level of political discourse would likely improve.

I know this plan seems radical, but I think it best.  Many of the former Confederate states have long been openly hostile to the federal government, even threatening to “exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.”  In Arizona, there are legislative bills calling for state sovereignty of national parks and all federal lands.  And many of these states have refused to accept the legitimacy of the Affordable Care Act despite a Supreme Court ruling.

For the states that do secede, they finally could have the theocratic government they seem to so desire.  They could completely ignore science.  They would no longer have to accept the billions in federal money that have been thrust upon them to provide food and medicine for their poor.  And unless they continue their hostility to foreign visitors, they could replace Mexico and Jamaica as warm weather destinations for US tourists.

Of course, the plan is not without downsides.  We would have to move many of our military bases to Union states.  Football could suffer without Texas and Florida athletes, but since we already embrace foreign nationals for basketball and baseball, we could make accommodation for football players.  We would lose much of the domestic oil production and refineries, but all of that oil and gas is sold on world markets, anyway.  And since I live in Arizona, I’d have to sell my home at a loss in order to move back to the US.

Nevertheless, I encourage you to give my plan serious thought.  If you do, I’m confident you’ll see that the many benefits outweigh the negatives.

Penn State’s 9/11?

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Asked by a reporter how he felt about sanctions against the Penn State football program, one fan said, “I just can’t put my arms around it, it’s, to me, it was our 9/11 today.”

Ummm…no, it was justice.

In the Penn State fiasco, the only events remotely comparable to 9/11 were the sexual assaults of children committed by a former Penn State coach.

Unfortunately, this fan isn’t alone in his opinion.  Upon visiting the fan message board on Rivals’ Penn State website, you will find many, many other fans who seem far more outraged at their university’s punishment than at the real crimes.  Many want to fire the university president for accepting the sanctions.  Many want to sue the NCAA.  Many are furious at Louis Freeh for his report implicating Joe Paterno.  Many are outraged that their beloved coach’s statue was removed from their campus.  Many refuse to consider the culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to abuse children for so long.  Many are in denial – convinced that their university could not have covered up the crimes.

Of course, Penn State’s fans are not unique.  The fans of such football factories as Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and USC would likely react in much the same way.  Their teams have been on top so long, the fans feel entitled.  They have lost touch with reality.  Many are all too willing to turn a blind eye to crimes committed by great players.  They dismiss their team’s cheating by saying “everyone does it.”  They ignore the fact that many of their star athletes attend their university only for football.  A degree program and grades are immaterial.  What really matters is another bowl win.

Maybe it’s time for universities to, once again, view football and basketball as mere sports.  Not as sources for endlesss amounts of money.  Maybe they should be more concerned with their academic reputations than their sports reputations.  Maybe they should focus on students more than athletes.

Well, you can’t blame me for dreaming.

The Cowardly Russell Pearce.

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Those in Arizona are all too familiar with Russell Pearce for using his position as former Arizona State Senator to push for the ill-conceived immigration bill, Arizona SB 1070.  Happily, he was recalled in a special election and sent packing back to the cave he crawled out of.

But he’s making news again by blaming the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shootings for the crimes perpetrated against them.

That’s right.  The shootings were the victims’ fault.  According to Pearce, “Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this “bad” man from most of this tragedy.  He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload.”

Keep in mind that this is coming from a man who has long fought for expanded gun rights, including the right to carry concealed guns into bars and onto college campus.  It’s because of people like Pearce that assault rifles, handguns and high-capacity magazines are so readily available to potential killers like Jared Loughner and James Holmes.

Arming every single citizen in the US will not help prevent incidents such as that in Colorado.

After every mass killing, those who were victimized or witnessed the event say that it happened in such a flash that they didn’t have time to react.  Indeed, following the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the one person who drew his weapon nearly shot those who disarmed the shooter.

One wonders how Pearce would react in a similar situation, even if armed.  I’m betting he’d dive for cover behind the women and children in front of him.

Where Are The Real Newsrooms?

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The HBO program called Newsroom is terrific!  It portrays a news program that transforms itself from “human interest” style, ratings-driven drivel to a program dedicated to telling the truth.  In other words, it’s recreating the style of news that we enjoyed before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.

You see, under the Fairness Doctrine, broadcast media were bound by law to serve the public interest; in other words to tell the truth.  If a network or station failed to prove that it failed that standard, it could lose its license.

Yet it wasn’t necessary for news reporters such as Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Shore, Harry Reasoner, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and Dan Rather.  They needed no such incentive to tell the truth.  They were true newsmen.  They were not bound by ratings or the need to be first.  They were bound by the need to be right.

Unfortunately, when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, that commitment disappeared.  Networks canned most of their news gathering staffs and focused on ratings.  At the same time, the mouths of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others were unleashed to hammer away at their political opponents by telling any lies they found necessary.  Fox News Channel was created to fill the news void with innuendo, lies and half-truths on behalf of the GOP.

It can’t continue.

The job of a real newsroom is to tell people, not what they want to know, but what they need to know.  So enjoy HBO’s Newsroom while you can.  Listen to Jeff Daniels and imagine how much better off this nation would be if there were real news anchors like his character.  Imagine a new Fairness Doctrine that would chase liars like Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck and company back into the swamps and caves where they belong.

Imagine an informed electorate.

Of Bullies And Cowards.

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For more than 30 years, the bullies at the National Rifle Association have pushed their gun laws on the American public.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” they say.  Well, a whole lot of people have been killing other people with guns lately.  And, unless we do something to keep assault weapons and handguns out of the hands of crazy people, we’ll see a lot more deaths.

“But guns are needed for self-defense,” they say.  Well, the fact is that guns are offensive weapons.  In most cases they’re useless for self-defense.  What good would a gun have done in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater last night?  If some movie-goers had opened fire, likely even more people would be dead or wounded in the crossfire.

The plain fact is the NRA is full of bullies who demand that everyone else accept their beliefs.  Our gun laws are not designed for hunters.  Who hunts with an assault rifle, a silencer, a night vision scope or a semi-automatic handgun?  Our laws are designed for bullies who want to have the threat of violence easily at their disposal so they can force their will on others.

Sensible gun laws would place limits on the number of weapons any individual can purchase and own.  They would limit the size of ammo clips.  They would ban assault rifles and large caliber sniper rifles.  They would force anyone who wants to carry a handgun to be trained and licensed.  (If Teapublicans think voters should have drivers’ licences as ID, why shouldn’t gun-toting wingnuts have a gun license?)

What does it say about our society that guns are so readily available to the crazy and deranged? What does it say about us that our citizens are so afraid of each other that they feel the need to be armed? What does it say about our politics and media that people are now convinced that they must arm themselves against our government? What does it say about us that we accept one mass killing after another with scarcely a whimper of protest.

It’s not only the GOP, the NRA, Fox News and the radio hate-mongers who are at fault.  The cowards in the Democratic Party who refuse to fight for common sense laws must also accept some blame.

In Nobody We Trust.

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A new Gallup poll shows that just 21 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news – a drop of 25 percent since 1993!  And only 25 percent expressed confidence in newspapers.  But these numbers should come as no surprise when Teapublican nitwits such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have long decried the “lamestream” media.  Indeed, the right has been trying to kill the messenger since the 1970s during the Nixon-Agnew administration.

Of course, among right-wing idealogues, there’s no lack of confidence in Fox News Channel despite a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey that found that those who rely on Fox News Channel for news are less informed than those who watch no TV news at all.

In reality, the US news media have earned their lack of trust.  Since the major networks succumbed to the ratings chase in the 1980s, they have emasculated their news gathering operations and replaced real debate with screaming talking heads from each side of the political spectrum.

Radio is even worse.  Since repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, commercial radio has been taken over by right-wing lunatics such as Rush Limbaugh.

And, as subscribers abandon home-delivered newspapers in favor of on-line versions, publishers have been unable to devote resources to traditional news gathering.

So where can Americans turn for reliable news?  I’d suggest National Public Radio and the BBC.  Both are politically neutral organizations with large news gathering operations.  But, in reality, most people will continue to ignore the news (except for the most sensational stories) or turn to (gasp) the Internet for information.

As a result, I’m not hopeful for our future.

What Our Politicians Could Learn From A Lifeguard.

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By now you’ve probably heard the story of Tomas Lopez, the Florida lifeguard who was fired for saving a life.  You see, he dared to save someone from a portion of the beach that wasn’t under contract by his employer, Jeff Ellis Management.

Of course, this story vividly illustrates the problems of outsourcing traditionally government jobs to private companies, but that’s another story.

It also shows that Tomas understands morality and ethics – something in very short supply in Congress.  Tomas didn’t stop to consider how his actions might affect him personally.  He just did the right thing.  Our Congressional representives on the other hand…

You see, the first thing many of our Congressional representatives do after winning an election is to start fundraising and campaigning for their next term in office.  That means, if there is legislation that would benefit the public versus a political contributor, they often choose to vote for the contributor’s benefit.  Or if the right thing to do is controversial, they’ll vote against it for fear their opponents will use it against them.

No one party is more guilty than the other.  This is one aspect of Congress that is truly bipartisan.

We can’t change the situation with term limits.  They’ll just be motivated to ram through as much partisan legislation as possible during their limited time in office.  We can’t change it with legislation.  They’ll just find ways around it or, worse yet, take money under the table.  But we can change the situation by making it unnecessary to raise insane amounts of money to run for office.  We can also demand better candidates. 

What we need is a Congress full of representatives like Tomas Lopez.