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Edited on Tue Feb-08-05 02:17 AM by Locut0s
Sorry if this sounds a bit screwy, I just have something to get off my chest.
A few items that have come up over the past few days and weeks have been simmering slowly away, on top of all that has happened over the past couple of years.
For one we have the apparent 'anniversary' of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction". Apparently we have to invent a new sound byte for every media story, I get the feeling that 1/2 the time people use it because they just can't bring themselves to even say the word breast. Yet again we see the power that is the collective Christian conservative right. Hiding behind a slew of organizations, oddly enough almost all having names like the Family Foundation, Family Institute, Family Coalition, etc.. they are on constant patrol for any small tidbit they see in the media that has even the smallest whiff of being anti "family values". Someone swore on TV last night or showed a little bit of skin during prime time or maybe talked a little too frankly about homosexuality, never mind the context that's obviously not important, you can count on these groups having thousands of signed petitions in the mail the next day on their way to the FCC. Now were this a normal government, and by normal I don't just mean democrat but any number of the more balanced governments the US has had in the past, such letters might cause some stir on occasion, might even have caused a show two to be cancelled but nothing on a large scale. Instead we find ourselves in a situation where an event that should have been joked about around water coolers the nation over and parodied on light night talk shows but little more, overnight ballooned into a media crisis. Now a year later we find ourselves in a world where people are talking about increasing the fines the FCC is allowed to fine networks for airing �obscene, indecent or profane� material by a factor of ten or more, never mind the definition of what people find indecent "we'll decide that for them". We find ourselves in a situation where any major broadcast has the infamous "7 second delay" just in case GASP something naughty should slip by, how much more blatantly Orwellian feeling could you get? Interesting that were this same event to have occurred in just about any other democratic country that I know of people would hardly have batted an eyelash.
We also have these same "Family Foundations" screaming at the top of their lungs any time the idea of "tolerance toward homosexuality" is mentioned. That's right not equality but just tolerance, as in the recent hilarious Spongebob Squarepants thing, well it would be hilarious if they weren't actually so furious about this kind of thing. What is it about homosexuality that's so evil again, that's right it's dangerous to marriage and it's corrupting American Family Values, apparently there's only one set of such values. Hmm let me get this straight you're Christian marriage is in danger of falling apart because of what now?.... So the new neighbours Tom and Chris moving in down the street, they're the reason I no longer get along with my wife, they're the reason I don't pay attention to the kids and come home drunk every night screaming. If you're going to blame something for the destruction of families at least point to something that has some logical connection for gods sake!
Instead we see a government that has taken these issues to heart. While on the one hand preaching how the US military through an invasion is going to bring about democracy and a genuine constitution enshrining the rights of the people of IRAQ, in the other hand is promising to amend his own constitution to actually take away rights! Apparently we now live in a world where the ends actually justify the means. "Why did we go to war with IRAQ?" "Why TO PREVENT TERRORISM! ... Err no make that TO ELIMINATE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION .... Err no I have it TO FREE THE IRAQI PEOPLE!" 3rd times the charm I guess. Like most others I would much rather see a democratic and free IRAQ, free from the terrorist insurgents, free from US troops, free from dictatorial regimes. And if the result is such a country I will be happy, but that hardly means I can't be horrified at the means of bringing about such an end. But of course it seems that increasingly anyone who voices such opinions in any major medium is quickly and unrelentingly labelled Anti-freedom, Anti-America, Anti-(insert exemplary ideal here). By the reasoning of some of these right wing wingnuts because the world after WWI and II was in many ways more prosperous and stable then WWI and II must be unquestionable defacto good events!
Note: No I haven't been living under a rock these past years. I just haven't given voice to any of this kind of thing before, at least on on a public forum such as this. It's not like I've suddenly become aware of the world around me, though I can understand why some might think so from reading this post :)
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