I'm tired of being PC

[hyphenate]

Twenty-four/seven.

I say this because something hilarious just occurred, but if I talk about it without prefacing it, I, the major cat lover and complete animal rights activist, will come off sounding like a complete jackass or worse.

One of the mailing lists I belong to is for cat tags, so that means right from the start that it's for cat lovers. An email within the list started about signing a petition for a website called "BonsaiKitten.com." This website is supposedly to show people how to breed a kitten inside a jar shaping it like the jar, where it will live the rest of its life inside the jar. Okay.....before anyone goes postal, consider this for a moment. You start with a kitten, huh, and you feed it naturally, and what.....the cat isn't going to GROW? It's not going to get larger, and larger? Well, evidently, the website was ALL SATIRE. It started in 2000 as a prank, and was never meant to be taken seriously. However, over the ensuing years, this site was taken at face value and condemned by just about anyone and everyone for cruelty to animals.

Okay.....before I go any further, I will say this.....to a small portion of the population in this country unable to know the difference between right and wrong, between fantasy and reality, this kind of site could very well be a catalyst to some animal cruelty. But I would also imagine that the vast majority of people in this country and around the world are more likely to either reject that possibility without further thought, or at the very least, be aware of how bizarre even the mere thought of this would be.

So now, think about it. Snopes, about.com, urban legends and any rational site online has proven it was all a joke, and that there was never any animal cruelty, never any intention of animal cruelty, and just a sick prank perpetrated by people who wanted a new laugh. The FBI has investigated, animal groups have raised their hackles about it and there is nothing to add except to say it's as phony as a three dollar bill.

We all love animals here, but I had to laugh when I read this. The overall absurdity of the whole idea is just so completely and totally unreal, as well as if you used your common sense to actually think what was being envisioned, you would also laugh too.

I saw the Superbowl commercial that was entitled "cat killer" and I was apprehensive about watching that as well. I wondered how a commercial entitled "Cat Killer" was going to be in any way, shape or form, funny. Then I watched it and laughed hysterically. It's the same kind of thing.

I have gotten to a point where the idea of being PC is no longer PC. Why can't we get out of that trap and get more direct again in both conversations and in speech? I'm short, NOT "vertically challenged." I'm half-blind with myopia, not "visually impaired." I lack concentration at times--I don't have ADD. I'm a packrat, not some other term that implies I have a mental disorder. Once we get into the mindset that everything we used to describe someone with was tactless, we run the risk of making the problem or situation seem inconsequential in the end. And when we try to stamp every single person, thing or circumstance with a "feel good" terminology, we lose sight that somewhere along the line we're losing our own sense of individuality which made us in some way unique in the first place.