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A few weeks ago I started using a Rio Cali in the gym because it has an FM tuner and the gym broadcasts TV audio on radio frequencies. I originally figured that I’d be using it to keep up with ESPN broadcasts, which sometimes don’t have closed captioning, but I’ve actually been listening to The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News which has actually been entertaining. Until today. Today’s show threw me for a loop: we all need to wake up and like right now.
For a good chunk of the 1900’s America had a pretty defined role for itself. We were either wanted nothing to do with world events (leading up to World War I and World War II) or we had a rival that we competed against, usually the USSR filling that role, and we forged ahead. Then the Iron Curtain fell and the USSR collapsed. By the end of the 1900’s the US stood alone as a “single superpower” seeing as our sole rival had disappeared; quite simply, we realized that we had no one to rally or but heads against anymore.
This should be a good thing, right? Far from it. I call it the Chat Room Syndrome. In an online chat room, there is usually a fixed group of people that come into the room on a regular basis. One of the regulars is an asshole. Well, at least one – there can sometimes be more – and the room beats the shit out of this one asshole constantly. Assuming the asshole never wises up and leaves, this will go on forever, but at some point the asshole will bail on the room. This creates a vacuum for negative attention and that’s a problem. In fact, one of two things will happen: a new asshole will be designated from the existing group or the room implodes through internal conflicts and backbiting just before it disappears.
The world is heading towards this situation now. I know, I know… how can I use chat room politics as an analogy to a worldwide situation? Well, I just did and it’s valid: the parallels are there. Without the USSR to keep our drive up, we’ve spent the last 10 years infighting and backbiting. Look at the news lately… the FCC’s biggest concern is swearing on the radio. And the House and Senate are each working on their Bills to punish violators. People are suing anything that moves – and a few things that don’t – because they refuse to take responsibility for their actions. There’s constant bashing of any politician that doesn’t agree with Hollywood. Actors are running governments at all levels, which wouldn’t be so bad, but they only get elected because they are known to the public. And there’s always something random that that can be a “who did what to who” story.
Meanwhile, North Korea is now a nuclear equipped nation that has basically withdrawn from world-wide treaties and stated that they are against us. Iran has refused inspections from the UN for nuclear weapons and has recently signed a treaty with Syria. The same Syria that is harboring terrorists that were active in Lebanon this past week. Both nations have bonded together because they fear that the US or UN will demand that they come clean on their nuclear agendas.
Why do I think we’re asleep at the wheel? The Iran-Syria pact was mentioned during the first segment of the O’Reilly Factor, but it was quickly put in a drawer. The second (and longer) story was about PBS and Buster Bunny. Buster fuckin’ Bunny. Why was it about Buster Bunny? Because the PBS show had their character visit family that had two mothers in VT and it’s a kid’s show. Who the fuck care? And I know who cares, by why the hell should it be on national TV? Ridiculous. The rest of the show had more of the same: decency, inner conflicts, etc.
Oh, and on this Bunny thing. The whole argument was about “should kids this young be exposed to alternative lifestyles”. Mind you that it was a very clean situation – nothing lewd about it. The problem with this is simple: it’s parents. Parents that don’t want to have to answer questions from their kids. One of the guys on the interview even goes on to say that “parents can always turn off the TV” to which O’Reilly responds with, “parents can’t monitor the TV 24/7”. Why can’t they? Is a TV the only source of input that a child views? I learned more about sex from other students than I did from cable.
And what’s more, what’s the big deal if this topic comes up? Do you honestly think that every kid in every school – under the age of 8 or not – won’t encounter a friend that has a gay family member? Won’t there be questions from that? And how hard is the answer? In today’s day and age, where there’s so many single parents, wouldn’t it be easy to explain two Mom’s or two Dad’s than a single parent? Wouldn’t it be better for kids to have two parents instead of one? The whole argument is a waste of time on it’s merits. A complete waste.
Instead of wondering what our nation is going to do about the growing threats, news shows are worrying about whether or not having a lesbian couple talk to Buster the fuckin’ Bunny is OK or not.
Focus America: we’ve got threats that aren’t going to away – time to stop the infighting and band together, before it’s too late.
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