I have been laughing heartily the past several minutes because I have been wathcing a TV show which is doing a piece on the uproar from our Congress on broadcast television in the aftermath of Nipplegate. For anyone who hasn't heard, some honorable men and women from Congress interview and castigated a captain of the media industry. A Congresswomen from New Mexico had some particularly virulent words for the head of Viacom which owns CBS who broadcast the Super Bowl as well as MTV that did the halftime show. I must admit that, when this woman went on her rant, I laughed. I'm sorry, but I just find it fucking hilarious that my Congress leaps like a bat outta hell into action to "investigate" the content of broadcast television - a breast is ruining our kids. But when scientists come forward and warn that the exhaust of internal combustion engines is going to melt the Antarctic, they turn around and let HUM-V owners write off their toy 100% for the first year if they "use it for business".
Another thing that humored me about this Congresswoman was that she was a Republican. Many, if not most, Republicans disgust me with their hypocrisy. They parade down the street with an American flag pinned to their lapels and pictures of Adam Smith on their ties decrying regulation, championing freedom, and touting capitalism. If they had read Smith's Wealth of Nations, they know that he championed progressive taxation. Instead, they change the tax laws so that the rich pay a steadily decreasing percentage of their income in taxes while the middle classes find that they are paying a higher percentage. And then these same people piss they're pants/panties at the mere thought of meeting Milton Friedman have the supreme gall, the ultimate nerve to turn around and act surprised, to feign abhorrence at the results of their precious invisible hand. These people act dumbfounded that deregulated free-to-roam capitalist media marauders immediately turned to vulgarity and took a nosedive towards the lowest common denominator. Does anyone really believe that, if you let these companies put whatever they please on television, that they'll fill the airwaves with rich, educational programs and challenging, intellectually stimulating entertainment? These Republicans absolutely love freedom as long as it produces the results they want. One woman sat aghast at the Jackson incident. She bemoaned it as an act of violence and blah blah blah. Of course, all those guys on the field beating the shit out of each other while trashing talking the other guy's mother is perfectly fine family entertainment. Do you want to know what's even more violent? The foundations of Western literature, The Iliad and The Odyssey. That woman oughta read the passages where Odysseus reclaims his house sometime. He just doesn't rip off a toga or two, he picks up a bow and, with the help of his son and a couple faithful servants, kills nearly 100 men including one fellow who gets impaled through his penis. And what's even more violent than that? REAL FUCKING LIFE! The shit that actually goes down in this world makes Homer and Janet Jackson look like goddamn Mickey and Minnie Mouse. There are people out there who attach bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up when there's enough innocent women and children around. Civil wars, famine, AIDS...our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts, cousins, etc. are dying abroad in a "war against terror" and so are Afghan and Iraqi civilians. The breast of the human female is one of the most beautful things in the whole universe and its milk helps infants grow into healthy children. However vulgar the display of Ms. Jackson's mammary gland was, a 1 second shot of it will not rip the moral fiber of anyone asunder excepting the most braindead among us.
Many Republicans rally around slogans in favor of lower taxes, smaller government, and removing the government from people's lives generally. Today, in this country, this is known as a "libertarian" view. Back in the 17th century, this was called "liberalism". John Locke, a huge influence on Thomas Jefferson, is often considered to be the Founding Father of liberalism. In a nutshell, he thought that the purpose of government was to uphold and enforce contracts entered into by agents acting in their own interests. A very spare government that basically made sure that, when free agents entered into contracts with one another, no one could welch on their promise. Republicans tend to eat this shit up and, in the interest of a smaller government, love to privatize things. If there's a government program, then Republicans think it would work more effectively if handed over to a private organization, preferably via a nepotistic transaction. But, as Bill Maher noted tonight, the last thing the Republicans want to privatize is people's private lives. If they want a non-intrusive government, how dare they speak of amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage. If two consenting gay agents want to enter into a marriage contract, how can Joey-I-Want-A-Minimal-Government oppose it? They want their fucking cake and to eat it too.
David Cay Johnston is right. The middle class in this country is more interested in the last episode of Friends than seeing how we're being ass-raped by changes in tax laws which help us subsidize the rich. Personally, I'm not a Democrat. They too are endowed with corruption and their own unique bits of bullshit. The only columnist that I read regularly is William F. Buckley, Jr., an arch-conservative. And I agree with a lot of what he says. I've enjoyed him since I was a kid watching Firing Line at noon on Sundays on WTTW, channel 11 in Chicago. (This probably explains my love for words.) He is highly intelligent, articulate, logical, and consistent. Unlike the Ann Coulters of the world, he can actually argue his position instead of simply writing tracts that are nothing more than attempts to prove what an adept writer of pejoratives and creative user of ad hominem attacks the author is. By no means are all conservatives idiots nor all conservative ideas horrid. What is disgusting is how difficult it is to find an an intelligent, eloquent conservative in the mass media and an honest politician.
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