Hostage crisis…

The First Amendment of the Constitution provides every American with freedom o f speech.  The freedom has been tried and tested many times, sometimes in favor of the individual, sometimes in the favor of the government.  Americans are free, for the most part, to criticize their government, like Rush Limbaugh, without a fear of being dragged into the gulag.  Americans are free, for the most, to speak in a lewd manner, like Howard Stern, without fear of penalty (that might even attract more listeners). 

Despite the freedom, legally, to speak our minds we are not free from the court of public opinion.  The recent comments by Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A restaurants have created an outpouring of anti-Chick-Fil-A comments, sponsorship rejections and even a same-sex kiss-in in August to protest Mr. Cathy’s comments.  For what?  Because he said they support heterosexual marriages?  GASP!  That hate monger! 

This all started last year when an LGBT (that’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender for those of you who have not attended a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” training session) group accused Chick-Fil-A of donating more than $3million to Christian groups who support traditional marriage.  In an interview which was printed 18 July, Mr. Cathy said that the company was “guilty as charged”.  They indeed do support the idea that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman.  And he and his company have been tried, convicted and sentenced in the court of public opinion. 

So severe is the sentence that the Boston mayor said he would block future Chik-Fil-As from being started in the Boston area.  Jim Henson and the Muppets, once affliate of Chik-Fil-A has since pulled their affiliation. 

The fact that Mr. Cathy is being halted from building restaurants or shunned by celebrities is proof that we are being held hostage.  We are being held hostage with language not guns.  Dan Cathy did not use hateful rhetoric or mean-spirited language like the idiots from West Borough Baptist Church; he simply and politely stated that he used his money to support a cause he believed in.  The fact that he is being lambasted in the media and demonized as a hatemonger should serve as a wake-up call for everyone in America. 

We have truly come to a place in our society where if you do not subscribe to a certain belief that you are ostracized or labeled as hateful or labeled as ignorant.  It’s not just with the issue to sexual preference, but global warming and abortion carry the same sentence for those who might oppose.  Recently the Susan G. Komen foundation (the foundation responsible for Race for the Cure) recently found itself in the same predicament when the Chairwoman decided to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.  They faced such a backlash that they reversed their stance and continue to give money to an organization responsible for the deaths of millions. 

How could this happen?  How can a non-profit organization and privately held company be bullied into making apologies for an ideological position?  There was nothing hateful in their speech.  Mr. Cathy didn’t say “I hate all of the gay people in the whole world” or the Susan G. Komen foundation didn’t say “All women who get abortions need to go to hell.” 

It has happened because there has been an ideological shift in our society which has taken control of our language.  The exact time the shift happened really can’t be pinpointed to a certain day or year.  Maybe it was when as a society we stopped believing in absolute truth.  At some point the Enlightenment Era, which was steeped in the assumption that science, art, literature etc. searched for or believed in an absolute truth.  Our Declaration of Independence was formed during the Enlightenment Era and it states “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…”

But the Enlightenment Era gave way to the Modern Era where people began to reject the certainty of a Creator.  Science, art, and literature no longer had that foundation to begin with, but a foundation of humanism, which is to say that humans are the center of the world and human pursuit should be above all. Humanism rejects anything supernatural and replaces it with human reasoning and the idea of human nature is essentially “good.” 

This line of thinking is what has led us into the Post Modern Era which further separates us from absolute truth.  Postmodernism rejects any objective way to explaining reality.  So in the post-modern world if a person says they believe the sky to be purple, well, it’s purple.  Even if scientific evidence supports the sky being blue, the sky is purple in their mind and in their mind they are right. 

It is from this line of thinking that our language has been hijacked and anyone who does not subscribe to the postmodern thought process is held hostage.  Postmodernism is responsible for the politically correct world we live in.  No longer can Dan Cathy (or anyone like him) state that he doesn’t support gay marriage.  He can’t say this because he is telling people he believes in a standard and that anything that deviates from that standard is wrong. 

But if Dan Cathy says that gay marriage is wrong he is demonized, he is tried in the court of public opinion and found guilty of being hateful.  The scary thing is that in Canada’s hate speech law sexual orientation is included in the protected classes of people.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating for gay-bashing or saying cruel things.  This is scary because a person, let’s say, oh, a pastor perhaps, gives a sermon on Romans 1 and says that homosexuality is wrong.  That pastor can then put into jail.  For what?  For nothing more than his beliefs.

Well, L. Kyle that’s Canada, this is America that would never happen here. 

If Boston and Chicago are successful at blocking the building of a restaurant because the CEO doesn’t support gay marriage,  I would say that we are not far off.

Leftovers enjoy!

L. Kyle

We've been hoodwinked

On June 25 Kraft Foods, the parent company which manufactures the Oreo cookie, posted on their FaceSpaceMyBook page this picture of a rainbow colored Oreo.  Just look at all that stuffing.  I thought Double Stuffed Oreos were good, but, WOW, look at all that filling.  Hold on a sec.  They are not going to make these cookies?  What’s that you say?  The cookie is a celebration.  Of what, God’s covenant, that He will never again flood the earth (after all that is where we get the rainbow)? Oh.  How silly of me, of course Oreo is celebrating gay pride month. 

The tag on the picture is “We support love”.  Well so do most people, but why is it only the gay community has love?  What about the rest of us?  Don’t we have love?  So now you are telling me that first the gay community has high-jacked the rainbow and now they have high-jacked love too? 

Recently the White House saw fit to get in on the celebration and support of “love” by inviting a delegate of the gay community for a little get-together.  Some of the pictures of the event found their way onto the Interweb.  Maybe you have seen the picture of one of the members of the delegation posed by the picture of Ronald Regan.  A sweet picture really save for the woman flipping President Regan the double bird with a huge scowl on her face.  Classy.

Shortly after the White House event the Pentagon held a gay pride event.  One of the speakers was a female Army Colonel and former platoon commander.  She was speaking in front of other military officials stating what a relief it is that she can now openly admit that she is gay.  In her speech she said that it is not about sexual preference, but it’s about moving into a new home and mowing the lawn and all the other regular stuff a family deals with. 

Just days after the Pentagon event Anderson Cooper, famed CNN journalist, announced that he too was gay.  He said that it was time that he stands up and is counted; that he has always been gay, always will be gay and is proud to be gay.  That’s sweet, but why does he get to stand up and say he’s proud to be gay?  Because. This is where the magician is hoodwinking us.

Did you know that in 1962 every state in the nation had a sodomy law?  There were lengthy prison terms or hard labor for those found engaged in sodomy.  Additionally, homosexuality has been considered a mental disease for hundreds of years, but starting in the early 1900s psychologist Sigmund Freud -- and 50 years later Alfred Kinsey --  was making the case that homosexuality was inborn rather than immoral or even a mental disorder. 

According to the UCDavis psychology webpage: 

In 1973, the weight of empirical data, coupled with changing social norms and the development of a politically active gay community in the United State [emphasis mine], led the Board of Directors of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Some psychiatrists who fiercely opposed their action subsequently circulated a petition calling for a vote on the issue by the Association's membership. That vote was held in 1974, and the Board's decision was ratified.

So what was once illegal and then a mental disorder is not only accepted, but celebrated.  Granted not all of us are celebrating, but the push by the mainstream media of the homosexual agenda is astounding.  And really the mass media is where the magician does his work and tricks us all. 

Even scientists are in on the trick.  Notice that UC Davis cites that empirical data AND changing social norms AND the development politically active gay community as the reason to remove homosexuality from the mental illness list.  Do you think that we could lobby scientists to find that massive amounts of candy and soda are in fact good for you?  If science can succumb to social pressure, who then is immune?

It first started out with tolerance and the eroding of social morals and norms.  The gay community first preached tolerance.  That was their mantra.  Tolerate our behavior, tolerate lifestyle.  Tolerance was not enough though.  Once they received enough tolerance they moved on to a new mantra. 

That mantra is acceptance.  Tolerance is no longer good enough.  Instead of just tolerating the gay community the rest of society must accept their lifestyle as normal.  Smoking has become unacceptable by most in our society.  Some might even argue that smoking is not even very well tolerated.  “If you want to smoke fine, but do it somewhere else, you smell bad.”  What a role reversal we have here!  In the 1920s people were smoking like no tomorrow and homosexuals were being thrown in prison. Now homosexuals are celebrating like no tomorrow and smokers are being thrown in jail…well maybe not jail, but they are being fined in some cases.

L. Kyle, smoking is choice!

So is who you choose to have sex with! But that’s the magic trick.  We have been tricked into thinking that people are born gay.  If being gay is inborn then so is bestiality and pedophilia, right? Why else would people want to have sex with animals or children, it must be inborn, that’s the only logical explanation.  Despite what Freud and Kingsey tell us, sexual preference is not inborn.  Scientists tell us there is empirical data to support inborn abnormal sexual preference, but they also say that there is empirical data to support evolution.  If both are true, wouldn’t have evolution weeded out homosexual tendencies long ago? 

Imagine Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper were the last two people on earth.  Could the human race go on? Which inborn instinct would win the war, sexual preference or survival?  My bet would be on survival.  Because once we strip out all of the pleasure of sex, it serves as a way of sustaining human life, it’s how we procreate.  It just so happens that God is pretty awesome in that he made sex pleasurable, but the magician has tricked us there too.

L. Kyle you hateful bigot!   

See that’s my point exactly.  The gay community has pushed the agenda of acceptance to the point that anyone who speaks out against their lifestyle is labeled as hateful and a bigot.  Did I say that I hate gay people?  No.  I am simply resistant to the idea that homosexuality is anything but a choice.  Is an adulterer born that way?  “I’m sorry I had sex with that other woman, but honey I was born that way.” 

“Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set, I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way” sings Lady Gaga. 

And our society is no longer questioning Lady Gaga and her statement. We simply accept what she says because that is what we were tricked into doing by the magician.   The problem is that while we were watching the magic act and captivated by words like sexual freedom, enticed by endless pleasure we have ushered in a new era in which all sexual choices cannot be questioned. 

The sad part is that rather than hate and bigotry I truly have compassion because just as much as the rest of society has been hoodwinked by the magician so has the gay community…

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle.

We are going downhill...

…and we are picking up speed.  

On June 10, 2012 the Netroots Nation conference was held  in San Jose, California.  Most people were probably unaware that the conference happened or even what Netroots is even about. Suffice it to say that this conference was a gathering of progressive-minded people who get together a couple times a year to discuss how to be activists using the internet and other technologies.  Don’t think pocket protectors and WOW, but think of people set on changing the political landscape of this country.  Netroots is to the left side as the Tea Party is to the right side.

If you go to their website you can see an archive of their different topics and even listen to most of the speakers.  Most of their topics are typical leftwing type items: “From Defeat to Triumph: Erasing the Death Penalty in America”, “Inside the Activists’ Studio: What to Do When the Right Comes After You”, “People, Not Polar Bears: Digital Revolutions and the New Fight Against Climate Change”.  Then there was this…”Liberate Your Ass: Why Sexual Freedom is Key to Fighting the Right”. 

You might think the Tea Party is comprised of a bunch of crackpots, but they probably don’t sit around and discuss sexual freedom in this country.   That’s the point though.  Believe it or not there is a segment of this country that sees sexual freedom as the defining issue in this country.  They believe that if somehow everyone has the right to express themselves sexually that this country will be healed, the economy will be booming and all will be right in the universe.  This is their all; sex in any form, sex with anyone (perhaps anything?), sex no matter what the cost. 

One of the panelists for “Liberate your ass” was Elizabeth Fernandez-Kimmel one of the staff members at the Woodull Sexual Freedom Alliance.  There’s an alliance for that?  Really?   The WSFA is all about making sure that people have the opportunity to have as much pleasure as possible.  Here’s an excerpt from their website

            Woodhull has been hard at work to combat the prohibition of pleasure, the rollbacks on hard-won freedoms and protections and to advance an agenda that recognizes the wonderful diversity of sex, sexuality and our rights to make informed, consensual choices in our lives.

Prohibition on pleasure?  Hard-won sexual freedoms?  Oh come on! Now they’re just making this stuff up.  Right?  Wrong.  There is a definite element in society whose goal is to sexualize our society to the point that sex between a married man and women in the privacy of their own bedroom will become deviant.

The WSFA wants to advance an agenda that recognizes, which is to say that they want you to recognize, the wonderful diversity of sex.  What does that mean?  Well for starters they want you to forget that there is a God-given standard in regards to sex.  Sex is intended to be between one man and one woman who are married. 

L. Kyle you old-fashioned prude! 

Let’s suspend reality for a minute and think what we would have to live without if everyone subscribed to this standard for sex.    Adultery. Gone. Teen Pregnancy. Gone.  STDs.  Gone.  AIDS. Gone.  Pornography.  Gone.  Prostitution.  Gone.  Dang, the WSFA’s is right, we need to champion the diversity of sex and pursue pleasure at all costs because we have gained so much. 

I’m no fool, I realize that even in the most conservative of places in our nation that sexual desires are lived out which deviate from this standard. But it’s alarming to what rate we as a nation have embraced the idea of sexual diversity and we have unabashedly thrown decency out the window.  It’s been 50 years since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  Free love was the theme of the day.  But today, as the WSFA puts it, it’s all about sex and pleasure.  At least the hippies tried to sell their debauchery as love and not just self-gratification. 

In the past year a series of books have taken this country and the U.K. by storm.  The first in the series is titled 50 Shades of Grey.  The story is about a young college student becoming sexually involved with a Billionaire banker who has a panache for kinky sex.  What started as books sold only in digital format has now come to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide and currently is #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, both in paperback and digital.  There is even talks of a movie deal some in the future. 

The problem?  The books (from what I’m told) are beyond graphic in their sexual content.  The New York Times dubs this book as “mommy porn”, not because there are mommies in them, but because now mommies can read books with graphic sexual content and feel okay about it.  After all, 10 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong, can they?  Ten million readers have purchased a book with a central theme of graphic, pornographic sex.  Although critics may have panned the books as poorly written it has not stopped millions from celebrating the sex scenes.  “I read it for the dramatic story line.” 

Millions are celebrating deviating from the standard.  The problem with deviating from the standard is that there are often times severe consequences.  We however began to minimize the consequences.  When AIDS became a problem we taught “safe sex.”  That is we taught that sex without a condom and with multiple partners was dangerous.  When teen pregnancy was on the rise we taught sex education.  That is we demonstrated to kids how to put on a condom, passed out free condoms and gave them some stats on STDs.  When unintended pregnancies happened we legalized abortion.

It seems we don’t have to minimize the consequences any longer.  Groups like the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance see it as their goal to maintain the “hard-won” freedoms to seek pleasure.  Books like 50 Shades of Grey will apparently continue to sell so that mommies can have their porn in a socially acceptable way.  To what end?  What is the eventual outcome of all this hedonism? 

The moral decay of our society, that’s what.  And when decency and morality stand in the way of seeking pleasure, then decency and morality will become deviant behavior.

Leftovers.  Enjoy

L. Kyle.

Something’s wrong with the world today…

…and I don’t know what it is.  I can tell you that our priorities in this country are severely misplaced. Just type into Google “mom leaves kids in car” and you will get quite a few recent stories of mothers leaving their kids in the car so they can do things like get piercings, go to parties or buy drugs.  And although this is not representative if all mothers out there, there seems to be a rash of parents making some pretty stupid decisions involving their kids. 

Stupid decisions and misplaced priorities do not stop with moms and dad in the American heartland, no, they go the highest levels of government.  Several months ago I had the somber task of telling a mother and father that their son had died in combat.  A difficult task indeed, but part of my job and one that must be done.  I must admit that days after giving the news I was still affected by watching these parents receive the worst news of their lives. 

I know some of the process which goes on during a death notification for our military men and women.  I know that there are a lot of tough decisions to be made by family members within hours of hearing the news.  I know that each family of the deceased service member receives proper notification by senior ranking officer or enlisted member in their Class A uniform.  I know the family receives letters of condolences by the Service Secretary, perhaps a phone call or personal visit by their child’s or spouse’s commanding officer.  But I have often wondered if they receive a phone call from the President. 

I hope they do.  I believe that the families of our fallen service members deserve the 10 minutes or less of The Commander and Chief’s time.  If they don’t get a phone call then this is the perfect example of misplaced priorities.  Some of you might be thinking “L.Kyle, the President is a busy man, he doesn’t have time.”  True.  The POTUS is a busy man.  I would not want his job.  I couldn’t imagine the burden that he carries and the decisions he must face. That’s probably why our presidents take so many vacations. 

However, I believe that our President has made the time to call, address or comment on other stories which do not even come close to the gravity of American sons and daughters losing their lives in the defense of this great nation. 

Here are four instances when the President has taken time out of his busy schedule  to address issues or groups of people in our nation.  You decide if you think these are more or less important than our fallen service members.

March 2, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/obama-calls-sandra-fluke-georgetown-law-student-assailed-by-rush-limbaugh/2012/03/02/gIQAIoW0mR_blog.html

Ms Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, testified in front of Congress about the need for institutions like Georgetown, to make contraceptives available at no cost. We should all remember the debate several months ago regarding a provision in the President’s healthcare law, which would require institutions to make contraception available, even if that institution did not agree with idea of contraception (i.e. the Catholic Church).  Ms Fluke wanted free condoms because she estimated that the average female Georgetown law student spends nearly $1000 on condoms a year during their time at law school. Ms Fluke was demonized by the likes of Rush Limbaugh who called Ms Fluke a ‘slut’. 

Well just so happens that when you get called a derogatory name over the airwaves it warrants a call from our President (unless you are Sarah Palin, or Michelle Bachman or S.E. Cupp).  And our president did just that.  He cleared at least a few minutes to console Ms Fluke on a private phone call. 

March 15, 2012

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-ncaa-bracket-picks-20120314-002,0,5272586.photo

The President released his, much anticipated NCAA March Madness bracket picks. Now I’m not a huge college basketball fan, but I do know that the tournament starts off with 64 teams.  Now whether the POTUS picks based on actual knowledge of the teams or favorite colleges or jersey colors I’m not sure, but I do know it must have taken at least 10 minutes of his busy schedule to fill out. -- I wonder what the buy-in is in the White House bracket pool, $10, $20, $50?  Does the winner get a free game of bowling and a pizza party…veggie pizza of course with fat free cheese and gluten free crust and only 16 ounces of soda.

March 23, 2012

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-23/trayvon-florida-obama-protest/53734214/1

We all should remember in March when the story of a black teenager was shot and killed in Florida started garnering national attention.  It made national headlines for weeks and captured much of our lives. It was such a hotbed issue that the President had to weigh in and he took time out of his busy schedule to comment.  He said that if he had a son that his son would look like the victim, Trayvon Martin and that this tragedy should give the nation pause.  This is a tragedy, but 130+ men and women have lost their live in Afghanistan since January1, 2012 and if the death of a teenage boy in Florida should give us pause what does a 130+ dead service members give us?  Don’t just pause; take a 15 minute break…smoke if you got ‘em!  

June 9, 2012

http://www.netrootsnation.org/nn_events/nn-12/closing-keynote/

The President give a pre-recorded video presentation at Netroots Nation.  Now those not familiar with Netroots Nation, it is a conference which caters towards “progressives” and how to organize politically and trumpet the progressive message.  *Think grassroots, but for the more tech savvy among us.*  Some of the agenda items from the three-day conference were Turn it Up: How to use hip-hop to mobilize in 2012, okay, fairly benign.  How about Liberate your ass: why sexual freedom is key to fighting the Right. Wait. What? If you don’t believe me, you can see it here. 

Really, our president had time to address a group of people who think that liberating your backside (whatever that means) and sexual freedom is good political discourse.    But he doesn’t have time to call a family member who just lost a loved one in battle?

Something is wrong with the world today.

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle

1, 2, 3 Not It!

Our founding fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that our Creator bestowed upon us certain rights, which are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  These words have been the cornerstone of American freedom and the envy of the world for over two centuries.  Our founding fathers recognized that people should be able to live in a country free from governmental intrusion, that government should protect its people’s rights rather than take them away.

If you are reading this in the comforts of your American home, realize how blessed you are.  Despite what the Occupy Wall Street protestors might have you think all Americans are “one percenters”.  The world population is around six billion and we make up less than one percent of that.  Even our poorest people have better opportunity than people in most other countries. 

Americans are exceptional people.  We essentially pulled ourselves up by our proverbial bootstraps to make this country what it is today.  This country was founded by the fortitude of a few people who had a vision of something better.  It was birthed from an ideal where people could be free to choose their station in life.  This idea of freedom has been defended by the brave men and women serving in our nation’s military. 

Sadly the fabric that holds this nation together in being unraveled and in time the idea that founded this country will be all but a memory.  And what will be our undoing?  Happiness.  Maybe not happiness itself, but the idea that people are not satisfied until they are happy.  People fail to realize that achieving happiness like chasing a rainbow.  As soon as you think you are at the end, it moves.   Happiness is an emotion.  In fact Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines happy as favored by luck or fortune. 

Happiness, like luck or fortune, comes and goes.  Most people are happy Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.  Then at 3:01 p.m. their boss lets them know they forgot their coversheet on their TPS report and they have to come in over the weekend. Then they are not happy. What happened in a minute’s time?  Quite simply their circumstances changed bringing about a new emotion.  That’s the true problem with happiness, it’s an emotion.  Emotions themselves are terrible masters; decent servants, but terrible masters. 

Emotions are ruling our country. Political ads are aimed directly at your emotions.  Politicians know that if they can appeal to your emotions you are more likely to vote.  Hope and change anyone? 

How many times have you heard people say “Well as long as it makes you happy…”  Really?  What happens if stealing cars makes a person happy?  What if clubbing baby seals make a person happy?   That statement is the same as “If it feels good, do it.”  Just turn on the television and see firsthand what happens when people live by these mantras.  Television is littered with a plethora of shows about people living their lives with ZERO regard for other people and now they are 14 and pregnant (and yes El Guapo I do know what a plethora is). 

That is the end result when happiness a person’s standard for living.  Not being 14 pregnant of course, but having no regard for anyone but themselves.  How can you focus on other people when you are so worried about your own happiness?  That’s why our divorce rates are so high in this nation.  If a husband or wife is not happy then they look to divorce to get out of the marriage so they can go and make themselves happy.  In 2010 the movie “Eat, Pray, Love”, based on the book of the same title, hit theaters.  The premise of the movie is that a woman who seemingly has everything, husband, house, career, decides she’s not happy and gets a divorce.  Then she embarks on a journey to find who she really is. 

What an endearing little story!  She’s not happy in the commitment she made so she decides to leave it behind.  I wonder if the same thing works for mortgage payments?  That’s the prevailing message in our society today in regards to marriage; if you’re not happy just get a divorce.  Most people’s wedding vows have the phrase “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”  What ends being lived out is “until we become poor, or you become fat, or until I’m no longer happy.” 

What may be worse is that our younger generations are forsaking any commitments at all so they can walk away from relationships anytime they want with no difficulties.  If people are just “living together” or “friends with benefits” or just “hooking up” and it doesn’t work out, or when  they are not happy anymore they can just walk away. No messy divorce.  It’s not that people don’t want to have relationships, we all recognize that we must have connection with other people in order to survive.  The problem is we are creating millions of narcissistic people who can only focus on themselves and their happiness.  But I’m sure everything will work out just fine.

Leftovers enjoy!

L. Kyle

You’re So Vain…

I bet you think this blog is about you.  This weekend officially kicks off the summer season ushered in by the first summer holiday, Memorial Day.  As much as I love the summer holidays, Memorial Day, Forth of July, and Labor Day, they fail to offer my favorite edible joy…candy. 

Hello my name is L. Kyle and I’m a candyholic. 

There are certain holidays which we celebrate such as Christmas and Easter which have their own themed candy, I call those “candy holidays.”  Halloween and Valentine’s Day, although not holidays, do bring forth a cornucopia of confections.  I realize that loving candy into your adult years may seem a little childish, but I’m okay with that. 

The summer holidays do have their fair share of junk food; hotdogs, chips, bratwurst, but candy is really not a central theme.  One item that does seem to go hand in hand with summertime is alcohol.  Alcohol seems to be the “adult” candy.  Some people no doubt look forward to sipping, chugging or shotgunning their favorite beer just as much as I enjoy eating a Cadbury Egg or double fisting Snickers bars.  Of course there’s an appearance of “cool” associated with alcohol and not candy. 

Actually alcohol is about the only vice which is regarded as socially acceptable.  Loving junk food is not cool.  “Are you really going to eat that second bag of M&Ms you fat slob?”  You really going to have that fifth beer? 

Smoking, which was socially acceptable in the 1920s is not really socially acceptable anymore. The mid-90s saw the lawsuit of big tobacco.  In addition to the $216Billion tobacco companies must pay to the 46 State Attorneys General named in the lawsuit, the four major tobacco companies were forced to cease from certain marketing practices.  So long Marlboro Man and your rugged persona.  So long Joe Camel and your cartoonish charm which enticed young kids to smoke. 

Instead we see an over abundance of smoking cessation ads, nicotine patch and gum ads and those ads with people speaking with robotic voices because they had their vocal chords removed.  Which is funny because there has not been a television or radio advertisement promoting cigarettes since January 2, 1971.  It is true that smoking has claimed a spate of lives in our country.  According to the Centers for Disease Control nearly 500K people every year die from smoking related diseases.  In fact the CDC reports deaths related to smoking total more than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. 

Forty six States felt burdened enough by the medical expenses for these people that they sued big tobacco.  But what about the scores of people dying due to alcohol related diseases or alcohol related accidents?  Why are the States not suing the major alcohol manufactures for the havoc their products wreak?  Sure the government tried to prohibit the manufacture and distribution of alcohol from 1919 to 1933.  However, bootleggers and organized crime became such an epidemic that the government repealed prohibition of alcohol and allowed the States control alcohol themselves.

Although alcohol does not claim as many lives as smoking does, it could be argued that the lives alcohol does claim are more tragic than smoking. Which seems more devastating: “Yeah my Dad died from emphysema, but he did smoke two packs of Camel lights a day for 35 years, so we kind of saw it coming.” Or “My Dad was killed on his way home from work when a drunk driver plowed into him.” 

The CDC also reports that 79,000 alcohol related deaths occurred in 2009. Besides drunk driving, which according the CDC was responsible for 32% of auto accidents and 10,000 deaths in 2009, alcohol is also a factor in more than 75% of all sexual assaults. Some national studies even find a causal relationship between domestic violence and alcohol abuse.  The CDC also reports that binge drinking, that is consuming 4 or more drink in a two hour period, costs this nation $223Billion a year!  The World Health Organization reports that worldwide alcohol is responsible for 2.4 million deaths.  That’s more than AIDS/HIV! 

So why has smoking been vilified in our society?  Sure, smoking claims a lot of people, but when was the last time someone was so buzzed with nicotine that they crashed their car killing other people?  When was the last time someone smoked so much and woke up after having sex with someone they didn’t know?  Or when was the last time rapist slipped a date rape drug into someone’s cigarette and then sexually assaulted them?

Now I’m not defending smoking, but I had a hard time understanding why smoking has been so demonized in our nation.  That was until I realized it was all about vanity.  Smoking makes your clothes stink, it makes your car stink, makes your breath stink.  Let’s face it, smoking makes you look bad.  Ever see someone who you thought was attractive until you saw them smoking?  "You smoke?  Gross!"

Our society is obsessed with vanity.  Sure we are into healthier activities these days; Cross Fit, P90X, The Biggest Loser, The Thigh Master.  Yes, we do these things to be healthy, but really we do them so we can look in the mirror and be happy with what we see.  Smoking is associated with unhealthy lifestyles.  Drinking though; have you ever seen the television ads?  Everyone looks pretty fit.  Attractive people drinking beer or Captain Morgan’s or Smirnoff Vodka and they all look like they are having a good time.  Shoot we even have “light” beer so you can be drunk and skinny. 

Sure society doesn’t like alcoholics; they have a problem.  If you have a problem with alcohol then there are rehab programs and 12-step programs, but it’s all kept on the down low.  Those programs have as much confidentiality as a lawyer, a doctor or a priest.  Want to stop smoking?  There are myriad of plans, gums, patches and commercials to help you with that.  Need to stop drinking?  Don’t be silly, of course you don’t.  Unless you have a problem then meet me in basement of a church on Wednesday afternoons, but don’t tell anyone.

We also don’t like the Homer Simpson-style beer drinkers with beer bellies and stains on their shirts.  But according to the commercials you won’t ever look like that.  According to Bud, Coors, Keystone and Miller you will always have a good time, always be fit and always be funny. 

The bottom line is that alcohol is just as destructive as smoking, if not more.  But we demonize smoking and glorify alcohol use because we are vain.  People can still drink (and are encouraged to) so long as they remain healthy looking, never develop an addiction and never kill anyone. 

Vanity of vanities all is vanity.

Leftovers Enjoy.

L. Kyle

Help! Decency is dying...

Too late, it’s dead.  Decency just died.  It had been dying for a while, but a new song by British circus performer turned pop-singer Neon Hitch just sent decency into cardiac arrest.   Over the radio it is tough to make out the words but it sounds like “She loves you good, but I can love you better”  After reading the lyrics I realized why the word love was hard to make out, because Ms Hitch doesn’t  spell love L-O-V-E, instead she spells it F-U-*-K.  Here’s a link to the lyrics http://www.metrolyrics.com/fk-u-betta-lyrics-neon-hitch.html.   Thanks to the FCC, songs like this have to be edited for public consumption, but really anyone with a smart phone can access the unedited version of the song from anywhere.

It is true that there have been other times when decency has been beat up and put in the hospital.  In 1987 George Michael released the “I want your sex” single which peaked at number 2 on the America’s charts and stayed on the Top 40 charts for 10 weeks.  In 1990 Hip Hop group Salt and Pepa released a single called “Let’s talk about sex”, which also did well on some American charts.   According to the website http://www.songfacts.com/ there are237 songs dealing with the issue of sex.  Certainly there are more songs than that produced dealing with this issue, so perhaps this list represents the most popular or ones that aren’t shrouded in another message.  Suffice it to say that Ms. Hitch is not the first to pen an explicit song about sex.  It could be argued that she doesn’t even take the top prize for most vulgar song, that record could be owned by the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Gwar, 2 Live Crew or Insane Clown Posse. But those groups have not made it on mainstream radio.

So what makes “F**K you better” the song which killed decency?  Well…just look at the title.  It could be its unabashed message that sex is nothing more than an act in which one person can perform better than another.  Her message could almost be the same message an insurance agent or perhaps an auto mechanic could use: “We know that we aren’t as attractive as your current auto mechanic, but we can change your oil better”.   It could be her music video which shows nothing else than her dancing around in her underwear.  Or it could be that her song reached Number #1 on Billboard’s Top Dance Hit Chart and is currently climbing on the Hot 100 Chart.

Perhaps it’s not so much of the content of the song, which apparently Ms Hitch wrote after an ex-boyfriend started dating a model, that killed decency, but perhaps it’s the fact that this song is being embraced by the consumers of pop culture.  The biggest consumers of pop culture in our society are between the ages of 12-19 years old. According to Marketing Daily American teenagers posses nearly $216 Billion in buying power.  El Salvador and 90 other countries in the world do not have the kind of buying power which American Teenagers have.  This is why the purveyors of popular culture will do what it takes to get that cash. 

Sometimes what it takes to get that cash is to give singers like Neon Hitch the opportunity to write and perform songs which most would argue are not appropriate fare for any 13 year-old.  Yes sex sells.  The pornography industry made billions last year and will make billions this year and billions every year until Kingdom come.  In a broader sense, it’s not just sex that sells, it’s taboo that sells.  Popular music has always made money from what was taboo. In 1963 it was somewhat taboo for the Beatles to sing about wanting to hold your hand.   

Not to defend Mr. Michael and his song “I want your sex”, but at the very least he sung about sex as part of a relationship.  His song was certainly taboo, but that was probably the point, to push the boundaries of what was taboo and okay to talk about in the public sphere.  It seems though that mere taboo topics are not enough anymore.  It’s not enough anymore to allude to sex like the song “Slow Ride” by Fog Hat or even sing about one night stands like “Chevy Van” by Sammy Johns.  No, those songs are not enough to shock the decency out of people.  There is no taboo anymore and now the likes of Neon Hitch must revert to being visceral in their language to ensure that people pay attention.  Another song about sex?  That won’t get people’s attention, but if we repeat the F-word enough, surely people will notice. 

Once taboo is no longer taboo, the only thing left to do is attack decency.  And that is what Ms Hitch’s song does, it attacks decency.  It attacks decency to the point that decency just died.

Leftovers.  Enjoy.

L. Kyle