Friday, January 21, 2005

A fond look back at the days of yore!

Remember back when the two things to avoid in polite conversation were Religion and Politics? I find it somewhat amusing* (*well, amusing in a "wanna pull my hair out and beat on my scalp with my shoe" type of way) that they are now almost the same thing. When was the last time you had a good political discussion with someone about economics, free trade, or the socio-economic patterns of the indigineous peoples of Mauritas (ok I just threw some words together on that last one) without the topic of religion coming up. I remember the days when one could be proud to be a Republican without being branded one of the Religious Right. When no matter your beliefs about morality, it was your beliefs about Kyoto Treaty that mattered. A couple of things spurred my current soap box topic that I would like to bring to your attention.
First, do you know who Michael Powell is? If you're like most of America (including me up until 5 minutes ago)you know him as Chairman of the FCC, the man that made derogatory statements about the Desperate Housewives-Monday night football deabacle. The man who has put the fear of God into Fox television. You've probably heard a lot about him in the news everytime there's a slight bit of skin on the tele, animated or otherwise. But to my surprise I found out that the FCC does more than keep nipples out of my view. I read an article in the WSJ found HERE about the things he's done to encourage growth in the Telecom industry. Maybe this was only interesting to me as that is the industry in which I work. But I was just amazed to find an smart educated article about something other boobies and the FCC. Its a shame that people don't care about the things being done to improve the economy, build jobs and grow the country, they only care about a little ass on TV. For good or for bad, Michael Powell has actually worked at creating opportunities for businesses to grow. Why don't we ever hear about this in main stream media? Because honestly, who really reads the WSJ, there's no pictures.
Now, I'm not blaming the media here, they have ratings to worry about so if they have a boring article on FCC regulations in the Telecom industry and FoxNews has an article on, oh I don't know, say a Republican kitten who saved a Democrat family of 8 money on their car insurance, then somebody's gonna lose advertising money. Maybe its our fault for wanting more people to get out and vote. So we've had to dumb down politics to religous issues to get people to understand what's going on. The vast majority of Americans think that GDP stands for the Republican Party, and that the trade gap is the distance from Taiwan to California. I'm not saying that the majority of American's are unable to understand the basics of politics, they are, I'm saying they don't give a flying rats ass.
I just don't understand why politics has been simplified into Republican = Religious Freak, and Democrat = Atheist Hell burners. I think that's the greatest thing the Republican party has acheived, is that it has latched itself onto one of the largest contingents of American's as their only hope of Salvation. There are some I'm sure who have "W's" picture up on the wall right next to Jesus'. I'm not knocking religious people, they are fully justified in their beliefs, and there are many smart, intelligent followers, I just don't understand how Bush and Christianity have become so thouroughly tied to together. And I don't understand how followers of a religion that teaches "love your neighbor" as one of its main tennants can justify a war with another nation. Because believe or not, this has become a Christian Nation. The lines between Church and State are streched thin. The last few strands keeping them apart are held in place by only a few old Supreme Court Judges who will probably retire during Bush's term.
I don't offer any solutions yet, I'm still searching. I only offer commentary on a few things I've noticed. Feel free to comment (comment, not attack). My thoughts have become jumbled,unclear, and non-sequitar, I need some time to reflect before I can move on to my second point...

...until then go watch this movie!
"For Wendy I'll be an Activist too, cause that's what Brian Boytano'd do!"
-Stan Marsh, South Park the Movie
Posted by timothy :: Direct Link 1 comments

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