Glam-or-ama

I am turned off when I turn on the television. I can barely tolerate listening to any of the commentators except those on Monday Night Football. There I hear voices naturally that sound American and excited about something that seems to be valuable to citizens. In Will Ferrell's recent movie Taledega Nights, Nascar like football seems to bridge a chasm in American culture. They are roots. What are the others? Baseball is supposedly our "national pastime." What other things are meaningful to Americans? Hot dogs? Ice Cream? Coco-Cola? Bubble gum? These things are parodied in Cold War era movies about Russia. Russians attempt to defect their own country finding a border house filled with these amenities. Does America really stand for these things, or do these things stand for America? I thought it was freedom, but freedom from what? Religious tyranny? That seems to be what we are taught to believe. Was it to escape the Holy Roman Catholic church? Are the British predominantly Catholic? All of this supposition about the Holy War that is occurring today seems to be prefaced by other movements that used religion as a facade. That is doing things in the name of religion. Therefore we have a fairly common history of justifying our wants under the guise of religion. Think of the hypocrisy of these so called puritan religions active in the United States. One polygamist was on the top ten list of most wanted by the FBI. I think we need to stop calling Arab terrorists "Extreme Muslims" and call them what they really are. Terrorists. Using the mainly peaceful religion of Islam to justify anger over America, the infidel's, defense of Kuwait is misleading. The same is true calling POW's "detainees." The "War on Terror" is new to the US, but war is not. Should we have rethought and rewritten American military strategy as Mr. Rumsfeld did to accommodate a "new" enemy? In the early stages of the war this proved to be successful in our imperialistic coup d'etat of Saddam Hussein, but was destroying a country worth the cost? Was igniting and fueling an all ready existent holy war worth the unfounded threat of possessing "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Over time we discovered as a country we were gullible after 9/11, and we, a great super power, were duped by a self-righteous, propagandist dictator. Because maniacal Arab men commit grievous acts in the name of their God, Allah, does not mean we should assume all practicing that religion are evil. As Ralph Reid erroneously invoked Christianity as a political movement, we know from history that religious fanaticism in government fails. That was the basis for the American ideology of separation of church and state. It doesn't mean we should have removed the representations of the moral and ethical values of religion from our schools and work places. What religion was Great Britain that caused rebellious citizens to sail thousands of miles over the Atlantic in pursuit of a freer land? I thought it was to escape a constitutional monarchy and acquire freedom from economic oppression. What are these Puritan roots? The Quakers? The Amish? The Mormons? Or was it the Free Masons? There was a special on the History channel on Free Masonry. Many of our notable founding fathers were Free Masons. They had Masonic temples, and those represented power and knowledge at a grass roots level. Masons are simply stone smiths that manipulate rock and mortar. That seems pretty down to earth to me. Why the need for an organization, and one that seems to be secretive, for such an activity? Was it really just an exclusive men's club? That emblem on the back of the dollar bill is a Masonic pyramid, not a tip-of-the-hat to the devil. The "all seeing" eye as it were. I have no problem with this, other than if it was meant to be exclusive. Were Free Masons biggots? I think freedom is the general reason why people immigrate to the United States. We all want freedom. Larry Flint braved the way exercising the freedoms guaranteed by our constitution. Some are freedom of expression and the pursuit of happiness. "That's a woman's vagina. Photograph it," and he stood up for his freedoms and won in the Supreme Court. Hurrah! The "Rebel Without a Cause" and "The Easy Rider." It used to be you could be a hippie. You could hang out, take drugs, and chant, "Free love." All during the 70's the middle class was snorting coke, having group sex, and dancing all night at Studio 54. "Drugs are bad, 'kay." The hair bands of the 80's fell into despair, rehab, and OD... overdose. Self-destructive behavior is troublesome, but at least it makes you feel alive. When you are testing your body, you feel something in return, until you drop to the bottom. Then things change. I drink because it makes me feel good, most of the time. Most of the time I don't feel like myself. I feel like that image that is being projected on TV, glamorized, de-sensitized, sanitized, and homogenized. Other days I feel that never ending Arabic influence. For the first time, probably like the cultish recruiting and indoctrination of Al Kaida's members, I am beginning to wonder if this foreign existence somehow has relevance to the United States. I feel like we don't have an American soul. Does that mean that the terrorists are winning with their propaganda, or does their fundamental dogma have credence? After removing the insane and murderous behavior that seems to effect many sects in Arabia and Africa, is their political agenda evil? Our boy band rock and dirty pop culture won't give us an ounce of soul, because there is none without religion. There is no "Message in a Bottle" except buy, buy, buy. Conversely musicians such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison had convictions in their music. It was representative of something more. Life has to happen first like it seemed to in the 1950's. What has changed? Television back then was based on reality... what happened in everyday households. Is Reality TV today representing what is real in America? If so it is a poor metaphor to the rest of the world. If we don't want the negative criticism of such extreme religious groups, then maybe we should discard some of the hypocrisies of American Capitalism. "You're fired, yourself. Go eat slugs. Jump off a cliff." It seemed then there were moral family values. From where did they come? The Church. Running for office behind the facade of religious conviction, but abandoning those convictions governing the country is hypocrisy. Leave it to the Beaver, or Ward, or Andy Griffith to teach Opie what was right and wrong. We don't see that much on TV anymore or in the government. The Bradys or the Partridge Family aren't struggling to rear a family. Instead we have oil barons, lesbians, cartoons, single parents, and a myriad of cops, detectives, and crime scene investigators. Seems one of them gators never got Steve Irwin. An evil stingray did. Well, they aren't called "sting" rays for nothing. I wonder if Steve would have lived if he had left the barb in his heart to plug the hole and cut the ray's tail. Sad, losing your tail or losing your life? Who are these guys yelling at me on TV?. "Go home and yell at your dog." I wonder how having a speech impediment enables you to become a news commentator. How about a little of the King's English? I always like speaking the Episcopal Communion Service Rite 1 in "Jesse speak," like a black man would say it. Like American jazz that rhythm gives feeling to the words. Those slaves out in the fields knew what feeling was. They knew what suffering was, so when they had something, they appreciated it. When you go without for a while, it does that do you. It makes you appreciate life when it is good. I say, "Get rid of the glam." I am sick of seeing plastered down hair and glossed over bumps and wrinkles. Do they really want to look like a characters in an animated film? A Barbie doll, stiff, unfeeling and uptight? A cool conservative right winger? What happened to Grunge, flannel, baggie jeans, and droopy hats? What happened to being earthy and comfortable and real? It is hard to watch to a newscaster who looks like Barbie. I'm sorry. "Shall we play dress up? Here's your pocket book. Go out for a stroll on Rodeo Drive." If they looked like tarts or sluts I would understand more. How about a little European TV, topless commentators, and tits and ass? It's because we really have morphed into metrosexuals, metrosexual meaning a blending of the sexes into beings that are androgynous and professional. I see it in everyday life. Women acting like men. Men acting like women. Confusion of identity. What is the problem with acknowledging our heterosexuality? We are TWO separate genders, and that is the beauty of it. There are womanly attributes and manly attributes. Which don't you understand, other than they are not really being depicted on American television? God said Adam was the head of the household, and I believe it. In all my relationships I have worn the pants, and I have yet to know a woman that knew more than I did. What makes it good for me is desire. D-E-S-I-R-E. Sex isn't good unless there is personal desire. If you want something, like that apple in the Garden of Eden, then it tastes better. Too bad about the consequences. Are we going to go to hell for desiring? I don't think so. I think it drives us. At the age of 43, when you enter middle age and begin to mellow out, it can be difficult to maintain focus in your life. When you are young, dumb, and full o' cum, there are hormones driving the boat. Testosterone is pumping. Endorphins are flowing. Animal desires. Survival of the fittest. Leader of the pack. When you get older, those things subside and you get a little more comfortable with status quo. But, if you don't assert your desires, goals, and aspirations who will? How will you define yourself? Without goals, we are nothing. I have to remind myself that the humility I have assumed, the unassertiveness that feels polite, will get me nowhere or nothing. It is okay to want. If you don't want, then we just exist in a space where life will absorb you into its commercial, capitalist, superficial metrosexuality. It is easier to control a docile flock than one that is educated and enlightened. Is this why our public schools have such little value to our current political regime? If television is useless propaganda and the schools are failing, then who is educating our youth? Is it single parents? Violent video games? The internet? Cell phones? MP3 players? All of this pop culture is teaching them nothing but how to be isolated. This chaos in American society will not end until we are out of Iraq. There is only one logical conclusion to it all. Until the "infidels" leave the Arab world there will be bloody anarchy and raged terror on the United States. If it means giving up a hidden agenda, then the decision must be made as to who is more important. Is it the American people and their culture and life style or the people of Iraq? If president Bush would take even a few minutes of a speech to acknowledge the needs of the American people rather than Iraqis, then I might somehow believe he was our president.