singles – Page 2 – Hopeful Romantics

When the Big Speech is Over: The Post Mid-Term Elections and a Brand New Round of Truth Speak

I have long been suspicious about the adamancy of true believers. It’s not nice at times, and it definitely reveals my own impatience and in fact even snobbery, but nevertheless, when I hear people utter parroted news speak I realize sooner or later they will issue a new incantation explaining away either the limitations of their previous thoughts, or why they collectively or individually failed at their objectives. To me, those who believe something so piously have elected to wear on their psyche Kevlar blinders to block out the occasional sliver of critical thinking. Few realize the more obvious limitations and vulnerabilities of any dogma. Which often dooms them from the get-go.

The irony of most true believers is that they believe themselves to be open thinkers. They are open to any new thoughts as long as they can perceive them as far inferior to the their own. Should those posing alternate perspectives not acknowledge their insufficiencies, the true believer launches into a flurry of clichéd diatribes. Or, if faced with the plausibility of alternate reality they may withdraw entirely from the confrontation, pulling in their heads like turtles in a shell. So much for quality discourse.

In the world of the true believer, his ideology is never suspect and no matter what results are achieved, there exists no such thing as failure. Failure, the true believer contends, should be deemed as relative. It is not failure that his party or group has acquired, it is in his eyes a limited victory. Those who set out to run the twenty six mile marathon and struggle to make it past ten city blocks might deem it a victory of sorts. But for the rest of the world, this is failure, not achievement. Which leaves the true believer to issue his fall back position, they “tried, and did the best they could.”

What is then confusing to the true believer is that not everyone is buying it. Not everyone is a lifetime subscriber to the nauseatingly pervasive “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. I know I am far too results oriented for that. My own fault, maybe. My own impatience. But like a fair amount of the world, I believe this very attitude severely limits innovation and performance. I believe it dresses the stage for reduced expectation. Rather than set new standards of performance, our reflexive readiness to resort to the “we did the best we could syndrome” let’s us beg off and otherwise rationalize our collective sloth and personal limitations. We do this nationally, and we do this as individuals. We have forgotten that success doesn’t really need to be explained. Failure requires a million excuses.

A perfect example is the recent mid-term election. I cite this not just to pick on the Democrats, but to also take note of the cycle of apology and explanation that ensues after such an event, all as a substitute for relative lack of action. As we all know, the Democrats were soundly beaten. For mid-term elections, the incumbent party losing twenty to thirty seats in the House is considered acceptable. The Democrats lost more than sixty three seats in the House and six seats in the Senate. Let’s face it, nobody likes to get his ass kicked. Or let’s say, unless you are a masochist, you don’t like getting beaten to a pulp. However, that’s what happened in the recent mid-term elections.

While it was clear to some, in my opinion the more astute, the Democrats were failing at their message, Democratic pundits went on TV and instead of reaching out and communicating gave some rambling examples of their accomplishments. These virtues were garnished with laments that the average American just didn’t understand all the good that was done for them. In essence, the party of the people was claiming before the cameras that the party of the people no longer knew how to communicate with the people. Which is true. It seems that every rambling utterance that emanates from the Democratic Party elicits more confusion than resonance. The messages are obscure, tangential, and without any emotional focus.

Coming from an age when Democrats were roll up your sleeves and bang it out in the gutter types, we now see a Party that is either so diverse its objectives are diluted, and with all its education and high minded ideas out of touch with much of the American middle class. Why? Because if you are alleged intellectuals, academics, media people, or other members of the Democratic Leadership who are driving its train, chances are you don’t come into contact with the average American Joe. Democratic leaders and supports really don’t talk to the guy running the tire shop, the small business manufacturer, the owner of a modest IT company. Middle management and even the majority of senior executives. You may believe they do, but they don’t. Okay, maybe during election time. There is no personal contact, and there is no political contact. Once upon a time when diverse types actually lived in the same communities this was the backbone of the Democratic Party. This and labor.

Well, labor has been diminished and the true middle class, the small business owners and technocrats, the truckers and healthcare workers, are largely being ignored. Big news here, organizations like the Teachers’ Union are not the middle class. The underclass worker is just that, underclass. The poor are the poor. None of them, despite all rhetoric to the contrary are middle class. If you are out to save the middle class, then it would be helpful to know who and what the middle class actually is.

The person running a business or holding onto a job at some local business with a house, two cars, two kids, and the bills to pay for all of it, this is the middle class. This is not the poor or the underclass. This is the middle class. This is the pissed off segment that doesn’t really want to hear some weak rhetoric about “sacrifice” and that it takes a village. What they need to know if if they can get credit for their business or if their jobs won’t be shipped off to Timbuktu. Before they want to hear about contributing to the well being of others, they want to know how they will pay for their mortgage or put shoes on their kids’ feet. They want to know how they can care for their own family members, whether it means putting their kids through college or caring for an aging or dying parent. They want to know now and not with some promissory rhetoric posed by a bevy of politicians and academics who have never run a business in their lives. They don’t want to hear how the government will take care of them but rather how they can take care of themselves.

The middle class is complex. In the modern age, it is difficult to pinpoint. It may be dissected economically but as never before social and cultural tastes will differ. There may be the same salary levels, but this is a segmented market with its different tastes and different priorities. The advertising industry knows this. Politicians do not. The person making fifty grand in Topeka is probably more drawn to lawn care and less drawn to Broadway Theater then the person making fifty grand in an emerging neighborhood in Brooklyn. Each to his own. The middle class covers a broad spectrum and to attract that spectrum to your way of thinking you have to find some common ground. You have to be direct and not ramble in the abstract. In short, you have to know who they are and what they are.

Other than the buzzword, the Democrats have little idea about the broader spectrum of the middle class. They sort of have a vague notion of the urban middle class and they certainly devote their focus on the poor. Not to besmirch the poor, but let’s face it in a global economy in a time of economic crisis, it would be a damn sight smarter to focus on those who can pull you out of the crisis and set you back on a path of global competition. When it comes to restoring jobs and global competition, all hand wringing and obligatory rhetoric aside, for sure as hell the poor ain’t driving that bus. I don’t want to sound cruel here, but it’s is relatively easy to figure out what the poor need and want. Simply put, the socially marginalized want to be included. Not an easy task, but that directive is a lot simpler to figure out than the needs and wants of a very segmented and therefore complex middle class.
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The Republicans figured it out. The have done a far better job at communication than the Democrats. Strategically speaking, they have out messaged and for the most part outsmarted the Democrats in strategic terms. Mind you, this is a case of style over substance, and by no means do I believe the Republicans have the right idea. The previous eight years offer bitter testimony that they, too, don’t have a clue. But they do have a better line of bullshit. They are better organized and there is no mistaking their message, no matter how spurious that message is. They are masters at taking Democratic niceties and twisting them to the Republican advantage. They show the Democrats to be weak and tentative and they run through those whole like like a Mack Truck through Paper Mache.

As for truth speak and the party line, prior to the elections I watched one Democratic pundit after another cite Democratic accomplishments, mostly followed by the deep chagrin that much of the nation wasn’t embracing these accomplishments. President Obama, they contended, had done so much and was so under appreciated for all he has wrought under much resistance and great duress. Some alluded to his weaknesses, but most held the party truth speak talking about his character and great strength. How much he cared and what a fighter he was. In all, before the election, the Democratic position was we have done so much for so many; it is their fault that they are such idiots that they don’t understand our political largess. Reality didn’t seem to be a factor, even in the face of overwhelming samples that the Democrats were heading for disaster. Democratic supporters, rather than confront the situation head on and examine why they were not reaching the public with their message, preferred instead to cling to their rhetoric and take up residence in that turtle’s shell of denial. This may offer temporary comfort, but it is not very strategic. Nor is it particularly intelligent as more often than not it will only exacerbate the negatives.

What was missing of course, was the reality. Case in point, and I know some have argued vehemently otherwise, that the president blew opportunity big time with the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf. The resulting catastrophe severely damaged what amounts to the 29th strongest economy in the world, the Gulf Region. Forgetting the fact that Energy Secretary Salazar, an oil guy, was warned that the necessary drilling protections were not in place, this was President Obama’s version of “you are doing a Heck of a Job, Brownie.” I know all the lamentations that the President was doing the best he could and that he had no magic wand to wave and the other horse shit that was offered up as lockstep and lame excuses. But the fact is, in seeing British Petroleum as a partner, rather than demanding they seal the well, billions of dollars were lost to that economy. Tens of Thousands of people lost their livelihoods. A culture that had existed for centuries was devastated.

Of course once the President did lean on BP, the leak was sealed. After a hundred and something days, miracle of miracles, they found a way to seal it in less than a weak. According to the news media and most Democratic pundits, mistakenly believe the crisis was all over. All’s well that ends well Everything was fine. No, it was not fine. People were outraged. Maybe those who lived elsewhere and perhaps didn’t really care about what they deemed a bunch of Cajuns and Southern Crackers, thought that after a brief time out everything was back to normal. But the Democratic politicians and their supporters knew damn well, in a literal sense the Party was over. The Democrats had just lost what little they had initially retained of the Gulf Region. With the exception of Democrats like Mary Landrieu and her brother Mitch, icons and real supporters of their native state, you can kiss it goodbye for many other Democrats.

Of course, I can’t think of any Democratic pundits who diverted from truth speak and pointed out on the cable shows that you can forget about gleaning votes form the Gulf Region. Not a mention as it would not fit into the lockstep dogma that the public just doesn’t understand us. No one pointed this dreadful inaction in time of crisis as Presidential failure to step up to the plate. No one pointed it out that this may be endemic of a behavior pattern few could discern amid the impassioned speeches from an inexperienced politician who was never forced to confront adversity of this magnitude. No, not a peep about indecision or possible behavior flaws. Nobody was saying, despite all the time constraints and opposition, the President wanted the job, and this is the job. Again for the cheap seats…this was the job he signed on for.

Instead just prior to the election, we heard the party line about the encroachment of the Tea Party. Oh the Tea Party, a bunch of racists who were determined to undermine the Democratic efforts in spite of their own self interests. And, sure, it’s true. Big news there are racists living in the United States. And being bigoted assholes, there is no doubt racists will be emboldened under times of economic weakness and national indecision. The worst part of this country will emerge for sure. All this seething and underlying bigotry, be it racism, sexism, or Antisemitism that seethes beneath the surface will pop up like so many oil blisters in the La Brea Tar Pits.

But did that throw the mid-terms to the Republicans? Doubtful. First off, what of the 53% of the voters who voted in Presidential Election? It would seem there were not enough voting racists then to really move 63 Democrats out of office. That would mean the majority of the country is not just biased but vehemently racist. Some would say so. I wouldn’t.

Did a commanding majority suddenly transform itself into racists and vote out Democrats on order to get back at their President? Maybe. Makes sense if you stick to the party line. One of them, anyway. But the thing is as it the final results have established, with the exception of the Latino vote, just about every demographic group moved some of its voters from the Democratic to the Republican column Even African American voters pulled the Republican lever more than they had a couple of years ago. In the 2008 Presidential election, Bush and company garnered a meager 4% of the African American Vote. But in the 2010 midterm elections, of the African Americans who voted, nine percent voted Republican. More than double. So then with every demographic but the Latino voters switching in varying degrees in favor of the Republicans, either every hidden racist decided to expose himself or many truly believe the not only the President but the Democratic Party had not fulfilled his promises. I don’t know the answer here. I really don’t. Nor do I fully understand how many voters in need of Democratic policy bought into the Republican rhetoric. Maybe they sold it better. But the results are what they are. So before I assign the explanation of the Democratic debacle to the Tea Party, Racism or to other simplistic rhetroic, I would review more thoroughly the bigger picture. But then that’s me.

Look, while I write this for a broader audience, a mixed bag of conservatives and progressives, and whatever else who read my blog, I realize much of this would fall on deaf ears. And like I said, I don’t by any means have all the answers. I realize, too, that recalcitrance and vilification is an essential part of rhetorical lockstep and the blind faith in the party line, so I don’t harbor much expectation. Although, now that the ass kicking is over and we see a few pundits coming to their senses. Increasingly, there is growing concern by various columnists and politicians that our President may not indeed be all that he can be. There is increased frustration with him within his own base and among the media folk who drive it. We are not talking about the Republican flacks here, but writers and personalities who tend to lean toward the Democratic view of things. They have been watching now for a couple of years, and now, all apologies and excuses notwithstanding, they don’t like what they see. They realize that exhortations about what do you expect the President to do, and he has had so little time, is falling on increasingly deaf ears. And as a party, the Democratic Party, if you are getting your ass kicked, lame excuses for indecision just won’t cut it anymore.

Perhaps it becomes apparent when you put in an inexperienced politician to handle one of our worst national crises, despite his great speech making, he is just not up to the job. Perhaps when President Obama consistently negotiates prematurely against his own best interests, he fails to understand the principles of negotiation. Perhaps, despite what all have said to the contrary, his team of advisors and cabinet, with some exception, are second stringers who have no real political leverage, except they are great political campaigners or that they got really good grades in school. Perhaps the excuse that he hasn’t had time is insufficient, as the country was promised one thing and got another. Perhaps the few band aids that helped shore the dikes against the economic flood placated the true believers but not the rest. Perhaps claiming that the mean ol’ nasty Republicans beat up on the heartfelt, well intended but ultimately incompetent Democrats has any real currency to the family trying to pay its mortgage.

Perhaps it is time to stop with the convenient but ultiamtely unproductive rhetoric and lame excuses. Perhaps it is time to do the smart thing, the adult thing, and try to understand in often painful but realistic terms why the Democrats screwed it up so badly. Our adversaries and global competitors could care less for our lame excuses. Our global competitors and our professional sports teams are well aware that not everyone gets a trophy. Our global competitors and our sports franchises are well aware that those who do get the trophy are the ones who are able to pull it off in spite of the adversity, the obstacles, and the biases against them. Perhaps it is time to cool all the jargon and like the sports teams, review the playing films. Analyze things carefully and without prejudice. See what you did wrong and where you messed up. Make the rewarding distinction between catering to the the middle class and having your head up your ass. And then, cut out the crap and try to get it right.

Close Encounters With the Tea Party of Beverly Hills

You don’t often think of the City of Beverly Hills and the Tea Party in one sentence. But, nevertheless, there they were in some odd form of cosmic convergence, demonstrating to the more ardent supporters and the merely curious that populist outrage can emanate from one of the more expensive zip codes in the United States. Here, just a mere block or so north of the famed Rodeo Drive where upper end manufacturers, excluding maybe Ralph Lauren, import and showcase their designer wares from Italy, France, and just about every other place but here, the Beverly Hills Tea Party is banding together to take its country back. Will that be cash or charge?

I am not one to cast the usual knee jerk aspersions on the Tea Party. Must of those have been repeated ad nauseam and the disparaging remarks have done little to either understand it or suppress this often erratic and ragged movement that, despite all, is moving forward as an influence to be reckoned with. I may agree with very little of what it stands for and may find Tea Party theories and practices both erroneous and convoluted, but the anger most feel to a large extent is to some extent justifiable outrage. The fact that this country has been sold down the drain by certain corporate interests and the toadies that pimp and whore for them is truly the American crime of the century.

People who once had respectable jobs have been put out of work and their once gainful employment has been outsourced at a cheaper rate to countries where the cheaper labor can best save the corporate bottom line. Stock prices increase, but people continually not only lose their jobs but find fewer in the downsized marketplace. Where there were once decent manufacturing jobs, there are meager and humiliating service center jobs. Certain industries, like Elvis, have left the building. Unless there is a serious reevaluation of the true and long term cost of their loss, they aren’t coming back in the foreseeable future.

Consequently, people have not only lost their jobs, but have depleted their life savings. Many no longer have retirement portfolios and the once relied upon pensions have either been seriously diminished or vaporized in the series of bankruptcies and the assorted mergers and acquisitions. All that crap about the late life second career rings hollow and obnoxious when your money is gone and you can’t find a job. Many Americans have lost their houses, their cars, their dignity, and are facing the prospect that they have just raised the first generation of children who will probably not fare as well economically as their parents had. In a country where the ongoing belief was that economically speaking the kids would always do better than their parents, the grim reality is that this may not be the case.

The Tea Party and its incumbent protest aspect is in its essence really nothing new to America. Its name of course is derived from the first visible protest against British taxation of its colonies with the much vaunted Boston Tea Party that every third grader learns about in lore and legend. “No taxation without representation, ” and then none of your damn tea. There are elements of the Tea Party in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, in the 1790’s and the Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts in the late 1780’s. Roots of the Tea Party can be attributed to President Andrew Jackson and his much heralded “Jacksonian Democracy” that brought a more populist element to government. Even Thomas Jefferson, it could be argued, was an early perpetrator of this vague ideal, as he opted for the agrarian and state’s rights sensibility over Hamilton’s Federalist theory.

In the twentieth century there are threads of the Tea Party in various campaigns. There are roots of it with Ayn Rand and her “Objectivism” philosophy. You can find the Tea Party or populist philosophy, using the term loosely here, in the 1960’s with Alabama Governor George Wallace’s Presidential candidacy. Wallace’s Presidential campaign was feared by Democrats and especially Republicans. Come election time, he ended up with 13.5 percent of the popular vote. Not bad. But Ross Perot, another you could attribute to the early Tea Party movement, topped Wallace by garnering almost 19% of the popular vote. Had Perot in the end not seemed so off the wall by insisting there were doctored photos of him and threats against his daughter, and had he not selected retired Admiral Jim Stockdale as his running mate, a man who in his later years was not what one would call the world’s most coherent man, Perot would have garnered an even higher vote count.

As for my encounter with the Tea Party, it was purely happenstance. We were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard a few Sundays back when we noticed this gathering in the park. At first, we had no idea what it was and though it was yet one more arts and craft show where in cloth wrapped booths vendors displayed typically bland art in between the makeshift yogurt and frozen banana stands. But we didn’t see the booths, really, and the park contained too few people for the typical art show. We saw printed and hand painted signs proclaiming that this was indeed the gathering of the Beverly Hills Tea Party. There in the park, before the big wrought iron and brass sign that proudly proclaimed this park was in Beverly Hills there stood a bevy of America flags and sound speakers blaring out in limited fidelity with a whole lot of static patriotic songs that were were familiar with and some with which are best considered arcane.

It was over 100 degrees outside. But what the hell, it’s not everyday you get to see the Tea Party in the relative convenience of your own back yard. So there they were, holding signs up against big government, Obamacare, wanton spending, and all the other stuff they are known for. A few “take our country back” signs that some believe are filled with racist innuendo. Among the predominantly white faces there were one or two Hispanic people, one or two African Americans, and more than a couple of Persians. Beverly Hills for those who don’t know may have the largest Iranian/Persian population outside of Iran. Of course the trio marching around with fife and drum in woolen frock coats and three cornered hats, in the hundred degree heat, fit demographically into either the category of total commitment or theatrical lunacy. Take your pick.

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Not all were as determined and single minded as the media would allow. While the organizers did their best to gather the flock, and while the few vendors behind the makeshift tables peddled Beverly Hills Tea Party emblazoned tee shirts and baseball caps, there were those who appeared a little uncertain about their being there. Under my obvious scrutiny there were a few people who were shy and a bit sheepish about protesting the socialist government takeover of Beverly Hills. Others clustered in groups under the shade of the old growth Oak Trees and fanned themselves with the paperboard brochures. In all, it was a peaceful gathering that carried the kind of tentative vibe when you find yourself sitting a little too close to someone else’s picnic table.

The main theme of the speeches was fiscal responsibility. We didn’t really stay for the speakers as it was hot and we were bored, and late lunch was beckoning down by the ocean. But anyone who follows anything knows the Tea Party maintains a relentless desire for fiscal responsibility. In fact, it was partly the wanton spending and subsequent economic fiasco has inspired the advent of the Tea Party. It is a political group whose inception has been fueled by the reflexive reaction to the collective bamboozle. Since forming, the Tea Party has gained group and now poses a threat to not only the Democrats but the Republican Party who erroneously assumed these people were securely in their pocket. In walking around the grounds I heard one well intentioned soul offering ill advised and unwarranted suggestions about how best to approach the forthcoming elections. The man he was talking to, tall and not without his share of testosterone promptly admonished, ” we have an agenda of our own. We intend to take over the Republic Party.”

This statement may seem like heady stuff. But historically speaking, it serves as the same political metaphor that inspired myriad radical political elements to move in on the moderates and then once installed in legitimate government, move out the moderates and really let those banners fly. Hence in history the revolution and then the counter or second phase of the revolution. The rhetoric of accommodations followed by the subsequent introduction of the firing squad and the guillotine. In fact one of the few places where the moderates took power through revolution and then retained power without the radical element taking it to its bloody extremes was in that faraway land called the United State of America. But now, if nothing else, the Tea Party can be the first truly viable third party. That may even lead to the formation of political coalition. Doubtful, but possible.

I am not saying this is the big Tea Party plan. But that’s a long way from here. In its incipient political stage, the other key thematic through line is the general mistrust of government. The Tea Party hates the government and sees it as a wasteful abomination that inflicts upon its people intrusive and unworkable policies that only add to the already overwhelming burden of trying to survive. Different Tea Party candidates wish to nullify the 17th Amendment that provides for a progressive income tax, and the 18th Amendment that enables the popular election of the United States Senate. Others want to rid the federal government of everything from the Department of Education and Department of Energy, to the Departments of Internal Revenue, Commerce, and Homeland Security. I am sure there are other departments that would be given the ax, but these are enough to focus on at the moment.

Of course this all seems absurd, but like other absurdities, such disparate individuals as Nazi Propaganda Minster, Joseph Goebbels, Soviet Leader, Vladimir Lenin and pioneer psychologist, William James have stated in common, “if you say something enough, people will eventually believe it.” It’s a paraphrase or composite of the three statements, but that’s the general point. Goebbels, by the way, detailed nineteen points of propaganda that remain remarkably relevant this very day. And the fact is there are millions of people are believing what most of us see as absurd on its best days and totally bat shit in terms of governmental management and oversight. Enough people are believing this to put some of the Tea Party in office. It has been speculated that eight Tea Party candidates have a chance of being elected to office.

In some ways, as bitter a pill as it is to swallow, this stands to reason the Tea Party, in fact, would end up a presence on the American political landscape. Because the fact remains that government in recent years has performed neither effectively or responsibly. It has committed to economic folly and imposed itself where it was often uninvited. Conversely, and with bitter irony, it has eliminated regulations that have allowed bandits with a briefcase to run off with the store.

But then here is the Tea Party. They rant rave and make some outrageous statements. Some but not all are racist, or homophobic, or Bible thumping bigots who see subversion in every environmental issue. Of course there is a lot of tough talk about kicking out the immigrants and eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs whether they make sense or not. The Tea Party sense of fiscal responsibility is kind of like your parents finding out you used your allowance money for candy and not the wretched school lunch, so now they are going to deny any money and starve you to death, just to prove their point. There is also the fearful prospect and collateral damage sustained by their anointing their lunatic candidates so they can govern the asylum. With some the consequences of forty years of failed policy has just made them crazy. Yes, they may appears fools and awkward, subject to derision, but who is the greater fool? The Democrats who didn’t take them seriously? Or the establishment Republicans who believed they could manipulate them and use them for their shock troops, and then file them neatly inside their pocket. And the end of the day who are the fools? The Tea Party or those that let them gain power?

The Lessons of History, as once admonished by the exceptional couple, Will and Ariel Durant, are tough for us to learn.

The People We Love to Hate

Not long ago, on one of the book blog sites, some guy went out of his way to tell me how indifferent he was to my work. I responded once and asked him if he was so indifferent than why did he go out of his way to tell me. I thought if he had actually read the book it would be one thing. If he hated my guts for some other reason, okay. I realize I am not on everyone’s Christmas list.

My reply elicited further responses from him where he again reiterated that it was the subject matter with which he would be indifferent and would never read. I finally thanked him for taking time from what I was sure was a frantic schedule to register his indifference to the extent he had. Civil restraint prevented my real considerations on the probable status of his life. I have not always been the world’s best practitioner of civil restraint, so I guess that is mark of progress.

Obviously, there was something about me or the book subject that caused this intense reaction. And then I started thinking of how when we as a society should perhaps feel indifferent we go out of our way to declare our own distaste for things. In fact, with certain politicos and celebrities, certain hot button issues, rather than just declare our displeasure or say nothing at all, we cannot leave it alone. Doesn’t matter what side of the political or social spectrum you are own or how enlightened you may perceive your lifestyle, there is always somebody or something that causes us to rail on wherever and as often as we can. And that becomes a trap where the logic of indifference is corrupted by our passions. We end up devoting way too much time and emotion to things with which we should really care less.

We should know better. Not that we should know better because we are above it all and should transcend the rancor by taking the high road and retaining an enlightened state of mind. We should know better because we are of an age when it is the media’s main job to manipulate our thoughts and sentiments, our social belief,s and political perspectives in order to establish a multi-level marketing platform for its celebrity flavors of the week. In short, we are being used as marks and proud of it. We are either the support group, or we are the opposition. In the hands of a manipulative media and those ringing up the cash register we are two sides of the same coin.

Stirring up the crowds is nothing new. Professional wrestling has done it for years. In professional wrestling you have the hero, the glowing and glistening symbol of virtue and skill, and you have the heel. The heel is the bad guy, the one who fights dirty and says outrageous things, who thumbs his nose at the crowd. The heel revels in the crowd’s hatred. Hen needs the crowd as much as the hero needs the crowd. The crowd with its boos and catcalls supports the heel as much if not more than it supports the hero. The crowd loves to hate the heel. In both instances without the crowd there would be no controversy. There would be no sport.

With wrestling as with most things socio-political, the hero and the heel are interchangeable. A wrestler has a run as the hero for awhile, and then when his adoring public grows tired of adoring him, he becomes the heel. Those who loved him, suddenly hate him. He is the one now prancing arrogantly in the center of the ring and thumbing his nose at the crowd. He is now the one disparaging his opponent while making outrageous predictions about the state of things to come. As the hero he sold tickets to the show. As the heel he sells tickets to the show. People pay money to see him get his ass beat in. And when it doesn’t happen, when he prevails over the current heroic symbol of virtue and merit, the crowd gets to hate him that much more.

The socio-political spectrum is different in a variety of crucial ways. Unlike wrestling, with things political and social we don’t just invest in tickets. We invest with our lives. But nevertheless we are manipulated by a media, or more directly the media conglomerates, that have a financial motivation to work us into a frenzy. Media or more to the point what passes for news media these days has realized there is no money anymore in providing objective news reports and thoughtful analysis. As Campbell Brown, a recent CNN news show causality, remarked that the public does not want objective news anymore. The public wants the type of news that supports its own points of view. Apparently, we would rather cheer blindly from the sidelines than try to analyze the facts.

Whether the media conglomerates created the condition where news as opinion pieces or whether they responded to public taste I suppose is a matter of conjecture. But they certainly have profited from its condition. By eliminating objective messaging and critical thinking from what passes for news shows, the conglomerates were able to develop media celebrities of every stripe, ethnicity, and political perspective. These are the chosen who were developed to pander to the crowds by offering an alternating spectrum of simplistic solutions to complex challenges or a spectrum of crackpot ideas. In short, like wrestling, they were able to develop opposing forces for any issue. This in turn created a passionate fan base and multi-marketing platforms and the subsequent delivery systems that can offer everything from speaking engagements and books, to rallies and picnic baskets.

It could be claimed that Fox News was the first to venture forth on television with the decidedly slanted news format. I should say Fox News took the elements political talk radio. and carried them further. While I am not the world biggest fan of Fox News and while my total talk radio listening time, annually, is less than an hour, I give credit, if that is really the word, to these two platforms for changing the dynamic of news and politics. Both talk radio and its logical spinoff, Fox News, determined from the outside that their programming didn’t chase after viewers’ minds as much as their emotions.

While political radio could raise the blood pressure by taking call-ins, Fox News inflamed the passions with the Fox good guys taking on the bad guys. Like some electronic rendition of the Medieval Inquisition, Fox pundits in the name of “fair and balanced” were fond of dragging the progressives and liberals, and the rest, for the opposing point of view. Between commercials, they would give these straw men five seconds to explain their point of view before browbeating them like some jingoistic weed whacker. If you believed in what the Sean Hannity’s and Bill O’Reilly’s had to say, you felt yourself vindicated. If you were the more progressive thought you would find your blood boiling over.

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Coulter, Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and, later, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, represented a new dynamic in media marketing. Unlike wrestling, where the character was either the hero or the heel, these pundits were heroes and heels all at once. They were loved and they were hated. The more they are hated, then the more they are loved. The more they are loved and hated, the greater their revenue. Let them say something outrageous and it is all over the media, conservative and liberal alike. The only difference is where one side applauds the remarks, the other side regards them as Satan’s spawn. What is conclusive is neither the veracity or the falsity of their written and spoken words, but that their polarizing effect generates some major bucks for both the players and their handlers, the media groups. So not only is there a lot of money in saying things that people agree with, there is an equal amount to be gained by having your critics declare how stupid you are.

The liberals, of course, after decrying the conservatives for their crass statements and wanton venality, finally decided that taking the high road offered little assurance they would reach their final destination. So they formed their own media platforms that is other than those of the “traditional liberal media,” where progressive pundits could offer their own brand of ridicule for the things they detest the most. Hence MSNBC, after myriad incarnations, developed finally a workable format for progressive ideology. There are the Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann who offer their own brand of competing self-righteous indignation to what some may consider the good fight. There is also Progressive Radio or Air America, or whatever it was the last time I looked with Tom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and the famously unfunny funny man turned current and competent U.S. Senator Al Franken.

For progressive media, a fair share of the commentary includes the castigation of conservative mainstays like, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Sarah Palin. Progressive hosts rail on about them like the fashion police dishing at high school. This in turn inspires lastest outrage from the Legion of the Outrageous, which in turn causes viewers and listeners to take ongoing umbrage and the latest indiscretion. This not only boosts radio and sales for the support group, the progressive media pundits who now peddle their books, lectures, events and such, but gives food for the right to carry on with its own agenda, giving speeches, writing books and otherwise catering to their own support group.

In a world where many are concerned about ecological condition’s and environmental matters, the socio-political media is the primary example of environmental harmony. If you say something your side likes and supports, you make money. If you say something the other side hates, you make money. The only time you can lose money is if you address complex issues with more than a sound bite or buzzword. This tends to confuse the audience and tends to be off putting as critical thinking is required. In a world we are programmed that solutions are simple and cinema heroes resolve international conflict in an hour and forty two minutes, you don’t need the dynamics of complex critical issues and all that is required to solve them to go raining on the delusional parade. The more you think about things, the less time you have for railing out your own particular party line. Complex thinking requires deeper thought, which results in extended contemplation , which means fewer books and public appearances for those who actually have to explain themselves in greater detail.

While we are not exactly a nation worthy of our heritage as being born in the Age of Reason, we are not always stupid. We recognize that these media pundits are not just out there for the well being of America or the general common good. We recognize that Glenn Becks recent soirée at the Lincoln Memorial is less altruistic and more for the benefit of Glenn Beck than anyone else. We recognize that Rush Limbaugh didn’t make his few bucks by initiating a selfless campaign for the good of Mom and Apple Pie. We realize Sarah Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska to devote more time to optimize her own window of opportunity to make money hand and fist. We realize that every pundit right or left is dependent on their audience to stay on the air. Former Congressman, Dick Armey, has feathered his nest as the spokes person for the Tea Party or whatever the hell it is called this season. Al Gore didn’t go broke by promoting the environmental movement. The more they incite their adversaries, the higher the ratings the more money they will make.

Yet,while we know these are puffed up entertainers posing as news analysts and politicians we cannot refrain from taking them seriously. We care when Keith Olbermann rants on about Sarah Palin using bullets as symbols for the targeted politicians the Republicans believe are vulnerable to being unseated. Obviously, Palin chose the bullet images as a ploy, in fact as part of her branding, but just about every commentator on MSNBC and elsewhere went for the ploy, revving it up disproportionately as if she was truly recommending the assassination attempts on these veritable Moose Lodge Members. Beware! Oooohhh.. Served Palin well as it reinforced her branding, and served the progressive pundits as it reinforced their selling of the great Palin threat.

There are hundreds if not thousands of examples. A decade ago it was the Clinton’s, and now it is Obama. Or it is what Limbaugh has to say about this or Pelosi has to say about that. Dr. Laura, Al Shartpon…pick your poison and then go piss and moan. People don’t just disagree, but they work themselves into a frenzy, inciting the blogsphere with incantations and variations on the theme. And from it all we are farther and farther removed from any condition of unity or relative attempt at consensus. We don’t exchange thoughts; we utter slogans. Name the topic, name the person; each side has its jargon to address the issue. Bite sized jargon that will fit nicely between commercials and book plugs.

I don’t discredit these pundits for self-promotion. It is America, the land of opportunity. It’s tough in an overpopulated world to rise from obscurity and make a name for yourself. Especially when at heart you are an imbecile. Well not really an imbecile, because despite all popular thought about some or our noteworthy media folk, it takes a wily coyote to climb the heights of media recognition. You can lack knowledge and you can have the intellectual depth that goes from A to B and back again, but there is a talent to manipulating the media to where you hold sway on public thought.

I guess in the end, I want to know why we even care about these people or what they have to say. Obviously, most are a long way from scholars or experts on the subject. And then, considering the state of things some of which are the result of the pondering of experts on the subject, why do we hold in such regard the positions of any of these people? Logic would dictate that you delve deeper and conduct your own critical thinking, before this once easily accessible thought process is relegated to the junk pile of modern consciousness or turned into a lost art. You would think we would regard most of these people as self-aggrandizing snake oil vendors and take their offerings no more to heart than we would a dancing bear. You would think we would spend a lot less time pissing and moaning about them and tripping over their incomplete thinking and figure out in traditional American pragmatic process how to get ourselves out of this mess.

But we don’t. Maybe as a nation we have too much time on our hands. Without celebrity, we only have ourselves. And without the heroes and heels, we have only ourselves to blame and then we must shoulder the responsibility of rebuilding the country. And that, media-wise, is a very hard sell.

The Planet of the Wanton Geriatrics

Life can be cruel at times. Life can be filled with contradictions. Contradictions that become paradoxes in our day-to-day lives and as the years progress leave us wondering, what the hell happened? The cruelty part is that there is no going back, no modifying the order of things or adjusting priorities. Despite all good wishes and inspiring messages to the contrary, in pure existential terms we are left at the end of a cycle in possession of our triumphs and losses, our insights and misgivings. Life in hindsight becomes a mathematical puzzle of sorts, but with escalating complexity as our perception of events and their outcome is constantly mutating, leaving us to readjust the pieces as time goes on.

There are different versions of assessment and readjustment, each filled with mixtures of satisfaction and regret. I am not talking about the macro stuff here, the atrocities and eco-disasters, the flagrant disorders of the world. Catastrophe is relatively easy to assess and reconcile on the macro level than the universal eventualities that sooner or later enter our lives. Aging is one such area where the large, universal picture eventually makes a very lasting acquaintance. With aging comes its usual accessories, health issues, frailty, culminating in an intimate howdy do with our own mortality. Such concerns are all out there, until that one day when you look in the mirror and start to think, “do I know you?”

But like it or not, we have all been programmed to deal with aging and mortality. For the most part we think happy thoughts. You turn on the TV and there is some saccharine commercial to remind you of all the tender moments you experience with friends and family in your approaching dotage. We get the Lion King Circle of Life Routine , and we are encouraged that our brief blip on the radar screen may be filled with meaning and purpose. We take heart in the acts of familial succession and the belief we will reincarnate as we have before. We project in the back of our thickening skulls that upon our return we will access the lush life, refusing to believe that in past lives and the ones beyond it we were meager peasants whose greatest triumph was now getting trampled by the noble’s horses.

Without all this concern for mortality and the afterlife there would not be much of a market for religion and corny movies. All those Hallmark Cards and Kodak Moments may be selling at a discount on the dusty back bin of the Dollar Store. Mortality is perplexing. It gives us food for thought and a sense of spirit and a glimmer of eternity. It keeps us in line. Or it doesn’t. But few ever scoff at the notion that somehow, in some way, I am paying the price for my deeds and misdeeds.

But honestly, this is all the easy stuff. Life and death; there’s nothing to it. Whether you are stuffed in a hole or return again to repeat the same mistakes or make different ones, this concern is really a piece of cake. Because at the end of the day your beliefs may give you comfort, offer solace at that heavy trafficked intersection of doubt and faith. But the morning after, whatever you believe becomes moot. Unless you hit the jackpot by guessing correctly on the Eternity Betting Pool and then your journey to the other side rests comfortably on auto-pilot.

What isn’t easy is sex. Sex is fraught with cruel paradox as if the great creator did some custom body work on Adam and Eve as if for the purpose of a practical joke. Doesn’t really matter if it is Adam and Eve, Adam and Adam, or Eve and Eve, or any combination therein, the fact that each group is victimized by biology and its staggered time frame for sexual desire. It is no secret that men are more interested in sex at an early age, their late teens and twenties. Men have sexual thoughts about once every twelve seconds, barring distractions like earthquakes and fires. And even then…. Women on the other hand may have sex at an early age but according to one study in the British Medical Journal that was also reported in Time Magazine, that for women that full blown libidinous activity doesn’t kick in until their late twenties. The article reported that women are not having more passionate sexual fantasies between 27 and 45 but they are actually having more sex than women 18 to 26. Sounds hard to believe, but, hey, its Time Magazine and the British Medical Journal, after all. Who would know these things if they didn’t?

The theory is associated with evolution. In a nut shell, in her younger years, a woman didn’t have to work so hard at sex to become pregnant. It was only a matter of time. Fewer times. But over time and with aging having children was a greater challenge and as women had children at an older age, the sex fantasies and desire kicked in to accommodate the advancing years.

Here is the passage from Time Magazine—

Here’s how their theory works:

“Our female ancestors grew accustomed to watching many of their children — perhaps as many as half — die of various diseases, starvation, warfare and so on before being able to have kids of their own. This trauma left a psychological imprint to bear as many children as possible. Becoming pregnant is much easier for women and girls in their teens and early 20s — so much easier that they need not spend much time having sex.”

Otherwise, it http://miamistonecrabs.com/contact-us/ get cialis overnight will invite lots of complications in your personal relation. When you have had a issue then so viagra cheapest when you fail or encounter one of those dark nights or winter seasons consider these three touchstones as points of potential light: It’s Always Darkest before the Dawn Trust there’s a lesson on the other side and find comfort in knowing there are lots of footprints to follow or provide light on the path to success. Why knee fat reducing liposuction is so important? Along with the Unit Head. cialis without prescription Each treatment is custom-made based on the sample generic viagra injury and consequences. I believe there is more involved that physical evolution. Reportedly, in women, the libido takes a breather, while for men it keeps right on going. Boomer women especially, having been programmed to behave themselves in order to appear decent and marry the right sort of fellow, became sexually active a little later than the younger women of today. Boomer women had to keep their legs crossed if they were going to be the good girl. For extra money, the only call girling they did was to call their parents and beg for a larger allowance. Or they worked in the college cafeteria or took a job as a waitress. Alright, so come college they met a boy and the boy was nice…and they started to fool around.

It is only later in life that Boomer women start to smarten up and ease off the guilt that was fire forged and ice hardened by concerned but fearful parents. Time is passing, and opportunity is dwindling. Before you end up having heart-to-hearts with a pet iguana there is time for a virtual fling. Some women, to avoid labeling and scrutiny even move to different and distant places. Santa Fe in the years I lived there was fraught with single Boomer women on the prowl. The difficulty was there were so few men, and the men who were single or available made the Peter Pan Syndrome appear the lexicon for ancient and sage-like wisdom. Like I say, life can be cruel and full of paradox. Even the married women aged 27 to 47 have more sex than younger or older women. Sexual peak and all that. As for the fantasies, let’s say more than a few do not involve their present partner.

But then, as the report contends, after that hot and heavy decade or three of sexual desire, replete with fantasies and late night longing, the warranty on the libido begins to lapse. The Cougar business notwithstanding, the hunger is more for the lascivious display at Yogurt Land than the sexual encounter. The report, or the study, as with any other study, has its flaws. Older women may be divorced or widowed, or are less inclined to gab it up at gray haired mixers. I don’t know.

And there are the men. Their trajectory is dramatically different. They start off strong and then start to flag as they approach or enter middle age. It is a mixed bag of reasons. This is not to say men of this age have allowed women to corner the market on sexual fantasy and romantic pursuit. But it just ain’t the same. Suffice it to say they are far more interested in 3-D than a D-Cup. Unless the D-Cup is actually on the 3-D Television, and then the may go off on his lonesome to remember old times.

But then something kicks in and as men get older they get horny again. Go figure. Just when you thought it was safe to crawl back between the sheets. Back a few years in history, a man confronted the dreaded reality that the brain may still be filled with desire, but the penis has downshifted to a lower gear. Lust over limpness, if you will. So in was once upon a time the awkward but somewhat natural order of things, both spouses acclimate to the new conditions of age and erosion and spend more time showing their friends more pictures of their grandkids or that wing ding at Lake Havasu.

An equilibrium of sorts had been established. But along comes Viagra. Men become randy old fools and, according to the report, women tend to other matters. Statistically, 67% of the men between sixty-five and seventy-four were sexually active. Only forty percent of the women in same age group were sexually active. A third of the men in the age range of 75 to 85 said they had sex within the last twelve months. Only 17% of the women in the same age group can make the same claim. Frankly I am impressed by the men, not so much that they had sex but at that age they can still remember they had it. As for the women, as noted before, the report did not take into consideration some easily identifiable extenuating factors.

Alright, so what has this been doing to senior America? And you believed their main concern was losing their Medicare. Unh uh. Aged boners are messing up the fire drill. Older men are zipping up the Sansabelts and jumping the reservation. At an age when their physical activity may be a a vigorous workout on the treadmill, they are sowing sin in Sun City. Talk about an alliance among the willing. They are jumping off their electro carts and cruising the streets for desperate hookers in a down economy. According to an article in the Daily Beast, they are bringing back sexually transmitted diseases to hearth and home. Imagine this doctor’s surprise when an eighty-year-old guy shows up with the clap. They are leaving their wives, and they are cheating on their wives. Or, worse, they are forcing themselves on their wives.

The result is mixed. According to the article, some women are enthused. But most are not. They thought this part of their lives were over and now the long retired Jumping Jack Flash has nothing but time on his hands and a chubby. Many women find such entreaties annoying. But then, if they don’t for a few bucks or a couple hours distraction someone else will. So leave it to good old American know how to produce a female version of Viagra. The intent was to utilize Boehringer Ingelheim’s flibanserin, a drug for premenopausal women, as the new boost for women who report a lack of sexual desire. Let’s follow the credo, even if there isn’t a market, create one. Lots of high hopes. But in two different studies the drug failed to show any increase in sex drive. The elusive search continues.

Like I noted, there are exceptions to all of this and there are certainly extenuating factors. But there is still no denying that life is cruel and full of paradox. Not only as Elmore James once declared does he love her, but she loves him and so forth…but the sexual trajectories of men and women are so different their sexual encounters are torn asunder by bad timing and nature’s doctrine. It’s hard enough to find love, and then when you do it’s sexual manifestation can become a total pain in the ass. Perhaps in the end, our desire for satisfaction had disrupted the natural order of things. At this time of life, Bill Maher joked, “maybe people shouldn’t be having sex. It has to hurt,” he said. ” It hurts just to stand up.”

For me the bottom line is like all challenges, time will eventually sort this one out. Or not. And maybe those who resort to prayer, asking the Lord or the Goddess or the Universe, whatever, to sort out the rights and wrongs, to give them things, bring peace and prosperity, should beseech that same supreme being that it would really be nice to rethink the math on the cycles of human sexuality. Life is hard enough.

The Civil Rights Lesson from a Randy Chinese Swinger

When you think of China, you don’t think of it as a particularly sexy place. Probably the Chinese don’t even think of China as a particularly sexy place as they tend to take their lead in sexual conduct from the West. Nevertheless, with nearly 1.5 billion people, China is the most populated country in the world. All those babies have to be coming from somewhere.

In truth, the citizens of China have practiced pre-marital sex for quite sometime now. They may not have the long legacy of erotica found in the West, initiated since time began and fortified by the art and literature,and ruminations of the Victorian Era, leading up through the pornographic “French Decks” of playing cards to the grand institution or erotica we extol today. The Chinese may not even share the Japanese legacy, the artful and colorful paintings of lovers in bold colored silk robes contorted in every imaginable position, most of which having their visage in defiance of logical perspective.

Beauty shops and massage parlors permeate most Chinese cities, with each being the code word for a brothel. While technically against the law, Chinese authorities tend to look the other way when it comes to the long stand presence of “beauty parlors,” kind of like what California does with its medical marijuana shops. And like the medical marijuana shops, unless there is political pressure from a self-righteous group of do gooders with too much time on their hands, or the owner of the “beauty parlor” manages to upset someone in the bureaucracy, business goes on with little fanfare.

There is a preponderance of “adult health stores”. These health stores are not to be confused with American health food stores where you can buy your granola in bulk. Chinese Adult Health store is the given name for purveyors of every imaginable type of adult sex toy. To say these stores are easy to find, is to equate their proximity with the nail salons of American. If there isn’t one on every corner, then the sex toy shops are ubiquitous enough to assure no one will be waiting in line. As for pornography on the Chinese Internet system, that is also forbidden. But needless to say, thanks to the wonders of modern technology and with necessity being the not only the mother of invention but a matter of getting off, the Chinese can acquire software that can circumvent the government blocks.

As with most countries on an economic upswing, social regulatory efforts, if not necessarily the actual letter of the law, tend to liberalize in practice as well as theory. When people are starving and struggling to survive, they have little time for sexual diddling. Or if they do have time, it is because it is there only diversion from a dreary life, and those impromptu episodes usually result in the begetting or more children, which puts even more pressure on the family and its struggles, and makes for far less time in the exotic pursuits. A win-lose situation, for sure. But when the good times are rolling, leisure and vice become a heady pursuit.

So what’s the big deal over the Chinese college professor, Ma Yahohai, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for having the temerity to engage in sex orgies and practice sexual partner swapping.? Ma and his girlfriend were members of a group of 22 persons that had some 35 swinger sessions over a two year period. Frisky devils. Ma participated in about half of these sessions. Most of these sessions took place in Ma’s two bedroom apartment. Ma shared the apartment with his girlfriend and mother. What the adventuresome couple did with Momma during these libidinous occasions is anyone’s guess. Maybe she took video. Or like a good caring mother, washed off the sex toys to eliminate disease. One can only imagine.

But the fact is that out of the twenty two arrested and charged with Criminal Law 301, Sexual Law 301, Crowd Licentiousness, eighteen of these randy souls were sentenced to prison. While the defiant Ma was sentenced to his three and a half years, others were sentenced up to two and a half years. No slap on the wrist, and no mention whatsoever about community service or making an anti-sex film. The Chinese prison system has never been known much for luxury living. So a couple of years in jail can give you a lot of time to ponder wistfully the sex orgies you will be missing. As for the three defendants who got off without a jail sentence, I have no idea how they got so lucky. Maybe they were only there to watch or serve hor dourves.

It could be worse for Ma and his swinging associates I suppose. Back in the good old days of Chairman Mao and his successors, various types of sexual congress, including group sex, could be construed as “hooliganism.” “Hooliganism” was catch all charge for crimes that made you realize you were in big trouble. Big trouble meant a lengthy jail sentence at a slave labor facility not of your choice. You were looking at possible execution. So by those draconian standards, I suppose, a couple years in jail is a slap on the wrist.

Today, yohimbe extract is a common ingredient added for the preparation of weight Check Out Your website viagra tablets in india loss products. However, scientists and speviagra in india ts have been unable to find an appropriate treatment for ED. In such difficult situations, people generally opt to use alcohol that keeps you away from the sexual issues. purchase levitra online wouroud.com Therefore, a high creatinine level in the blood can be an overseas multi-level promoting firm acquiring areas in cheapest price for levitra addition to offers weight loss, eating routine, in addition to natural skin care items internationally. According to reports, there are 100, 000 alleged swingers in China out of the 1.3 billion population. In terms of Chinese population this is but a measly few. The measly few engage in group sex and brag about it by posting on the Internet. Many more beyond the 100,000 read it as it provides if nothing else some vicarious thrills in a country that has yet to develop the 900 sex number. But still, we are talking a small group of enthusiasts. Not particularly threatening. I would consider the group grope of twenty odd people in a two bedroom apartment more of a threat to the integrity of the carpet than to the burgeoning Chinese economy.

Other groups are considered far more threatening. There are all sorts of radicals and terrorists groups who actually blow up things and don’t just brag about some sexual exploits on the Internet. There are people trafficking in illegal everything, from counterfeit prescription drugs to counterfeit invoices. There are myriad labor strikes and worker unrest, including violent demonstrations. The citizens of the more rural provinces are restless and prtoesting the state appropriation of their lands. This has resulted in massive riots. In one riot recently, hundreds were killed in Sichuan Province.

There is airline corruption and all sorts of financial swindling. Chinese law enforcement has been very busy as the nation pays the price of progress. Even the questionable menace of the Chinese Uighur population would present more of a problem than a couple bunches of swingers. There are many millions of Chinese Uighurs, a Muslim group that is viewed by the Chinese Government as a radical faction and periodically subjects them to surveillance and harassment. In Xinjiang Province alone, nearly half the population of 23 million are Chinese Uighurs. I would venture very few Chinese Uighurs are swingers, but that is another story. The fact is the swingers of China make up but a small but determined faction that you could probably fit into the Beijing Subway. A chance at getting off at every station.

To be sure, I am not promoting swinging. I am not promoting it in China or anywhere else. In fact, mere photos of the swinging Internet set threatens to drive me to the monastery for contemplations of semi-theistic metaphysics and far less carnal pursuits. Watching the few happy partner swapping examples on the Jerry Springer Show made me seriously consider celibacy for the next millennium,. Fortunately, reason took control of my senses. I only took a shower, instead. Here in America, swingers can live large and lounge about in communal congress inside the often tacky but spacious environs of a split-level sub-tract with enough garage and driveway space for all those Toyota Camrys. Meanwhile their kindred Chinese swingers must dangle their dongs in a measly two bedroom apartment. Here you get to be on Jerry Springer or at least have your fat, naked ass plastered all over the Internet. But in China you get a couple, few years in jail.

To loosely paraphrase Voltaire, I may not like swinging and partner swapping, but will defend to the death your right to engage in it, no matter how nauseating it may appear. Alright, maybe I won’t defend it to the death, as I have better things to do than defend the randy rambling of a bunch of refugees from Wal-Mart looking for distraction in a down economy. But at the very least, I will give it lip service, even when I grimace and fumble with the shower faucets. Why?

Because everybody should have the right to get laid. It is a right, after all, and not a privilege. Okay, so maybe sometimes it is less of a right and more of a privilege, a treat even, a pathetically rare one, depending on the disposition and predilections of your spouse or lover. I realize that sometimes your significant other does not find either you or your entreaties as significant or otherwise as you might either hope for or come to expect. So I guess like other debates over rights and privleges, there is at least a little wiggling room. But once you do work it out with your lover or significant other you have the freedom to fire away, anytime, day or night. Even if twenty two people are involved.

But as in China, there are some here and in parts of the world who don’t really see it that way. They allude to some intelligent design and a divine plan where you must only do it with restrictions. They ascribe the damning words immoral and degenerate to a variety of sex practices that were apparently never detailed in the master plan. Otherwise, I suppose, the master plan would have been just plain old porn and not some divine edict from the heavens explaining explicitly where Daddy and Mommy or Daddy and Daddy or Mommy and Mommy may put their thingies and Woo Woo’s. In some cases they want to rearrange your thinking; they want to straighten you out.

Oppression always begins somewhere. Usually in the stupid places, the places that make us wince. But then they graduate to places where we are concerned where transgressions are made against our privacy and thought process. We suddenly find our rights intruded upon and threatened by a group of ideologues who truly believe in this world of infinite choices they are so graced with absolute answers. We find ourselves being subjected to embarrassment and thrown in jail for acting out on our natural impulses. Oppression begins in the dumbest of places, and it ends somewhere else. And we don’t know how we go there.

Chinese Professor Ma Yaohai has resigned from his teaching post. He now lives off his savings and his mother’s pension. He is appealing his sentence of three and a half years for “group licentiousness,” which translates into getting his rocks off with a couple dozen people. As we have seen recently in this country, some of our own social issues that we thought were long put to rest, sexuality, racism, the right to live and breathe as you so choose, have resurfaced and been challenged by perhaps a well intentioned but vehement minority. Given that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, we should never take the good professor’s condition all that lightly. No matter who you are or where you sleep, something may be lurking beneath the sheets. Something besides your partner’s cold feet.