At risk of sounding like a Clinton-supporter, I tend to read PRAVDA almost every day. It's a Russian news service, a relic from the Cold War, and it's on my list of daily news websites...a list that also includes Drudge, FoxNews, CNN, the BBC, and a few sites out of Asia. I've always been a news-junkie, but since 9/11, I find myself checking the headlines more than my Scruff texts. If Pravda had an app, I'd totally subscribe to it; its news feed - like the opening of most Trump rallies - comes across as a litany of anger, for readers who don't understand the source. And as I'm about to start writing the next draft of If You Write the Music, I'll Write the Lyrics, I've been thinking a lot about anger lately.
Pravda is hysterical to read, especially if you're used to the comparitively tame American media. Here's a blurb from a story they ran during the Sochi games, regarding Russia's treatment of homosexuals. I'll post it in pink because that's a softer shade of red: "Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon. Due to benign interpretations of the homosexual condition itself it is increasingly being viewed as something neutral or even good. In the words of Cardinal George of Chicago, the gay liberation movement has begun to "morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan". They have thus far succeeded in inverting the West's rule of law into the law of the jungle."
Pravda is void of ALL political correctness, which reflects the attitude of Russians, themselves. Russians are tough, traditional, sexist. And they have no problem calling women "sluts," even in printed news stories. Even House of Cards mocked Putin's state-sanctioned repression of homosexuals and the band Pussy Riot. With a country so brazen they routinely "buzz" our carriers, there's no amount of Gallup polling that can find the right words to gently tell Pootie-poo to be nice to trees. Russians are proud people who fiercely defend their conservative moral values. When Moscow threatened "nuclear war" a few weeks back, Obama's response was as flaccid as old celery. And that's a pity because Russian bears eat meat.
Pravda is hysterical to read, especially if you're used to the comparitively tame American media. Here's a blurb from a story they ran during the Sochi games, regarding Russia's treatment of homosexuals. I'll post it in pink because that's a softer shade of red: "Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon. Due to benign interpretations of the homosexual condition itself it is increasingly being viewed as something neutral or even good. In the words of Cardinal George of Chicago, the gay liberation movement has begun to "morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan". They have thus far succeeded in inverting the West's rule of law into the law of the jungle."
Pravda is void of ALL political correctness, which reflects the attitude of Russians, themselves. Russians are tough, traditional, sexist. And they have no problem calling women "sluts," even in printed news stories. Even House of Cards mocked Putin's state-sanctioned repression of homosexuals and the band Pussy Riot. With a country so brazen they routinely "buzz" our carriers, there's no amount of Gallup polling that can find the right words to gently tell Pootie-poo to be nice to trees. Russians are proud people who fiercely defend their conservative moral values. When Moscow threatened "nuclear war" a few weeks back, Obama's response was as flaccid as old celery. And that's a pity because Russian bears eat meat.
But Russia isn't the only country unconcerned with political correctness. China makes no secret of how little they respect us, the Mideast considers ugly Americans "infidels," and North Korea is so outrageous, it's hard to believe its statements come through diplomatic channels: "South Korean President Park Geun-hye is a “senile granny” and a “tailless, old, insane bitch.” (They also called Obama a monkey.) And that doesn't even count countries like Saudi Arabia, where sexism (their treatment of women) has been entrenched in their culture for thousands of years. How many female American government employees have been forced to wear headscarves when visiting the Emirates? Personally, I'd love to see Hillary in a burka.
So, with all these countries lobbing F-Bombs & sexist demands at us, why do we reply with gentle political correctness? Do we think Tehran takes us seriously? Has Pyongyang started allowing tourists to roam the city freely, or to visit Kim's reeducation camps? What was Don Draper's vision in the final scene of Mad Men? "I'd like to sing Beijing a song, in perfect harmony..."
So, with all these countries lobbing F-Bombs & sexist demands at us, why do we reply with gentle political correctness? Do we think Tehran takes us seriously? Has Pyongyang started allowing tourists to roam the city freely, or to visit Kim's reeducation camps? What was Don Draper's vision in the final scene of Mad Men? "I'd like to sing Beijing a song, in perfect harmony..."
Speaking of Beijing, I love how Trump says China: CHAI-NAAH. With over enunciated lips & teeth, and eyes & eyebrows that contort into a squint :) Of all the words in Donald's campaign vocabulary, "China" is the one that I'll never get tired of hearing - and it always makes me think of a Spitting Image puppet. I sincerely hope that he wins the presidency, because many of us need a good kick in the ass. It's obvious he'll shatter political correctness like glass, and get Americans talking (and fighting) about those things that only grandparents are allowed to say. Chuckling...Trump is old enough to be America's grandfather, and if he's anything like my own late grandma, some of the things that come from his mouth tend to be startling. I suspect that the WWII generation had far bigger things to worry about than which bathroom a transgender person uses to take an afternoon shit. And during the era of "Japs" and "Chinks," there was no PC way to describe an Auschwitz oven. And I know that our current generation needs to lose the PC-talk, if we ever want to regain the strength & respect that America only seems to have when Republicans run the show. I'd also like to stop seeing our President sitting across from Jimmy Kimmel on late-night TV talk shows. It cheapens the office when leader of the free world is seen sitting in the same chair that a raunchy comedian occupied just a few nights before.
Again, I apologize for back-to-back political blogs...but it's hard to focus on other topics when the biggest civil battle of recent history is unfolding right this second on every news channel & FaceBook page. I'm very liberal on most social matters, but I truly despise what liberalism has become - and how most liberals demand tolerance from others, without ever realizing how intolerant they are, themselves.
Not a day goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am to have been born in America; as a gay man who flies a leather-pride freak-flag, I can live openly here...and I've never once worried that my lifestyle would trigger Russian-style homophobia. But I do often worry about those in power who speak on "my behalf." So much time seems to be spent fighting case-specific social issues that we've forgotten how important to maintain the basic ideals that have provided our freedom for 240 years. Over the last few weeks, I've heard more about transgender's feelings than I have about the hundreds of ISIS agents who are known to have penetrated our porous southern border. I know it ain't PC to say this, but when a suicide bomber walks into the Naperville Olive Garden, the last think I'm worried about are the hairy legs in heels in the bathroom stall next to me. Our priorities are waaaaay out of whack, and who we choose for our next President is more important now than it's ever been before. I hope that people realize that. I really do.
Again, I apologize for back-to-back political blogs...but it's hard to focus on other topics when the biggest civil battle of recent history is unfolding right this second on every news channel & FaceBook page. I'm very liberal on most social matters, but I truly despise what liberalism has become - and how most liberals demand tolerance from others, without ever realizing how intolerant they are, themselves.
Not a day goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am to have been born in America; as a gay man who flies a leather-pride freak-flag, I can live openly here...and I've never once worried that my lifestyle would trigger Russian-style homophobia. But I do often worry about those in power who speak on "my behalf." So much time seems to be spent fighting case-specific social issues that we've forgotten how important to maintain the basic ideals that have provided our freedom for 240 years. Over the last few weeks, I've heard more about transgender's feelings than I have about the hundreds of ISIS agents who are known to have penetrated our porous southern border. I know it ain't PC to say this, but when a suicide bomber walks into the Naperville Olive Garden, the last think I'm worried about are the hairy legs in heels in the bathroom stall next to me. Our priorities are waaaaay out of whack, and who we choose for our next President is more important now than it's ever been before. I hope that people realize that. I really do.