Driving home today I listened to the Jason Lewis radio show. I usually listen to the local classical station but “All Things Considered” was on and I don’t listen to that…….it offends me. Why? Because “all things” are not considered, if they were the people who report the “news” and their listeners would have to actually think about their hypocrisy, their blanket intolerance and their unwillingness to accept that reality is NOT rainbows, moonbeams and unicorns (doing what they do naturally-If you been here before you know about my apparent fixation with unicorn dung….. which is very good manure if you’re going to plant magic beans for a bean stalk but not so good for grown an economy).
Mr Lewis was reporting on the latest round of Tyranny in the US. Seems that someone is offended by Volkswagon’s new super-bowl commercial where a white guy from Michigan channels a Jamaican bobbsledder encouraging people to “drive happy”. Apparently a white guy pretending to be a black guy is just like blackface, but a black guy pretending to be a white guy (see Eddie Murphy in Trading Places) is flat out hysterical . Oh and apparently Taco Bells in trouble too for making fun of vegetables. I wonder if vegetables have a political action committee or union to mount the protests and speak for them?
All of this got me to thinking, pondering actually, about the right not to be offended. Funny thing, in the 45 credit hours of upper division history classes I had to take for my degree I don’t remember anything in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta or the Hammurabi Code, the Hyppocratic oath or the Bible that declared that one had the right not be offended. While we are encouraged not to deal unkindly with others there is no law or commandment that prevents offense. How could that be enforced? What one man finds offensive is simply comedy or drama to someone else.
So this got be to thinking about the things that offend me. (Now I’m sure someone is going to offended by this list but truthfully with all the things I have to be tolerant about I’ve got to say that I simply don’t care if you’re offended.) I didn’t make you come here you can leave anytime and not come back ever. That children is the glory of choice, freedom and liberty, something some people in this country can’t seem to wrap their minds around.
Now, what really does offend me. It’s an extensive list so I’ll just hit the high points.
Tyranny: This offends me in any way, shape, color or form. Blanket intolerance, parental over reach, busy bodies, government power grabs, spousal abuse(physical and mental), liberal litmus tests, the rewriting of history to include 21st century sensibilities are just the tip of this iceberg.
Hypocrisy: While all of us have some hypocrisy the over the top attitudes of those in the “adventure movie/dramas” genre who had the gall to decry violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting make be want to retch. How dare they scold legal gun owners who use their weapons for hunting and protection while they and their “peeps” waste thousands of rounds of ammunition just to “get the shot” and even then they don’t get it right. People whose constant mantra of ” it’s for the children or we have to protect the children” also offend me because without a doubt they are the same people pushing for greater access to abortion and contraception for younger and younger children, gay marriage and adoption, after all nothing shows how to be a good man like two mommies. Then there are the TV shows and movies that heap carnage all over the world. I guess they expect only the well adjusted to come to their slasher films. If that were the case most of Hollyweird would be empty and TV would physically become the vast wasteland that they actually are intellectually, morally and emotionally.
Immorality: I am tired of seeing on TV (before I can switch channel) in the movies (and trailers for movies) I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to see and in books ( Gray apparently being the color of pornography) half naked women/men prancing around pretending that sex is just a physical response, much like sneezing or coughing. I’m tired of being assaulted by sexual innuendo, awful writing and poor stories. I’m tired of their being no one in said media that one could consider a hero or the good guy. In the rush to promote equality, we have lowered the bar so that we are all mediocre. Mendacity.
Filthy language: Guess what my God had nothing to do with whatever you just said “Oh God” about. He is not going to damn someone just because you said so. Also don’t use F*^as a punctuation mark, it makes you sound stupid and childish if you’re a man or woman, and cheap and uneducated if you’re a woman. Guess what, I try very hard to never say that word and the other foul and disgusting curse words that I hear everyday so hearing it is OFFENSIVE. Also do not tell me the personal specifics of you’re reproductive operations. I really don’t want to hear about your abortion, sterilization or hysterectomy or prostate exam. I also don’ t want to hear (in the vegetable aisle at WalMart ) about you’re latest one night stand or you’re cheating heart.
Stupidity offends me. Not ignorance mind you, stupidity. Sometimes you just don’t know something, which can be fixed. The idea of doing something patently stupid to get back at someone is asinine in the extreme. Cigarettes will kill you, that’s not opinion, that’s fact. Maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later. Guns don’t jump off the table and hurt people and people who have no real experience should not be hired to run anything especially not a country and you don’t pick a running mate based on whether or not he’s expendable . Presidential insurance. So sad.
Public officials who lie to me offend me. Don’t bother to lie, just tell me what I need to know and don’t try to take away my rights as a citizen and as a child of God. I’m offended by men who walk around like they have a load in their britches. For Pete’s sake grow up and pull up your pants, and young women you aren’t off the hook either. As my mom used to say ” What street corner are you going for?” Stop dressing like a hooker and maybe someone will take you seriously.
Feminists offend me. I lay the destruction of our civilization at the door of rabid feminists. They lied to women by telling them that being a wife and mother wasn’t enriching enough, wasn’t good enough, wasn’t challenging enough. They also claimed women could “have it all”. Guess what there is NO job as challenging as being a mother, not one. Selfless service, thankless jobs, horrible hours and NO actual pay doesn’t sound like any job I’d like to take but the benefits are eternal and the experience is celestial. The idea perpetrated by feminists that women and men are the same boggles the mind. For people who are supposedly so brilliant their stupidity is almost criminal. Men and women are NOT the same, physically, emotionally or intellectually. Saying women and men are the same is like saying a lion has four paws, fur and teeth, and so does a meerkat they must be the same. I dare say the meerkat wouldn’t consider himself the same as the lion or vise versa. Should women have choices and opportunities, absolutely, as long as they can do the job. As the mother of daughters I would like them to have the opportunity to do whatever it is they are capable of doing. Capable being the operative word.
I am offended by a lot things. As I said this is just the tip of the iceberg. It seems to me that if I have to be tolerant of everyone else’s foibles they should either have to be tolerant to mine or stop being offensive.
Yeah and coming soon, pigs will fly (first class).
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