Pro-Life Ad? This Joke was on Us

Apparently the definition of "Pro-Life" has been expanded to include anyone who uses the words "miracle" and "baby" in the same sentence. THIS is what all the hub-bub was about?

I kind of feel like Charlie Brown in this classic Peanuts cartoon. EVERYBODY was hyped up about this commercial. If you were pro-life then you just had to support this ad, I mean you just had to. It seemed as if Tim Tebow became a household name almost overnight.





















If you were pro-choice, you let the expletives fly about that big bad wolf - Focus on the Family. How dare those women-demeaning, gay-hating, fundamentalists try to shove 30 seconds of "politics" down our throat.

Larry King was having panel discussions with all the "experts", watchful Facebook members dutifully created Tim Tebow fan pages, and even the gay rights folks got a little air time.

And then...Lucy pulled the football away. We all, for the first time, actually saw the ad in it's entirety. Epic fail. If you didn't know the back story, the ad would have left you scratching your head. (Actually, I knew the back story and I was still scratching my head.)

Whether it was a genius marketing ploy by Focus on the Family to draw attention to the issues, or the most expensive way to show a son tackling his mother on TV - this joke, was on us.

Wake Up, America!

Warning: I'm upset. Really upset. (cover your ears, kids) I'm upset because of all the dopey people who are whining that AIG (after receiving $173 million in bailout money from Uncle Sam) spent millions of dollars in bonuses (165 million to be exact) for their employees. Hello? That's like complaining that the drunk bum used your Abe Lincoln handout to buy some alcohol. You dopes, you. If you're gonna complain with how they used your money....don't give it to them. Hey, I've got a bright idea, let's hand out millions and millions of dollars of someone else's money, and then try and pretend like we have strong financial morals. (did I mention that I'm upset?)

It just totally blows my mind that AIG, rather than Big Government, is somehow getting blamed for this. Once you GIVE the money to THEM, it's THEIRS, and they can do whatever THEY want with it because you GAVE it to THEM. I once put about 15 bucks worth of gasoline into someone else's car because their "sister was in the hospital". Did I get ripped off? Probably. But, I knew the risk going in, so I'm not going to whine like I'm somehow naive to evil. Don't blame the guy asking for a handout just because you were foolish enough to give it to them. What did you expect AIG to do with the bailout money? Use it wisely? You dopes, you. Let's take a bunch of money, give it to a company who obviously can't handle money well (that's the claim, isn't it?), and then act like we're shocked that they waste it. As I understand it, that bonus money was part of a contract for these employees. So, Uncle Sam, how about you do your homework and stop shelling out cash to people who have made it known in writing that they plan to (say it aint so) pay their employees.

Imagine I came upon a kid who was throwing quarters, one by one, into a wishing well. Imagine that this kid, after running out of quarters, turned to me and said, "Could you bail me out of this dilemma, and give me a roll of quarters?". Imagine I give this kid a roll of quarters, and the kid takes the whole roll and throws it into the wishing well. Now, imagine that I start yelling at the "stupid" kid for throwing away an entire roll of quarters. Let me ask you, who's the stupid one?

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on The Man.

Wake up, America. You dopes, you.

Taboo

"Politics and religion, are two topics we don't talk about in this office.", my boss said to me after pulling me into his office. My boss dismissed me from his office, and then pulled everyone else who works in our department into his office, one by one (six of us in all). He gave each of them the same "only-talk-about-non-controversial-stuff-at-work-like-donuts-and-the-weather" speech. Are you kidding me?

Allow me to fill you in on the nitty-gritty details which precipitated this blatant censorship of conversation.

In the south, there is already a slight racial tension in the air. This was enhanced, ironically, on the day President Obama was sworn into office. During the festivities of the day, some of the ladies in my office were discussing the dress worn by Michelle Obama. They were saying things that only make sense to a female mind like, "Oh, it just wasn't that flattering on her." and "I just can't believe she picked that style." and "She looked so much better the night of the election." SNORE.

Anyway, us guys were (smartly) staying out of the whole conversation. That is, until one of the male supervisors (who happens to be Caucasian) blurted out, "Michelle wouldn't look good no matter what she wore." Cue pin drop silence. Needless to say, this did not go over to well with one of the female supervisors (who happens to NOT be Caucasian). The whole situation escalated, with the male supervisor eventually getting accused of "racism". This little episode made it all the way to the plant manager, which prompted my boss to pull us all into his office for the afore mentioned speech.

It's really sad. Grown men and women who are actually banned from entire categories of conversation! Shame on the employees who are unable to have a mature discussion about important topics. Shame on our managers for choosing the easy way out and not allowing dialogue in the workplace. Shame on us all for choosing productivity at work over freedom of thought and discussion.

Is the truth worth fighting for or not? Are there good ideas and bad ideas or not? Will we be judged by God for our views or not? Let's keep the table open, stop this needless censorship. Let's keep the dialogue going, stop ignoring people just because we disagree with them. Let's respectfully and cordially discuss our viewpoints, stop the name-calling and combative attitudes. Let's be more informed and educated, stop being ignorant of others' views.

Just Stop While You're (not) Ahead

What's up with Sarah Palin attacking the media lately? She needs to just cut her losses (painful though they may be) and get out of the spotlight for a while. If she wants any chance of running for President in 2012, she needs to stop rehashing her interview woes and just chill out in Alaska for a couple of years. Seriously, who are her advisers? (Hint: Fire them...now!) Palin has been one big public relations flop from the word, "go".

So that I don't come across completely one sided, I totally understand CNN is biased and will over-dramatize anything. That said, some of her interviews were absolutely awful, and I doubt even Sean Hannity could have made them look good. Palin's honeymoon stage with the media lasted for about, oh, six hours. Once the media (an admittedly vague term) turned on her it was lights out for Hockey Mom of the Year. Palin tried to recover, but all her flailing (and winking) just sunk her deeper into the quicksand of the liberal left.

Now, a couple of months after the election, Palin still can't let sleeping dogs lie. Fortunately for Palin, America has an extremely short memory. My advice? Just fade into the background and pretty soon we'll all be talking about items of real importance (like the next Brangelina baby). Then, when you are ready (and I mean really ready), re-present yourself to us. It will be like a re-birth and we'll all say,

"Palin, we hardly knew thee."