The Editor's Picks

So, I am getting ready to go to work on a Monday morning.  I have just gotten out of the shower and I am sipping my morning coffee while I read the news on my iPad next to the warming fire in our gas fireplace.

There is a 'local' news story (Phoenix, AZ) about a mother that murdered her oldest child on Christmas Day, and then tried to poison her other three children and stab her ex-husband.  Yup, meth and hormones are a nasty combination.

Now I am not really into these types of stories, but my old professional curiosity tugged at me, since I used to work in the Child Welfare Arena back in Phoenix, I wanted to see if I recognized any of the names.   I didn't.

But then the attached 'side bar' on the story caught my eye.  These are the Editor's Picks for stories that you should really know about.

Encapsulated here are all the reasons that this country and our culture is going to hell in a hand-basket.  Here are all the super-market tabloid headlines packaged into one neat scrolling strip presented as 'news', which is to say, things that you need to know to be informed.

Just to look at this 'outside' the box.  What would you assume about American Culture if you were a young freedom fighter in Syria, or a poor hungry African youth in Soweto.....or even a hard working North Korean in Pyongyang?  According to the subliminal messages presented here, this is what most of the rest of world thinks about us based on this type of crap:

Read On......

Pregnant ten killed by boyfriend.....If you are young and pregnant, beware of your boyfriend, he might want to kill you to maintain his 'Gangsta' lifestyle.  (Message, if you are young and pregnant you might be murdered.)

Kimora Lee Simmons plays with her son in Saint Barts.....(who is this person?).  You should be an attractive single mother with perfect children frolicking on the beach somewhere.  If you are not, then you are a loser.  There are no stories about Kimora slaving all day long in a cubicle in order to afford daycare for her father-less children.  (Message, you are a bad mother.)

"BEYOND SCARY": High Priced Hooker recounts to the Daily News in Exclusive Interview....Making lots of money by having sex with anonymous men is exciting and very profitable, I Love It!  (Message, if you are going to have sex, get paid for it, the kinkier, the more money you make....no mention that it might be illegal.)

Did a Great White Shark Photo-Bomb These Kids Surfing At A California Beach?... Probably not, but the fact that you go into a vast uncontrolled place like the ocean means that any sort of creepy crawly creature (with teeth) in it means you might die a violent death. (Message, if you swim you die....best to just frolic in the sand like Kimora, she has never lost a child to shark attack!)

Top 30 Hottest Beach Bodies of 2013....Again with the beach lifestyle?  Especially if you have an anorexic figure with implants.  It appears that there is a whole army of well off thin people that do nothing with their lives except frolic on beaches.  (Message:  You are fat, poor and a loser.)

SEE: Loyal Dog Stands By Dead Pal in Amazing....I am not quite sure what to make of this.  What is sadder, the fact that a creature has lost a friend and playmate or the fact that some sicko, takes a picture of it instead of removing the dead dog and caring for the puppy.  (Message, you are going to die (again) and hopefully someone will miss you when you are gone)

Luxurious Holiday Getaways of the Stars.....(again with the frickin beaches) You want to be like us, you want to look like us, you want to go where we go and not have to work, but you can't....because you are loser  (Message, You are a loser (again)...enjoy your holiday)

EXCLUSIVE: NAZI CRY BABY:  NJ Hitler Obsessed Dad Begs for Child Welfare to Return His Little Girl......Now remember, this is 'News' that 'should' me national, so that other oppressed minorities such as the KKK and the Right Wing of the Black Panther Party can realize that just because they are different (and bad-ass) they still have the right to take their kids to McDonald's and see the next "My Little Pony" movie at the metro-plex.  (Message, you are a bad parent, a freak and everyone is laughing at you.  Don't be a bad parent or a freak)

Great Granddaughter of Heiress found stabbed to death!......Again, if you are special in any way, pregnant, living the beach lifestyle, playing with your best friend, you are likely to be KILLED.  Especially if there is sex, a lot of money or something cute involved.  It is probably best to be poor and just hide in a closet somewhere.  (Message, you are going to die....again).

Georgia Couple Allegedly beat there two year old son to death.....(Allegedly?  Did he have a lot of money or was he doing any kinky sex...cause those will get you killed for sure).  So we can add living in Georgia as another potential reason for dying!  I have to assume that this winning father figure should have killed his girl friend WHILE she was still pregnant (see story #1) and gotten a two-for-one deal.  Loser.  (Message, Death, Death, Death......you get the picture.)

So basically, the 'Editor's Picks' focus is as follows.  You should be living on a beach and be very thin, but if you do, you can expect to die of a shark attack or be stabbed by someone for having to much sex, to much money or for being pregnant.

Seriously, isn't that what is being said here?  Not a whole lot of news about any major political conflicts, treaties, ecological updates, economic or environmental issues.

Don't Forget To Duck

Now I don’t claim to be a fan of the show “Duck Dynasty”.  I have never seen it, and only know of it due to the mass branding of the ‘label’ on just about everything in Walmart the last time I went there to buy dog food.  (Really, Duck Dynasty sleeping bags and lunch boxes?....who are these guys?)

So when I scanned over the most recent uproar over something one of the cast members said, the first thing that comes to mind is the old adage, there is no such thing as bad publicity.  The show is not shot in real time and the interview in question was given weeks if not months ago.  Being dropped from the show indefinitely with three to four episodes already ‘in the can’ is sort of meaningless.  A&E isn’t going to stop airing the show for the rest of the season (I am sure Walmart and the lunch box manufacturers in Taiwan would sue if they did).  After all, it all about the money in the end.

But of even more interest is this other comment on racism that is also attributed to the Duck Dynasty star:

"I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once," he told GQ. "Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. We're going across the field. ... They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' -- not a word!  Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues," GQ quoted Robertson as saying.

I read this statement after recently reading a segment of Tom Brokaw’s book, ‘The Greatest Generation”, in which he recounts the memories of an African American soldier in WWII that had to battle racism at home and in the military AND battle the Germans. 

The African American later works his way up to real estate entrepreneur who owned several low income rentals in a major urban area.  The war hero laments the coming of the government entitlement programs of the 1960s and stated that once the young African American males found out they didn’t have to work they just waited around for the government checks every month.  He stated that the welfare system destroyed all sense of black drive and motivation.

Spoken by a white person, this would be considered extremely racist, but since it comes from the other side of the fence it is acceptable. 

I don’t know Mr. Duck Dynasty, but simply expressing your opinion regarding that you have seen and experienced in your own life in an honest and forthright way should not be something for which there are negative consequences. 

Being extremely politically correct does not do service to anyone and only tends to white wash the truth of our past and who we are as a people and a culture.