MENTAL DINING

It's time for a little Bull****

The late, great George Carlin had a routine where he talks about words and their meanings and how we have watered down their true meaning while expanding the words themselves. He uses as an example "Shell Shock" and how veterans of war used to be mentally impaired by their time in combat and we called it "Shell Shocked". It was short, clear and concise and told you exactly what the problem was.

As time went on, we changed the term to sound nicer, softer or perhaps just more politically correct (I hate that term-more on it in a moment). It went from "Shell Shock" to "Battle Fatigue" to "Operational Exhaustion" and nowadays, finally, "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder".

Penn and Teller, The Great (but not yet late Magician duo) have an Showtime TV series called Penn and Tellers Bull****

They don't actually show the name on TV as that would be rude (or again, politically incorrect) even though it's on a subscription channel and only people who have purposely subscribed and choose to tune in can see it. I suppose the reasoning is that everyone who subscribes might have other people or children at their home who might, unsupervised, turn on the TV and see the title sequence.

So, where am I going with all of this? I am going to politics and our national debate on overhauling health care. I watch politicians from both sides talk about what it does or doesn't mean and how it will or won't help and I am feeling shell shocked with all the Bullshit! (oops, I guess I forgot to be pilitically correct).

Newt Gingrich, Sara Palin and many others on the political right warn of "Death Panels" and "Terminating Life" whether or not a person wants to end their life. They tell us we will be forced to give up our current insurance and that we will all be on a government dole and without recourse if we don't like it.

When they are told directly that these type of instances are not written into the legislation and that the President has pointed out over and over again that none of this is true, their answer is "Well, it's not actually in the legislation, but surely that's what they want."

They need to be told that what they are saying is Bullshit! We elected President Obama because we wanted change, and yet the response he gives to the opponents on the right still comes down to politically correct platitudes and responses.

When we watch a movie or a TV series and we see a make believe President of the United States tell someone that they are wrong and their argument is crap, we applaud and laugh and wish our politicians would speak that way...and yet, when they don't and they couch their terms in carefully worded sentences "full of sound and fury and signifying nothing," we change our opinions daily, approval ratings go up and down like a seesaw and we allow the wind from washingtons hot air to fill our sail and move us as it will.

Folks on the right need to start making the argument for or against what they believe in based on facts and if theyu hate something because the democrats thought of it first or changed a codasil in their platform, then say so. I will respect and defend a persons opinion which is truthful and direct far much more than I will someone who couches their belief in half-truths and politically correct platitudes.

And on the left, our President and his people need to get in touch with their own truths and their movement of change. If Sara Palin says "their will be Death Panels", then Obama has to say "That's Bullshit". We need to hear the unvarnished, simplest and most direct truth's from both sides of the aisle and then we need to think for ourselves, be honest with each other and make a choice and stick with it.

Bullshit isn't a pretty word, it sounds ugly and it hurts some peoples senseabilities...But I think it's the kind of word we need right now-along with the truth.

Related Links:

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/5447
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/08/13/2030936.aspx
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/27248/
http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/home.do
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/White-House-struggles-to-regain-control-of-the-message-on-health-8103357-53175397.html

posted by Chris Cook-Sussan @ 3:08 PM