Whatever things are of good report

I used to know most "Gilligan's Island" episodes by heart.  When I was a kid, GI was on TV in the afternoons in reruns.  If I weren't outside hitting golf balls into the back of Guy Loushin's head, I'd be watching the inane antics of Gilligan and Skipper.  My parents knew I watched this program, and they had no fear.  They didn't have to worry about the Professor and Mary Ann having torrid sex behind the Howell's hut.  They didn't fear that the Skipper would start drawing Lovie away from Thurston.  They never could have even imagined an episode where Gilligan struggled with his sexuality.  They knew that Ginger wouldn't start cursing like a sailor to prove she was just as much of a man as the next guy.

That was then.  Any comedy that came out of the sixties upheld the moral fabric of middle America.  All of the fictions I concocted about that fictitious isle are what television comedy is all about today.  But it's not just the comedys that have degenerated.  The television is an inanimate object.  It could be used for good or for ill.  What comes through that ginormous flat screen--ah--there's the rub.  Here are just a couple of musings about the light and darkness within TV today.

• Racism.  This is a topic that will light my fuse faster than most.  The visceral hatred that anyone has for someone of different heritage boggles my mind.  Andy Dufresne's words come to mind.  "How can you be so obtuse?"  Today, racism within the black community has taken on a repugnance previously known in the backwater south.
  
  Since the election of Barack Obama, nowhere has been his skin color more of a factor than in liberal America.  Take Chris Matthews, for example (if you want a bad example, turn to MSNBC).  "He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."  'Scuse me?  You want the entire hooded commentary, go here.  If we're past racism, then IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!  A "black man in front of a bunch of white people"?  Are you kidding me??  Harry Reid got a pass.  Chris Matthews will get a pass.  The only "real racists" in America are on the right.

• The Super Bowl, part I.  Over the years, Super Bowl ads have shown great innovation.  The E*Trade commercials with the talking babies are great.  On the flip side, it was during the Super Bowl that I first learned I have to keep the remote by my side.  No, it wasn't Janet Jackson.  A few years earlier, they cut away from the game for a station break and went to an add for some comedy.  Within a fraction of a second, a woman ripped her blouse open in front of some guy.  Charming.
  
  This year, the big to-do has been over the fact that the mother of Tim Tebow and the Heismann winning quarterback will be doing a commercial about her decision to not abort him during a high risk pregnancy.  The purpose?  To encourage women in crisis pregnancies to reconsider aborting their child.  The response?  You'd think they word advocating harems.  "This organization is extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda," came the cry from the Women's Media Center about Focus on the Family, the organization that created the commercial.
  
  Funny that pro-choice organizations are concerned about the violence done to women because of pro-life ads when 50% of those aborted are women.  That would make the numbers in the ball park of 26 million little girls never had the chance to see the light of day because of laws protecting their dismemberment.
  
  Does it strike any as odd that a commercial promoting life would be controversial?
• The Super Bowl, part II.  CBS is considering an ad for a homosexual dating web-site.  No doubt those opposed are bigots.
• More MSNBC love.  A posted this through Facebook.  Forgive the reiteration.  Seemed the company that was making rifles for our soldier had been inscribing Bible verses on the scopes.  SHOCK!!  GASP!!  HORROR!!  Some gent from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (i.e. no freedom) declares, "This is probably the best example of violation of the separation of church and state in this country."  His statement is perhaps the best example of overstatement and constitutional misunderstanding in this country.
  
  
  Seems the company had always stamped this horrifying verse to their product, "JN8:12."  Why?  It's founder was a Christian and wanted to give God the glory even through his business.
  Well, when Rachel Maddow got wind of this, it set off a diatribe worthy of Keith Olbermann, her MSNBC commrade in charms.  Her incisive analysis?  "You self-righteous, self-centered, endangering-the-troops idiots!"  Ah.  (Interesting commentary on Mizzzz Maddow's spleen-vent here).
  
  By the way, what was it that the grotesque verse proclaimed?
  
  

  Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 

  Whew. Maybe I should rate my blog for "Mature Audiences." Forgive me for not warning you about such a grisly concept.

Do you wonder why I have become such a Netflix fan?  I wonder if I can pick up GI reruns...