Democrats across America are measuring the drapes for the majority in the House and the Senate, preparing to swear in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. One of their major talking points this year has been the Republican majority's "culture of corruption." In January on PBS, Jim Lehrer asked Sen. Reid why lobbying reform was moving so slowly. Reid replied, "Jim, it's taken a while for this culture of corruption the Republicans have developed to come into the fore." Aspiring "Speaker Pelosi" just gave a speech at Georgetown University pledging to "drain the swamp" of GOP... continue reading
The intense coverage of teenage congressional pages receiving "overfriendly" e-mails and sexually charged online instant messages from suddenly retired Congressman Mark Foley have underlined some serious, ongoing parental fears about teenagers and the lives they lead on the computer. What are they seeing, writing, and doing? We know today's teenagers are fluent in the latest communications technologies, often using them all at once. But when someone quantifies that knowledge with actual numbers, the results are eye-opening. The Kaiser Family Foundation has found that 15- to 18-year-olds average nearly six and a half hours a day watching TV, playing video games,... continue reading
After more than 100 stories on ABC, CBS, and NBC on the Mark Foley Internet-messaging scandal, it wouldn't be hard for the average Joe to conclude the Democrats are now the Party of Moral Values. Democrats are demanding that Republicans return the monies Foley gave their campaigns. Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader who would very much like Denny Hastert's job, is predictably fanning the flames. "We want to know," she thunders, "why the Republicans chose to protect Mark Foley's political career rather than protect the children who were in our charge." To which I want to thunder back: Is... continue reading
Are television critics a menace to society? What do we do when our media tastemakers, the men and women entrusted to evaluate the artistic merit of Tinseltown offerings, exult in Hollywood's lack of taste? When perverse novelty and "edge" and complete moral confusion is what these critics live to watch and love to promote, they appear to be seeking to establish the polar opposite of a moral tone in our culture. Take as an example the critics' take on the new Showtime drama "Dexter." Its sickening premise makes a hero out of a sadistic serial killer, because he kills only... continue reading
It is beyond easy - it is mandatory - to denounce Congressman Mark Foley for his sexually charged electronic mail and Internet messages to teenage males who worked as pages in the House of Representatives. He was right to resign. I hope he's prosecuted. It is also beyond easy to recognize how the Democrats have decided to make national political hay out of this ugly sex scandal - as far as we know, a sex talk scandal. On Monday morning, the network news shows were predicting excitedly that this could be a killer issue for Democrats. "But this is more... continue reading
Students of history know that over the millennia, great civilizations crumbled not from without, but from within. The Visigoths may have crushed the Romans in 476, but long before the Roman Empire had begun to disintegrate internally, its social fabric slowly shredded apart and ultimately it became a paper tiger unable to sustain itself. In our own lifetime, it's quite apparent that we are witnessing an increasingly rapid and equally worrisome descent in the moral mean. Here's one spectacular, depressing example. In the 1970s, one of the most celebrated family shows on TV was "Little House on the Prairie." One... continue reading
Pundits are pondering Bill Clinton's feverish attack on "Fox News Sunday," laying into Chris Wallace for alleged oh-so-clever smirking and pounding the host's leg with his pointy finger for emphasis. No one asked if Clinton's outburst hurt the publicity for his "Clinton Global Initiative." (It didn't help.) The first question was: staged outrage, or a spontaneous reaction? It's quite a commentary on the Slick One that millions on both sides of the political fence would guess he plotted this tantrum in advance. Count me in on that number. I believe it was staged, a plan to please left-wingers who loathe... continue reading
Someone should tell Madonna that her Catholic-bashing, Jesus-exploiting shtick is getting old, as old as the recycled Abba tunes she's putting out as her own music. As old, almost, as she is. It's the kind of exploitation that makes you want to ignore her instead of protest against her. By protesting her endless profaning of what many people - 85 percent of Americans qualifies as "many," I think - hold to be sacred, do protesters only put more gas on her fire? Make no mistake. At 48, she may be old enough to be Grandma, but Madonna's latest "Confessions" tour,... continue reading
There are moments where it becomes painfully apparent that the media elites think that the only thing redeeming about Western culture is its ability to regret its existence. Their dream president is a lip-biting man from Arkansas, traveling the globe apologizing for every historic fault, real or imagined, America has ever committed. This was exactly their mentality with Pope Benedict XVI over his remarks at the University of Regensburg. One wonders if any of his critics had bothered to read his address, the theme of which was the inseparability of faith and reason. He quoted a Byzantine emperor - who... continue reading
Maybe it's a good thing that television writers don't try too hard to get involved with plots about religion. The thoroughly secular TV world seems to tolerate about one seriously religiously-themed series at a time. It's much more common to engage the topic of religion as an odd joke, as an intensely greedy racket of quacks, or as the inspiration for a flock of oppressive mind-numbed zombies out to ruin everyone's guilty pleasures. Usually, they're simply "crazy Christians." That's the central plot twist of the premiere of the new NBC drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," created by "West... continue reading