As I noted previously, 80% of Americans don’t believe that the government can be successful.  By and large, we Americans believe that the government is broken.  Yet, we still maintain that America is the best country in the world.  We don’t have nearly the best education system, nor healthcare system, nor justice system.  But, apparently, we’re still the best.  We don’t have totally equal rights for women, for gay people, for minorities.  We don’t have the highest standard of living.  We don’t have a strong economy (right now).  But– WE’RE STILL THE BEST!

I’m curious, given our dissatisfaction with the government and the way the country is run, why we still believe that America is the best country in the world.  Undoubtedly, there’s a lot of great things about this country…but I still think that the zealous patriotism espoused by many Americans is little uncalled for.

In one breath a person can begrudge the government for screwing up everything in his life: his kids’ classroom size; the cost of his prescriptions; the cost of his mortgage; the price of gas; the taxing of this or that; his 401K account balance; his job security; his marriage; the weather; and so on and so forth — and still proclaim from the highest purple mountain’s majesty that America is the best country in the world.  How is that?  Are we loyal to our government — the American “way of life” — for no good reason?

If we’re not the greatest country in the world (how is that defined?!), would we revolt like so many before us have?  If every last person in this country believed that the government is broken beyond repair, would we take up arms? Would we march on Washington and demand the dissolution of Congress? Burn the Constitution and start fresh?  Cede and start a new, better country?

No, I don’t think we would.  We’ve lost that revolutionary spirit.  We’re too preoccupied, distracted, busy; we have given up and given in.  Of course we have: American Idol is on.

Photo courtesy publicintegrity.org

According to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll, 80% of Americans believe that government is broken — mainly because of fighting between the political parties and branches of the government.  The poll found 33% blaming Republicans for a broken Washington and 27% blaming Democrats, with 2% blaming both parties, 5% unsure and 17% saying that Washington isn’t broken at all.

The message is clear: we don’t have faith that the U.S. government can be successful.  But why is that?  And what’s the solution?

According to CNN’s David Frum, the answer may be as simple as locking — and bolting — the doors to Congress.  In his recent article, “Blame yesterday’s reforms for today’s gridlocked Congress“, he asks readers to take a quiz:

Name the most important legislation enacted in the 30 years between 1950 and 1980.

Overwhelming isn’t it? Civil rights. Voting rights. Interstate highways. Medicare. Medicaid. The deregulation of the airlines, natural gas, trucking, rail and oil. The immigration act of 1965. Clean Air, Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Acts. Supplemental Security Income in 1974. I could fill the whole screen.

Now … the next 30 years.

There’s the Reagan tax cuts of course. Deregulation of the savings & loans in 1982. The Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Welfare reform in 1995. Medicare Part D. What else?

He’s right.  Why is it that Congress can’t get anything passed these days?  Frum argues that the real cuprit are the bright, shining lights of the media.  The polarizing party lines.  The filibuster — most recently used by Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky to block short-term extension of unemployment and health insurance benefits.  Frum asks Congress to bring back the smoke-filled rooms where secret deals are created!  Where alliances are created far from the microscope of the public and media.

Maybe he’s right.  Maybe when we stick our collective nose into the business of Congress, it makes Congress fearful to actually get anything done.  They’ve got jobs to keep too, after all.

I hate to break it to the doomsday-fearing, apocalyptic types (actually, wait, I LOVE spoiling their fun with a nice dose of reality) but this whole Swine Flu Pandemic thing is ridiculous.  The more I hear about it the more I just want to throttle the media for their epic bid for coverage.  Will they stop at nothing?  Is it a conspiracy by Tami-flu and face mask manufacturers to hype this outbreak up and blow it WAY out of proportion?

I’m not claiming to be an expert on the subject or a doctor.  And if all the sudden the world becomes infected and we all turn into zombies then I’ll be happy to say, “my bad.”  But until that happens, lemme put this in perspective:

There have been 257 confirmed cases of Swine Flu worldwide according to CNN as of 4/30/09.  Most of those were in Mexico and there have been 109 confirmed cases and 1 death in the United States as of the same date.  There are about 310,000,000 people in the U.S.  As a percentage, about 0.0000351612903% of the United States population is currently receiving treatment for Swine Flu.

As Jack Cafferty noted in his blog today, “More than 13,000 people in the U.S. have died of complications from seasonal flu since January; and it’s expected to continue killing hundreds of people a week. In total, about 36,000 people a year die from the flu in this country; and worldwide, the annual death toll is somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000.”

Also dying in the United States this year are:

936,923 due to cardiovascular disease (McDonald’s is a much more threatening pandemic)

553,091 due to cancer (Why aren’t we wearing masks whenever people smoke around us?  The sun is even a pandemic!)

43,354 due to motor vehicle accidents (Is the auto industry going bankrupt because it’s causing a pandemic?!)

13,322 due to falls (Watch out!  Those stairs are a pandemic!)

3,842 due to drowning (Don’t go swimming…it’s a pandemic!)

etc. etc. etc.

For reference, and to compare side-by-side to the “Swine Flu Pandemic”, since February 2003 about 675,000 men, women and children have been raped and murdered in the Sudan.  Break it down further and that’s  300 people a day.  300 people are murdered every single day in the Sudan with no end in sight. If anything is a “pandemic” it’s the war and genocide that kills thousands every day across the world that the media and world governments turn a blind eye to.  It’s the deaths and murders that occur right here in the U.S. because of poverty, or lack of education, or lack of psychiatric/medical care, or race, or sexual orientation, or…

So if I hear anything more about this “pandemic” of a flu virus I’m going to go insane.

The United States government is intent on throwing good money after bad to save reckless and unsustainable companies like GM and Chrysler who are now asking for nearly $30 billion in taxpayer money while closing plants and laying workers off.

The auto bailout issue makes me see red but it’s really only the tip of the iceberg.  All said and done, spending due to the financial crisis will reach nearly $2 trillion.  That’s $2,000,000,000,000. 

American companies have no qualms going to Congress with their hat in their hand pleading for money and Congress–always the sugar daddy–seems to have no problem writing the check, at our expense.

I propose…

…that every company that accepts federal bailout money change their corporate websites from a .com domain to a .gov domain.  That way we American taxpayers know which companies we have been forced to have a stake in.

Meanwhile, check out www.recovery.gov to learn more about the recovery package.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

I have never seen so many people inspired and unified.  That will be my favorite memory of this day. 

Whatever your color or religion or political affiliation you can see it.  You can feel it.  It’s like that feeling right after September 11th when we all realized that we’re in this together.  History books will forever discuss what we saw, what we heard, and what we felt on this day.  Barack Obama rested his hands on the Bible that was last used by Abraham Lincoln as the United States braced for Civil War and spoke of unity.  He spoke of the decency, compassion, and humanity that links us together.  On January 20th, 2009 Barack Obama changed everything. 

Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.  I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition. 

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.  The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.  Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.  At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents. 

So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans. 

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.  Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.  Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.  Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered.  Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.  Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.  

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.  They are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.  But know this, America -  they will be met. 

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. 

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics. 

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.  The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given.  It must be earned.  Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.  It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.  Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. 

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life.  They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction. 

This is the journey we continue today.  We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth.  Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began.  Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year.  Our capacity remains undiminished.  But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed.  Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.  The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.  We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.  We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.  We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.  And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.  All this we can do.  And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans.  Their memories are short.  For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage. 

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.  The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.  Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward.  Where the answer is no, programs will end.  And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill.  Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.  The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.  And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born:  know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more. 

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.  They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.  Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy.  Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations.  We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.  With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.  We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. 

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.  To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.  To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.  And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.  For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.  They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.  We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.  And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. 

Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.  These things are true.  They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.  What is demanded then is a return to these truths.  What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.  In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river.  The capital was abandoned.  The enemy was advancing.  The snow was stained with blood.  At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].“

America.  In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.  With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.  Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

At about 10:00pm a magical thing happens in Europe: about a quarter of television channels switch over to softcore porn.

It doesn’t come as a surprise to the natives.  TV ads throughout the day regularly include topless women, posters on buses and in subways will sometimes feature a bare breast or two, unwrapped and easily accessible hardcore and softcore sex (both hetero- and homosexual) magazines are available in bookshops and on newsstands from the Rhine to the English Channel.

Now imagine if that were the case in America.  Imagine an America in which any adult was able to peruse through a sexually-explicit magazine while sipping a coffee with no need or desire to hide it from the view of others. Can’t imagine it?  Don’t want to imagine it?  Ever thought about why we, as Americans, are so ashamed of sex?

There are lots of books and articles that deconstruct and analyze European and American sex culture.  I’m not even going to begin doing that.  I think it is safe enough to say that Europeans are much more open about sex than Americans and aren’t afraid to talk about it, market it, and make money off of it.

Facebook’s Nipple Ban and the Porn Bailout

I came back from a whirlwind tour of Western Europe last week to news that the American pornography industry was seeking a $5 billion government bailout.  What’s more, the industry doesn’t even need it—yet.  Today, BusinessWeek reported on the “bailout”–or is the term “bridge loan” more politically-correct these days?

It won’t be in the news much longer, except as material for the likes of Jay Leno or Stephen Colbert, because it will never happen.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m not advocating that I would like to shell out money to either Hustler’s Larry Flynt or Girls Gone Wild’s Joe Francis, who, by the way, are about the most repugnant and grotesque poster boys for the industry that could have ever been found.  Couldn’t they at least get someone likeable like Hugh Heffner?

I also came back to a self-described “lactivist” sister-in-law who was outraged (and rightly so) that Facebook had deemed nipples offensive.

Aside from the porn bailout and Facebook’s Nipplegate, I came back to the United States with a refreshed realization about the extent to which the religious right and their delegates in our political system demonize, outlaw, and stigmatize the human body and sex.  I’m advocating a different type of bailout for this industry: the cultural and political acceptance celebration of sex.

The Embrace

Europe has embraced sex in a way that America never has: openly and without judgment.

While walking around Paris you may find yourself peering into the window of what appears to be a candy shop, but is, in reality, a lingerie and sex toy shop.  You’d think it’s a candy shop because it’s right next to a restaurant or fashionable boutique. You can find condoms just about everywhere, including underground subways—and not even the ones in the red light district.

And the red light districts of Amsterdam and Paris draw thousands of tourists and patrons a year—many of whom are Americans, like me and my friends, who are eager to glimpse inside a world that is so foreign to our Puritanical sensibilities that the word “sex” alone makes us blush. 

Yet, for all the hype that sex gets in Europe, The Guttmacher Institute’s data would suggest that Americans are the most sexually active.  For every 1,000 women between 15 and 19 years of age, France sees about 10 live births and about 10 abortions, compared to 55 live births and about 30 abortions in America.  And the rate of STD/STI/HIV transmission is a fraction of what it is in the United States. 

Observers in the United States cannot help noticing the contrast between France’s approach to issues related to teen sexual activity and those that prevail in this country. “Sexually explicit campaigns, like the one in France, arouse little concern among western Europeans,” says Barbara Huberman, director of sexuality education at Advocates for Youth, a U.S.-based organization that has conducted tours of France, Germany and the Netherlands to study the countries’ different approaches to sexual health issues. In France, she says, the government’s response to teenage pregnancy and abortion centers on consistent sexuality education, improved access to contraception and widespread public-education campaigns in support of contraceptive use. In the United States, she argues, policymakers try on the one hand to address high abortion rates by making abortion harder to get and, on the other, to address teen pregnancy by promoting abstinence.

“The gap between our countries’ approaches to teen sexual behavior is reflected in a wide gap in our teen pregnancy and abortion rates. It is unfortunate that in the United States, we lag so far behind,” says Jacqueline E. Darroch, vice president for research at The Alan Guttmacher Institute, who has studied adolescent pregnancy and STD rates in developed countries. “The United States is in a category with Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania and the Russian Federation, countries having among the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world. We don’t even come close to what’s been achieved in France.”  See: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/03/3/gr030303.html.

Part of accepting sex is being able to talk about it and that means age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education and the availability of resources to the sexually active.

Once we educate people (youth especially) about safe sex and stop pretending that abstinence-focused sex education is helpful or beneficial for anyone (except the peace of mind of parents and clergy) we will be on the road to a much more open and sexually-liberated America.

Sex Sells (If We Allow It To)

See, what the adult entertainment industry in America needs isn’t a bailout, it’s exposure.  It needs an accessible marketplace and America is much too prudish to have one.  For instance, The Family Research Council, lobbies intensely against any type of freedom of speech that leans in the direction of nudity or pornography—including successfully getting Abercrombie and Fitch to discontinue their catalogue a few years ago, which often included artistically-photographed scantily dressed (though no nudity) men and women.  I’m still upset about it.  I’m more upset by the fact that the Family Research Council is a multi-million dollar organization supported by hundreds of thousands of members that aims to have an abstinence-only education system, pornography and abortion criminalized and prosecuted, and no rights or measures of protection for gays, lesbians, or transgender citizens, among a long list of other goals.  And, like all lobbying groups, the FRC gives generous cash “donation” to politicians that do their bidding.

The moral of the story?  The United States government will not give $5 billion to an industry that it has, historically, tried to legislate into extinction anyway. It’d rather give our money to GM, who can’t remain viable even though it spends millions of dollars a year convincing us that we need their cars.  If anything, GM should take a tip from the adult entertainment industry which has received the exact reverse treatment by the American Federal Government and which, instead of getting unionized, getting subsidized, and getting tons of tax breaks, has managed to weather legislative onslaught, regulatory nightmares, and a marketplace riddled by piracy and amateurs.  Want to know why, in spite of it all, the American porn industry is doing better than the American auto industry? They give people what they want.

But don’t let the government know.  Ignorance is bliss.

The Last Word

And if I’m wrong, and the government does give the adult entertainment industry the $5 billion that it’s looking for, I expect some nice DVDs along with my stimulus check.

What do you think?  Is America sexually-liberated?  Too much or not enough?