Bimbos and Stud Muffins

It probably started with reality shows about "wealthy" bachelors pursued by women who wanted to "marry up." Then Flavor Flav traded a disfunctional relationship with Strange Love co-star Brigitte Neilsen for a bevy of publicity seeking nymphets in Flavor of Love.

Bravo began a series about Real Housewives of Orange County and MTV had startling success with Jersey Shore. What do these shows have in common? The participants are superficial, self-absorbed, highly sexed and have the social morals of New York bankers. Bravo has degenerated into a Real Housewives franchise machine.

Whatever happened to Bravo and A&E, which at one time rivaled PBS in the quality of their original programming? Or MTV, once a showcase for innovative, edgy musical videos? Or TLC whose initials, now ironically, stand for The Learning Channel? Or Discovery? Each and every one of them appears to me to have descended far below our society's lowest common denominator.

I reserve my strongest personal objections to the bimbo and stud muffin genres portrayed in the Real Housewives franchise and Jersey Shore, which objectify their subjects as purely sexual, mentally challenged creatures.Ugh.

Why do our leaders refuse to pay the piper?

I just tuned in (and out) of Fox's "Hannity" who was ranting about making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Why does no one stand up and say that it is bad policy to wage wars on a credit card that is owned by foreign governments (China, Japan, Saudi Arabia et al)?

Why do the same folks who shout about America's exceptionalism insist we do not actually have to pay for the costs of America's activities abroad and challenges at home?

Why do they never seem to equate "supporting our troops" with supplying our veterans with the medical and social services they need to recover from their arduous, often traumatic service in foreign lands?

Why do the American people put up with being treated like idiots incapable of understanding the demands our country's policies place not only on them, but on their children and grandchildren?

I have heard it said that only people who have hope of changing things protest. Can it be that we have lost that hope? Are we resigned to bearing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with no recourse?