We are living in such a state of hypocrisy that it seriously makes me ill at times. A couple of nights towards the end of last week, I went to bed a little sick to my stomach. For some reason, all of the self-denial, lies and apathy that we all see every day were starting to wear on me. I suppose it started when I was talking to a fellow diaryland-er who voiced a little surprise that I hadn�t commented on the Valerie Plame/ Karl Rove scandal. I hate to sound melodramatic, but I feel it all slipping away when I start thinking about these things. Yes, the whole Karl Rove thing infuriates me. For all their talk about wanting to protect this country, the Bush Administration is willing to compromise our security and the safety of an undercover CIA agent as retribution for someone actually telling the truth about the pack of lies that led us to war. How is that serving our country? How is that acting in the best interests of national security? I drive around town and I see people with bumper stickers that say, �Proud to be an American!� How can you be? What is there to be proud of right now? Another favorite of mine is, �I support Bush, and I support our troops.� What a contradiction in terms. If you really supported our troops, you wouldn�t support Bush. How can you say you support our troops when you�re supporting a guy who sends those troops off to die for no reason? How can these people be so obtuse? Do they not read the paper? Do they not watch the news? This country is slipping away and most people are too caught up watching Britney and Kevin to notice or even care. I caught part of Fahrenheit 9/11 the other day and I had to turn it off. I couldn�t watch it. Granted, I�ve seen it before, but with the mood I was in last week, it was just too much. I went to bed that night with a lump in my throat- thinking of all the parents that have lost their children, and all the children that have lost their mothers or fathers so Bush can feed his ego and line the pocket books of Halliburton.
But here is what REALLY made my head spin last week: I�m sure everyone knows what Grand Theft Auto is, and how it is chalk full of violence and mayhem. I�ve never played it, but I guess there is something in the game where you can pick up a prostitute and have sex with her. It doesn�t actually show the sex- it just shows the two of you going into another room. Apparently, someone found a cheat code that allows you to actually see what�s going on in that room. When news of this broke, every major retailer in the country yanked the game off the shelves. Can anyone else see what is wrong with this picture? This to me is the epitome of hypocrisy. As a society, we�re basically saying that rampant violence and carnage is perfectly ok, but we draw the line at any graphic depiction of an activity that is essential to our survival as a species- something we�ve all done, we all enjoy, and when done responsibly, is of no harm to anyone. Keep in mind- the sex was always in the game- you just couldn�t see it. So we�re drawing the line between knowing what�s going on, and actually seeing what�s going on? We�ll accept a game that allows you to pick up a prostitute and have sex with her, just so long as you can�t actually see the sex? If the implication is already there, what does it matter if you can see it or not? How did we get to the point that we deemed violence a more acceptable activity than sex? I don�t know how many of you have traveled to other counties, but for those who haven�t, you�d be surprised as to what you�ll see on TV outside of the US. I was over in Australia several years ago and was watching �The Terminator� on TV. Not HBO or anything, just regular TV- the Australian equivalent of NBC or CBS. For those who haven�t seen it, the movie is loaded with violence and bloodshed with one little sex scene tossed in towards the end. Well, if you were to watch the movie over here, virtually all of the violence and killing is left intact, but they completely cut out the sex scene. Over in Australia, a lot of the violence is cut out, but the sex scene is in there- nudity and all. Sex is a completely natural activity, yet we try and shield ourselves from it. While at the same time, we subject ourselves to countless acts of murder and violence as if it were as benign as watching grass grow. Someone get this country a flashlight- we�ve completely lost our way.

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