Wednesday, August 15, 2012

In The 21st Century, This Is Considered "Brave"

Desmond Tutu calls for axing 'Stars Earn Stripes'

Let's think about this one a sec, shall we?  We live in the eleventh year of the Global War on Terror, American troops are still placed all over the Middle East, and are getting killed every day [the media got bored with the weekly "death count" after Bush left office], and despite promises made by a tenth Nobel Peace Prize laureate [mention of whom is conspicuously absent from this story], Guantanamo Bay is still open, and this brave collection of peace advocates decide that what is worth their attention is a summer reality show on the 4th ranked network on US television.

Wow, they're really speaking the truth to power now, aren't they?

If I didn't know Tutu [he's a former teacher of mine], I would think he was in the employ of an NBC public relations or advertising firm, as all he did was bring attention to a TV show of limited interest.

This is the danger when secular politics trumps moral theology.  The Episcopal/Anglican Church is invested in the current US president to the point that they cannot criticize him in the least. So, to slake their reason for being, they attack a chimera.

Just so you know, in my world, my colleagues refer to this kind of press release as "courageous".

A real mortal problem is the increasing usage of drones in combat, devices that are notoriously deadly to innocent by-standers.  Among non-combatants in the Arab world, US military drones are known, in English, as "random death machines".  Nice, huh?  That might a good name for a TV show, now that I think about it.  Then, maybe, it would be worth the attention of these luminaries.