It's A New Year!

And we're all back into the grind. Oh well, all good things must end eventually.

How was your Christmas and New Year's? Mine was good. I have to say that the TSA didn't prove to be a problem on our trip to Colorado. The strip search scanners weren't present in the KCI terminal when we left, and we weren't selected for the random 'extra' searches coming back from Denver. Whew! I was very relieved to not have to deal with it; my wife was very relieved that I didn't have the opportunity to cause any problems. ;)

I confess I gladly ignored as much of the headlines and political games as possible once I signed off before Christmas. It was very stress reducing, but at the same time a bit unnerving given how destructive Congress and the White House have been over the past two years. But, we'll catch up to all that in time. The one thing that really struck me over the last few days was the sheer bass-ackwardness of political correctness, so I wanted to rant about that momentarily.

I was getting gas one day and saw a little sign next to the pump that struck me as extremely odd. It was an ad for cigarettes, and on one side it had a nifty picture and the price. On the other side of the sign was a warning about the dangers of smoking and a phone number that you could call for assistance in quitting smoking.

Say what? An ad that both endorses a product and discourages it?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of smoking, but what kind of insanity is it for any product in any industry to require product to antagonize itself?? Really? How many of these make sense:

"Ice cold Coca-Cola...open happiness! Or a Pepsi."

"Built Ford tough...but Chevys are pretty darned tough, too."

"Make the ultimate upgrade. To a Mac. Or Windows 7. Either one is good."

No, no, no. It's so stupid that it's beyond insanity. And yet, due to political correctness, that's what we've required of the cigarette industry. Look, if smoking was really that awful, ban the practice altogether. Make it illegal, just like crack or meth. What's that you say? It's really not that bad? Then why is it so demonized, even to the point of requiring the smoking industry to run ads that tell you how to stop using their product?

It's just stupid, and that kind of stupidity is ruining all kinds of things. Environmentalism, terrorism, separation of church and state, abortion, education, you name it. Political correctness is a cancer that eats away at common sense, honesty, and integrity. We need to be willing to stand up and say what needs to be said, to call things as they are, and to ignore the sheer idiocy of political correctness wherever we find it. It's one small step that would have a huge impact on daily life in America.

Okay, rant over. We'll see how things shape up in the first days of the new Congress. Hopefully the new blood will pick fights and follow through. It's pretty clear that's what America demanded last November. If they respond, then there's hope yet for bringing some real recovery to this wounded nation.