Say Anything Blog

I meant to post on this last night, but didn’t adjust my internal clock to the vagarities of signing up for a reader blog. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I know everyone is simply dying to know what the latest bee in my bonnet is (otherwise, why read a reader’s blog, eh?)

Anyway, there I was watching the latest Simpsons expecting to be entertained, only to be shocked (shocked!) at the ugly partisan hit performed upon the military. For those of you who didn’t see it, the episode treated us to a depiction of the US military as a group of imbiciles so desperate for members that it has to recruit primarily poor minors. What’s more, they’re so inept and victory starved that they have to pick on the dregs of the dregs in a war game only to discover that (surprise!) they’re not even up to that task. Oh yeah, and it’s heavily implied that the ones that aren’t idiots are closeted homosexuals.

This bugs me. This bugs me in a deep and profound way. There’s nothing wrong with poking a little fun at the armed forces. As a member myself, I can tell you that soldiers appreciate a little good natured ribbing from time to time. And yet the disgusting display last night was more than a little, and far from good natured. Rather, it was a half-hour display of all the worst stereotypes that are flug in the faces of those of us who serve. And nearly always flug from the left side of the aisle.

I certainly don’t want to overblow the importance of a cartoon. And far be it from me to tell others what they should do, but next sunday my family is not very likely to be tuning into Fox during that time slot.