POLITICS? or PERSONAL ATTACKS?

I have a friend who runs a personal blog much like this one, but which deals with different subject matter. However, there is a Politics subsection. In the latest posting there, this friend commented on how nothing defines the GOP better than Trump and Palin getting together for pizza at what some natives to that area have described as the worst pizza parlor - and opened by some Polish immigrant, can you imagine?

Like most of you, I find this sort of thinking repulsive. First, where's the political connection? Surely a choice of restaurants can't rate up there with, say, their views on the American economy. Secondly, aren't we a melting pot? Don't we applaud any immigrant successes? Such as a Pole founding a successful pizza restaurant?

Yet all we hear, day in and day out, is how the left is tolerant and inclusive and reeking of the stench of diversity. So what could be more diverse than a female governor, a male entrepreneur, and a Polish immigrant's family getting together over pizza? But no. The left is inclusive, I guess, but even they have limits. Poles? Beyond the pale, it would appear, especially if they are purveyors of pizza. That sort of cross-cultural assimilation simply can't be tolerated.

In thinking further, and reflecting upon the rhetoric from the left about potential GOP candidates for office, or GOP ideas, we hear that these candidates and ideas are an uninspiring lot, and lack charm, or in other ways are not appealing. But politics is about none of those. Politics is about the value of ideas, and the election of people who will help carry out the ideas and agendae that the electorate most support. Charm and inspiration aren't there. Neither of those built this country, with the possible exception of the inspiration of the freedoms that the phrase "with liberty and justice for all" brought with it.

So expect the election to be mostly personal attacks from the left, and policy attacks from the right. As usual.

BORN THIS WAY

Yes, tonight your intrepid Ostrich Killer will take on Lady GAGA, whose hit song with the above title would lead the airheads that will (shudder) become our next generation of leaders to think that homosexual behavior is an inevitable result of genetics.

But first, a 'Hats Off' to Tom, who surprised your Ostrich Killer one day recently by addressing me as "Hello, Ostrich Killer." Living proof that your Ostrich Killer now has at least two readers who recognize me on sight. I'd better see about enlarging my server space to accommodate all the readers.

But back to Lady GAGA. First off, I'm not sure the title 'Lady' is appropriate. She seems more like a campy sleaze in expensive make-up. The lady, as the saying goes, is no lady. But hey. That's just my take. Her message in the song is she's 'born this way' (homosexual) so she has no choice but to rejoice in behaving as a homosexual. I doubt that she actually does, but the lyrics would have us believe she does.

So let's examine the intellectual vacuum in which her assertion resides: that genetics dictates how we behave, and we're helpless to do anything about it. The fact that we have a brain matters not. The fact that we can reason things out matters not. The fact that we, as thinking and rational Humans (most of us), can CHOOSE how to behave matters not. No, she would have us believe, we're slaves to those implacable task-masters, our genes.

What utter crap. All behavior is a choice. Assuming mental acuity (let's not get into a discussion over whether homosexual behavior is a manifestation of some sort of mental disorder. I already get enough hate mail.), one chooses how to behave.

Sometimes we hear something like "I'm homosexual, but I know that to live a normal life I have to pretend to be straight, so I got married and have kids." News flash: we are how we behave. That's the ONLY criteria anyone has to determine what sort of person anyone is. Words mean nothing, what goes on between our ears is invisible to everyone, so only behavior matters. So to those out there who think they're really homosexual, good news: you're not, if you're not behaving like one.

Look at it from the other perspective: can you imagine a straight pretending to be homosexual, up to and including behavior? Most of us, if we could even get it up, would puke at the idea. So too, one might think, would a homosexual when trying to pretend to be straight. How would a guy even get it up for a woman, if he didn't feel desire? But most (about 85%, according to a recent survey) so-called homosexuals have had both straight and homosexual experiences. Complete without puking.

Hmmmm . . . .

So what's operating?

Behavioral choices. Not genetics.

Maybe Lady GAGA can record another hit single, "I Behave This Way."