To even the most casual observer a lot of what ails America was on full display today. As if the interminable coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial service wasn’t enough, legitimate Americans had to endure the intelligence insulting spectacle of Al Franken being sworn into the United States Senate. The admittance of Al Franken into the senior legislative branch of government is an automatic disqualifier for the previous claim of that group of legislators to be “the world’s greatest deliberative body”. Now the rest of America will suffer for the sins of Minnesota.

While Minnesotans have always evinced a certain political independence, for the most part this independence has flirted with the radical political left so it has almost never been to America’s general benefit. That is their right however and I do not begrudge them their right to elect U.S. Senators as set forth in the 17th Amendment. I do however begrudge Minnesotan’s seeming preoccupation with celebrity as a qualifying virtue for public office. Recall that these are the same people who gave us Governor Jesse Ventura. Celebrity is not a bad thing in and of itself. Certain celebrities have gone on to long and distinguished political careers. Ronald Reagan and Will Rogers come to mind. Al Franken is neither as charming as Reagan nor as quick witted as Rogers.

The reason I mention all of this is because Minnesota is symptomatic of the nation at large. Real heroes died today. We lose approximately 1,000 veterans of World War II every day now. As I type this, the Fifth Marine Regiment is combating the Taliban in Afghanistan and the USS Ronald Reagan and her carrier battle group take up station in the Arabian Sea. But tonight’s news will be more coverage of pampered, narcissistic celebrities mourning a man whose legacy is marred by charges child molestation and overindulgence in yet more narcissism. I don’t care how much money for charities Michael Jackson might have raised, any one of the real heroes that passes today will have contributed far more to America than did Mr. Jackson. Sadly they will not be remembered for it because our society glorifies the celebrity.

As a society we have replaced God with fame. We worship at the altar of Hollywood and allow secularism to dictate our moral values to us. I was recently engaged in a debate with a woman about gays in the military. She was in favor of doing away with the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and I was in favor of maintaining it. Her argument was essentially that gays are having their civil rights violated. How so? They are allowed to serve currently, they simply cannot flaunt their sexual identity to the world or engage in behavior detrimental to good order and discipline. Two things the military needs in order to perform its most important task, engaging and destroying our enemies when ordered to do so. The military is not and should not be a test tube for social engineering.

This woman argued back that homosexuality is not a choice but a genetic disposition. My response was a citation from the American Psychological Association, wherein the latest study posted on their website indicates that homosexuality can be both genetically indicated or chosen as a behavior and in essence the current military policy only proscribes actual homosexual behavior. What rights of theirs are being taken away? An officer who is openly adulterous or who engages in white supremacist behavior would similarly be discharged from the service.

The point of all this is that the left cannot abide traditional moral values. The simple reason is that moral values are almost always derived from religious beliefs and cultural mores that may or may not be “just” to some. So the left seeks to impose a new value system upon the rest of the nation, devoid of God, or a religious basis, save the religion of liberalism. Moral relativism is dangerous and the society it would create would ironically be without morals because everything would be “just” and equal. What lib'ruls continually fail to recognize is that ultimately the concepts of "right" and "wrong" are moral values.

While men are endowed by their Creator with equal rights, not all men are created equally, this is scientific fact, not the hodgepodge of liberal talking points endlessly cited as reasons to abandon “Don’t ask, don’t tell. Any man who would put proclaiming his sexual identity before the needs of the service and the nation, does not demonstrate judgment, merely that his personal sexual gratification is more important than the needs of the country. At the beginning I noted the orgiastic display of fawning Michael Jackson coverage and the tragic-comedy of Al Franken becoming a U.S. Senator. This is what “progressivism” brings. Liberalism, moral relativism and cultural Marxism have already overwhelmed the mainstream media and destroyed our public schools. Today's events merely reinforce that opinion. The question now becomes, do legitimate Americans have what it takes to reclaim our schools, our culture and our moral foundations? Or is our society too far gone indulging itself in celebrity worship?

Smilin' Paul Villa U.S. Senate 2010
cyber-Congressman, R-Reno
Proud Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and 2 SUV Family