Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Some users of these drugs whose hearts could not withstand such stimulation have had survivors instead be compelled to call the morgue in place of their doctors.  One statistic that is germane is that heart attacks constitute the number one killer of men.

Movies and television shows treat us to a wider vocabulary, often liberally providing four-letter words, of what previously were considered inappropriate in any decent society.

"Sex and the City" is number 1 at the box office this week, and why not?  

Statistics released this week revealed that 35 percent of Latino births are to single mothers and 34 percent of white births occurred with single mothers.  In African American communities approximately 70 percent of fathers are absent.  

Fairness to the child is an element that in so many tragic instances is non-existent.

As for respecting the dead, pictures like "Sweeney Todd", a Christmas movie release, shows its lead character Sweeney Todd chopping up human victims for meals.

The highly popular Freddie Krueger movie series showed victims being killed to provide hamburger and pizza specials in what was considered comedy entertainment for international release.

A Seattle Times story on June 3 bore a headline from Middlebury, Vermont:

CALL IT POETIC JUSTICE

The interesting headline pertained to an incident in which:

"More than two dozen people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.

"When the (beer party) was over, windows, antique furniture and china had been broken, fire extinguishers discharged, and carpeting soiled with vomit and urine."

28 people were charged with mostly trespassing - all but two of them teenagers.  Some will have to pay for damage resulting from the drunken escapade.  The 17-year-old who gave a friend $100 bought the beer and so people descended on the dead poet's Vermont farm.  The young man who bought the beer is the only celebrant that was sent to jail and he drew a sentence of only 3 days.

The total damage estimate from the drunken incident was $10,000.  

I met Robert Frost's daughter years ago at a publisher's office overlooking Madison Square Park in New York City.  She gave me an autographed copy of her book of poems.  She was so proud of her famous father.  I am glad she never lived to see these barbarians demolishing the Vermont farm house of America's poet icon.

The U.S. represents 5 percent of the world's population, but tragically uses two-thirds of the world's illicit drugs.  That is one statistic you won't hear any politician dredging up when he or she proudly proclaims the mantra "America is the greatest nation in the world."

Toynbee's warning of sexual obsessions and no respect for the dead displays a nation in decline.  

Definitely, the U.S. is in decline and sadly even economically with bungler Bush's almost $10 trillion debt, greater than the national debt for every year since the U.S. founded - combined.  

If this isn't decline, what is it?