Whats wrong with America?

Now, I'm a big sports fan. I can waste an entire weekend watching college football on Saturday, and the pros on Sunday, so this is hard to say. We have become a society dependent on entertainment.


Whether its sports, movies, NASCAR, music or what ever, we demand that we be entertained. Presently, over twenty million people are without jobs. Factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers, the people who make America great, and they are benched. As our nation struggles to right our economic woes, and congress is on the wrong side, WE still want to be entertained. How many football players were laid off by the NFL this season? Any? Didn't think so.

Athletes, coaches and actors are among the highest paid professions in our country, and they contribute not one iota to our greatness. They add nothing to the GNP, nada, yet they demand outrageous salaries.

Mike Leach, late of Texas Tech, was to receive an $800,000 bonus. That's wages for twenty blue collar Texans, yet hardly any one complains. His annual compensation? Roughly 2.7 million. Coaches like Urban Meyer command 4 million or more, yet they will never make a scientific contribution, medical breakthrough, or life changing invention. All they will do is entertain us.

We buy movies and music every day to do what? entertain us. Pornography is the biggest business on the internet, and all it is is entertainment. Entertainment is a huge business in America. I don't really mind that. Seriously, I don't.

What I do mind is when it is done on the public dime. The NEA, National Endowment for the Arts gives away our money by the bucket to entertainers and artists who suck. That money was taken from the hip pocket of a hard working American, and handed to an entertainer who apparently, no one in the private sector felt needed a dime.

I'm also irritated that millions every year is spent giving scholarships to athletes who will eventually be making millions entertaining us. Sure a lot of these guys will wash out and not make it in the draft, but why do we need to pay for that?

It peeves me even more when its guys like Michael Vick. After that fiasco, he should never be allowed on the field again. Instead, he is back up for the Eagles. Two teams to cheer for these days, the Minnesota Vikings, and whom ever is playing against Philly.

Times are tough in America. Ford, GM, and a host of other companies who have laid off scores of workers are still funneling funds to sports for what? Entertainment.

Half times over, back to the game. Sigh.

Update: Zach, I consider creating art a profession whether it is painting, singing, acting, sculpture, or any other form. Furthermore, I understand fully what types of artists are funded by the NEA from chamber music to dance. What I don't like is funding them with my money. I don't support any type of public charity whether the government is propping up GM, a hobo, or a foreign regime, its not right to take our hard earned dollars and give them to any one. research Davy Crocket and his commentary on government largess. Tax money should only be spent on things that are necessary, and Chamber Music really isn't. Those who want chamber music can fund it from their own pockets, not mine. In fact, a certain document outlines as follows, "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;" Which to me limits congress' actions regarding the arts to copyrights and patents as they apply, nothing more.

That very same document provides as follows;

"To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;"

Six paragraphs for the military which you so despise. All of that by the way comes from article 1 section 8 of the constitution.

By the way, our national defense budget is in excess of $515 billion, and like you I do not like waste in it. What you and I consider waste would likely differ, although most of what I consider waste you probably would as well.

To refresh your memory, on 9-11-01, we, the United States, were attacked by rogue thug jihadists. We are not perfect, that is for sure. Many mistakes, serious ones have occurred over the decades of my life. Our government has propped up corrupt regimes everywhere from Panama to Iran. We have turned a blind eye to atrocities by shallow allies in pursuit of global ambitions that benefited no one. At least no common American. In WW2 we took sides with Russia against Germany. Both were purist evil, Stalin killed millions more then Hitler. George S. Patton, when he Met the Russians in Germany famously asked for permission to continue the attack. He recognized evil. Douglas McArthur wanted to press the attack against China during the Korean war. Truman chose to bench him instead. Mao's purges killed an estimated 38 million, some estimates are as high as 100 million. Truman, the man with the courage to nuke Japan, failed in the face of a powerful enemy.

What in all that though justifies the slaughter of nearly 3,000 people by these Islamic thugs?

At least our military attempts to protect us, chamber music and offensive art don't, even when it is offensive to Jews or Christians and therefore allowable to these jihadists.

As for giving back to the tax payers, I call bullshit on you. The vast majority of the defense budget goes to purchase and maintain equipment. Those F-16 fighters, KC-135 tankers, Arleigh Burke Destroyers, Abrams tanks and such are all built by tax paying American workers. Guys who contribute roughly 35% of their gross wage to Federal, State, local and school taxes. Grant money given to artists isn't taxable, or is it? Even if it is, they are in the lower tax catergories. I did my research Zach, why didn't you do yours?