Whose Values Are They Anyway?Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD
First there was sight of Janet Jackson's pastie-adorned breast at Superbowl, then Nicollet Sheridan's towel-dropping scene on Monday Night Football. A public outcry followed, deploring obsessively sexual orientation of advertising, entertainment, and media as a whole.As debates rage, a core question must arise: if sex is known to sell anything, who is doing buying? Public Relations and marketing gurus give public what they crave. If they don't, they are out of a job. How many new viewers will Desperate Housewives gain because of uproar over their ad? Thousands? A million or two? And who enjoyed gratuitous nudity? Those who "missed it" on Monday Night Football were able to indulge their curiosity as tape was replayed and replayed ad nauseum. Who in America has not seen it by now? Surely only sightless and occasional hermit could have missed it.
| | Bush Victory: A Defeat for the Have-nots?Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD
The shouting is over and directions for next four years selected. Judging by past behavior (the best predictor, psychologically, of future behavior), we can look forward to:1. Continued and probably expanded tax cuts for wealthiest Americans and large Corporations. It is no surprise that stock market soared on election news: big business stands to gain greatly by results. Predictions? A strong effort to curtail product lawsuits, no matter how valid, to protect bottom line profits and continued tax incentives to offshore jobs to third world countries where labor costs are low, worker protections minimal, and profitability unlimited. 2. Protection of drug companies by barring pharmaceutical imports from Canada and discouragement of formation of purchasing cartels for Medicare and other public programs. 3. Semi-privatization of Social Security leading to emigration of higher paid young employees into private plans, unavoidably diminishing influx of money available for current and future recipients. 4. Expanded funding for morass of Iraq and support for new Afghani government, benefiting Haliburtons of world rather than American worker.
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