David McElroy

The defenders of the current coercive state political system seem exactly like this to me.

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It’s been almost eight years since the nation was subjected to a full nine-sixtheeth of a second of Janet Jackson’s bare breast on television — and the evil perps still haven’t paid a price. Sodom and Gomorrah are clearly just around the corner.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $55,000 for the brief “wardrobe malfunction” when part of Jackson’s costume slid open during a live Super Bowl performance. A long legal battle has ensued over whether the FCC had the legal power to do this, and a federal appeals court ruled this week that the decision was arbitrary.

The outcry from advocates for “decency” was swift and heartfelt:

“Today’s ruling reaches the level of judicial stupidity and is a sucker-punch to families everywhere,” said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel sucker-punched. I just feel as though a bunch of people with nothing better to do are still pursuing something that would have been best forgotten by the day after the day it happened.

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Nobody who follows the Middle East can be surprised to find out that Israel is apparently considering an offensive attack on Iran. Why is Israel considering attacking Iran? Because the Iranians are trying to develop nuclear weapons. Who already has nuclear weapons? Israel.

The Iranian government is made up of fundamentalist religious nuts. I’m not thrilled about the idea of them having nuclear weapons. But I’m also not happy about Israel having nuclear weapons — or Pakistan or India or France or Russia or the United States. If you want to get brutal about reality, there’s only been one government so far that has shown the willingness to kill and maim hundreds of thousands of civilians with nuclear weapons — and that wasn’t Iran.

If a war between Israel and Iran (and possibly other neighbors) starts, it seems very likely that the United States will be pulled into the mess. It seems even more likely that the flow of oil to the U.S. economy will be disrupted. Gasoline and heating oil will become massively more expensive, which will probably create cries for price controls, leading to shortages and possible rationing. Even if you disregard to tremendous human cost to the participants, the price for the rest of the world will likely be huge if a full-scale war erupts.

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