8.16.2006
PSA = BS
It on appears on teevee every night, late at night, in the hopes that anxious insomniacs, blurry-minded drunks, and half-sleepy sheeple won’t detect its disingenuousness.
“Hi, Mr. President,” says some high school girl off camera. “My parents believe that eating meals together will make our country strong. Is this something that you did when you were a kid?”
President Boob is strutting back and forth on stage in front of a crowd of fawning Republicans, going along with the set-up, letting the girl recite her prepared statement. Then, on cue, the Commander-In-Chimp manages to remember his line, despite a rocky start:
“I—I—I—I did eat with my family, so long as my mother wasn’t cooking.”
Suddenly Godzilla – oops, I mean Barbara Bush – pops on the screen. “It’s not good to make fun of your mother,” she sniffs, “even if you are president.”
Really. Well, it’s not good saying Hurricane Katrina victims huddled in a relocation shelter are a lot better off than they were back in New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. Of course, poor people are the onus of the American royal class, noblesse oblige and all that, sniff, sniff.
Anyway, as the public service announcement glibly rolls on, Barbara talks about the importance of families having meals together, photos of the Bush clan when Prez Boob was a boy, all sitting around the table, sharing a Norman Rockwell moment. She states that children who eat more often with their families are less likely to smoke, drink, and use drugs.
Really. What about your son George? Stories of cocaine use and his troubles with drinking, at least one DWI arrest. Yup, family meals really kept him on the straight and narrow. (Also helped him to maintain his high IQ.)
Next thing you know, they’ll be running a PSA saying any kid who buys drugs is funding international terrorism. Oh, wait, they already did one.
How about a PSA that says that when an American citizen pays his taxes, he’s funding international terrorism. After all, think of that photo from the Reagan era, Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with the USA’s best buddy, Saddam Hussein. And don’t forget our other best buddies from years ago, the Taliban.
No, they couldn’t run a PSA like that. It would be truthful.
# posted by Stan Spire @ 4:04 AM 
