This Friday’s TIME magazine has a cover that has already generated a lot of talk.  The cover (story linked here) shows a 26 year old mom breast feeding her almost 4 year old son.  If that doesn’t shock you, the lack or respect in the way the composed is composed will.  The image, far from a celebration, is obviously designed to hit you over the head.

Most of the news coverage seems to be negative.  I haven’t come across anyone defending this cover yet.  However, a lot of the coverage is focusing on the misleading cover.  Politico writes:

“I looked at this and my first thought was, it’s a really cheap shot. It’s a piece about Bill Sears, it’s not about an attractive blonde woman breast feeding,”  [Financial Times columnist Gillian] Tett told Stengel on Morning Joe.

“And yet,” Tett continued, “if you look across cultures across in the world today, attitudes about breast feeding and breasts in general vary enormously. In many ways, this is at least making us think about our approach toward parenting and our approach toward breast feeding. But it still makes me wince when I look at it.”

“I’ll tell you why it bothers me. It bothers me because it’s a profile of Bill Sears,” [Morning Joe co-host Mika] Brzezinski said, suggesting, as Tett did, that the cover was a cheap shot.

The primary complaint here isn’t the cover itself, but the fact that its misleading.  It would seem that Politico, Financial Times, and Morning Joe, would be supportive of the cover if the mom and child pictured on it were the focus of the article.  This is where I think they miss the real problem.  The cover itself is the issue.

We should use great caution in showing a woman breastfeeding on a magazine cover.  Not because breastfeeding is wrong (though I question the wisdom of it at four or six years old), but because breastfeeding is a personal and private event for a mother and child.  It shouldn’t be used to sell magazines by portraying it in the most graphic, exploitative, in your face manner.  Is there any doubt that the publishers of TIME thought that this cover would so shock readers they would be drawn to it?  For those who celebrate breastfeeding, this doesn’t celebrate that.  It exploits it in the hopes of selling a few magazines.

TIME should be ashamed.  There are much more tasteful ways to portray a woman breastfeeding.  And if TIME is going to run an article profiling an individual, may I suggest a photo of that individual on the cover.

I find myself somewhat suspicious of the timing of this latest announcement.  The Justice Dpartment claims that Apple and a number of publishers intentionally tired to raise the price of eBooks. Are eBook prices a great threat to our nation?  No.  I spend a small fortune on eBooks.  I would love to see the price of eBooks drop.  I would also like to see eBooks become more interactive.  I would love to see them really utilize the tablet platform.  However, when I buy an eBook, I decide if the product I am getting is worth the $9.99, $12.99, or more I am paying for.  I am never forced to buy any of these eBooks.  I make a choice to.

However, let’s accept the possibility that a crime has been committed.  Any administration, and any Justice Department can only pursue so many cases.  The Administration and the Justice Department must decide what their priorities are, and prosecute those cases.  I wonder what it says about President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that they are going after eBook publishers and not looking at these issues:

- On April 3rd, a man walked into Eric Holders voting precinct and obtained Mr Holders primary ballot.  The man (who looks nothing like Eric Holder) even offered to show his ID, which the poll worker wouldn’t look at.  Yet Mr Holder has stated numerous times that there is no need for voter ID laws.

-The  New Black Panthers have offered a bounty for the capture of George Zimmerman.  As of yet, Mr Zimmerman has not been tried and is presumed innocent of any crime.  However, the Black Panthers have been allowed to offer a$10,000 bounty on his head, an illegal activity, without any comment from the Justice Department.

-The Justce Department has stated they are going to look into the actions of the local police  department.  They want to ensure that no civil rights were violated in not arresting George Zimmerman earlier.  Perhaps the Justice Department should also verify that Mr Zimmerman gets a fair trail.

- The Justice Department also seems to be silent on the increasingly violent “Occupy” movement. This weekend, it smashed up a Starbucks andvandalized part of New York City.  I can only wonder what would have happened if this had been part of the Tea Party movement…

Whether this attack on ebooks is a timed distraction or not, it shows the Justice Department, and this administration, isn’t focused on the important issues.  This is just another reason why we need a new President and a new administration this Fall.

Newton covers the descent of Greece, Rome, Israel, Russia, Italy, and Germany.  Much like Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, Newton establishes certain traits each of these nations have in common before pointing out those same markers in today’s U.S.  In Goldberg’s case, he was talking about individual leaders.  In Newton’s case, he is pointing out a problem with an entire society.

What I found most surprising is that the descent into tyranny for these countries wasn’t really at the hands of an armed revolution.  There were no storm troopers who suddenly appeared on the scene while a new tyrant took control.  The path to tyranny is apparently a self guided one.  These nations started their trip by voting in people who promised to give them more from the government.  In looking at this in Nazi Germany, Newton writes:

The Nazi regime was possibly the most tyrannical in history but, like the Fascists in Italy and Peron in Argentina, they took power primarily through legal means.  That the tyrannical Nazis convinced large portions of the population to vote for them and power was given to them according to the constitution, demonstrates the fragility of freedom and the ease at which tyranny can emerge.

He also writes..

…the Nazis did not magically appear out of nowhere to take over Germany, as many would like to believe.  In three consecutive elections, the Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, convinced the German people to give them large pluralities of the vote.

I think there are a number of lessons to take from this book.  First, great nations aren’t conquered, they crumble from within.  Second, there are a number of lessons we as a society should draw from the collapse of other nations.  Theses nations started voting for people or parties who promised to give them more.  The citizens didn’t want a good ruler or president, they wanted to raid the treasury.

In today’s world, we see a lot of this still going on.  There are a number of politicians who want to run on a platform of what they can provide for the voter.  Newton cautions that this leads to citizens giving up freedom for more “perks”.  We should beware of this and look for parties and candidates that can guide the nation in the right direction, and not simply steel the most from the taxpayers for us.

The book is well written and easy to follow. It’s also very thoroughly researched with around 35 to 40% of the book devoted to footnotes and bibliography.  As of this writing, a paperback version costs $12.98 with an e-version going for $8.  As we enter the Presidential election this year, this is a very timely and important read.

First, we need a definition.  What is culture?  Webster’s New Dictionary gives many different definitions,  one of them is, “the skills, arts, etc, of a given people in a given period; civilization.” While I have international readers on here, most of this discussion is going to look specifically at American culture today.  Everyone is welcome to participate, but I want to restrict this discussion to American culture.

Interesting enough, there is another definition of culture I think we should also keep in mind during this discussion.  That one describes, “a growth of bacteria, etc, in a prepared substance.”. I think that definition is also important.  If our culture pushes us towards cultural beliefs that aren’t consistent with our society and the American experience, then they will start to infect the rest of our nation like a bacteria.   The politicians we have in DC are one symptom of this.  As you looks at our elected leaders, if you are less than thrilled with what you see, then a certain amount of blame rests with the voting public.  These men and women were elected to represent our views.  Those that have been in office for 10 years or more must be a reflection on the beliefs and views of their electorate.  How else do they stay in office so long?

This brings us to why I believe our culture is so important.  Not only does it get reflected in our leaders, it shapes the very way we discuss issues.  A debate on insurance provided contraception becomes a debate on women’s rights vs. freedom.  A Vice Presidential candidate becomes known more for how a comedian portraits her on TV than on her actual campaign appearances.  Our culture accepts vindictive, hateful, and insulting rhetoric to her as “satire” or “comedy”.  When something less offensive is said about a different woman, it’s labeled as “sexist” or “misogynistic”.  We don’t look at these cases separately and weigh them for ourselves.  Instead we view them through the lens of the TV.

The truth of the matter is that culture and politics are tied together.  Many of the voting public get their information from the Daily Show or Saturday Night Live.  Some use TV sitcoms or dramas that mirror real world events to influence their voting decisions.  While these shows are entertaining, they are also a reflection of what their makers believe our own values are.  If we want honest debates in Washington, and if we want a higher caliber of candidate running for office, we need to change our values nationally. That’s where our culture comes in.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams

I started writing this blog a few years ago.  I have been reading and studying politics and current events since before then.  I am also an avid reader of current events and of politics.  The more I study, and the more I watch our nation today, I feel that the problems with our nation are much larger than politics.  I believe our country will be in real trouble if Barack Obama is elected to a second term.  However, I don’t believe electing a Republican will magically make everything better.  I believe the problems with our nation today are much deeper than just who is the current President.

Make no mistake, Barack Obama has accelerated our nation down the wrong road.  However, other liberals, other Democrats, and even other Republicans started us down that road.  Our culture has lead us into some of the problems we have today.  Our culture today seeks to understand terrorists, murderers, and thieves, but looks down on orthodox Christians.  The very fact that we have a national debate about taxing families to pay for college kids birth control means there are serious issues with our culture.  When we as a nation straighten out our beliefs and our morals, the politicians will follow.

However, these are difficult topics to focus on.  Much of our culture today attacks those who even ask questions like these:

Should women be able to decide if they get an abortion?

Should the poor be exempt from taxes?

Should everyone be forced to show an ID at the voting both?

What political theories are wrong?

Should Affirmative Action be legal?

How should illegal immigrants be treated?  Should illegal immigrants be allowed to attend college? What about school?

How should a nation control their border?

Should Unions be legal?

I want to spend time over the coming weeks looking at these questions.  Some of them could be solved with the right laws.  Others require our culture to change, and no law can fix that.  So I am going to move Political Friends Blog away from current events for a while.  I will still cover some current events, and the presidential campaign.  However, I am going to look at some issues that are more important than current events.  I hope you enjoy the ride.  As always, I welcome your comments.  But for these posts, but on your thick skin, your thinking caps, and leave your political correctness at the door.