The culture war

Have you seen the television advertisement for the Subaru Impreza that asks the rhetorical marketing question, “What makes a Subaru a Subaru?”

The answer, oddly enough, is not “An Obama ‘08 bumper sticker.”

No, the answer to “What makes a Subaru a Subaru?” is “love.”

In fact, the automaker now has an entire campaign devoted to the theme of “love” as the prevailing emotion evoked by its products. There’s even an ad on Youtube called “Love Letters” in which real Subaru owners read personal letters about their attachments to their cars.

The Subaru slogan struck a nerve with me from the moment I first heard it, and not because I drive a Honda. Rather, what bugs me is our cultural fixation on feelings as the basis for every sort of decision, from which car we park in our garages to which candidate we elect to public office.

Perennial late-night class clown David Letterman has at last apologized to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family for his "flawed" joke about her daughter.

In my effort to promote civility and manners, I'm not going to repeat the joke itself. If you didn't hear what Mr. Letterman said last week, just think back to sophomore year in high school and recall the tasteless humor of the smarmiest guy you knew. It was that sort of thing.

This wasn't the first time Mr. Letterman got his audience laughing at the expense of Mrs. Palin.

Next week, the U.S. Senate is slated to take up a long-planned and unprecedented overhaul of the American health care system. In such an effort, I'm certain these lawmakers will overlook a huge but hidden cost of their massive national health care program, that being the indubitable spike in high blood pressure among those taxpayers who read newspaper articles about health care reform and then pace across the kitchen, fuming. To wit: My husband.

I hope Altace is one of the drugs the government plans to hand out like candy on Halloween when it imposes its new system to assure our good health.

It's not scientific, but it's telling nonetheless that 80 percent of those who took People magazine's online survey about reality-TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin say the couple's current struggles aren't just the typical ups and downs of married life, but instead are reason for them to "step back and re-prioritize."

Updating you cave-dwellers, Jon and Kate Gosselin are The Learning Channel (TLC) parents of eight children - a set of 8-year-old twin daughters and sextuplets, age 5. Their raucous home life has been chronicled for four seasons as they adjusted to, and then mastered, their roles as parents of multiple multiples.

Along the way, the reality show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" has offered voyeuristic glimpses into the Gosselins' marriage and extended-family relationships.

This will come as a surprise to folks who know me well, but I want to go on record as admiring President Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame University on Sunday.

For a man who has given many noteworthy speeches and whose oratorical skill is regularly cited, I believe his Notre Dame address was his best ever - better and more meaningful and more moving than his inaugural address, by far.

To be sure, it was classy of the president to go to Notre Dame when the easy way out of the uncomfortable controversy surrounding his invitation would have been to claim an emergency and bow out. Moreover, his remarks were not the "call to open-mindedness" that so many simplistic headlines summarized - incorrectly, to my way of thinking.

Rather, he shared a world view that people of all strongly held beliefs must consider: While we will never agree on certain matters of principle, we should still find ways to lift up mankind through cooperation and service and love.

The folks in one northern Michigan community can rest easy because it's clear their high school computer teacher is on the ball. Last week in the computer lab, a student who completed his video production assignment killed time by surfing the Internet on a school computer. But the teacher (unnamed in news stories) caught a glimpse of the screen and put a stop to the student's consumption of vile and vulgar Internet content.

Just what despicable Web site was the young man viewing? Here's fair warning before you read on ... consider sending the children out of the room or at least shielding their eyes. He was reading Foxnews.com.

According to reports, when the student, a senior, was caught scanning headlines on Foxnews.com the teacher publicly berated and belittled him for reading the "wrong" news.

Thank goodness there are teachers like this all across America, protecting our children from the dangerous influences of the Internet.

Not.

A few years ago, author Rebecca Hagelin appeared on Fox News' “O'Reilly Factor” to promote her first parenting book, “Home Invasion.” During the interview, an incredulous Mr. O'Reilly challenged Mrs. Hagelin, asking how she reacts to teens who rebel against standards in the home about media.

Mrs. Hagelin calmly explained that when children and teens understand their parents' standards and values, they tend not to rebel much - or at least, that's been her experience. Mr. O'Reilly summarized, “Well, then, you're just lucky, that's all.”

I've no doubt that Mrs. Hagelin is lucky, in the way that we all feel blessed with the embarrassment of riches that parenthood brings. But it wasn't luck that created a household in which she and her husband could expect that their children follow guidelines about media consumption; it was skill.

Last week, President Obama signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. He did so with a speech in which he praised the perseverance and pluck of his own single mother, the grandmother who ultimately raised him, and especially his wife, whom he credited for her exceptional skill as mother to their two daughters.

Under the direction of his longtime political pal Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama has added membership on this council to the already daunting list of tasks of every Cabinet-level appointee. He says the council's job will be to ensure that the feminist agenda saturates public policy on all levels.

The president gathered the A-listers of feminism to celebrate his announcement, including the leaders of the National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emily's List. Others who work to advance the cause of women and girls (but not abortion rights), were not in attendance. Probably an oversight.

I used to think it was the hormones in chicken that were ruining our culture. I'm not exactly a natural food freak, but given the 90 pounds per person of chicken Americans consume in a year, you have to wonder whether those hormones aren't responsible for road rage and a willingness to deficit spend and even the early onset of puberty in children.

If not our chicken, perhaps it's our media. Maybe two generations of MTV programming that glorifies sex and drugs, plus magazine headlines such as one on the cover of this month's issue of Cosmopolitan - “You, you, you - How to be happier with one tiny change” - have succeeded in reorienting our cultural compass.

I'm always on the lookout for a simple explanation for the general rudderlessness that now seems to define America. Well, my search is over because I finally found it. The culprit is...

A week ago, the bizarre story of 13-year-old Alphie Patten landed on the front pages of Britain´s tabloid press, subsequently circulating around the globe. Even Britons, known for bawdy humor and infamous sex scandals, were shocked by the news that a boy could have fathered a child.

Even more outrageous than the freakish photo of man-child and baby is the revelation that the precocious sex life enjoyed by Alphie and his 15-year-old girlfriend was well known to their parents.

How exactly did Britain, the center of the British Empire, become an urban jungle for emerging sexuality that has not been seen since 1980's “The Blue Lagoon”?