The End Is Near
by L. Brent Bozell III
November 25, 1998

There no longer is any doubt in my mind that Western civilization as we know it is finished. Kaput. History. While some of us (the Clinton administration excepted) fretted over the proliferation of nuclear missiles worldwide; chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction being produced in the Middle East; and a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy at home, something far more sinister, far more destructive was occurring right under our noses.

We are stupefying ourselves to death.

Pick up a paper -- any paper -- any day and you'll read the evidence of our collective cultural meltdown at the hands of the PC police whose behavior has become so bizarre even they don't see how ridiculous they've become.

Topping the list has to be the animal rights activists, who have now broken new ground in their crusade to save all of God's little critters by striking a blow on behalf of all of God's little dead critters. It seems that on a recent broadcast of the "Howard Stern Radio Show" on CBS, the host had chosen to spank the derriere of one of his guests with a dead fish. Dawn Carr, the Campaign Coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was not amused, and publicly condemning this action declared that using dead fish this way "shows a sad disrespect for life, certainly for the lives of those fish." 

What could be a bigger waste of God-given talent than to fight for the cause of dead fish? How about fighting for the rights of live cockroaches?

Item from Organizational Trends (published by the Capital Research Center): "The summer hit movie 'Men in Black' is about two secret agents whose job is to protect the world from evil giant cockroaches from outer space... According to Barry Sonnenfeld, the film's director, people from the American Humane Association always had to be on the set to make sure no cockroaches had their rights violated: 'In each shot we had to tell them how many roaches we were using. So if we had eighty roaches coming out of a dumpster they would actually count -- "We're missing three, guys!" -- and we'd be shooting at ten thousand dollars an hour, looking for three roaches.'"

As obnoxious as the PC police are those who march to the nearest courthouse to file suit over any matter, no matter how trivial or illogical. Latrell Sprewell is the basketball player who last year tried to choke his coach to death. After the Golden State Warriors released him (more PC: in sports, players are never "fired") Sprewell filed one lawsuit after another, blaming just about everyone for the injustice done him. His latest suit? According to The Sporting News, now "Sprewell is going after his agent, Arn Tellem, for failing to negotiate a salary protection clause in his contract. In other words, Tellem should have foreseen that Sprewell would approach the breaking point and choke his coach."

Then there's this item from the Pro Life InfoNet: In Albuquerque a man is suing his ex-girlfriend for breach of contact for getting pregnant when they allegedly agreed she wouldn't. Peter Wallis accuses Kellie Rae Smith of stopping birth control, and in his lawsuit accuses her of "breach of contract,  fraud and conversion of property -- his semen."

But when the PC police decide to use the courtroom to advance their causes, life really does become worth not living. According to the November 17 Reuters, five women working for the Safeway food chain in California have filed discrimination charges with federal and state fair employment agencies as a first step in a planned lawsuit against the company. Their beef: A company customer service program forces Safeway employees to smile and make eye contact with customers and that this has led to -- you guessed it -- sexual harassment. And by having employees smile, thus exposing them to sexual harassment from customers, Safeway has therefore tolerated, if not fostered, a "hostile work environment."

How stupid have we become? A final item, courtesy of the Washington Times. This past summer, Scott Krueger, a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drank himself to death. In a novel legal maneuver, prosecutors in Boston decided to file manslaughter charges against his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta. After months of legal work, everyone showed up to court on October 24 -- except the defendant. Because, um, there was no defendant. As Randy Chapman, chairman of the Massachusetts Bar Association, explained, "It's like if you have a party and someone gets hurt, then everybody goes home and they indict the party." Case dismissed.

We're doomed.