The Accidental Politico
I’m not sure what happened last night, but I managed to surround myself with politically charged material on the television. First, I was watching my stories on the DVR. When the episode ended, I caught a glimpse of a show called “Wife Swap.”
From what I’ve gathered from the handful of times I’ve stumbled upon it, this title basically says it all: a two families swap wives for two weeks. During the first week, the new wife lives by the existing house rules. On the second week, she gets the call the shots an managed the household how she sees fit. In the past, they’ve always tried to use opposites (a southerner swaps with a yankee, white swaps with black, christian swaps with atheist (or satanist). Last night’s was interesting….they swapped a born-again, holy-rolling Christian with the wife of a Theologian (he had a Ph.D. from a divinity school).
Anyway, the part where I popped in caught my interest so I rewound it and started from the beginning.
I won’t go into too much detail, but the born-again house was S-C-A-R-Y! The father called himself the “gate keeper” because that’s the role the bible gave him. His wive wasn’t allowed to work because the bible says she must obey and serve. The gazillion children (actually, I think it may have been 4 or 5) were all raised to believe their job is to serve…except the boy who is being bred to, well, breed and take control of women.
I felt so bad for the “new” wife stuck in this house. When one of the daughters opened up to her and said that she wants a family someday, but also would like to be a doctor so she can take care of people, the father found out and took the daughter out of the house to save her from the corruption. He even admitted that he brainwashes his kids because that’s what Jesus wants.
My blood was boiling.
Anyway, when that ended I went back to live TV only to find Governor Patrick doing his state of the state address. Blah, blah, recession. Blah, blah, cutting back on services. Still, I don’t think he did a bad job. He injected a bit of humor from his own childhood in poverty where his grandmother called them “broke” and not poor…because broke is temporary. I wish more politicians would add personality to their speeches.
Which brings us to what immediately followed the governor….President Bush’s final speech (YAY!). All this speech did was remind me of a) how long these past 8 years have been, b) how horrible he is at speaking, c) how old he has become, and d) how stupid the American people have been to re-elect him. I will be nice to stop hearing him preach about everybody being equal and democracy for people in other countries (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) even though he did his damndest to the opposite in his own country (gay rights).
Anyway, after all that I needed some fluff so Randy and I watched American Idol. Especially during the open auditions weeks, I tend to prefer that sort of reality TV to actual reality.
3 Comments
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Hey Karl, don’t judge all born-again Christians by that jerk. You’ve lived with us over the years and I HOPE you never thought my family was ANYTHING like that one. My blood would have been boiling also if I had watched that myself. And don’t forget that it is TV so they are going to try to make it more “entertaining” If I had been the wife swapped into that house I think I would have called child services on the jerk of a husband/father. Thankfully they kept Bush down to 30 minutes to say good-bye. Didn’t have to listen to him for too long. 🙂
Hey, Mel!
I wouldn’t consider you guys born again Christians…you’re just Christians (your father went from childhood to being a minister, right?). I think there’s a BIG difference!
But I agree with you about child services. Those two parents obviously loved their kids, but the harm they’re causing because fo their isolated views (the kids are also home-schooled) is horrifying.
Okay, I feel much better now. 🙂