Blogging – The new bully?

I have been wanting to write about the Benham brothers, but facts seem to be elusive. I was also at odds as to what approach to take. As of today it's only the brothers speaking. So far HGTV has been silent on the matter. It is for this reason I can only use the brother's words to base my writing. Now to start at the beginning.

This week it came to light that two brothers were suppose to have a house flipping show on HGTV. The show never aired because of statements made by the brothers. As with Phil Robinson, it came down to their comments about homosexuals. Even though they try to make it about traditional marriage, it's much more. David and Jason Benham have often quoted bible verses as they crusaded against same sex marriage. For this reason they have been saying they were bullied off the air by the homosexual agenda because they are Christians.

I have been looking for evidence of that bullying. Usually some group or organizations is named as the culprit. It was not until last night I learned who these bullies were. Benham said that after the show was announced in New York, “that's when the blogging began.” then referring to HGTV Benham said: “They got bullied.” This made me sit up, take notice, and ask myself, “How can bloggers bully?”

As a blogger, albeit small time, I have spent a decade spilling my thoughts and facts – that I feel are well researched – onto the web. I'm sure I have spoken negatively about many people or groups for something they said or did. Could anything I ever wrote be considered bullying? Of course not.

The mistake of government controlled morality

Belle Knox Duke student

I've written often about the word moral. I've talked about how it is too often used to support an argument. The definition of moral changes along with ideology and regional location. If you ask a leftist to to give an example, they will likely tell you that it is immoral for someone to be obese. If you ask a conservative about sex outside of marriage, they will tell you it is immoral. They might say sex during marriage is moral even if it was sanctified by a government representative versus a minister.

Morality has always been a social construct. In the USA, what is considered immoral in the south is often more accepted in the north – or the west. In America's past it wasn't immoral to marry a 12 year old girl, while in today’s society that is absolutely unacceptable. In those times life was about surviving. Male children were thought to be more capable at cutting firewood and plowing fields, while too often the female child was simply seen as  another mouth to feed. 

Female children were married off at or near puberty. Sometimes much older males would pay a diary for the right to marry that child. Arranged marriages are still happening around the world. Some of it might be for the same reasons as in our past, while in many cases it happens simply because it is now a tradition – just the way things are done.

Social standards evolve for a variety of reasons. In the modern American society arranged marriages are seen as barbaric. In today’s world, sex outside of marriage is much more common. In the not so distant past, sex for women outside of marriage was forbidden, while for men it was simply frowned upon. This is likely because it is the female that often bore the consequences for these liaisons. Out of wedlock births often stigmatized the woman and was too often a financial burden that was impossible to overcome. These pregnancies were also a barrier to future relationships. In short, the price for sex outside of marriage was too high. Because of science, out of wedlock births are less likely to occur. While the financial burden for out of wedlock births are still a problem, it doesn't carry the social stigma of the past.

Rush To Ban Energy Drinks, Why?

The FDA is in a panic mode to ban energy drinks laced with alcohol after 5 teens die from drinking.  After some research I found a variety of numbers for annual deaths from these energy drinks. The highest I found were 20,000 annual deaths, so I will operate from that prospective. I figure the real number is far less. I decided to list deaths from other causes.

Tobacco  ——————————————— 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity ———— 365,000
Alcohol ———————————————— 85,000
Microbial Agents ———————————– 75,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes ————————– 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs – 32,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect —– 17,000
Bicyclist ———————————————– 700