Anymore, life is getting pretty bizarre. Our thoughts and conversations are being inundated with haunting images and screaming headlines that vie for our attentions so much that we are becoming almost immune to the sensationalism.

Being a self-admitted Conservative radio junkie, I wrestle with whether or not to tune out like everyone else so that I, too, can enjoy a childlike oblivion, or to keep myself informed in order that I might help to educate others. I have been using social media as a platform to keep my acquaintances apprised of what is going on. I post it, and they can choose whether or not to look at it or skip over it. At times, I try to entice them, or even total strangers for that matter, into conversation with a question about what is most likely the currently trending story on the internet. It isn’t that I like to incessantly hear about the declining state of our culture and country, but it feels like I’m watching a train wreck and I want others to know they might not want to step out on the track right now! I can’t pull myself away.

Even if I want to enjoy a respite from radio and television, I feel surrounded by media of all sorts that broadcasts just how whacko things have become. My frequent comparison of our most recent culture is to the very popular dystopian novel The Hunger Games. Though it could just be in my imagination, I do congratulate Suzanne Collins and the movie’s producers on taming the gore down in the second film, Catching Fire, to suit a more diverse audience. Honestly, in the first movie, I could hardly shake the image of blood slinging at the camera as the District 2 tribute, Cato, used a machete to slash open the chest of his opponent. At that point in the movie, I remember questioning my judgement as a parent to have allowed my daughter to see it.

Everywhere you turn these days, there are piercings and tattoos that must have cost a small fortune. Some of these people look like they can’t afford a meal, but their bodies are emblazoned with people’s and pet’s faces, names, and a plethora of other pictures or verses. Good thing they last a hundred years…at least they will get their money’s worth! Really, who wants earlobes with holes in them big enough to hold a roll of paper towels? Okay, I have to admit, there is some practicality in it. After all, who doesn’t hate using a public restroom, then washing ones hands, only to find an empty paper towel dispenser? I mean, it’s okay if you’re wearing jeans, but…

I understand the desire for individuality, yet it has gotten so extreme that a little tattoo doesn’t cut it. People have to have their entire limbs done, their backs and necks, even resorting to their faces! People like this used to be a main event at the circus, and now it is no longer considered the fringe!

Globally, our world is on fire. Christians in other countries are being persecuted and not a word in the Mainstream Media. In the Middle East, young Christian girls are being snatched from their families and being forced to convert to Muslim. Their families have no recourse, because Sharia Law overrules civil law in the land. Where is the outrage? Does anybody care? Can you imagine someone overtly abducting your own child and not being able to fight it?

Even if one isn’t interested in the images of barbaric decapitations, they are all over Facebook, Twitter, the nightly news and even casually mixed in with Southern Living and Good Housekeeping in the magazine rack at the grocery store. As one flips through the “Best Tailgate Recipes”, it is really hard to imagine the flavor or “Chipotle Sliders with Pepper Jack Cheese” when ones eyes are riveted toward the kneeling, shaved, handcuffed, helpless man in an orange jumpsuit and the terrifying black-robed executioner wielding a machete. It is everywhere. It feels surreal. It is horrific. But, to our “selfie” society, that was so last week.

Meanwhile, we have a former Vice President and celebrity protesters flying into New York to protest Global Warming on their private jets committing the unpardonable sin of spewing CO2 (just as did the flatulent cows they flew over that were grazing in the countless pastures 30,000 feet below them).

Professional, paid protesters, consuming tons of diesel fuel, were bussed to New York City hailing cabs to transport them all over the city being led by Leonardo DiCaprio, who lives in fairyland surrounded by a number of other celebrities who believe in a Utopia that does not exist. The best part? How ironic that these tree huggers left the biggest mess of litter and debris in their wake!

Hellur…why don’t they go protest on the streets of China, which is the largest consumer of energy in the world, or some other Communist country with whom they align their beliefs? Don’t have an affinity for hard labor camps??? I am sure they will be treated swimmingly just like the brilliant American who decided to fly to North Korea where he tore up his visa, shouting he wanted to seek asylum. Guess what? After being delivered a six-year sentence for “hostile acts” and being thrown into a hard labor camp, he has the audacity to be pleading with the U.S. to do something to go and save his little butt! Imagine that! How foolish!!

Meanwhile, Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, an honorable, former Marine, having served two tours in Afghanistan and suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, easily made a wrong turn from San Diego, California into Mexico, and has, since March 31st, been imprisoned in El Hongo Prison, a Mexican penitentiary controlled by notorious drug lords. Pleas for his release, i.e. phone calls from his mother, petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of American citizens, requests from certain Congressmen, coverage on social media and the news, are falling on deaf ears in the State Department!

Our country’s southern border is mostly wide open and, Lord only knows who/what is coming across. Some of these illegals crossing are possibly carrying diseases that aren’t indigenous to the U.S. so our immune systems aren’t used to fighting these maladies. Not only is our current administration not enforcing our borders, President Obama is transporting the illegals to various cities across our nation’s interior. As if that isn’t enough, Obama is giving the illegal children “HOMELESS” status which exempts them from the vaccinations that are required of other U.S. school children. I believe it is no small coincidence that a “strange and severe respiratory virus affecting children” has spread across two dozen states in recent weeks.

My mother is coming to visit me soon, and she asked me if she should carry a mask and gloves to wear on the airplane. She lives a retired life with her husband and isn’t exposed to the petri dish environment that is the interior of a commercial airplane. She has always been healthy and she would like to keep it that way.

We’ve all seen videos and photos in the news of Asian citizens that wear masks riding the subway system, walking in congested city streets, etcetera…”Maybe it isn’t such a bad idea”, I said. She nervously asked, “Do you think people will be staring at me?” She is of Hispanic descent and has almond-shaped eyes. I suggested that she put on some heavy eyeliner, wear her mask, and if someone tries to speak to her, she say, “Ni Hao!”

The craziest yet, is that the United States has had some of her citizens being beheaded in recent weeks with threats of more bloodshed, Mexican drug cartels are threatening and warning American protesters of a bloodbath if they demonstrate against illegal immigration at the border, and President Obama engages our military men and women to go fight Ebola??????

It has become as absurd as the old b-rated black and white horror film with masses of screaming people running from some unknown threat only to find out it is a huge, obviously fake reptile. Is that what we have been reduced to? Are we going to look up one day and see Godzilla flying overhead? Stop the insanity!