You have to love media — the inveterate, noble watchdogs of society — the tireless, selfless defenders of truth and justice. From coast to coast, continent to continent, in press rooms and broadcast news studios, they finally have brought the full weight of righteous indignation and judgment against the brutish cyclist Lance Armstrong. Some of these stalwart gladiators have heroically criticized their own profession for failing to investigate more relentlessly and exposing the phony years earlier, when the gun was smoking like a 19th century locomotive. Now that this splendid liar has come clean, of course, anything he says remains fishy and insincere, undoubtedly motivated by some arcane scheme. Fear not — he’s not getting away with further manipulation. The psychologist-pundits are also out there in force, dissecting his every word and every nuance of body language, to assure that he will be forever shunned like the rare Amish prostitute. You find it all — laughable. The media fixate on the sins of an athlete who took a marginal activity from footnotes to headlines, and in the process, brought millions of people to the sport and millions of dollars to the fight against Cancer. In a sport already known for cheating, he took deception to an executive level with the expressed goal of (in his own words) “gaining a competitive advantage.” This “win at all cost” attitude is reminiscent of, ah yes, various politicians who lie, cheat and and beg for the public trust — reminiscent of a sleazy President who sullied the Oval Office, lied repeatedly and cheated on his wife and the American people — reminiscent of a pompous President who voraciously hides his past and lies routinely to gain a competitive advantage, not only over his political adversaries, but also over the lowliest slug living in the smallest American hamlet, all the while carelessly speeding this country to the edge of the cliff. Truly laughable. The media berate themselves for allowing Mr. Armstrong off the hook during his “crime spree heyday.” Yet, with respect to cheating and lying on an epic scale by our “celebrated” leaders, that very same media deliberately behave like the monkeys Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru — who respectively see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Media doubtless will argue that there’s a vast difference between an evil, capitalist athlete out for personal glory, fame, money and power compared to “public servants” like Presidents and Congressmen who sacrificially devote themselves to the public good. Evidently,  media believe cheating a few thousand cycling aficionados ranks much higher on the measure of evil than ravaging The Constitution, stealing from taxpayers and cheating generations of yet unborn Americans. The media condemn a man who for over a decade enriched advertisers, suppliers and charities; and applaud men who defraud the people, devalue their currency and diminish their country. Meanwhile, the Tour de France rolls merrily along and America slides into insolvency. Positively laughable. Armstrong’s U. S. Postal teammates and vocal family members now say he was ruthless in intimidating them to cooperate with him against their wills. Apparently, grinding up a mountain is easier than saying “no,” and walking away from a bully. Or maybe if  media dig deeply enough, they will discover Armstrong is secretly the head of an organized crime family and that his teammates were “made.” Bullies in sport and business are unforgivable. In Congress, on the other hand, kingpin Harry Reid is idolized by the media, as his Democrat “soldiers” march in lock step. At the end of a very long day, our vaunted media have honored their Code Of Ethics, assuring that Armstrong would pay a hefty price for cheating and lying — stripped of all achievements and awards, exiled from cycling, sponsor rejections, loss of his own charity, humiliated, condemned and banished. Likewise, thanks to media, the 42nd President also pays a price for cheating and lying — suffering dearly as a Hollywood celebrity, political kingmaker, media darling and spokesman for worthy causes. As for the 44th President’s  lies, deception and incompetence, the media have reached their finest hour yet — endorsing and ordaining his reelection. Funny, nobody’s laughing.

Sin. Theologians rely on it. The Bible dwells on it. The news media revels in it. Television adores it. Without it, Hollywood would decay — perhaps expire. Without Sin, country music would lose its earthy appeal. The discomforting truth is human beings are sweet on Sin — it is the one characteristic that separates you from all other living things. You especially relish the Seven Deadly Sins — Wrath, Greed, Lust, Envy, Pride, Gluttony and Sloth. Their active cousins — Stealing, Lying and Cheating — help round out the list to an even 10. Some of you may think Killing belongs on the list, but taking a life is simply the ultimate form of theft. If you think for a fleeting moment that you’re free of Sin, the Preacher confirms that you’re born with it — a term called Original Sin. Sure enough, the moment you were old enough to think and contemplate your genitals, you innocently discovered a couple of wicked deeds. There was no premeditation. Wrongdoing came to you as naturally as learning to crawl, proving a decisive reality — as surely as you draw breath, your DNA runs your own reality show. Genetic determinism governs your mortal appetite. And if you occasionally question the depth of your transgression, the Church persistently removes all doubt — hammering, hammering away at your imperfection. You accept the guilt trip, content in the Preacher’s bold assurance — that all humanity is lying there with you, on the same sullied sheets. No, that just doesn’t wash, Pastor. Random human iniquity — Sin — is child’s play compared to the devastation of an unnamed genetic defect that is reaching epidemic proportions — something you now coin Malignant Egocentricity (ME)*. The Church (and Society) will call ME an affliction, an illness, a product of environmental abuse; and dump it in the great laundry basket of Sin. It is here you part with organized religion, because ME is beyond Sin. It is a pernicious self-centeredness that smashes the moral human compass called Empathy. ME predisposes individuals to make choices and follow a course of behavior that brings sorrow, anguish and ruination to those around them, including those they purportedly love. This behavior is premeditated, systemic and relentless. A husband batters his wife; a son worships drugs; a parent abandons children; a mother murders her only child; a coach sexually abuses boys; an executive robs his clients; a politician violates the public trust; a serial killer snuffs out life. The ME generation has three things in common — self infatuation, self gratification and utter disregard for the hardship and suffering they leave in their wake. When ME walks into a school with Death on his shoulder, humanity looks to society for motives, excuses and blame. From the pundits, you hear words like psychopath, sociopath, child abuse and temporary insanity. From the pulpit, you hear the admonition, “we are all sinners; judge not.” Meanwhile, ME multiplies from generation to generation, one DNA strand to another, as constant as the tide. Possibly a missing link. Or a bad seed. But certainly beyond Sin.

*© 2012

This might be a good time to talk about slavery. Not self imposed slavery, as in addictive behavior; but true slavery, as in legal subjugation. Legal subjugation, as in 1860, when a minority of U.S. citizens owned approximately four million slaves. Although slave owners provided housing, rations and other essentials, they legally extorted the labor of their human property. Fast forward 152 years and you find another version of slavery in America — where the Federal Government confiscates (a big word for “steals”) the labor (and wealth) of millions of Americans. Between 1861 and 1865, some 620,000 Americans, primarily white men, died in the war that allegedly ended slavery. Let’s see, that’s one life per 6.4 slaves. You weren’t there; so you don’t know if each 6.4 slave-unit appreciated the soldier who died. Surely, some did. Surely. In 2012, you haven’t seen or heard that any ancestors of slaves have gathered to honor those who died. Maybe they have and you just haven’t heard about it. You haven’t heard of any memorial ceremony sponsored by the NAACP, except perhaps to honor black Civil War soldiers.  But, then, it can’t be easy to honor white men, dead or alive. Meanwhile, despite the Civil War carnage, slavery has made a vigorous comeback. Only this time the slaveholder is Uncle Sam. In year’s past, Uncle was famous for saying “I Want You” in war recruitment posters. Now he’s changed his tune by saying “I Want Your Money.” At the point of a gun, the Federal Government takes the earnings (and thus the labor) of law-abiding citizens and uses it to feed its ravenous appetite and pass around all manner of goodies. Obviously, millions of individual citizens (and aliens) are grateful to receive stolen property, as are foreign governments, government cronies, government bureaucrats, non-profit organizations and a host of other special interests “on the take.” As a slaveholder, the Federal Government has absolute power. In 1861, over nine million U.S. citizens objected to this power and seceded from the Union, but they were standing on the shaky, immoral ground of slavery. Today, millions of new slaves want to secede from the yoke of Government oppression but there are no armies to come to their rescue. You wonder now what Abraham Lincoln might have to say, if he could witness the outcome of his sacrifice. Today, his words echo sadly:

“. . . we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. . . The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here . . . It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Freedom.  It was, and is, never free.