Is America Becoming Morally Retarded?

"Are you talking to me? Suck my d--k, bro!!"

There were two of them standing on the concrete island during rush hour in south Jacksonville Beach. The bigger one turned to the shorter one, shouted something, and dashed with his skateboard in hand through a gap in traffic. The smaller one (picture Sean Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High") took his time, grabbed his skateboard and his sagging, over-sized shorts with his left hand, and loped casually into 45 MPH traffic. I had just enough time to honk quickly, and in response, the little son of a bitch defiantly flipped me the bird with his free hand as I locked up my brakes and skidded sideways to avoid turning the little maggot into a bloody pile of roadkill.

I parked my truck in a blinding rage and followed these vermin into the parking lot, yelling at the little 16-18 year old punk. I was almost out of control. As I closed the distance, the hugely out-matched punk sneered, "Are you talking to me? Suck my d---, bro!"

As few as 6 or 7 years ago, I would be telling this story AFTER being bailed out of jail for assault and battery charges on a minor. As mad as I was, the charges may have been even worse if I'd given in to my blood lust. Maybe his minor status stopped me? I still don't know what kept me from beating him to a pulp right there on the spot. I would have been charged, prosecuted, and probably jailed, for a year or...five. Then the trial lawyers of the world would start litigating my house and business away to pay for the kid's plastic surgery.

And why? For giving a smart-ass, semi-brain dead punk the serious attitude adjustment that he desperately needed. I doubt that this kid had ever been forced to deal with the consequences of his severely antisocial behavior. Ironically, if I had looked his way two seconds later than I did, I would have run over him with my Ford cargo van at 45 MPH, and the cars travelling right behind me would have finished him off. Witnesses--and there were a few--would have agreed that it was the kid's fault, and I would have walked away scot free, with a hellish new nightmare, after questioning.

This CAN'T be the way that these sort of things have always been settled? Someone near and dear to me caught a child molester attempting to abduct a 6 year old boy (well known to him) in Syracuse, NY in the early 1950's. He administered a good dose of street justice right there on the spot, and later explained his actions to the judge. The judge understood and thanked him for his time, and his actions that day. They locked up the child molester, who happened to be a repeat offender pedophile. I couldn't tell you whether or not the judge followed the letter of the law that day, but we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he did the right thing. Your gut instincts tell you that much, guided by simple morality.

I'm not advocating a return to a Medieval state of lawlessness, vigilantism, and lynch mobs, but I am wondering what the heck ever happened to common sense in America?!

They could have imprisoned me and basically LIQUIDATED my business and assets for smacking around a delinquent who desperately needed a beating.

Would you like some evidence of an increasingly depraved society? Just a few days ago, the Obama Administration lifted the ban on women in combat. As I grew up, us boys were taught to NEVER hit a girl; "men don't hit women, we protect them" my dad and uncles would tell me proudly. Most of them were proud veterans of WWII, Korea, and one was in Nam. It made perfect sense to me. Now, the Obama Administration has decided that protecting our women only extends to domestic violence calls. Now we'll expose American women to the enemy on the battlefield in front line units. We'll now let our women be maimed, dismembered, shot dead, or raped when captured. Is that acceptable in a civil society?

I could easily spend three more days listing official and cultural stupidity and corruption run amuck, but your eyes would glaze over. Instead, think about some of the cultural topics that have been on the front burner recently; school teachers "sexting" middle schoolers, openly gay Boy Scout leaders, a Yale coed creating "artwork" out of aborted fetuses (it was approved), an American President laundering taxpayer money through "green energy" companies...and then honestly ask yourself:

Is depravity the new norm? Is America becoming morally retarded?