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Hightower Lowdown
"Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building."-- Jim Hightower
December's Lowdown
Corporate elites and their small-minded political servants are creating the Incredibly Shrinking America
"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." What a paragraph! This sparse, 52-word opening of our Constitution did not merely launch a fledgling nation--but a bold experiment in democratic idealism.
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Love sponsors all
Getting married is all about love, right? Not any more. In these modern times, getting hitched can mean hitching your wedding to commercial sponsors.
For example, Natasha Allen, a 22-year-old financial broker in Cincinnati, says that you should treat your wedding as "a business endeavor." The New York Times tells us that Natasha sold her wedding to 15 businesses, getting a free bridal gown, wedding cake, and wedding rings, among other matrimonial products.
In return, the sponsors got a five-tiered "presence" at Natasha's wedding ceremony—including advertising in her wedding invitations, a formal thank-you in the wedding program, and the placement of company brochures at the ceremony itself.
A young Philadelphia entrepreneur who was getting married captured the zeitgeist when he said: "It occurred to me that a start-up company and a start-up couple both needed launch money"—so he sold his $30,000 wedding to 24 business sponsors.
This is all rationalized not only in terms of the gross commercialization of our culture, but also in terms of the internal social pressure that these people feel to have not just a marriage ceremony, but an extravagant, $30,000 Martha Stewart trophy wedding.
What's next, a Nike swoosh on the bridal gown?