7.16.2007 | Nanny on the rampage

This kind of makes me nervous. Nothing that Mitt Romney says is objectionable, precisely. Yet taken as a whole, I get the distinct whiff of goody two-shoeness. Yes, not an actual word, but it's a feeling of having some overbearing nanny peering over your shoulder while you live your life.

Pornography, sex and violence on the tube and silver screen, vile "music" such as rap and hip-hop. the list of depravity to which we are exposed is virtually endless.

Then there's that "war on drugs," which has worked well to enrich the distributors of coke and other products whose impact on health seem far less than tobacco or alcohol.

As for enforcing any kind of public morality, let's make this crystal clear: this is not something our government should be about. Morality is best handled at the local level; the extreme local level: the individual. The sources for right behavior? The Bible is a great place to start.

Any time a public person such as Romney starts to fulminate about morality, watch out -- nanny is on the rampage. It's not just Romney, although as a Mormon he's well-situated to preach about living a clean life. It's just that I'd feel so much better about Romney if I didn't get the creeps whenever I'd go to a Mormon town out west, and see all the jack Mormons drinking, whoring, and, generally, acting just like the rest of us: but maintaining that oh-so-pure façade.

Let me be clear: Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, and many other denominations do very much the same thing. That's because we are all human, and, therefore, sin.

All I ask is that government not get involved in our private lives. Period.