"...Of Course, It's An Assault On Our Humanity...As Luck Would Have It, We Don't Seem To Have Much Of That Left To Be Assaulted...."

Today's edition of "Both Sides Now" is brought to you, in part, by

...publisher of cutting edge cultural material since 1970.


There is a pretty loud outcry of outrage screeching its way through commercial and social media about this cover.

The predictable "giving criminals the sick glory they seek" piss and moan is pretty prominent.

The button involved here is sufficiently hot, in fact, as to get the mayor of Boston in on the indignation.

 



 



What Mayor Menino has to offer and, for that matter, what most of those who are bunged, bugged and/or bitchin' about it have to say are, to any reasonable person, legitimate and unarguable points of view.

Here's an additional point of view.

It's a shitstorm, to be sure.

And we've brought a lot of this shit on ourselves.

Print media is saturated with venom, vitriol, sleaziness, sexual prurience, character assassination, both personal and political...

...and we can't get through the checkout line fast enough to get home and start reading all about it.

Contemporary music is filled with sexist, sexually, misogynistic, racially slanderous abuse of women...

...and we can't get logged on to ITunes fast enough to download it.

Television and motion pictures are filled with....

...well, you get the idea.

We embrace the Kardashians as role models, we roll our eyes, but keep on buying the assorted products offered up by Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown and dozens of other socially corrupted, if not corrupting, souls.

Then get our patriotic panties in a knot when a once relevant, now creaky middle aged once upon a time music magazine puts a picture of a kid who helped kill other kids on its cover.

And vow to right this terrible wrong by no longer buying this once relevant, now creaky middle aged once upon a time music magazine that fewer and fewer people are buying with each passing day anyway.

Fuck yeah! That'll show em!

We'll just shove that salacious shit right down the trash compactor where it belongs.

And just read that copy of Ann Coulter's new book while the commercials are on..

During Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

And Access Hollywood.

And Hardball with Chris Matthews.

And Hannity.

But just until Dexter comes on.

All this stress makes a loving soul look forward to an hour of watching a serial killer overflowing with good intentions.

Rolling Stone's putting Tsarnaev on the cover is tasteless, insensitive and offensive.

Three things that are fast replacing hotcakes when it comes to what we buy.

And, fyi, the earlier reference to "Both Sides Now" has nothing to do with the Joni Mitchell song.

It has to do with the parts of our mouths with which we all too often talk.