As I was growing to maturity (OK, that ones debatable) the most subversive influence on Americas youth was MAD magazine. If you are a card-carrying Baby Boomer (and these days its an AARP card) then you harbor fond memories of Alfred E. Neuman (what ... me worry?), cartoonist Don Martins grotesquely comical creations and Spy vs. Spy.

This little slice of cultural chaos was a little pricey (50 cents ... cheap) so for me it was an occasional indulgence. But whenever I could scrounge up the four bits it made for a blissful afternoons lampooning of societal norms when that was far from common.

What made MAD special was the way it took ordinary facets of American life and turned them inside out. Generally speaking, it was stuff that otherwise went unexamined.

I still remember one parody from the early 60s wherein a reporter interviewed a pot-bellied cop who was a proud member of the John Birch Society. It was howlingly funny and enlightening. There were equally lacerating spoofs of the counterculture. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter once observed that MAD was ready to pounce on the illogical, hypocritical, self-serious and ludicrous.

Where is MAD when we need it? Oh, its still around but it no longer enjoys the cultural cachet it once did.

All of the following tidbits were found circulating about the inter-web. None were prominently reported in the mainstream media. They were not reported at all in the right-wing media. Thats because the media doesnt care, our politicians prevaricate and we-the-people disregard anything that gets in the way of our preconceived, predigested perceptions.

This week, Mitt Romney (who is vowing to repeal Obamacare which is the mirror-image of the health care bill Mitt himself pushed for and signed into law as governor of Massachusetts) stated that; We dont have people who die in their apartment because they dont have insurance.

Estimates vary, but even the most conservative guesstimate is that between 30 and 50 thousand people die each year in this country as a direct result of being uninsured. The most despicable aspect of Mitts remark is that he knows this. We often yearn for a cure for death by cancer. We could cure death by apathy with the stroke of a pen.

Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Roger Rivard made the observation, this week, that; Some girls rape easy. He was affectionately quoting his father. The point he was attempting to make is that rape is very often a simple case of buyers remorse. Did you ever wonder how ignorance and bigotry propagate so easily? Children are empty vessels and it is parents who fill them.

Former Republican Arkansas state Rep. Charlie Fuqua (who is running again) has called for the forced sterilization of negligent parents. Actually, we did have a brush with eugenics back in the early decades of the 20th century. Its one of the uglier chapters in our history.

Continued here:

Bud Wright: Hang in there — it will all be over soon