No perfect place

Sometimes the stupid rules in this country amaze me. As if there weren't more important things to worry about.

The other day I was at my local grocery store, literally around the corner from my apartment. I bought a six pack of beer, which comes in a nice carton with a handle so it's very easy to carry it. At the checkout, I already had my ID out, I am used to that, no big deal, according to the cashier I look very young. She was about 18...
I didn't have a bag with me since I knew I could just carry the six pack holding the handle. Oh no no! There is a law that no closed containers of alcohol can be carried on the street, only in bags! I hate plastic bags, I hate double plastic bags even more! Why the hell would it be against the law to carry unopened bottles of beer on the street? Or an unopened bottle of wine? I suppose, if we cannot see it, then it doesn't exist.

It's like sex education. It seems that some people would prefer to just pretend that kids don't have sex rather than educating them about how to do it safely. And then they are surprised by the number of teenage pregnancies. If we don't talk about, it doesn't exist.

It's like the whole debate surrounding the controversial proposal to force insurance companies to cover the full cost of birth control pills. A bunch of old conservative religious men think that somehow this would force the churches to help women in aborting all those potential lives even before they are conceived. Clearly they are not doing a very good job teaching their believers that birth control is evil; otherwise, why wouldn't they let the women make that choice?? But, isn't it much easier if we just don't talk about the fact that probably most women, ifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif they could afford to, would chose at some point in their lives, to practice birth control? If we just don't talk about it, it must not be there.

Or how about Rick Santorum's brilliant idea to outlaw all porn? Who cares if people watch porn? I wonder what percentage of the people who vote for him watch porn in secret. They could never admit to it, could they? It would be against all those Christian values. But let's not talk about that.

With all that said, I do love this country, because even though there are really stupid people who run for office and there are really dumb rules and there is more bigotry here than anywhere else in the Western world, but still, the American president at least has a real doctorate and he's not a plagiarist. The man that calls himself the Hungarian President is a disgrace to the academic world, to his country, to sports - I am particularly ashamed that he is a fencer - and in every normal place in the world, his doctorate would be annulled and he would be forced to resign. But not in Hungary.