A tale of two speakers

Taken together, they encapsulate the dichotomy with which inhabitants of post America are presented all day, every day.

There was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who chose to forego the gathering of probable Pub presidential candidates in Iowa to address an American Family Association convention in his home state:

 . . . he paced the stage in jeans, a blazer, and a TED-speech style microphone headset. He spoke of a high school friend who had told him that he would be missed when the friend and his family went to heaven but Jindal did not. Jindal recalled a girl in high school who said she wanted to grow up to be a Supreme Court justice, so she could "save innocent human lives" from abortion. He spoke of a revelation as he watched a video about Jesus dying on the cross. 

"Let's all go plant those seeds of the gospel," he said, describing how his conversion would not have occurred without the influence of his friends. "Share the good news with all whom we encounter."

"We can't just elect a candidate to fix what ails our country. We can't just pass a law and fix what ails our country," he said, "We need a spiritual revival to fix what ails our country."

Then there was Lena Dunham, participating in a panel discussion at the Sundance Festival:

When it came to a question from the audience about what political issues were of importance to her, the consistently vocal and avowed feminist Dunham talked about abortion and campus rape. “The idea that women can’t be complete and total citizens until they have control over the destiny of their own bodies,” she said of reproductive rights in America “It’s not just a political issue, it’s a lot about class, race and it feeds into all these other forms of inequality and injustice that exist in our country.” Dunham noted that women are “still fighting” for the right to terminate pregnancies 42 years after Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court. 

Ah, Lena.  Still lying about the frequency with which campus rape occurs, even after the story in her own book was thoroughly debunked, even after the Rolling Stone story about UVA fell apart.  Still tying to make the fierce, ugly, nihilistic, solipsistic feminist stance into something noble and grand.

And if you read the entire Washington Post piece on Jindal, there's little doubt about where the supposedly objective writer, Rosalind Helderman, is coming from.  Before getting to the gist of Jindal's message, excerpted above, she devotes a paragraph to the protesters outside the hall, who claim that the American Family Association "discriminates against gays." For that matter, the headline calls the gathering a "controversial prayer rally."

This is where we are, folks.  One of these visions will prevail and the other will be subjugated.

And what are you doing with the remaining microseconds as they tick away?