February 4, 2014 - Another year, another commercial getting a bonus comic. I should note this comic is NOT in continuity as it would imply a certain date and time of year to events that I'd rather keep ambiguous, but honestly both "God Bless America" and "America the beautiful" really bother me when branded as "American" songs when they show such blatant disregard for the freedom of religion on which the country was founded. I also have major issues with how okay we as a culture seem to be with sentimental advertising when it's so artificially just trying to sell you a product you probably don't need. I don't mind ads that make me feel outraged to raise awareness for a cause or make me laugh or excited, but when an ad's basic message is that you'll feel better about yourself by being materialistic I get kinda annoyed. Overall, I find the US policies on advertising really detremental to our social well-being, and I wish they were more regulated or better yet a more effective way to raise money could be employed, cuz I'd probably ditch my ads in a heartbeat if I could find another way to generate better revenue.

Okay, that discussion's over. It's important to mention new numbers are out on the U.S. abortion rate, and it's the lowest since Roe v. Wade with most analysts attributing this to access to birth control. Most of the new regulations impacting this statistic had yet to go into effect (with exceptions of parental notification laws in some states, but they seemed to have little bearing on the results), so it would appear, contrary to cries for more regulation, that many of the more "liberal" policies governing abortion legislation work, though that seems unlikely to silence anti-abortionists.

-D