First, The Caveat
Marie and I have long wanted to to to Las Vegas. We're not big gamblers, and I hope we're not big decadents, but it has become a big city with huge cultural significance. Like Chicago that went from nothing to huge in the nineteenth century, Las Vegas went from pretty much nothing to a city of over 600,000 in the twentieth century, with a cultural significance that far surpasses its 29th rank in population: this famous (chuckle) list of culturally significant U.S. cities ranks it number 9 in cultural significance.
So when a friend offered me his time share that had to be used by April 30th, Marie and decided to take the kids to Vegas. Unfortunately, my two oldest sons couldn't come, but the other five did.
And we had a great time. I highly recommend a trip to Vegas, with a huge caveat: The place is decadent. It has lost gaming revenue over the past twenty years, presumably due to massive increases in competition from indian casinos and other states that have legalized gambling. It is trying hard to replace the lost gaming revenue with other revenue streams: food, museums, shows.
And sex.
Lots of sex.
Sex on the Strip, sex downtown, sex on the signs, sex in its advertising, sex in its shows. Sex, sex, sex.
If you take your kids there like I did, you better be prepared to spend a fair amount of time talking about broken lives and perverse morals . . . like I did. I mostly let Marie and my oldest daughter deal with questions from my youngest daughter, whereas I took care of my youngest son: "Look, Max. Another freak. Maybe you can be great some day by wearing a thong in public."
As Chesterton said, some things can't be argued with. They just need to be crushed with the heel, so I never finesse my arguments when it comes to sex: Outside of marriage, it's wrong. Period. Anyone who thinks differently is wrong. Period. I always hasten to add that we must love the sinner and hate the sin, but I purposefully keep a far steadier eye on the hate in cases like this. I can't let charity cloud clear thinking in young minds.
And quite frankly, I don't think the displays of sex hurt much. It hardly looks appealing to anyone of any age, except the debauched. I didn't find the skanks attractive, and neither did my 17-year-old son or my 12-year-old son. They just looked gross, as did the gimbos (male bimbos). If this is what sex is about, sex doesn't look very good. Sure, kids shouldn't be exposed to illicit sexuality at all, but it looks far rougher and less appealing in Vegas than, say, in your typical Hollywood movie, ABC Family sitcom, or NFL football game commercial.
So, subject to that huge caveat about sex, I recommend Vegas. Tomorrow, I will go through the reasons.
