NBC tortures its viewers

I like a good medical drama as much as the next guy, and (thanks to my wife) I would reluctantly admit that I watch ER on a pretty regular basis. With her, of course, when nothing else is on. Ahem.

Last night we finally revved up the DVR and watched the last two episodes from the recently concluded season. There were some entertaining twists and turns throughout, but I just couldn't get past the ideological browbeating the writers subjected us to. Between the two episodes (roughly 80 minutes without commercials), they not-so-subtly asserted that:

• Long-term lesbian relationships are good and normal, and in many ways healthier than "straight" relationships.
• Emotional affairs involving a "work husband" can be complicated, but are also a very normal and acceptable part of life.
• We need socialized medicine, and we need it now. *We* just aren't doing enough to meet the medical needs of every single person in America.
• The filming and distribution of bondage p0rnography (and S&M p0rn at that) is good and normal.
• Marriage is no big deal. When a couple gets married, it doesn't really change their relationship. People can be just as happy (or happier) cohabiting as they would be if they were *officially* married. Oh, and there's no distinction between having children before or after a couple is married. They are a nuisance no matter when you have them.
• Terror alert levels are driven by politics, not reality.
• Our troops in Iraq have tortured "millions" (yes, this is the word they used on the show) of Iraqis, most of whom have been completely innocent.
• When our troops come home from Iraq, they are completely neglected and the care they need is not offered to them. Ever.
• Countless American troops are dying every day in Iraq, and the desire to bring them home "isn't a Republican or Democrat thing," it's an American thing.

By the time the episode was over, I felt like I had been through some sort of network television version of a Nazi reeducation program. You vill believe in socialized medicine, pacifism, und boundless sexuality. Und you vill like it!

Remind me, when does season 4 of LOST start?