The hypocrisy of the year award has got to go to CBS. If you remember, there was quite a protest by pro-choice organizations about CBS’ decision to air during the Super Bowl an ad featuring Tim Tebow, paid for by Focus on the Family—a politically influential evangelical group founded by James Dobson. The ad, whose slogan is "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life," features Tebow—who wrapped up his University of Florida career with a Sugar Bowl win this month—and his mom, Pam.

Pam reminisces about being pregnant with Tim while on a missionary trip in the Philippines. She fell ill and was advised to have an abortion. She ignored the advice, and the rest is BCS Championship history.

There was a call from a large number of women’s advocacy organizations to pull the Tebow ads. But, in an interview with Reuters, CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said that they no longer had a blanket filter on advocacy submissions for ad slots. "We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on the issue.”

But what about the commercial CBS turned down for airing in the Super Bowl—an ad for GoDaddy.com, in which a retired football player "finds his feminine side" and launches a lingerie company? And, in early February, the CBS Corporation and Neutron Media Screen Marketing rejected a paid advertisement from the NORML Foundation, the educational arm of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) that was intended to appear on the CBS Super Screen billboard in New York City's Times Square.

The fifteen-second ad, which asserts that taxing and regulating the adult use and sale of marijuana would raise billions of dollars in national revenue, was scheduled to appear on CBS' 42nd Street digital billboard beginning on Monday, February 1, 2010.

Representatives from Neutron Media approached NORML in mid-January about placing the ad, which was scheduled to air 18 times per day for a two-month period. The NORML Foundation entered into a contractual agreement with Neutron Media to air two separate NORML advertisements, and produced an initial ad exclusively for broadcast on the CBS digital billboard. Days after NORML submitted the ad, the organization received the following e-mail, dated February 3, from a Neutron Media representative which stated, "I just received word from CBS and they will not approve your ad. If CBS changes their morals we will let you know."

I think all ads should run—regardless of their advocacy position. So, in the interests of equal time, see the GoDaddy.com ad at http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/01/post-168.html.php). NORML's 15-second animated advertisement is available online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tqW9Kj8DVU.   

The future of institutions as long-term residences for persons with mental illness is certainly an integral part of the discussion about mental health policy. Usually those discussions focus on state budgets and Medicaid reimbursement and compliance with Olmstead. But, I was intrigued with a recent piece on Scott Hensley's blog on npr.org “A Peaceful War on Mental Institutions”—coverage of a different chapter in the history of mental institutions.

I never realized that many conscientious objectors in World War II were assigned to mental institutions in lieu of military service. Their experiences are documented in a recent piece on NPR ("WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors") and in two books—Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors (by Stephen Taylor and published by Syracuse University Press) and The Turning Point: How Men of Conscience Brought About Major Change in the Care of America's Mentally Ill (by Alex Sareyan and published by American Psychiatric Press).

As I read this tale of the evolution of human conditions within our mental institutions, I was first struck by how much had changed. Then my thoughts wandered to the millions of Americans with mental illness in our corrections system. If we had the same undercover reporting of conditions of these citizens, would the photos be far different?

For more information on mental health in the corrections context, check out:

• Three Times as Many People With Serious Mental Illness in Prisons Than in Psychiatric Hospitals
• Consensus Panel Develops Performance Measures for Correctional Mental Health

After November’s election results, I’m left wondering…was it a referendum on the President? Where were all those young Obama supporters? Is the GOP dead of its own internal bickering? That independents would within one year swing from Obama enthusiasts to backing decent-to-weak Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey is “simply astonishing,” writes The Wall Street Journal opinion editor.

I don't think it's so astonishing. But, it means accepting the fact that technology has made both political parties—as they currently operate—irrelevant. The world of Internet information; web-based political advocacy groups; and flash mobs (e.g. ‘tea party’ folks) has changed the political landscape. Political parties no longer have coherent platforms that mean anything to anyone and they don't have the ‘member control’ that allows them to mobilize voters. In the future, the winning candidate (and the winning party) will be one who can engage the independent voter around specific issues by using technology to build candidate-specific coalitions of specific voter and interest groups.

For health care reform, both parties are at risk. For the Democratic Party, they're going to need to realize that Americans are skeptical about the operation of the current 'public options' (Medicare, Medicaid, IHS, TRICARE, VA) and don't want to abandon their perceived personal ability to pick a health plan or a professional. Republicans are going to have to go beyond the 'party of no' and "Kill the Bill" rhetoric. Americans know they’re in danger of losing health insurance when they lose their jobs; that many health insurance company policies are nightmares; and that most of us are one serious disease away from bankruptcy. The party that ignores the 'middle view' on health care reform will pay the political consequences for whatever happens with health care.