Abbysmal Advice

In matters of morality, "Dear Abby" gives some really awful advice once in a while.

I find myself groaning, sometimes, when I read her column and see the twisted road down which she sends some of those who, for whatever reason, write in.

Earlier this week, in the same column, our dear Abby renewed her undaunted support of the gay lifestyle. I don't want to write about homosexuality per se in this post, but I think that anyone who reads Dear Abby with any regularity knows that this is a personal pet topic of hers, and she will stray off topic to remind readers exactly how natural and normal same-sex relationships are.

But the question and answer that really caught my attention was from a mother whose daughter had been invited to an all-girl party, at which all of the girls, including the hosting mother (single), played a game of strip-poker. The mom who wrote in was shocked, especially because her daughter had so much fun they planned on doing it again soon.

Dearest Abby, while conceding that the host mom shouldn't have joined the game, saw no problem whatsoever with the game, especially since all the participants were girls.

But wait a second ... I thought homosexual relationships were perfectly normal and natural.

In which case, couldn't it be argued that one or several of the young ladies in that card game happened to be gay? In other words, why is that card game any more appropriate than if this woman's' daughter (a young teenager) had been invited to a boy-girl strip party?

Dear Abby's advice on morality is so often this off-base because she doesn't seem to use any foundation for her moral advice than political correctness. Aside from the scenario I described above, there are other reasons her advice in this column was wrong.

Considering how fun the all-girl strip poker game was, especially when condoned by adults, doesn't it seem even more likely that the girls might try this same game at a boy-girl party (when the adult supervision isn't present). Doesn't the host-mom's approval seem to provide a gateway into even less appropriate party behavior?