I really really really wanted to like "Castle" when it first came on. It starred Nathan Fillion, aka Captain Malcolm Reynolds of "Firefly" fame.

Then I tuned into the last episode of a story arc that had a middle-eastern female blackmailed with threats to her children by former U.S. military members to set off an explosive device in order to generate renewed hostility toward Arab Moslems and crank up the war effort.

Message (so common in the media): Americans are the bad guys, the bad guys are innocent victims of American Americanism.

So I've been enjoying watching NCIS for the most part. Most of the characters are annoying, in particular for their lack of respect for the Constitution. But, Abby was delightfully cute, it was good to see David McCallum again, and Ziva David had a certain appeal to her, especially being Israeli Moussad attached to NCIS (at least she had an excuse not to understand the Constitution).

But then we had the "It's not really bigotry if you're making fun of rednecks" episode.

A female marine (which should be an oxymoron in a sane world) is found dead, two to the chest, in Hicksville, Georgia. On top of it, she's Kuwaiti. Not an American of Kuwaiti decent, but Kuwaiti. For this to happen, people in the Pentagon should have ended up in jail. But wait, it gets better.

Her marine CO goes on about what a great marine she (sic) was.

So the team travels to Hicksville, where they meet the hick sheriff and his hick brother, who of course immediately mistakes the dead woman as Iraqi rather than kuwaiti, as if there's a difference that matters in Hicksville, GA. Moussad agent David quickly and hotly corrects him. Because you know how concerned Israeli Jews are to identify Arab Moslems correctly lest they be offended, even though dead.

We're treated to the local forensic lab with equipment falling apart, because you know Hicksville prefers a poorly equipped lab, rather than being locally funded and therefore not having federal deficit money to spend on cool toys.

They find out that the dead Kuwaiti woman was in contact with a former Iraqi Republican Guard member, who'd been relocated to the States under an assumed name for protection after finking on his fellow rats... I mean providing intelligence about Iraq.

Of course, the deputy who confused one Moslem Arab nation with another disgusts all audience members by trying clumsily to flirt with agent David of the Moussad (in Georgia...), the unsaid law making it a moral offense to clumsily make passes at women way outside your league. And besides, in spite of Agent David's repeated misunderstanding of America, it's unforgivable that a Georgia deputy couldn't tell one raghead country from another (yes, I said it that way on purpose, deal with it).

Subsequently, after humiliating the evil redneck, agent David of the Moussad (in Georgia) discovers bomb-material residue in an oil stain on the Iraqi Republican Guardsman's garage floor (cause, when we relocate former enemies of the republic to within our own borders, it's more important that we provide for them than for our own people).

When the former Iraqi National Guardsman drives up innocently, sees all the guns from the rednecks (and NCIS) pointed at him, he tries to run away. And of course, while Special Agent Leeeeroy JeTHro Gibbs (dang if that sho' nuff doan sound lak a redneck name, there...) and his crew aim for the tires, the evil redneck law enforcement agents of that county (supreme in authority second only to the coroner, but why pick nits) put any number of holes in the windshield of the car and only manage to hit the former Iraqi National Guardsman once, in the shoulder. Their hunting buddies, no doubt, upon hearing their poor accuracy, must have laughed their asses off.

While he's in the hospital, being visited by Agent Ziva David (of the Moussad seconded to NCIS cause we like having foreign spies in our law enforcement bureaus...), evil redneck deputy taunts the former Iraqi National Guardsman, whereupon the comparatively little and somewhat obviously female Moussad agent puts the deputy in a painful handlock and compels him to apologize to the former Iraqi National Guardsman. Twice. Special Agent (which must mean he rides the short bus) and former gunnery sergeant (which means he's a marine) Gibbs walks in on this and asks innocently if there's a problem. Evil deputy storms out angrily.

Local forensics agent, we'll call her miss carrottop, gets one or two clever ideas about the evidence, at which the NCIS super cops condescendingly admire her (I guess she ain't as dumb as yer reg-lar redneck, hyuck yuck). But it leads to the absolutely original and incredibly hilarious (by which I mean, politically correct and found in about every freaking program in tv today) scene where the evil deputy is told to drop his drawers, and when he refuses Gibbs generously offers to have Agent David (of the Moussad) come in and depants him. His brother/sheriff, in an act of repentance, and contrary to his natural redneck instincts, concurs with the order.

And of course, bomb making residue is found inside his pockets, because he'd set a bomb in the former Iraqi National Guardsman's house. To which evil Deputy throws out all kinds of excuses meant to expose the ignorant xenophobia inherent in all non-reformed rednecks ("I just got him before he got us").

It turns out that the Kuwaiti female was shot by that very same commanding officer, to cover up that he took a half million dollar bribe to smuggle two "rich kid" Iraqis into the country in the same protection scheme as the former Iraqi National Guardsman. And in the final scene, we learn that these two Iraqis are actually Islamic terrorists making bombs.

Moral of the story; never trust native born Americans because they're corrupt, always trust former enemies who switch sides, because they're honest, the best marines are foreigners (take that Rome!) and female, and rednecks are evil, unless they can be reformed by the superior morality of internationalist urbanites.

You wanna know how we got to where we are today? Well, there you go. THAT is why this country is on the skids, economically, culturally, and every other way.

I am so sick of not being able to relax and watch a program without being insulted, either intellectually or culturally... usually both.