I’d expect a reader as smart and articulate as Mike Bassett to refrain from watching NCIS. I do. I never watch any program in which the actors become “characters”—phony, “quirky,” empty heads, whose nauseating, smarmy interactions trump any attempt at a tale.

Yes, “Law and Order” in all its permutations sports PC elements, as does “CSI.” But generally, these excellent series offer kick-ass scripts and actors. Give me a good narrative. But I will not tolerate some prancing, decked-up, self-styled Goth twenty-something (allegedly) inserting herself into the story, and selling what goes, in these sorry days, for “originality” and “individuality.”

Other than the ladies who always offer up their cleavages in the interrogation room, and everywhere else (you want respect when you go into a situation boobs first? Not from me, bubbles), “Law & Order,” “CSI,” and “Criminal Minds,” especially,—are all top-notch productions.

Update: The other thing I refuse to abide in entertainment is what I call the “giant wagging, prodding finger.” Activism should not replace acting, and sermons must not supplant stories.” I refuse to be lectured by pea brains. GIVE ME A GOOD STORY! No politics.

Writes Mike Bassett:

NCIS, the nations #1 TV show goes P.C. run amok.

Tuesday night’s “Christmas” episode of NCIS, starring and produced by Mark Harmon, was the most disgusting and P.C. episode I have ever seen on the series.

The episode depicts a returned combat veteran Marine murdered while kneeling next to a tree on a Muslim prayer rug.

The crux of the investigation, conducted with a background of the “Christmas” theme in progress, shows various members of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’s NCIS team preparing for various pre-Christmas events while investigating the murder of this Marine turned Muslim.

The suspects are varied (yet inclusive), including:

(1) The Marine’s father, a retired Marine colonel turned “Christian Pastor”.

(2) A group of Marines in the victims former unit.

(3) The Marine’s widow (a very prim and proper white, blonde Christian chick).

(4) The Marine victim’s younger brother (a dashing white Christian guy attending a military prep school).

Also in attendance in the episode is the victim’s Muslim Navy Chaplin, a dashing black officer, who spends the episode quoting the positives of Islam and the traumas of our fighting men who wish to convert to Islam after their tours of duty in the Middle East.

The episode villainizes every suspect in the show as being outwardly hostile toward our victim’s conversion to Islam with the following results:

His father, the now Christianized, retired Marine colonel pastor, who only wants to be referred to as “Reverend”, is found to have paid off some of the current Marines in the victims old unit, to taunt him into rejecting Islam because it is detrimental to the mission of the unit and disgraces his family members.

The old unit buddies spend their time being paid off by Dad (the “Reverend”), and taunting our victim until he is forced to seek counsel from the Muslim chaplin, who, as I said before, spends the episode depicting the wonderful world of Islam.

The widowed wife is depicted as a surly and uncooperative individual, who refuses to assist in the investigation because she has a funeral to conduct.

The younger brother, Mr. Perfect, student at a prestigious military prep school, is in a quandary over who could have possibly killed his brother, the former perfect Marine, that is, before he shamed his family by becoming a Muslim.

Meanwhile, the dapper Muslim Navy Chaplin becomes threatened when he receives a pasted cutout letter describing him as the next victim.

It all boils down to this: Our victim was murdered by his prep school brother in an “honor killing” because he (the victim) was an embarrassment to this wonderful “Christian” family for accepting Islam, thus casting dishonor on his family.

Merry Christmas from NCIS.

As a Christian, a Vietnam Veteran, a retired law enforcement officer, and an American, I am totally repulsed by this further condemnation of my American way of life.

This episode, aired in the Christmas season, is a slap in the face to every American, Christian, Marine, and military man in this country.

It purposely depicted intolerance by the suspects (all of whom were white Christians or Marines) while propagandizing the wonderful tenets of Islam, which were being usurped by a bunch of disenchanted family members and Marines who were serving with the recently “converted” victim.

Disgraceful is an understatement.

Update II (Dec. 20): Virgil is right about “24,” and its hero, “Jack Bauer: Federal Zombie.” This is from the article so titled:

Certain themes in the cult series never change. One is Bauer’s eternal willingness to be chewed and spat out by the successive governments he serves. As Bauer’s Chinese jailers hand him over to his American handlers, the latter chain him like a dog to a fence. But Bauer is accustomed to being manacled by his owners. The Top Dogs just don’t trust their lapdog, despite his devotion.

Or is Bauer’s a zombie’s obedience? As a reader put it, “Jack Bauer is the unstoppable, undead agent who has actually been killed and brought back to life, in service—and thrall—to the state. Instead of the ‘brains’ that ‘regular’ zombies devour, the Federal Zombie feeds on ‘intelligence.’” Jack’s response to his mistreatment is to mutter about his approaching meaningful end—the prospect of giving his life for the Greater Good. Some individualist.

Other abiding Hollywood themes: In real life, the typical Islamic organization—take the Council on American-Islamic Relations—is staffed by media-savvy mouthpieces for militant Islam. “24,” however, has created a chimerical CAIR full of American patriots. One of the central heroes—was it Karen Hayes?—even laments that we are alienating the very community upon which we depend to fight terrorism. On the other hand, suburban Americans are depicted as rabid Islamophobes, wont to turn on their Muslim neighbors at the drop of a hat. In one vignette two such mouth breathers break down the front door of a Muslim family’s home and beat the son up. …