NBC’s latest ER episode on Thursday night was downright hypocritical and cynical, preaching anti-Iraq war pabulum, while exploiting graphic and gratuitous violence to pump up ratings.

I used to watch ER on and off, but realized the show should’ve been cancelled years ago, as the writers and producers had completely run out of ideas. Thursday’s show was the usual disappointment, but the political hypocrisy was over the top.

The character Neela (Parminder Nagra) attended the funeral of her husband who was killed in Iraq. She made a frothing-at-the-mouth critique of how senseless was the Iraq war.

But in a scene a few minutes later, I was subjected to an extremely graphic gunfight inside the emergency room itself. Several policemen were killed, their blood spattering on the walls. As the emergency room staff cared for the wounded, blood spurted all over the place. I stopped counting after 10 gunshots.

So here we have Hollywood’s morality: preaching non-violence (to feel superior to the rest of us dummies) while using violence to jack up ratings and make lots of money.

A strange form of morality… Actually, a lack of it…