I’m a liberal, and a rock and metal fan, so the voices in my head are my Rock Gods whispering to me (backwards) to hail Satan and do drugs.  They’re there no matter what I’m writing.

Didn’t Bush cuss as well? And it’s not like he said one of the Seven Words You Can’t Say (on television/radio) so what’s the big fucking deal? They are just looking for anything and everything now aren’t they? Next they’re going to get pissed he takes shits on a regular basis.

How about “yes, dear, that shows how very upset he is by all this. Sometimes grownups say things they shouldn’t when they are angry. You know that isn’t a polite word to use all the time, don’t you?”

I guarantee that’s the essence of the way my mother would have handled something similar. All the while thinking “get over it” to herself.

Note to these clowns:

Pick one. Either the man is an effete snob who is obsessed with his mustard choices and has no business making national decisions, or he’s the Commander in Chief of a nation running two wars and handling a major economic and ecological disasters.
You don’t get to complain he’s a pansy and then pearl-clutch about words real ‘Murricans use all the time.

Ass? Really? I’m sure Lileks’ dughter hears MUCH worse at school. I know that’s where I learned to curse.

Lileks is just pointing out that using curse words is the exclusive province of the VICE PRESIDENT, and Obama’s real sin is usurping the privileges of that office.

I’m also amused at Lileks’s pretense that he and his wife have never used a bad word, certainly not in his daughter’s hearing, such that the idea that Mommy and Daddy ever said a bad word sends tremors through the poor child’s world.

That’s supposed to be “daughter”. Use the Preview, Mark!

Well, then I must be the *Worst Mother Ever* (TM), because I regularly call my 8 year old smart ass a smart ass.  To his face even.  It usually gets me a stuck out tongue and a laugh.  Of course, I do it affectionately (and also because he really is a smart ass—just like his mother) and he knows the difference between language I use at home and what’s appropriate for school and grandma, so I guess it’s not so bad.

Wasn’t Lileks one of the creepoids who went on and on about girls hitting the peak of their sexual attractiveness at 15 or so, then it’s all downhill from there?

Or was that one of the other Wingnut Welfare sickos?

@3 - Of all of the damage the Shrub did to our language, ‘Murka has to grate the most on my nerves.  I just wanted to scream at him every time I found the fortitude to listen to him and see his smirk, “Asshat!  We live in America!  Four syllables!  Four!  Not Murka!”

On the list of his offenses against the country and the world, his rewriting of the language to include places like Murka, a War on Terra, and Nukuler weapons has to rank pretty low, but it still pisses me off.  It’s not terribly liberal of me, and it would probably shut out deserving folks with disabilities, but part of me really wants to pass a law that says you can’t be President of the country if you can’t properly pronounce the name of the place you want to be President of.

One of the first things you learn on the Internet is that “OMG you said a BAD WORD!” is shorthand for “Shit, everything you’re saying is 100% true, and that pisses me off.”

How come Lileks is so funny when he’s insulting old cookbooks, but whenever he gets into politics he suddenly starts writing like a cross between Mallard Fillmore and your elderly great-uncle who thinks the nurses are stealing from him?

Didn’t Cheney say ‘fuck’?  Or was that some other Penguin look-alike Republican?

I seem to recall that venerable Victorian Dickens using “ass” on at least one occasion . . .

“Kickass” was the title of a major motion picture. The president talking about kicking ass is officially mainstream.

Punditus @8 - you’re thinking of Derbyshire, who treats public discourse the way a two-year-old treats his own poo. He’s the one who wrote an essay claiming that women’s hotness peaks at 15 and is gone by 21. He also believes that it would be better if women did not have the right to vote.

I’m so glad you wrote about this, b/c Hannity was frothing at the mouth over it (sometimes I need comedic relief from NPR) and I was laughing my—oops!  Can I say that here? 

Who’s Lenny?

Lenny Bruce, Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Lenny and Squiggy?

I’m so confused!

I like the fact that Lilleks has to stick in ‘authentic blackness’ here. Because that’s really why he said ‘ass’ after a great portion of the US’ waterways were fouled.

For all I know, different people hear different things in their heads when they write.  If so, I’m putting ten down that Lileks’s head is full of that static hiss you had on old TVs when you switched to a channels that had no broadcast signal.

I think he hears an all white protestant choir singing “AAALLELUJAH, ALLELUJAH, ALLELUJAH, ALLLLEEELUUUJAAAH”

By he I meant Obama.

Didn’t Cheney say ‘fuck’?  Or was that some other Penguin look-alike Republican

There’s vintage Dubya footage of him flipping a tv camera the bird in a rather deliberate manner.  Of course, he was only in charge of 1/50th of the country at the time and if I recall he was directly addressing people who disagreed with him, so it’s rather a lesser offense. 

It was the 70 - I mean, 90’s; it was a different time.

This is going to be difficult - I wonder how prim conservatives would explain the popularity of Shakira without the use of this word?

I would also point out that this word can be used to demonstrate the worth of professional training.  When the crossword puzzle clue is “wild Asian ass”, a good reference librarian will be able to tell you that the answer is “onager”.  Try googling it up and see how far you get.

Emmett @15, I don’t know. Do you have authentic blackness? Are you Lenny Bruce? If not,  probably no.

Hell, didn’t Bush call someone a “major-league asshole” during one of the campaigns? I suppose the “hole” makes it “holy.”

Oh, so we are to applaud Lileks because his sperm magic works and he found a female?

Okay.

Please… This is just another instance of Republican-calculated hussy fits created in the hopes of throwing liberals off balance. Republicans like to throw a fit, see people dance to their tine, then throw a fit again over your dance moves, and so on and so forth. It’s what they do.

Didn’t Bush cuss as well?

Well, yes, and so did Cheney.  However, when they cussed, it just meant that they were Manly Men who told it like it is and thus deserved to tell the lesser folks what to do.  When Obama does it, it means he’s a Garbagemouth who’s a bad influence on !The Children!.

It’s like when Gingrich/Sanford/Hyde/etc. have affairs, then it’s “A Love Story” and “Their Own Business”, but when a Democrat gets caught, then s/he’s a bad influence who needs to resign in order to “save the !Children!”.

So the president can send out flying deathbots to blow up civilians, torture prisoners and give billions to investment banks that almost bankrupted the country but saying “ass” is a step too far. Oh America, never change.

Tyro @ 25:
I like “hussy fit”, throwing a fit and calling someone a hussy. I’m pretty sure you meant hissy, but I like it anyway.

Annoying noises we miss?  Chalk on chalkboards in the classroom.  Everything at my daughter’s school is on a whiteboard and/or projectors.  Boring.

Please… This is just another instance of Republican-calculated hussy fits ... Republicans like to throw a fit, see people dance to their tine, then throw a fit again over your dance moves, and so on and so forth. It’s what they do.
Comment #25: Tyro

We KNOW that.  It’s just like the “Achy Breaky Heart” phenomena from Days of Your! And look what *that* led to! Hannah Montana.

I wonder if Gnat watches the Disney Channel?  My gnat used to, and I hate hate hated it. Now she likes “Family Guy” (she’s 12) and she asks me much more interesting questions than “did the President say “ass”?”  And know what?  I’m pleased; it opens up subjects of conversation I wouldn’t know how to begin: like what is “Gay”?  Why do people hate gays? etc. 

I sit on her bed in the evening and just let her talk.

“Well, yes, and so did Cheney.  However, when they cussed, it just meant that they were Manly Men who told it like it is and thus deserved to tell the lesser folks what to do.”

...and it’s Authentic!  It’s the kind of raw and powerful and realistic outburst you’d hear from manly soldiers out on the battlefield as they fight to bring Freedom and Democracy to benighted third-worlders in some place where, purely coincidently, there are large oil reserves. 

“When Obama does it, it means he’s a Garbagemouth who’s a bad influence on !The Children!.”

...obviously B. Hussein was influenced by Bill Clinton and his Penis of Destruction.  Of course, it’s exactly the kind of thing Dirty Hippie Liberals say just to destroy the American Family and cast Jesus Christ from His place of prominence as the arbiter of American Morality, especially in regards to verbal communication.  How we will ever make it through the destructive years of Nobama’s presidency?  In 2012, we must elect a shining example of American values like Sarah Palin…

I vaguely remember Bush saying “shit” and it being printed in the New York Times. The given reason was “we only take shit from the president.”

Damn! helen beat me to it.

Heck, Charley and the Chocolate Factory has the word “ass” in it, though I suppose it’s being used in the proper British sense of the word (calling someone a “silly ass”—meaning donkey).  Still the idea that “ass” is beyond the pale is ridiculous.  Even Jimmy Carter used the word when he was president—and he wasn’t talking about donkeys.

I’m sending Lilacs (it’s a juvenile taunt, but c’mon, it’s sitting there begging to be used) a copy of the 1935 film A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Cagney says, “Man is but an ass”. During the Production Code, at that. My hope is that he’ll be hospitalized with the vapors. Or that his daughter starts saying “ass” in every sentence. Either is sufficient punishment for his fatuousness.

I’m reminded of the Meet the Fockers movie when the kid’s first word is “asshole” and all the people are outraged at Gaylord for teaching him the word.  I think these wingnuts take that as gospel that a kid will automatically know what the word means and they must be shielded from it.

I enjoy Lileks’ humor work. Too bad his politics are so get-off-my-lawn lame. And it always bothered me that he referred to his daughter as Gnat—it’s like a woman I once knew whose boyfriend called her “Princess”.

The White House could always spin this major scandal as the side effects of POTUS having Rahm Emanuel as closest collaborator.

I want to install Father Jack in the corner of Lilek’s lounge, just to see the look on his face as Jack seranades the precious Lilek eardrums with repeated demands for drink, arse, girls, and feck.

Knuterockne has phoneballs to match his trucknutz. It’s what separates him from us liberal pansies, especially the effeminate ones who know how to spell effeminate.

It’s not about President-Ladies-Tees using the phrase kick ass.  It’s the fact that it’s apparent that this poser couldn’t kick anyones ass.

I do recall he kicked your boy McCain’s ass so hard his arsehole ended up as a third nostril.  Were you asleep for the election?

Jeezus motherfuck.

I don’t think anyone complained about LBJ, and he hardly said anything that WASN’T a swear word.

(Completely OT; a friend of mine’s father is a retired science teacher at Punahou School. I traveled with said friend recently, and found out his dad actually had Barack Obama as a student years back!)

There’s something comical and sad about a man who is so insecure he has to sit around bragging on blogs about what a tough guy he is.  Wanna bet Knute shores up his insecure sense of masculinity by buying a bunch of Harley gear?  I’d put a whole lot of money on it.  Leather + forced pregnancy fantasies = quieting the demons inside always screaming, “You’re not a real man!”

I think these wingnuts take that as gospel that a kid will automatically know what the word means and they must be shielded from it.

When I was a kid, I told my cousins that the word “fuck” was Spanish for something or other. They were quiet excited to know a word in Spanish, and my aunt came home to find them bouncing around yelling “fuck” over and over.

Amanda, did you know what the word actually meant and were messing with your cousins?  Or did you really believe what you told them?...

I took a road trip to the Shenandoah Valley last week, and for some masochistic reason I decided to listen to conservative talk on the way up.

This is all they talked about. Really. About how he said “ass” and that’s bad, mmmkay? They had one message, and EVERY SINGLE HOST from Beck to Limbaugh to Hannity talked about this stuff for at least an hour! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, for being such “individualists” conservatives sure act like hive-minded Stalinists towing the party line!

Oh, that and something about baseball and how participation trophies are bad, and if your kid loses you should scream at them for being a failing loser, or something, and if you don’t you’re not a real man and your kids will grow up to be “uncompetitive”, and then something something Communism! Communism! Praticipation trophies are COMMUNISM!!!!!

You know, I thought authoritarianism, the gulags, and that whole “liquidation of the Kulaks” thing were the worst things about Soviet Communism, but no, apparently, it’s participation trophies in kid’s t-ball.

Still not sure where they were going with that, but they all talked about it. God, right wing talk radio is just strange.

Amanda, did you know what the word actually meant and were messing with your cousins? 

Well, I don’t imagine I knew what it literally meant, but I did know it was a curse word.  My cousins were way more sheltered than my sister and I were when we were little kids, and so we enjoyed fucking with them.  Prior to this incident, one of my cousins thought the “f-word” was “fart”.

Too fucking funny, Amanda!

The weird conflicting arguments about profanity:

1.  It’s only for adults, not for kids. 
2.  Profanity is immature and real adults don’t need it to make their points.

It’s surely no coincidence that you hear #1 when you’re young, and #2 when you’re an adult.  #2 always seemed particularly silly to me because it could apply equally to the English language.

Of course then there’s

3.  Swearing makes Baby Jesus cry.

which works for every age.

3.  Swearing makes Baby Jesus cry.

which works for every age.

Except for the childfree, I guess, ‘cause they fucking hate babies!

But yeah, my parents were some of those people who genuinely avoided swearing in front of me and my sisters as far I can remember, and it didn’t make a bit of difference. I learned my profanity with maybe a slight delay from the average but have since gone on to more than make up for it.

I don’t usually swear around my parents though; my mom still hates swearing so I’ve only ever accidentally f-bombed around her, like, twice (my dad minds much less.) But even she doesn’t care about “ass”! It crops up in particularly gungho emails from her telling me to “kick ass!” on various things. And I mean, come on, if Mr. President is staying to a level of profanity my mother finds acceptable he’s pretty much clean as a whistle.

Well, then I must be the *Worst Mother Ever* (TM), because I regularly call my 8 year old smart ass a smart ass.  To his face even.

You can’t be the Worst Mother Ever because that’s me. I let my kids swear like sailors if they want to. Interestingly, after a mad fling when they initially discovered a new swear word and used it constantly for a couple days, they became pretty temperate in their use of profanity and naturally save it now for moments of strong passion.

You would not BELIEVE the amount of shit I take for this parenting decision. I don’t allow the kids to ever namecall or use slurs, swear words or not, and I never let them curse around people who feel uncomfortable with it (which includes cursing loudly in public). They know if they’re dumb enough to curse at school they deserve what they get. So mostly they just swear in the privacy of our own home—but just the knowledge that my kids are allowed to use Forbidden Words causes people to pearl clutch like I allow them to run around bashing in windows and pushing down old ladies.

Meanwhile, their kids are running around spewing hate speech like “that’s so gay” and “you throw like a girl” and calling other kids retards and losers. Yeah, you know, I’m pretty comfortable with my decision. But it’s pretty fucking whack how worked up people get about random socially prohibited syllables.

Seems smart to me, kristin.

Jesus, Lileks is still around? Talk about asses.

British Petroleum?

Do you mean BP?

Well, I don’t imagine I knew what it literally meant, but I did know it was a curse word.

Mmm - way. waaaaay back when I was a kid, there was a godawful song on the radio called “Do you want to make love or do you just want to fool around?”. Being 7 and 6, we had no idea what it meant, but me and my brother used to sing it because it elicited some really strange reactions from the adults…

Being 7 and 6, we had no idea what it meant, but me and my brother used to sing it because it elicited some really strange reactions from the adults…

When she was about that age, my sister’s favorite song was Centerfold.  My mom was highly, highly amused at some of the pearl clutching when she’d bust out with it in public.

And Kristin, I would absolutely believe it.  My kids have similar rules and the shit I get from my mom alone is ridiculous.  Not because they use profanity around her, but just because she knows that I don’t get upset that they use it at all.  That, and the whole smart ass thing amuses the hell out of me instead of upsetting me and eliciting punishment for said 8 year old.  I just tell her that he takes after his grandma.

My little brother used to think that Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” was about me and my sister, because we were *so* “bad” and stuff.  Though, of course, he was well known for singing Kodachrome while still in his pram, so we were clearly brought up on popular music.

My kids have similar rules and the shit I get from my mom alone is ridiculous.  Not because they use profanity around her, but just because she knows that I don’t get upset that they use it at all.

Oh, yeah. My MIL just can. not. adjust to it. Remember, my kids aren’t even allowed to swear around her, but she’s so invested in believing that using certain words at any time is a moral failure that she’s constantly trying to guilt the kids out of ever using them. It reminds me of the saying that Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is happy.

My mom is usually pretty cool about most things, but profanity is one of her “issues.”  And yeah, they absolutely know better than to swear around her at all, or really anybody except me and occasionally their father (and it’s really only the oldest, as my baby is just barely 5, has an entirely different personality than his brother, and hasn’t really “discovered” profanity yet).  It’s just the knowledge that I don’t mind that drives her up a wall, because “don’t I know that my kids are being disrespectful of me when they do that?”

Yes, Lileks is still around, and he writes for my local daily as a columnist.  *sigh*

Okay, at this point, you can just color me tickled when this godbag shows up!  Lookit!  The atheists are still not of the believing in god!  And think godbags are kind of crazypants!  Though I’m sure I’ll be running in fear of women’s boobs sometime soon.  Hey nutbag, didn’t your fucking idiot sky-fairy invent boobs in the first place?  Just asking…you know.

May I add that I love that the deepest levels of hell are both hot and cold at the same time?!  Wingnut logic, it proves it’s self!

“Boob” is censored about by the godbag?  Wacky.  It’s a shame when people misuse copy&paste;.

I’m from Chicago. I volunteered for Obama when he was running for Senate, very early on, in the primary. I was in his office a few times, latish at night, doing office stuff when it was nobody but him and his top aids. As a fly on the wall I can tell you this: Obama says fuck like a motherfucker. So anyone who says him swearing is “inauthentic” is quite stupid.

Oh, don’t worry, Markuze—I’m entirely sure that you and I will end up in the same place after death—the same place everyone else ends up. I’m sure you already know that, even if you’re not prepared to admit it to yourself—hence the terrified quasi-rage against the folks who’ve already figured things out and aren’t terrified of the prospect…

I love how Mabus/ Markuze has latched onto Hemant Mehta now, considering “The Friendly Atheist” is probably the least “offensive” atheist blog ever.

“Go fuck yourself,” said Dick Cheney to Sen. Leahy.  Yeah, no wingnut faux-rage on that one.

LOL, MikeEss!  I like your take better than mine.  You must have seen St. Sarah’s Newsweek cover.

But seriously, this has been going on for a loooong time.  During the 1960 campaign, Nixon used to scold former president Truman for cussing, since that was “a bad influence” on the public.*  JFK made jokes about Nixon’s suddenly pristine taste.

*Of course, anyone who’s read (or heard) the Watergate tapes knows that Nixon’s cussing made Truman look like a Sunday school teacher.  But I digress.

the 9th and FINAL RING of Dante’s Inferno is designed for little blaspheming traitors like you…

“This is the deepest level of hell, where the fallen angel Satan himself resides. His wings flap eternally, producing chilling cold winds that freeze the thick ice found in Cocytus…”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. According to Dante, atheists are further up in Sixth Circle, “Heretics”, laying for eternity in red-hot tombs. The frigid Ninth Ring, the worst place in hell, is for Betrayers. You’d think you’d at least read your own material.

I can see the links failed due to parentheses, but y’all get the idea.

Oh, that and something about baseball and how participation trophies are bad
Comment 48—Ben D.

There’s an argument in favor of participation trophies? And it’s a liberal argument? Am I P.J. O’Rourke all of a sudden?

Typist, I think Lileks’s point was that he was swearing to sound more authentic, more (what Lileks thinks of as) “street.” So, y’know, Those People would tink he was one of them.