Republicans always pearl-clutch when they don’t have anything of substance to fall back on.  The mainstream media ought to tear into them for it.

Do they know that “bitch” and “ass” and probably even “blow job” are said on network sitcoms now, which traditionally have a lot more interest from the Dick and Jane set?

That’s a curious question.  I’m tempted to say yes and of course they don’t care, but maybe they don’t know, and there’s a “for the children” crusade just waiting to happen.

Juxtaposing this crap with a few judicious Simpsons quotes would make for an effective campaign ad.  “won’t SOMEONE think of the children?!”.

I am not going to go back and transcribe word for word, but the idea that this will set a precedent for future administrations who have to make life and death decisions and then may get investigated?

Uh, yeah. They should. We need that,

Somewhat off topic, but given my TV viewing habits (Don’t judge me!)  I tend to watch a great deal of cartoons (writing tends to be better than your typical sitcom by a great amount) and at some point fart jokes became acceptable to S&P;.  Anyone know when this happened and why?

Someone loosened up no doubt and realized the world wouldn’t end.

I’m trying to think of a single child that I know that needs to be protected.  Not only do kids not watch news shows or nattering talking people shows, they have parents to help explain things to them in age appropriate ways (or simply say “It’s really a grown-up thing, honey.  You would find it really disgusting, and I will say more when you are older”).

Uh people, anyone watching news on the teevee knows what a blowjob is, and is likely to have given or received one.

Little kids don’t watch the news, they’re to busy watching HBO and the OnDemand stuff their parents thought they blocked.

Even the blogosphere, where we’re supposed to be less constrained by faux-propriety, there’s a lot of pearl-clutching about the tone and language of liberals from other liberals.  Especially over the language of women liberals, natch.  I recently got into a public facebook argument with a conservative “friend”.  I called him a douchewanker because he was, frankly, being a douchewanker.  We were arguing about a proposed flat tax in our state and he supported it because he hoped it would make poor people pay higher taxes and this would make them stop asking for gov’t programs.  See?  Like I said, a douchewanker.  Q.E.D.  Most of my facebook friends supported me but, of course, there had to be the one guy who came along to concern-troll about how “rude” I was.  He said I “morphed into Sarah Palin online” and I wasn’t being helpful to Democrats.  In my facebook photo I’m with Barack Obama (at a long-ago campaign event).  Concern Troll had the nerve to tell me I should take down that photo because Obama would never approve of the way I conduct myself.  Right, because bad language makes Barack cry.  Just ask Rahm Emmanuel. 

I’ve never understood why people get so bent out of shape over profanity.  It’s totally valuing form over substance.

Adults’ reaction to sex is far more harmful to children than any mention of the act.  I went to a parade last month where a number of naked people were present, and there were plenty of children present.  I was far more disturbed by the behavior of some of the fathers of those kids than the kids’ seeing naked women and men.  You’d think some of those guys had never seen a naked woman before, and I think their reaction (practically with tongues lolling out of their heads) was inappropriate, especially in the presence of their own young children.

anyone watching news on the teevee knows what a blowjob is

Or if they don’t just say, “that’s a specific kind of hairstyle. You need a special kind of blowdryer to make it.”

No, Hector, you don’t. Because then forever after you have to remember you said that, and act accordingly. And brace yourself for the kid point to some elaborately coiffed person in a public place and say loudly, Is that a blowjob?” And to ask every time at the barber shop when they will be old enough to get one, and to be absolutely crushed when some more-informed peer explains to them what it actually is. Just tell them its a grownup thing and leave it until they’re old enough to ask the question in a more sensible context.

(Here, we’re still dealing with the aftermath of having misinformed a 4-year-old about the nature of a prison jumpsuit.)

I think that this kind of prurient stupid is a big part of the right-wing frame: if certain acts are defined as so sinfull you can’t even talk about them directly in public, you get to refer to them elliptically in ways that make them seem far worse than they are. This is why Santorum and his pals get off so much on the “just like bestiality” comparisons, and wingnuts still refer to “unnatural” acts and affections. Cuz if you said what was actually going on, reactions would run the gamut from A) Eww to B) is that all?

I think you mean “suspicious” circumstances, not “auspicious.”

As for your argument, I agree 100%. But I don’t think anyone is concerned about any children, real or imagined. They’re concerned about getting fined by the FCC.

“Concern Troll had the nerve to tell me I should take down that photo because Obama would never approve of the way I conduct myself.”

You could replace it with the photo where it looks like Obama is staring at the red-dress-lady’s ass.  Maybe with a little photoshopped halo around Obama’s head, and the hand reaching back to the woman he’s about to lead down the steps turned into that kind of saint-mudra thing that always makes it into icon paintings.  I mean, if we’re supposed to be playing “What would Obama do?”, we might as well just ride that thing until the wheels fall off.

They’re concerned about getting fined by the FCC.

I thought only broadcast stations could get fined for bad language, not cable channels. I mean, the dialogue from HBO’s Deadwood was a constant string of f-words.

No, Hector, you don’t.

I agree.  If there is anything worse than OMG protect the child’s ears, it’s wrapping “uncomfortable” subjects up in a layer of bullshit.  If the child is old enough to ask “What’s a blow job?” they are old enough to know it’s an activity between two adults.

I just sat there watching the clip and wondering how Marcy Wheeler was going to use the words “Dick Cheney” and “blow job” in the same sentence.  Alas, I was disappointed.

Several years ago, I asked some 11 and 12 y-o’s to tell me what important things might happen in their lives when they got to HS, and one girl responded, “you go to parties!” “Oh, what happens at HS parties?” Answer: “You get to drink and make out!” Mind you these are white kids in Pennsylvania. And they made it quite clear to me they knew what that meant. Very enlightening Confirmation class.

The thing is, as soon as these kids stepped on to the school bus, all the words we call vulgar became part of their discourse. Seven year olds know.

You want to know a funny comparison between the US and Canada?

Last Friday night, on the regular CTV network at the tail end of prime time (10pm), earlier in the west if you had satellite or cable that received the eastern feed, they had a 1 hour special of comedian Russell Peters doing a show at Madison Square Gardens which included several minutes of him explaining why he didn’t think “fuckface” was really an insult compared to “cumface” (the face you have when you fuck can look cool and/or intense, the face you have when you orgasm just looks stupid).

I repeat, network TV.

Getting the vapours over “blowjob” on cable news, while even American network TV can use “pissed off” freaking slays me.

And if they *don’t* know what those words mean, revrick, they are either (mis)using them or hearing them all the time anyhow. So it might be better if they *do* know what words actually mean.

I was like, 13 when I first heard of oral sex. I thought it meant french kissing, and I think some other kids did, too.

They could call it a lube job.

Seriously, though - why is this vision of sweetness and unsullied purity applied to often filthy creatures who loathe bathing and like to talk about poop at every opportunity.

I do have to say that I rather liked the way Tamron and David handled it.  They HAD to say something about it and making a joke and moving on was probably the best they could have done.

Interestingly enough and somewhat off-topic: you can say “ass” on TV but not “asshole”.  I have to assume there is something wrong with the hole part.

DonnaDiva:  That guy wasn’t trolling your behavior.  He was trolling the fact that a woman was calling a man out for his shit and winning the argument. 

Imagine you were a guy.  (I KNOW!  But you have to for this to work.)  Imagine you had that same argument with the douchenozzle (I prefer nozzle.  Less of the masturbatoriness in it).  Now imagine Concern Troll wandering across it and telling you, a guy, that Obama “wouldn’t approve of you acting like that.”  Seriously.  Does it GET any more daddy issue?

And I’m sorry, whoever froze that screenshot for the video player needs a medal.

What’s-his-face looks like he’s ready to give or is getting a blow job under the desk RIGHT NOW.

So, kids can be exposed to violence and bigotry on TV and from their own parents, but it’s not OK for them to hear anything remotely sexual.  Because, as we all know, if they never hear these words, they’ll never figure it out for themselves and then they’ll remain pure forever.  Also, parents freak out at the thought of their kid asking what a blow job means and then they’ll have to have a very awkward conversation about s-e-x with their kids.  Oh, the horror!

“The thing is, as soon as these kids stepped on to the school bus, all the words we call vulgar became part of their discourse. Seven year olds know.”

My parents never cursed. My mother was particularly fond of saying things like “g.d.” and “Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” I learned all the curse words where everyone learned them, on the elementary school playground. Probably all be age 8 or so.

“I was like, 13 when I first heard of oral sex. I thought it meant french kissing, and I think some other kids did, too.”

I had the same misconception, though I was quite a bit younger. I’m pretty sure I first heard the term “oral sex” on the McNeil/Lehrer news hour. This was long before Clinton, though, something from 1985 or so.

Anyone know when this happened and why?

When: Sunday, August 11, 1991.

Why: Someone let Jon Kricfalusi make the cartoon he wanted to make.

Interestingly enough and somewhat off-topic: you can say “ass” on TV but not “asshole”.  I have to assume there is something wrong with the hole part.

Ass may as easily refer to a donkey as a part of the human anatomy.  Asshole kind of tightens up the meaning so that there is no ambiguity.  Or so the arguement goes.

“When: Sunday, August 11, 1991.
Why: Someone let Jon Kricfalusi make the cartoon he wanted to make.”

I would have guessed sooner, like:

August 15 to August 18, 1969 — Woodstock Festival

July 2, 1964 — Lyndon Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964

February 9, 1964 — The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show

September 9, 1956 — Elvis Presley appears on the Ed Sullivan Show

July 26, 1948 — Harry Truman signs executive order ending segregation in the US military

December 11, 1941 — America Declares war on Germany, instead of joining Germany as some Americans wanted

November 8, 1932 — Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President of the US

September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909 — Teddy Roosevelt, as President, uses antitrust law to go after American monopolies like Standard Oil

July 2, 1890 — President Benjamin Harrison signs Sherman Antitrust Act into law

April 9, 1865 — Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses Grant ensuring the end of the Confederate States of America

December 15, 1791 — Bill of Rights is ratified by 3/4 of American States, enshrining the idea that the United States does not and can not have an Official State Religion

All of these things helped to ruin the moral fiber of America, leading directly to the crowning offense of Marcy Wheeler saying “Blow Job” on MSNBC

The shame!...

I was referring to the acceptance of fart jokes in cartoons not the genesis of America’s moral decline… which I date to the very first instance when Florence Jean Castleberry first said “Kiss my grits”. Admit it, a little bit inside us all died that day.

“I was referring to the acceptance of fart jokes in cartoons not the genesis of America’s moral decline…”

...but don’t you see?  All these things are tied together! 

Some kid says “a**” or “sh**” while talking to his friends, and years later Bill Clinton has a B*** J**!  And then soon after that a Kenyan illegally elected POTUS is forcing us to learn Arabic in Socialist Re-Education Camps!...

See, we can’t have The Children exposed to anything more sexual than simply objectifying women.

Violence?  whole bore.  You’re not going to get an R rating for violence. 

But just SAY the word “fuck” twice, and you’re there.

I love the movie Wimbeldon, and while my kids are still a little young to care for rom-com (besides Enchanted or WALL*E) I’d have no problem letting them watch that movie.  I was stunned to find out it was rated R.

My son’s campmates have all seen R rated movies.  They’re NINE.  We’re talking about movies like Saw and Halloween.  Every time you see violence, you become a bit desensitized to it, and I’m determined to protect my kids as long as possible.

But sex?  I explained the facts of life when i was pregnant.  We have those Swedish books showing (dead) fetuses developing and the first half of the books are all about male and female sexuality.

There’s even infra-red photos of a flaccid and erect penis.  I think my son is going to be horribly disappointed come puberty, when his penis just gets hard and doesn’t turn glowy rainbow colors.