Now for a Message from Our Moral Leaders

Watch for more boobs to expose themselves on television at today's congressional hearings on broadcast decency, which should outrage more people than did the MTV halftime show.

Jesse Walker covers the FCC's war on indecency here.

Update: You can catch Reason's Nick Gillespie talking about this tonight on MSNBC's Abrams Report at 6 pm eastern.

Comments

[Rip Van Winkle]

Sorry, but I've been asleep for a while. Did somebody say that American culture has become unsafe for children?

When did this happen?

Didn't anyone notice this happening, or did it occur overnight? Please bring me up to date.

[iiughbihb]

MTV is moving their racier videos to night time only.

MTV shows music videos?

[Jean Bart]

On another thought, is the U.S. really going to re-instate conscription to "fight the war on terrorism?"

[Jennifer]

Does the government think that the whole purpose of civilization is to set a good example for little kids?

[Critic]

JB,

No.
Hell, no.

[Jean Bart]

The reason I ask is that there are some serious chatter amongst my U.S. military frieds concerning the possibility of conscription.

[Critic]

JB,

Every so often we test our collective memory. When we have sufficiently forgotten a tragic piece of our history, we repeat it, then lament.
Then we do it again.

A draft now? No.
Eventually? Yes.

[dhex]

"Does this mean nobody had a problem with Mr. Lovesponge broadcasting stories about women "sucking dick" at 10:30 AM?"

you know, joe, i was thinking about this for a bit and i realized i don't really have a problem with it. however, i don't own a radio or have cable so most of this terribly decadent and indecent material escapes me. i also don't have children, so that particular dilemma doesn't phase me.

i don't see a moral problem with it. it doesn't seem very entertaining despite having a heartfelt love for the often crass, indecent, decadent, perverse and vulgar.

maybe i'm just more cultured when it comes to smuttage?

er, but yeah, radios come with off switches. and the world exists as it does and we all have dicks and boobs and poop and occassional missing limbs, etc. nothing the effceecee will do can change that.

i guess i sorta think of it like this - if you raise a kid in the swamp, they gotta learn not to get bitten by snakes or eaten by alligators. if you raise a kid in the first bits 21st century (aka now) they've got to be media saavy or seriously isolated, and both paths take some work to accomplish.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I've had the impression that the direction the military has been taking the past few decades is towards a smaller force, through improving technology. For example, the Navy destroyers they have been building the last ten years or so are bigger and can do more than the older generations of destroyers, but only need about 1/3 the crew.

There is a manpower crunch right now but this kind of things almost seems cyclical -- Carter cut military spending his first year or two, but by the end of his term he had increased it again, in response to events in Afghanistan and eastern Europe, I'm going to guess, not having the exact facts at hand.

I don't think we're facing conscription anytime soon.

As for military chatter, when I was in the Navy back in the '70s there was chatter about unionizing the Armed Forces. Haven't heard much about it lately.

[Jean Bart]

Douglas Fletcher,

Well, as you likely apprehend, we military people are very much gossips; since we are like mushrooms (kept in the dark), it is all we can do anyway. 🙂

[heh2k]

where are all these kids who are listening to radios (that their parents must have allowed them to have) during school hours?

even with all the censorship, there's stuff on the radio that if i had kids, i wouldn't like them to listen to. if i had kids, it would make no difference if they heard "su* di*" or the uncensored version, since i wouldn't let them listen anyway.

[pf]

I think MTV should broadcast their "hottest" videos between 11 AM and 2 PM. This works on two levels: 1) if parents complain, MTV can say, "Well, why the hell aren't your kids in school?" and 2) it gives the unemployed men of America something to watch instead of soaps and game shows and Ricki Lake reruns. It'd probably even give MTV's ratings a boost, though it'd skew their demographics all to shit...

[Jennifer]

Jean Bart--

If there is a draft it'll be AFTER the election, not before. Right now the military is increasing its ranksby refusing to let reservists or National Guard people to leave when their enlistments are up, or when they're supposed to retire. My neighbor's husband was a Guardsman, set to retire a few months ago; instead, he's been activated and sent overseas. (Sent to France, not Iraq, but separated from his family nonetheless.)

[someone actually said it]

Never mind the children.. it's all because of 9/11! Haven't you been listening to some of the talk radio crap out there? We show boobies on TV and that pisses off the terrorists, and then they start attacking America. Boobies caused 9/11, man! We gotta cover them up to keep America safe!

[Jay]

Where the hell is Frank Zappa these days?
Anyone else remember him lambasting Tipper Gore and the congressional hens over record labels?:
Zappa's testimony

[notJoe]

Jay,

Dunno if your question is retorical or not, but if not...sorry to be the one to tell you, but Frank's left the building (permanently, that is).

[Pete Guither]

Ah, one of those rare times when I would love to be a Congressman on that committee, just so I could ask the panel:

"Gentlemen, do you know where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are? Do you know where Osama is? Do you know how to balance the budget? Can you restore citizens' civil liberties? If not, why are we here wasting the taxpayer's money talking about Janet Jackson's breast?"

[ewilliam]

Hey, Pete, nice question!

For whatever sadistic reason, I was watching MSNBC's Scarborough Country last night, and, yes, 9 days after the Super Bowl, people are still crying about this. If only people's attention spans lasted this long on important issues, such as the Pentagon's "Office of Special Plans".

Anyhow, Scarborough had as his guests: a republican congressman who is pushing for harsher fines and revocation of FCC licenses for all involved; a woman from 'Enough is Enough', a group, among other things, calling for the government (FCC) to regulate the Internet as it does broadcast TV; lastly, a columnist from some trendy mag. The congressman had a good long epitaph about how Janet Jackson's boob is the worst thing to hit the airwaves in ages. The "Enough is Enough" lady launched into some extracted, prepared statement about internet pornography (she even went so far as to suggest that a teen rapist committed his crime because he was looking at internet porn!). The columnist, who was the lone dissenter, had these wise words of rebuttal: "They said they're sorry, so just drop it".

While I agree, we should drop it, we need more powerful voices speaking on behalf of the first amendment. As our misguided government nannies gather to discuss the HORROR of seeing a breast, something that, yes, every woman on the planet possesses, perhaps they might be wise to consider your question, and many others facing our country.

[David 2]

I can't think of a better symbol for these folks than a BOOB, which is exactly what they are... nothing more than overrated mammary glands.

[nobody]

"...a breast, something that, yes, every woman on the planet possesses..."

Men, too.
Food for thought.

[MALAK]

Frankie and Johnny. On the same side then, on the same team now. FUCK the supposed moral leaders. With a stick!

[Larry]

Hey, it's For the children!

If we don't show women's bosoms or say you-know-what on TV and clean up the Internet then teenage boys won't think about female persons and everyone will abstain completely from thinking about s*x or engaging in "it" together or abusing themselves solo for the first decade and a half they are post-pubescent and stay virgins until they marry at age 27 (after graduate school) and that will lead to stable marriages with a marital relationship that fulfills all pure expectations by producing 2.4 children which is the only reason decent people put up with s*x anyway.

[Jennifer]

Ewilliam--

I, too, saw Scarborough Country, and you left out the best part: that pallid blonde woman who kept harping "Save the children!" was none other than Donna Rice Hughes. She didn't worry so much about morality when she posed on the lap of a married Gary Hart, did she? Hypocrite.

And why, oh why, do anti-sex people keep harping about the children? Someone needs to explain to these foold where children come from in the first place.

[sarah]

When I was three and six, my mom birthed my baby brothers, and I saw her breastfeed them. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?!?!?!

[MiniMe]

Since cloning would relieve the human race from the need to have sex at all I would think these conservative BOOBs would be all for it!

[Swamp Justice]

People are whining and making a big deal out of this. The Grammys are now improving their delayed broadcast so they can beep out any unexpected problems. MTV is moving their racier videos to night time only. The NFL has apologized and is considering removing ALL sexy dancers from their shows.

Sounds like the market is listening to the consumers. No gub'mint interference is necessary! The system works!! Don't these people see that??

[joe]

Does this mean nobody had a problem with Mr. Lovesponge broadcasting stories about women "sucking dick" at 10:30 AM? What is the difference between Lovesponge saying these things over the air, and standing up in the middle of a playground full of kids and reading them out loud?

[Highway]

The obvious one, Joe. The radio has an 'off' setting.

[fyodor]

Besides Joe, what's your point? Should people go to jail or face stiff fines for talking dirty to children? Are there already laws against that? Okay, at a certain point it might become harrassment (and in the playground it would likely be trespass), but up to that point, no, I have no problem.

Who's Mr. Lovesponge anyway??

[dj of raleigh]

The draft is a protection against military overthrow.
A draftee army will not over-throw their government,
but a well-paid professional army of same-thinkers might.
The draft is like a visit to the dentist.
Just because you don't want to go
doesn't mean it isn't good to go.

[dj of raleigh]

I think they should call in Janet to examine the evidence.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"Where the hell is Frank Zappa these days?"

Assuming that's a real question -- he's dead.

[Jay]

Damn. Make that "Where the hell is Frank Zappa when you need him?"

[Isaac Bartram]

"The draft is a protection against military overthrow.
A draftee army will not over-throw their government,"

The Greeks would not agree.

[Jones Ari]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
IP: 212.253.2.204
URL: http://preteen-sex.info
DATE: 05/20/2004 02:33:18
It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.