Vulgarity Makes the Radio Star

It took an airhead like Nicole Richie to draw attention to the problem, but finally, the media is taking notice of the coarsening of our language. Long gone is the notion of "polite society" -- the rudeness of the 1960's generation put the kibosh on that -- and that some subjects are off limits.

Eric Burns of Fox News Channel wrote this column after hearing radio vulgarity. He bemoans the descent of morning radio into filth. I know what that's all about - I used to be the producer and sidekick on The Rod Ryan Show on KKND Radio in New Orleans, a program so raunchy and vulgar it made Howard Stern sound like Mother Angelica. We were the show that painted "Ass-O-Lanterns" on women's posteriors during Hallowe'en, and had strippers slap their boobs in my face while I attempted to read the news (not that I didn't enjoy that, but I was young, dumb...) A year after it all began, I walked away from a passable salary, lots of perks and the benefits of being local celebrity in a large market. The reason I gave at the time was that I wanted to move back to BTR to continue my education, which was true and did happen. One of my ulterior motives for leaving was a lack of a real raise (they're not called Cheap Channel for nothing). What nobody but a select few friends and family members knew was my other reason: I could no longer be a vital component -- a facilitator, really, since I produced it - of a program whose content was objectionable. I thought to myself, if I ever had kids how would I tell them what I did since I would not want them to listen to the show? (Thank goodness my relatives all lived outside the range of the station's signal) What would my legacy in this world be, that I was a monkey boy on the radio? When I knealt down to pray every Sunday, what would my Lord think? (I don't think I went to communion that whole year.) I had to stick to my principles, lift myself out of the ravine and get out.

In my mind, the program we did was dirtiest of the dirty (save Opie and Anthony). After leaving the show, there are things on TV and radio that usurp even what we did. We as a society have gone so far down that we are flowing out of the gutter into the main sewer. Admittedly, I use foul language in this site. But its rare and used for emphasis, not to shock or make me seem cool. Maybe I shouldn't use it (see my reparation below), but at least sex is not the primary subject of this blog.
My point is this: people of good character know about protocol and live by standards of good behavior, and our society is in real need of education on those rules.

Gore Endorses Dean by Dick Morris

Forget Clarissa: Dick Morris explains it all, once again. This time, he sheds light on the Gore-Dean two-step.

As much of a good read Morris's column is, you won't want to miss the cavalcade of editorial cartoons compiled by Slate.

Social Security checks could go south of border

Insanity!

Dean's urban legend

Here's one BIG thing Al Gore and Howard Dean have in common.

Postmodern Crackup

Chuck Colson asserts that the relativism of the postmodern age is perhaps ending.

Happy Anniversary Playboy

(I hate having to preface my comments but I get attacked by those who think they are better than I am or have caught me. I really don't give a rat's ass what they think because this site is about my voice. You have every right, if you disagree, to remove my bookmark from your list, dammit. Now get off my back!)

Make no mistake about it: I am no puritan. As a Catholic, I know how much life is a gift and the fruits of God's bounty are to be emjoyed. Read chapters 2 and 3 in Thomas Groom's book What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts For Life and find out. We can do hings such as drinking and dancing that more puritan folks cannot. We just need to know when to stop.

Had Hugh Hefner been a Catholic and not a Methodist, I maintain that Playboy's publication may never have happened. Hef would have been given a sense of joie de vivre from his parents early on and would feel no need to rebel.

I appreciate the fun Hef and the magazine has, even if I know that the line is crossed in every isue (there's always confession). The Playboy Philosophy is bunk -- how to change the world to suit Hef -- but at least somebody was addressing and challenging the bun-haired prudes. Certainly the desired sexualization of everything as espoused by the PP is a bit too much, and the institution of marriage isn't the shackle Hefner believes it to be - but I'm a single man and don't want to talk about that. Truth is, any magazine that regularly features William F. Buckley and Leonard Maltin can't be all bad (we'll just brush aside the whole Jesse Jackson business.)

As a libertarian-leaning Catholic conservative, I feel no shame in saying that Playboy has been and remains a great momentary escape from everyday life, especially when I'm getting a haircut. And the articles aren't bad either.

Populism Is King in Louisiana:

Jeff Crouere tells it like it is:

"Even though she has a conservative to moderate record, she was elected due to strong support from liberal elements among the electorate. Now that she has won the race, she has decided to support Senator Donald Hines of Bunkie in the race for State Senate President. Hines has a strong populist background with a very anti-business voting record. Let’s hope Blanco surprises the business community with a pro-business agenda, but the Hines selection is certainly troubling. "

I'll go even further. Blanco's supposed appointment of staunch Republicans Clo Fontenot as Chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee and Max Malone as as chair of the Senate Resources Committee is an end run to weaken support for current Senate President John Hainkel. Clo and Max will get what all Senators want - power, in the form of a fiefdom - in exchange for giving up their party's ability to keep Blanco in check. While I can't fault either for trying to get ahead - especially Fontenot who is qualified for the position and likely concerned that his home base in Livingston Parish is becoming the biggest dumping ground in the state - I still don't like it. If either said they would stand with Hainkel, they should continue to do so.

Finally, Blanco named her labor advisory panel yesterday. Among them were the #1 and #2 persons at the Louisiana AFL-CIO. Clearly, this woman is hostile to business.

A & F: No More Porn, Ever?

Could all of the recnt brou-ha-ha over Abercrombie and Fitch be a campaign in and of itself? Perhaps. A&F's modus operandi in recent years has been to stir up as much notoriety (infamy?) as possible. Now comes word that the staff that puts together the much-maligned A&F Quarterly has been let go. Could it be that A&F wanted this attention to cement it's brand with young, urban shoppers who tend to be non-conformist and bristle at authority? ("We have to buy from A&F! They're under attack by those prudish conservatives!" said Tom breathlessly.)

Think about it: first the issue gets taken off the shelves at the behest of social conservatives, then Morley Safer comes a-calling, now the magazine is shuttered. Had A&F simply closed the Quarterly, it would have appeared to be a cost-cutting move, something companies do when they are in trouble.

Also, it hasn't escaped my mind that all of this is happening at Christmastime. If all of this were planned months in advance, it makes sense to believe at that time that sales would have been slow.

It's all too convenient.

Gore Endorses Dean for President

After repeated calls, the real Al Gore has finally stood up. Already David Frum, in his column on National Review Online, says that this is consistent with the old Gore in ways that might not be obvious to the naked eye:

Does Gore still wish to be president? Pretty clearly, he does: Otherwise he would have found himself a real job and moved to LA, rather than dabbling in business while maintaining a theoretical domicile in Carthage, Tennessee.

But how to gain the presidency? Gore was right to decide against running in 2004. The problem for him was not just that incumbents are hard to beat, but that his party has gone nuts. Had Gore run, much of the rage now directed at George W. Bush for defeating the Dems in 2000 and 2002 would have directed itself instead at Al Gore for losing an eminently winnable race. Gore would have had to reply endlessly to questions about his campaigning in 2000, about his handling of the Florida recount, about his ultimate concession, about his silence on the Bush tax cut, etc. etc. etc. By 2008, those passions will have drained away.

Of course, should another Democrat win in 2004, there will be no contest in 2008 for Gore to join. So Gore has to wish for defeat this year.

And not for mere defeat, but for catastrophic defeat. A Democratic wipeout in 2004 would make Gore’s performance in 2000 – 51 million votes, 266 electoral votes – look retrospectively much more impressive.

I know that reeks of conspiracism, but remember what the goal is: Al and/or Hilary in control.

Howard Dean's Planned Parenthood Ties

Oh my...

"I did not perform abortions. I'm a medical doctor. Nor did my wife," Dean told a Boston television station in July. Dean's wife Judith also is a physician.

Yet, Dean's extensive ties to the Northern New England chapter of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., including his internship and work as a contract obstetrician/gynecologist at one of the group's Vermont clinics in the late 1970s and early 1980s, are producing more questions about the nature of that involvement at a time when Planned Parenthood was cementing its role as America's largest abortion provider.


Well, now!

Immaculate Mary

Today is a holy day in the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This is a particularly important day for Americans as this passage from the web home of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. details:

The National Shrine is literally, "America's Patronal Church." When the United States' first Catholic bishop, John Carroll, placed the young nation under Mary's protection, he foretold the faith and devotion of its Catholics through ensuing generations - including those who conceived of and built the National Shrine, and those who visit it and support its ministry today. Every stone and artistic nuance of the Shrine proclaims our nation's relationship with Mary, a spiritual bond formalized in 1847 with Pope Pius IX's proclamation of Mary as "Patroness of the United States" under the title of her Immaculate Conception.

Perhaps that is why God has shed his grace on America, because we are under the watchful eye of the woman he chose to bear his only son.

Indeed, never has it been known that anyone who implored the Blessed Mother for assistance was unanswered. Just ask Franz Werfel and his wife. At mass today, Msgr. Robert Berggreen told the story of how Werfel, a jew facing persecution at the hands of the Nazis in the 1930's, attempted to escape into Spain but was denied entrance. So he and his wife fled to France, making it as far as Lourdes. There he knealt to pray at the great shrine, telling the Blessed Mother how he didn't believe in her but if there was some way she could help him escape, he would make known the miracle at Lourdes to all around the world. To make a long story short, Mary heard the man's plea and he lived to keep his promise: he wrote the book, The Song of Bernadette which 20th Century Fox turned into a major motion picture in 1943. It's a classic to be certain, and doesn't browbeat in any way.

For those non-Catholics who scoff at Marian devotions, remember that good Catholics know that devotion Mary is means to Our Lord Jesus Christ, but not an end in herself. We do not worship her, we honor her. (I hate having to repeat that, but as long as there are people who distort our beliefs I'll keep clarifying them.) Today, all people of faith - even Muslims, who have a particular reverence of her, for reasons I don't understand - should thank this woman for being the means by which God gave Jesus to the world.

Bwah-ha-ha

Jonah Goldberg, from The Corner on National Review Online:

"Another Christmastime commercial that drives me nuts is the one(s) for Kay Jewellers. The husband/boyfriend buys the missus/girlfriend a diamond whatever and she gives him some sugar. The tagline as they smooch is 'Every Kiss Begins with Kay.' Now, I understand that it's also a pun ('kiss' begins with 'K', har har har), but if every kiss begins with a bauble from the jewelers then, well, your wife's a whore. "

The C-Word

This is how nutty it has become. From Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus on National Review Online: "A reader sent me something treasurable, and typical. He quoted a memorandum of his company, which said, '[Company X] observes the following holidays.' Listed then were 'New Year's Day,' 'Presidents' Day,' 'Memorial Day,' 'July 4th/Independence Day,' 'Labor Day,' 'Thanksgiving and the Day After,' and, get this, 'December 25th.' The company couldn't bring itself to utter the C-word. Maybe they thought it was unconstitutional or something. We're lucky that they actually said 'Thanksgiving,' as I have noticed — and remarked in Impromptus — that Thanksgiving is being replaced by 'holiday,' too."

God forgive us.