Warning: There will be some profanity in this post. But, there’s a point to it all; I think.
I was listening to a song on the radio today. During the chorus, they use this line a few times.
This ain’t a scene, it’s a god damn arms race
Yep, a full blown Granddaddy of a profanity. Over and over again.
Let’s take a little sidebar for a moment. I am more than familiar with profanity. As I kid, nearly 2 out of every 3 words that came out of my mouth when my relatives were not around would have gotten me fined on public radio. One time my mom heard me say that somebody was “pissed off” and I got grounded for a while. I still break out the old English to Profanity dictionary during special occasions like football games and mis-swinging a hammer.
So, back to the song. The powers that be at Sirius Satellite Radio, decided to censor the song. I have no problem with that either. It is their channel. Whatever.
But, here is what struck me as odd. The new improved suitable for children version of this line is
This ain’t a scene, it’s a ___ damn arms race
I’m so confused. It’s okay to say damn, but not god damn? Why’s that? Also, when did it become groovy to say “bitch” on shows like Two and a Half Men and others during prime time. When did the regulating bodies loosen up on that one.
Here is my big thought for the day, though.
If the song/show/book/clothes/doll has “disturbing content”, is it really okay to just filter out that instance of the disturbing content and experience the rest of the product. Won’t what remains still have the context that is disturbing to begin with. If somebody is nearly screaming, “This ain’t a scene, its’ a god damn arms race,” and you take out the “god” or even the “god damn” isn’t the context of anger and pent up aggression still there? Isn’t it the context that we are disturbed by?
If I say, “I had a great fucking birthday! You wouldn’t believe all the people that showed up and the amazing presents that I received,” is that worse than growling, “What a great birthday. You wouldn’t believe the people that showed up and the ‘gifts’ they brought.”
I don’t think anybody ever gets mad about the specific word that is used. I think people get offended by the context and the meaning that words carry. Don’t believe me. Listen to any of your favorite rap songs. If you are not black, would you use that one word that likes to show up in rap songs? But, millions of people use it while highfiving their buddy. Why is that? Context.
If you get rid of the word by simply removing the word, the context is still there.
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Your website is loading slower than a____. It’s hanging up on your ad load and again on the stat counter. And your f_____ feed isn’t working either. I tried to click through since you’re no longer f____ publishing full feeds. The URL my feed reader wanted me to go to is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BeAGoodDad/~3/93945160/
Maybe it’s a feedburner website issue?
The speed thing must have been a server hiccup. It seems fine now. The feed thing is a Wordpress 2.1 issue. They set the more tag to actually split feed posts which it never used to do. I hardly ever use more tag, so that caught me off guard. I think I remember reading that there is a way to fix that. I will look into tonight or tomorrow to get everybody back to full feeds. Nobody hates partial feeds worse than I do. Sorry about that one.
Yeah, it’s back to full speed now.
Let us know if you figure out how to have a partial post on the front page, but a full feed. It’s nice to have a partial post if you’ve got a lot of pictures and don’t want them cluttering the front page.