Thanks, Rayne!
FunnyWheelieDiva

Bravo!

Sounds like some fine children being raised by a very good mom. Good on ya, Rayne.

Seconded!

Thanks Rayne.

Recommended.

Excellent, Rayne!
Great list of the true obscenities.

Excellent, Rayne. Keep telling ‘em what you’ve been telling ‘em. Sounds like they’re remarkably well-informed and insightful. Like their mom. :-)

Nice, Rayne.

Yup

Bush/Cheney – the stench won’t go away.

Thanks Rayne!

Good job, Rayne:

By the way: It seems that Tamron and Schuster just can’t deal with anything remotely connected, even in imagination, to phalluses and thus to sex:

http://gawker.com/5305869/phal…..g-of-msnbc

Very well stated Rayne.

Anyone here…please send a link to this to every BigMedia contact you may have.

Good post Rayne.

What am I supposed to tell these children?

One ray of sunshine in all of this is that the republican party will take decades to repair. As long as the accomplices to these horrific crimes/events are still serving their party they will be impotent. I know a few repub’s and they still identify themselves as republican’s yet for 4 years and 3 elections (04, 06, 08) they have voted democratic. And as more info comes out of what went on these past 8 yrs, well, it just keeps piling up.
The best hope they have is to run ALL new faces in ALL elections but they are not that smart.

Thanks, gang. The kids have never seen me shed a tear over “blowjob”, but they’ve seen me cry over the war, torture, and this economic disaster the Bush administration created.

It wasn’t a “blowjob” or even several which devastated the town and the state in which we live in, leaving it a hollow shell of itself after most of its manufacturing jobs left over the last eight years.

There are other much more ugly words, and other really dreadful sins. “Blowjob” isn’t any of those.

Brava, Rayne. That’s telling them.

OT: Hey, Rayne, did you catch this: MS to give away Office.

Very well done, Rayne. Send it to those blowhards on the TV.

hear, hear!! Why we think that war isn’t obscene, I will never understand. Violence and murder are condemned in perhaps (cautious with an invariant here) every single major religion.

It’s called denial and scapegoating.

Rayne, I always look for your comments and posts for your reveal a person I’m so proud of. You’re doing a fine job with your kids, Rayne. If they are old enough to ask the question, they’re old enough to be told the truth as you see it.

My youngest (twins) just had their 49th birthday. As our children grow up, leave home, and establish families of their own it is most important that we can look back and know that we mostly got the really important issues right in raising them. That will be your strength and peace of mind when you reach my age, but more important they will have the strength of character to maintain their principles in facing life’s adversities.

You’re getting it right, Rayne – hold on and keep on keeping on.

You know, all in all, I’d rather have more blowjobs than torture.

wigwam — yeah, I’ve seen that, and I have to say, WOW. Office has been 30% of their cashflow; that they’ll give it away to Firefox and Safari users also says something, too. I think I need to stew on this awhile, look over their last 10K report (although I personally won’t touch their stock until Steve Ballmer has retired/quit/been removed).

acquarius74 — thank you, you are too kind. Your twins are only a hair older than I am, feels nice even at this age to have the approval of a parental figure. And yes, it’s nice when we can look back and see that we are getting most of it right; I can see some of the fruits beginning to pay off even now.

DrZen — of course! more oral sex and less torture for everyone!!

Tell it like it is Rayne

Lies under oath about a BJ = impeachment

WMD Intelligence Snowjob = hundreds of thousands dead, injured, millions displaced…no accountability

CIA or torture “contractors” = “move on, turn the page, next chapter please”

This wonderful post starkly illuminates the hypocrisy of our media. Here is a word which is in the common vernacular, yet these media members act like it is, oh, so tawdry. This while the true obscenities are allowed to lay there like rotten fish, unremarked upon.

Only in a society as perverse as our own, could an activity as normal as the act of love be considered obscene, while the pornography of a gun wielding thug graphically blowing a person’s brains out is considered appropriate evening TV fare. This is beyond idiotic, as one activity routinely occurs in homes the World over, but God forbid our impressionable youth should be exposed to it any way! Better we allow the most egregious mayhem to be perceived as normal conduct.

Rayne, your children are truly blessed to have such a Mother.

Rayne, you’ll see those good fruits in many ways, often surprising you. I recall one time with my only daughter. She had broken some rule now lost to my memory. When I confronted her she stood before me and said, “Ground me, take away my allowance, make me do dishes all week instead of just my turn – just don’t talk to me.”

There is only one thing more important than the discussions you have with your kids; that is whether they see you putting your words into action in every day living. [yes, that’s where Obama is losing the high ground and is in danger of defeat, IMO]

excellent points, thank you Rayne.

Rayne is an excellent parent and her kids are very fortunate to have her.

I couldn’t script a more telling difference between the MSM & Blogs than what played out after Marcy’s comment.

The AirHead could only appear to be above all with her unsolicited apology, as if that was the worse thing said in that dustup. Surprisingly Shuster got dragged into the muck, he’s usually a better journalist than that.

I’m deeply offended that the corporate-owned mainstream media can turn a blind eye to the really offensive obscenities, thereby becoming complicit in the criminality — and they’ve done this in front of my kids for more than eight years.

What am I supposed to tell these children?

This Mom walks with you with the same questions, with similar aged children seeing the same obscenities.

(And to think you challenged my “hero” comment last week.)

Great diary – recd

You hit that nail, and damn hard! Thanks.

Thanks, Rayne. Very nice writing. Your kids not only will do you proud but they will be proud of you. Keep talking to them … we need all the intelligent people we can get.

She’s got smart kids, though, our Rayne. I’ve seen them spend half a day at a political Convention without getting cranky and mostly helping mom be a good citizen.

What if they called for war through the big megaphone and nobody came?? As for me,
I’m still trying to figure out how those NY towers came down.

Strange this should come up. I recently saw a PBS documentary on comedians and censorship. Seems those prone to make political commentary were yanked and called obscene. And many comedians did use 4 letter words, so I guess that gave some networks justification. But compare the obscenity of McCarthy v. the obscenity of 4-letter words. Or the obscenity of everything Addington, Gonzales and Cheney v. “blowjob”. Or the actual evil of “ethnic cleansing” v. the ohmigod word “ethnic cleansing.” For me, there’s no comparison.

Smart kid the younger is currently watching the movie Brazil this morning with me.

Jeebus, but has my perception of this movie changed over time, what with our country becoming more authoritarian and pro-torture. I can’t explain this film to this kid the same way I explained it to his older brother back in the early 1990’s…

LOL, I bet your kids know a LOT more than you think they know!

RT
http://www.anonymize.tk

oo time to revisit that movie, been a long long time.

And besides, when a representative of a “foul-mouthed feminist” community goes on air and uses the word “blowjob,” she does us proud.

Was thinking the same thing while reading post. I agree with you absolutely. Well done Rayne your children have a damn good mom.

PS
I made a donation in honour of the BJ. Thank you EW for not mincing words.

I love how the media tries to pretend we are a Puritan nation that dare not speak in well-accepted terms about, well, a blow job. The older kids a few doors down, who were in 6th grade when I was in 2nd, taught me every dirty word in the book. Somehow, I survived.

Thanks for this. It’s what we all felt and know.

Super, Rayne. You really put things back into prospective. Recommended, of course.

Excellent Rayne!

Oh, thank you so much for that donation. Much more bang for the buck than a donation to NPR these days, eh?

Elliott (36) — we just watched the scene where Sam meets up with his friend Jack at Information Retrieval, discovering that “information retrieval” means Jack is a torturer. What a conversation we’ve just had about that.

And a follow-up about the banality with which everyone in this society responds to the demands of invasive security, detention and torture.

Try explaining all of this to an 11-year-old without getting too philosophical or too emotional; it’s one of the most taxing things I’ve done this week, and we’re not yet through this movie.

Good mom!

THANK YOU RAYNE!

I hope the good folks at MSNBC read this

Your statement that the GOP will take decades to repair might be wishful thinking. It would seem obvious that they have destroyed their brand by what they have done to the our country and the mess they have made abroad. However, when you look at the Democratic Party, the weak and cowering Congress and the Blue Dogs that enable the GOP to undermine the DEMs over and over, it is easy to see another scenario where the DEMs blow it again. They are frequently ineffectual and terrible on message and you can depend on the media to give credence to the most outlandish GOP distortions and talking points on the daily news cycle. Thinking logically, you would conclude that the GOP is toast for a long time. Thinking realistically and historically, the DEMs are likely to loose much of the ground we have captured due to ineptness and political cowardice.

Thanks, Rayne – great post.

I sent this to MSNBC and some newspapers via Spotlight. Easy to do, hope it helps.

Where do progressives go, though?

As Eli Pariser said after the 2004 election, it’s our party, we bought it, we own it. We’re going to take it back, it’s just going to take time and effort. It’s a lot faster to hold our own accountable than to build a third party which will have critical mass.

And one helluva lot faster than rebuilding the wreck which is the Republican Party.

Rayne – The only thing I would add to your spot-on post is this:

All of the horrific lies you list were made possible because
of The Lie: 9/11. Until there is a true investigation of the
many questions about what really happened that day:
~ the endless wars based on ‘terrorism”, and
~ the decimation of our Constitutional rights,
~ and the over-all degradation of our way of life… will continue.

This won’t happen if we wait for a corporate-owned media that will always talk about blow-jobs instead of inside jobs. Support your alternative media outlets on the Internet. Study the facts (http://patriotsquestion911.com/ , 911truth.org) and help spread the word.

At least half the families of 911 victims, and millions of U.S.citizens (and growing) demand the truth – and won’t stop until we get it.

I’m sorry that you feel this way Rayne. Contrary to the 50 comments that precede mine, not everyone agrees with you. I know many who are proud to be part of the liberation of the Iraqi people. I do appreciate your clear concise article and your personal involvement in your children’s life to teach them to question everything and be objective. Have a great day.

You’re entitled to your opinion. Your notion that the people of Iraq were liberated is clearly that, an opinion — and it’s the kind of opinion we discuss in our household frequently, especially after sending a family member to serve there.

The only opinions which really count when it comes to the liberation of Iraq are those of the Iraqi people. Real democracy doesn’t come through anything but the will of the governed; when the Iraqis are able to express their own aggregate will, they will have liberated themselves.

In the mean time, as long as the media in this country is more worried about useless crap like the deaths of celebrities, we’re not particularly free ourselves. We can’t give anybody democracy, and we aren’t doing a particularly good job of ensuring it for ourselves.

My only question would be, why use the verbiage when you know it will be made the focus of discussion?

I’m not exactly sure what sex-act metaphors add to the discussion. Proving that we are daring? Getting publicity and any publicity is good publicity? Giving us another chance to entertain one another with righteous indignation? Shocking the bourgeosie?

Whatever. But if your rhetoric is shifting the debate away from the issues and to the metaphor, then, rhetorically, the metaphor is a poor choice.

Clinton was investigated (and impeached) for lying about a bj, blow job, fellatio sex act. On what grounds are wingnuts arguing that should we not investigate Cheney for illegal CIA assassination squads?

The only problem is that we should have used that euphemism for oral sex more frequently nearly a decade ago. We should have had the debate about the focus of our country’s media at that time.

And we clearly haven’t grown up since we allowed the media to decide we needed to get into the Clinton family’s underwear in the late 1990’s, or obsess over Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction in early 2004.

But no, we rolled over and played dead, allowing a minority of the people in this country to force their puritanical mores on us, while allowing themselves to be used by another wealthier minority to cow us into accepting bread and circuses instead of investigative journalism and real democracy.

It’s long past time we had this conversation, and told the media to sit up straight, pay attention, and do their damned jobs as the Fourth Estate or we’ll do it for them.

In my view, Marcy’s comments yesterday put the entire MSM on notice that false equivalency is just that, false.

That committing war crimes, subverting the Constitution, and managing a network both inside and outside of government to suppress this lawless complicity is not the same as David “Diapers” Vitter, Larry “Toe Tapping” Craig, Mark “Love of My Life” Sanford, Newt “Serial Adulteror Extraordinaire” Gingrich, Elliot “Hookers for Me, but not for Thee” Spitzer, John “Vote for Me, I’m just like Bill Clinton” Edwards, or even the Big Dawg himself.

It could be that Marcy delivered a “Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” moment.

The whole context of testimony that day in 1954 before HUAC bears re-reading. Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, turned the tables on the committee by interrogating Joseph McCarthy & Roy Cohn on their blatant public relations attack of personal character assassination.

ABC News’ live broadcast of these hearings allowed the American People to see the lying, fear mongering demogogues for what they were — not at all concerned for the country’s real national security, just their own personal political power.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444/

This testimony, beamed into living rooms across America, turned the tide on McCarthy’s power in the Senate and tipped the balance for the Constitution and against the political tactics of red baiting and witch hunting.

Only time will tell if yesterday will be such an inflection point.

Meanwhile, the present day McCarthyites shouldn’t clutch their pearl necklaces too tight, it’ll cut off circulation to their well washed brains.

Message to the D.C. Villagers: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair

You prove my point. The word “blowjob” LET the media make terminology the focus of a brouhaha while the real issue was conveniently ignored. This whole THREAD is about the terminology not the issue. I’m a professional writer. I use words for effect. In this instance, the petty shock value of impolite, conventionally vulgar vocabulary hides the overwhelming shock that should come from the statement. The facts are the obscenity. Let them hold the limelight.

A euphemism such as “sex act” gives an opponent nothing to work with. No titillating mental visuals. No memories of stained dresses. “Sex act” sounds dirty without sounding like much fun. “Blowjob” excites shock for no particularly good reason and, at the same time, invites us to linger vicariously over its meaning. It lets the opponent use the conventional shock value of TV vulgarity to divert the audience from the point.

If one really wanted to rub in the point about the press’ self-serving and disproportionate standards of shock, one could do better. One could even say something inflated and deliberately awkward like “the press was horrified when a Democratic president put one of his body parts where his critics felt it did not belong. But it sees nothing outrageous when a Republican vice president has a little boy’s testicles crushed”. An opponent hearing such an overblown, bland, denatured euphemism for the sex doesn’t see what’s coming and gets hammered by the brutal specificity of the second statement, which addresses a “sex” act of a truly evil character. The audience will wince.

A hostile interviewer can’t recover from something like the above. No prepared followup question will work. There will be an uncomfortable unplanned silence. “Blowjob”, on the other hand, is much more Modern Media friendly. Say it on TV and no one has to listen anymore. The host can cut to commercial, hustle you off, and reach for his smelling salts if he wants. Or he can brow-beat you on air for your insensitivity. Either way, he’ll apologize for your behavior after you leave.

In public debate, manners are a weapon. Discourse is a weapon. The trick is to use them to disarm and dispatch your opponent before he knows that he’s lost. “Shocking” language won’t do that.

Al Gore Lies Abouot Iraq’s WMD

Video of former Vice President Al Gore misleading the public about Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction capabilities.

Fear mongering was used throughout the eight year reign of the Clinton Administration so the Democrats set the stage for both 911 and the Iraq war long before George W. Bush even took office

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6d_1247512392

Hey [edit]. You prove my point.

[Modnote: Namecalling not allowed.]

I remember when “suck” was a bad word…

I remember when “Bush” was a bad word …

Obviously you don’t know Marcy. She’s plain spoken and doesn’t beat around the bush.

She laid it out in common terms everyone could readily understand — obviously, everybody, including the producers at MSNBC, knew exactly what she was talking about.

“Sex act”? Jeebus. Talk about evasive and vague. We could be talking about Ensign or Sanford or Vitter or any number of Republican dirtbags who cheated on their wives.

The point was pretty clear, and the media’s reaction yesterday cinched it: the media is more concerned about Bill Clinton’s oral sex in the White House than they are with doing real reporting.

Let me be real blunt: The media in this country fucked up the run-up to the war. They fucked up the run-up to the economic crisis. They fucked up at least three elections, two of which were presidential.

And as a former member of new media, I can tell you I saw the media in this country fucking up on a daily basis.

Now go ahead and tell me that the word “fuck” is getting in the way of your understanding this point. Even my kids won’t misunderstand me on this.

*Stands on chair and applauds*

Are you calling me a namecaller? Please edit that out. Thx.

I remember when you could call an a-hole and a-hole and not be censored. That said, Rayne makes the point without namecalling… but she did use a bad word.

So “asshole” is not permitted but “Republican dirtbags” is. Ok. In my opinion, both are acceptable but then it’s not my blog to set the rules. Do you have an FAQ on rules?

I think the rules (although mostly not written as far as I know) are that you do not direct the term at a specific commenter.

Politicians of course, are fair game to be called asshole. Especially when they deserve it.

I guess my mouth came from the gutter. I really don’t understand why “that word” even makes the media blink. It’s not as if there is something so wrong with the sex act for which the euphemism has been applied.

I am so with you on this one, Rayne.

The real obscenity is that there is a euphemism for torture. As if calling it by another name makes it all right.

That’s a big difference.

Let me see if I have this straight. If robspierre is being an a-hole, I can’t call him an a-hole but if Joe Lieberman is being an a-hole, he’s fair game as long as he doesn’t post on FireDogLake.

Let’s extend robspierre argument. The word “torture” should not be spoken in polite company, so let’s call it “enhanced interrogation techniques” and then everyone will listen.

Yep, that’s pretty much as I understand it. It allows all of us to be assholes in our own way yet do so politely.

I think it goes back to attempting to maintain some semblance of politeness.

Kind of like how the Senators call each other esteemed colleague. They don’t believe it, but they do it anyway.

Wow…. this is just simply amazing to me. You guys should really hear yourselves talk. Its pretty sad to me. You all are the one’s that are causing all of the problems for this country. Its quite simply a moral decline. War is hell. Everyone knows this. People are going to die, and I know that sucks, but its part of it. Don’t think for one second either that the soldiers that are over there didn’t know what they were getting themselves into either. Trust me they knew. Its also a necessary evil that is required for the freedom that you get to go to bed and to and enjoy every night. What’s all of this talk about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq being phrased as useless? The problem is simply that you guys don’t have your facts straight. Did you forget that innocent men, women, and children died right here in America on 9/11? Is that not why we went into Afghanistan, to break up terrorist cells and to eliminate the threat of something catastrophic like that from ever happening again? Who are you to say that there were no WMD’s in Iraq? Did you know that Jordanian intelligence confirmed that there were in fact WMD’s in Iraq, or that the Messiah of your precious Democratic Party Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary both pleaded with the US Senate to carry out preemptive strategical strikes on Iraq based on the platform of the intelligence received proving that there were in fact chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. Even liberal ass Ted Kennedy said it was a “slam dunk”. How about the mustard gas residue found in countless empty barrels that the Marines found during the invasion of Baghdad, or the countless hours of video that was retrieved of Saddam and his top advisers, including a man named Chemical Ali and his buddy named Dr. Germ, concerning the subject of how to manufacture and use chemical and biological weapons. Those seem like people who make and distribute WMD’s to me. The fact is that the weapons were shipped out before the invasion and hidden in mosques which the inspectors and Coalition forces didn’t check, due to the Muslim way of life. Its easy to throw blame to the Bush administration though, I get it. I mean Obama has been in there for almost 8 months now, but here we are still talking about Bush. Hey guess what, Obama is president now, this stuff is on his watch and eventually he can’t hide behind Bush or Iraq. As far as the whole Blow Job thing goes, you should be ashamed of your self. If I hear my kid talking about BJ’s someday, I’m going to put him or her in check real quick. Would you go into a kindergarten class a start throwing around the words blow job every where. No, because you know that’s inappropriate and a lot of parents would be pissed. Get real people.

Who are you to say that there were no WMD’s in Iraq?

No nukes for sure and the CIA knew it. Even the Bush Administration called the invasion a pre-emptive war. We are not in Iraq as a matter of national security and being lied to about it is good enough reason to be pissed off.

My Two Cents.

This is just the most awesome and astounding post!!!
wow Rayne!
This should be in the NYT!!!
I’m forwarding and passing around and RTweeting and everything else I can think of.
GREAT GREAT JOB!
siri

How about the mustard gas residue found in countless empty barrels that the Marines found during the invasion of Baghdad,…

You mean the mustard gas that the US sold to Saddam during the Reagan Admin for him to use during his war with Iran that had been so badly degraded that it was no longer lethal by the time we invaded in ‘03? That mustard gas?

I worry about the dems constant ability to snag defeat from the jaws of victory myself.

Apparently you haven’t taken your meds this week.

And you’re also watching far too much Fox News.

Try cracking a book — I recommend one of the classics, and I don’t mean Dr. Seuss — shutting off the television, and taking your meds more regularly.

Oh, and by the way, your kids already know about blowjobs. They just won’t talk to you about sex because you’re an uptight prude who has deep seated problems with sex and are clearly uneducated about any subject.

That’s why kids like Bristol Palin get pregnant, under age and out of wedlock: they have parents like you.

Very well said, Rayne. Thanks for your courage and clear vision.

Bill O’Reily called, said your at the wrong place.

Your diary is featured at Democratic Underground. One of the commenters there.. OwnedByFerrets.. sums up the controversy.
****************
“We can’t be subjected to the word “blowjob” but we can be bludgeoned over the head with “if your erection last more than 4 hours” every 12 mins on network television. Yeah, that makes sense. ”

http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;6064565

Exactly, I’ve had to explain to my 8 year old twins recently what an erection is and why someone would have to call the doctor should it last for more than 4 hours.

Yes, I received an email about the same point, that we’re beaten about the head and shoulders on BROADCAST television with drugs for erectile dysfunction nonstop, especially when the man of the house decides to watch sports (apparently this is a perfect target market).

And I’ve had to explain to the younger kid those stupid ads about blue pills, explain what’s so great about the yellow pills that makes older couples want to sit in separate bath tubs outside, yada yada yada ad nauseum. (Don’t forget the stupid nutraceuticals which claim to make a man more than he is; I actually had to explain that one just this week, and made the kid change the channel because of that fraud.)

The blue pill business represents yet another kind of obscenity: the company which makes the blue pills sells FIVE MILLION DOLLARS WORTH EVERY DAY, nearly 2 billion bucks a year for this single drug. But the same company whines about helping to provide a public health care option?

That’s obscene, and it’s more obscene that the media won’t cover this.

But “blowjobs”. I’m supposed to get all light-headed and queasy and shoo the children out of the room when Marcy says the B word. Yeesh.

Thank you Rayne for saying what’s been on my mind for a long time. I’m I wrong to assume that a majority sees passed the smokescreens that have been set up, i.e. using that word to divert where the real obscenities lie? It’s like saying “Squirrel!” to a dog in the movie UP, so that they can keep covering up what’s really going on.

I hope that Marcy didn’t apologize for using the word, blowjob, because she made her point valid.

Oh most definitely; obviously the word “blowjobs” works on the media, the way “mushroom cloud”, “weapons of mass destruction”, “terror alert” and many other phrases worked on the minds of conservatives during the early Bush administration. These words derail their minds because they can’t hang on to the larger, deeper challenges for very long without a commitment of intellect and attention — very much like having only dog-like facilities.

Did we not also learn about a distinguishing characteristic of Clinton’s penis from the main stream media during the investigation of his alleged lying about a blowjob sex act. Just sayin’ the puritanical bent of the media is about protecting their value – you can’t have viewers tuning out because of blowjob talk but you can have them tuning in because of blowjob talk.)

God help Rayne’s kids…

Rayne I think you forgot a few….What about the mountain of debt thrust upon the shoulders of your children in the form of bailouts and goverment handouts. Or the wave illegal immragant flooding our streets, straining our education and medical systems. What about the fact that we allowed the bar to be lowered on what it took to get a home loan, creating this housing bubble that blew up in our face….just a few other things you might want inform your children about.

Of course all of the liberals here will totally skip over this nugget… They are too easily confused with facts…

————————————–

kieranmullen July 14th, 2009 at 11:33 am

Al Gore Lies Abouot Iraq’s WMD

Video of former Vice President Al Gore misleading the public about Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction capabilities.

Fear mongering was used throughout the eight year reign of the Clinton Administration so the Democrats set the stage for both 911 and the Iraq war long before George W. Bush even took office

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6d_1247512392

@ Rayne

I applaud you for not taking the media reports at face value and encouraging your children to come to their own decisions and opinions.

As another poster pointed out words have quite a bit of power and deliberate word choice can either downplay or highlight a subject. You’ve done so quite well, and I hope you’re satisfied with the reaction you seem to have been going for.

I agree that there are many things wrong with how our government and media do business. This is nothing new. Historically, both bodies have kept information from being released to the public or slanted it. In many cases, such behavior didn’t come to light until generations after the fact.

You suggested someone “crack open a book that” wasn’t Dr. Suess. May I suggest a history book for yourself and your kids?

There are many ways to present a view point, some more successfully than others. In your replies I’ve seen you blast the “puritanical minded” people who shy away from commonly used vulgarities to make their point. Personally, I find that those who insist on using such off color language- or championing those who do use them- to be rude and well, common.

Presentation and appearance matter, oftentimes as much as the subject matter.

Now, you’re obviously an intelligent person who doesn’t believe in taking things at face value and who doesn’t shy away from making your opinion clear. I doubt there is anyone reading your posts who doesn’t have a good idea of where you stand.

However, in those same posts, you’ve come across as a shrew. A shrill one at that. Personally, a shrewish personality that really hasn’t provided any reputable sources (ie. not media obtained) of actual illegal wrongdoing doesn’t get a lot of credence from me. I too was taught not to take things at face value and unfortunately, you haven’t really proved any of your point(s).

Browbeating people to make yourself heard is all well and good, but it shows a lack of skilled discourse on your part.

Oh how lovely, the same cretins who called us “anti-American” and made Fox News the leader in number of viewers for the better part of eight years have come in to pay a visit.

Team — Bless your little heart. And bless you for re-spamming kieran’s spam which was posted across other threads at the FDL sites. Really, you shouldn’t have.

obitrey — See the part I wrote about the media not doing investigative work; they know it, too, as this piece clearly outlines. Had they done their job as watchdogs, some of the problems you’re torqued about might not have happened. Oh, and the immigration “problem” about which you’re fearmongering? Try reading more about the root cause. This piece, although circa 2006 when our unemployment picture was different, is a good start; until the U.S. addresses 1) subsidies which undermine crop prices in other countries, and 2) corruption in neighboring countries which discourages their residents from staying home, we’re going to have an ongoing challenge with illegal immigration no matter how high the fence you want to build with scarce tax dollars.

Phea — And you come off as a self-righteous prig. History books? I have shelves of them which my kids and I both read, along with books on politics, public policy, science, you name it. History and literature both provide plenty of examples of language considered common and vulgar at the time, like that employed in William Shakespeare’s works, which eventually become appreciated for what they are, contemporary expressions of the human condition. Let me borrow and paraphrase from one of my favorites here: I bite my thumb at thee.

Or would you rather I borrowed something from “Taming of the Shrew”? You irksome brawling scold.

Apparently liberal parents pride themselves on their preteen kids knowing euphimisms for oral sex. I guess it’s inevitably going to happen but the fact that you take pride in it says something about the moral decline of America and how liberals gleefully contribute to it.

Oh thank you so much for making the reciprocal point that conservatives don’t recognize real obscenities even when they are being robbed blind by the same.

Using the word “blowjob” = bad
Lying about everything, from illegal war, domestic spying, torture = good

Yes, thanks for making this clear.