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Yes. I wonder what a creature from another planet would think about our culture based on our checkout line magazines. (Some stores - Albertson's is one - have actually put up "barriers" to cover parts or all of the "ladies'" magazines (think Cosmopolitan) because mothers of small children complained that their kids were getting an inadvertent - and unwanted-by-them - education in certain matters while waiting in the checkout line. And I'm really not crazy about having to note the degree of cleavage of the latest supermodel while I'm waiting to pay for my skim milk and bagged spinach.)
What bugs me most, I guess, is that people who behave in ways that 40 years ago would have been considered irresponsible almost to the point of criminality are celebrated, but in a lot of shows (sitcoms for example) people who take responsibly seriously are seen as nerds or worse.
"Maybe it's us. Are they giving us crap because we want it? If media got responsible, would we still read/watch?" Fox News is the highest rated news channel on television and they're about as adult and responsible as you can get nowadays. But they are still covering the Heath Ledger thing to death (ee-GADS, no pun intended -- I didn't realize how that sounded until I typed it).
"And the Holy Spirit is better than botox." You a smart mane, Meester Spider. [squish]
To Ricki's point: Romans 1:16-32 in context. But the meat is at Romans 1:28-32:
"Since they [idolaters, etc.] thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."
There you go. Human nature has not changed. I can argue for free speech and the right to NOT have God in the checkout line, but having Him in it would be better than Cosmo, I'm thinkin'.
We are just as much sinners as the folks in Paul's time; we just have internet and cable TV.
Thank you for our kind words, Wordgirl. But like Michael Jackson I am a single 49-year-old white guy (thank God that's all I have in common with him) skilled at expressing ideals of which I fall far short.
Sports radio is the same way up here, Spider. My dad has the sports radio station going all the time in the car, and those "enhancement" commercials are more than occasional. And some of the radio personalities are kinda raunchy, too. It's uncomfortable enough for me when I'm in the car with Dad, but one time this past summer he was driving my mom, my nephew (age 9), and me somewhere, and when one of those commercials came on I said, "Dad, volume--NOW." My nephew's been exposed to enough.
Yeah, my feeling is, there's free speech, but with freedom comes responsibility. Rush likes to say, "Words mean something." So people should think about what they're communicating. And on the flip side, we should be able to tell people when they've crossed the line of decency.
I don't want to censor it, I'm just mourning the fact that I can't listen to it anymore.
And I keep getting emails from lonely housewives offering discounts on drugs from Canada.
Oh, gosh, I'm sorry--I didn't mean to imply you were promoting censorship at all! I'm with you about being bummed out that we have to go out of our way to get away from that stuff, and there aren't good alternatives. Yet.
It's also in email - even work accounts. I've learned more vulgar slang for body parts in the past two months than I did in twelve years hanging out with hockey players.
Yes, I get some quite horrifying spam sent to my work account.
Of course, I suppose that it's because it's a .edu address, and people may figure on a college campus, anything goes.
The good news is you quickly learn which words to set up your filters with.
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