Cynical Nation

A year ago, we were finally making some progress. It was actually legal to say the word "fuck" on network television, so long as it was a noun and not an adjective, or a verb and not a pronoun, or some arbitrary bullshit bureaucratic distinction. But it doesn't matter; the point is it was a little-noticed milestone on the road to repealing the last vestiges of federally enforced puritanical standards for the entertainment industry.

Then came MTV's stupid-ass halftime show, which ushered in a full twelve months of steadily increasing fines and penalties for "indecency," not to mention the extraordinary overkill of network self-censorship.

Was it worth it, people? All for a half-second glimpse of Janet Jackson's horrific breast? No, I say, a thousand times no!! My only hope is that with another Superbowl under our belts and a new chairman heading the FCC, we can finally begin to move on. Let the bureaucrats at the FCC go back to doing... well, whatever the hell they did before the term "wardrobe malfunction" joined "hanging chad" in the lexicon of infamy.