Crass and tasteless does not mean illegal

So with the world in the mess that it is these days, obviously the biggest story in the news should be that we all got to see Janet Jackson’s right boob on Sunday night. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you must be living in a hole. It’s a shame that after one of the most exciting Super Bowls (well, once we got close to the end of the first half) all we can talk about is a really stupid publicity stunt almost as lame as the moron who thought doing a naked jig in the middle of the field was even remotely clever. At least we’re getting such classic headlines as “Jackson Breast Under Fed Probe”.

The Drudge Report has additional info (and a graphic close-up) quoting a source who stated that CBS and MTV knew about it. Fortunately the NFL is cleared as simply being too stupid to realize hiring MTV was asking for trouble. Personally I find the most diturbing revelation during all of this can be found on the second picture on Drudge – namely that was no pasty, but the most frikkin’ ridiculous nipple piercing I’ve ever seen.

What it comes down to is that everything outside of the actual football game on Sunday was really bad. I mean the commercials were almost completely forgettable. Not only were they unimaginative, but more than half of them were either ads for CBS itself, something to get your wang working, or the dreaded anti-drug campaign. The halftime show was just pathetic. Everybody involved should be thrown out of entertainment. I’m not even close to offended, but I found about 90% of that show to be completely inappropriate, and Miss Jackson’s tit was just a fitting end to it all.

What really annoys me now, however, is the absolute overreaction by just about everybody on both sides. I’m annoyed because I found the entire incident horribly tasteless and inappropriate, but I don’t see this as a matter that the Federal government should waste money on. Fine them and get on with it. Nobody was killed and we all still have our wholesomeness in approximately the same state it was before. Of course read a conservative news forum and you would think that the exposure of a breast should be a hangin’ offense. It’s not the kind of thing I’d want my kid to see at the age of 8 or so, but it’s gonna happen sooner or later unless you want him to have a miserable life 😉 . Just talk it over with your kids and explain why that’s inappropriate, and not just cringe at the thought of another human being au naturale. I agree we need some guidelines on what should be shown on such open forums, but lets not cut straight to censorship. People really need to learn how to police themselves rather than others.

Of course on the other side of the fence we’ve got those mental giants at Salon who manage to compare Americans being upset with an obscene display of partial nudity with Arabian countries’ female policies. It isn’t prudish to not want to see Janet Jackson’s private anything during a very public sporting event. It’s not like parents are yelling about seeing the seedier side of life on a show like NYPD Blue. The Super Bowl is hardly the place I expected to see nudity, and if I were a parent I would definitely be a tad perturbed.

Oh well, who cares. I can’t believe it’s Wednesday and I’m just now finishing up this (almost certainly meandering) half-assed rant. Everybody just go about their business.