Brain Fertilizer

Digger's Realm has more on the issue I weighed in on here.

I'm going to use that as a pretext to continue ranting.

I'm also going to clarify once more, I don't support Sen. Stevens. But I'm growing ever-more incensed at the reaction to it.

Does Sen. Stevens not have the right to let his ideas be put in a public forum to be voted on? Some of you people are acting like he's trying to tear up the US Constitution.

We're getting lots of witty sayings out of this, like, "Keep the Democrats out of my wallet, and the Republicans out of my entertainment industry -- Stephen Green." Yeah, that sounds cute, but like that old saw says, a clever saying doesn't constitute an argument.

Hollywood is strongly aligned to the left. You know what you get with that? Marxism, socialism, PETA, ELF, anti-gun attitudes, anti-religion attitudes.

So Republicans would want to keep curse words out of entertainment. Does that make the entertainment worse? Only if you think gratuitous use of obscenities is funny in and of itself.

Leaving entertainment in the hands of Democrats (which Mr. Green and his supporters apparently have no problem with) means that The Passion of the Christ would never have been made. I guess you guys care nothing about that sort of censorship, eh? It went on to be one of the highest grossing movies ever, because when given a choice, people will watch better stuff than Hollywood wants to give us. But the "Democrat"* standards which are supposedly so free, in reality are only free to reach the lowest common denominator.

It means that Fahrenheit 9/11 is held up as a shining example of "truth". It means that Culture of Death movies are made without concern, perhaps in a conscious attempt to shape opinion, like Million Dollar Baby.

People, if we leave entertainment to Hollywood, we get Caillou.

Let's look at some of the things that "Republican" Standards brought us:
-Star Wars
-The original Star Trek
-The Honeymooners
-Scooby Doo
-The Flintstones
-Marilyn Monroe
-Psycho
-Aliens
-Speed Racer

Excellent stuff there, no? Would any of those been improved with the addition of boobies and cusswords? What do more relaxed standards bring us? A live-action remake of Scooby-Doo, complete with Scrappy Doo urinating on Daphne. Nice job, there, guys. I don't see how the addition of Sen. Stevens' standards wouldn't have made that better by subtraction. Or another example: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was a most excellent movie. Was it improved by the contrived scene of having Napolean fall down and say "Merde!" with the expletive appearing in subtitles, just so it wouldn't get a G rating? When Hollywood adds profanity and obscenity to get a PG rating, how are we served? Sure, it might make a few adolescents giggle...but the vast bulk of our society does not consist of adolescents. I see no reason why we simply must set our standards on the basis of adolescent attitude.

Let me restate my premise, if it has gotten lost in my ranting:
Entertainment was better 30 years ago. It is not because they had more restrictive standards, necessarily, but the looser standards become, the more crap they offer us. "Lowest Common Denominator" entertainment seems to invariably be worse. If (and only if) imposing Sen. Stevens standards would result in better entertainment, I would be all for it. But since that's an impossible proposition, I'll fail to give my support and just complain about all you people who think using the word "a$$" 10 times in half an hour is funny in and of itself.

*I say "Democrats" in reference to "Keep Republicans out of my entertaiment", okay? I don't actually think Democrats are setting the standards.