So what is all this censorship crap?

I’ve always been of the opinion that radio and television (mostly radio, though) should be able to broadcast what they like, the way they like to. Like the satellite boys. Howard Stern, though I’m not a fan at all, can say whatever he wants, with no worries about the FCC, the FFA, or any other TLA you want to throw at him. I like that. Because I have a tuner knob, and if I don’t like it, I can swing the dial. I’m a big boy. I should get to choose what I want to hear and not complain if I do accidentally hear something I don’t like. I don’t want big government telling the stations what they can and can’t say.

Now I don’t think regular television channels should broadcast nudity. Though in other countries they broadcast nudity and not violence, and look at the difference in crime rates over the pond compared to the States. I guess in the end if I had to choose what my child accidentally saw, I’d choose nudity over violence any day. And there is the thought that if they see it in commercials and programs, they won’t feel as much of a need to go seek it out on the internet. But that’s another topic.

I do, however, think the televisions should have equal broadcasting power as the radio when it comes to language. Let’s face it, some of those TV programs would be so much better if someone were allowed to say, “Son of a bitch! This is bullshit!” instead of some lame PG-suitable euphemism.

But while I speak this way about television and radio – and certainly the internet is included there – I’d like to point out that I do keep it clean here on this site. Like I mentioned in the About page, we don’t post pornography or shock-value pictures. There are millions of sites out there where you can find what you’re looking for in those departments – if you were so inclined. I think it makes trashy and tacky an otherwise fairly elegant site. Another thing I think can trash up a site is unnecessary and gratuitous foul language. You’ll find the occasional ‘shit’ or ‘damn’ in my columns, but you’ll never find the ‘f-word’ in my columns.

In the comments section, well, that’s another matter. You see, my philosophy is that I don’t like to edit or moderate people’s responses to the writing, or to each other’s comments. I think it breeds a sort of elementary school-like environment, and frankly, if someone feels moved to use language, then I don’t bother much with censoring it. I don’t want to pillage the spirit of the response by bleaching the language. I only rarely edit the responses at all, and then it’s usually when someone says something so ridiculously inappropriate or unnecessary that it doesn’t add any weight to the argument. But no, I don’t use foul language myself in the columns.

So what about the naked women? I believe in naked women! I’ve even seen one once! But seriously, I want to keep this site as PG as possible. You see Trish standing over there with everything covered by Post-It notes? I like her. I like to look at her. I just don’t think she should peel off the stickies on this website. Because then it wouldn’t be PG, would it?

What makes me sad is that some of the sites with which I used to trade links back in the old days have now gone either partially or all the way to porn sites. Have you seen Stile Project lately? Yeah, he used to write columns too. Now there’s none of that. And let’s face it. I like boobs as much as the next guy. In fact, I’d wager that I like them more than almost anyone on the planet. That’s why I designed those neat little stickies for Trish’s pretty parts, so I could put the image up here. But at the end of the day (or the beginning, as it were) I want people to know they can pull up my site at work, at home, or on an airplane without fear of accidentally getting a nude image. Not sure I’d recommend SpaceBrewing during church service. But it is, and always will be safe for work. Unless you just work for one of those places that doesn’t allow you to surf the web without a written permission slip from your boss.

So that’s why we do what we do here. We’re keeping it safe. But we’re also keeping it real.