Electric Monkey Pants

Did you hear that Howard Stern has been suspended by Clear Channel for being a “vulgar, offensive, and insulting” loudmouth. Well duh. Everybody knows that. I think it’s obvious that Clear Channel is reacting to the FCC & the public wave of outrage following the Janet Jackson breast thing, which I commented about earlier. Come on folks. Clear Channel had tuned into Howard’s show before this. That would be like Hugh Hefner running up to his executive team at Playboy and yelling, “My God! Why didn’t anybody tell me we’ve been selling pornography!!”

I still can’t believe people are still upset about the boob thing. Settle down people; it’s just a mammary. Who freaking cares? I guess I can’t seem to find any moral outrage…except at those pointy-headed know-it-alls who think they can decide what people can and cannot see. They use the classic “Oh, but what about the children?!” line until you relent just to stop the hysteria. If they weren’t on some sort of puritanical tirade they could plainly see that kids can handle seeing a breast. Heck, they probably spent the first months of their lives sucking peacefully on their mommy’s breast. I expect they have only good memories of breasts.

Conversely, what I would object to my kids seeing is scenes of horrific violence. Kids don’t need to see that shit! Extreme violence gives adults nightmares! But, we, as a society embrace violence even while we try to suppress sexuality. There’s this whole plutonic sex & death thing that we’ve got going here in the USA; it’s really out of balance. We can’t seem to tame our dark and violent side. I think that’s because we (or the powers that be) want to keep repressing us sexually, yet keep tempting us with lurid TV images. Cognitive dissonance. That’s exactly what Clear Channel is doing right now. They’ve given us lots of free Howard, but now they yank him away to look like they’re actually stern (ha!) moralists, when they are in fact smut peddlers. This tactic confuses people and makes us sleepy. And when we get sleepy we can’t find the urge to fight back against the daily corporate transgressions that so completely drench our lives.

What am I saying? I guess I’m saying that it’s all a bunch of bullshit. Something negative will result, such as increased censorship. Conversely, we will probably also see increased monitoring of citizens, regardless of who wins this absurd little game of chicken with our constitutional rights. Pretty soon we’ll end up like Britain, completely boxed-in with “security” cameras. Who’s security? Not mine, I gather. Somehow I don’t think they’ll let me see the tapes. Who does get to see the tapes? The lackeys of the ruling class, of course. No doubt the ruling class feels more comfortable when they can watch us discretely. You’ve got to see what those peasants are up to.

Okay, that’s it. You asked for it: 2 songs of the day. These songs perfectly capture my feelings about those who rule us. The first song is Megalomaniac by Incubus. What an awesome, haranguing chorus. I’ve never even heard anybody sing like that before. The second song is All In The Suit That You Wear by Stone Temple Pilots and it’s possibly the last song they will release. I’ve heard both of these songs today and I’ve thought about what they mean. …. God it’s good to say that. That’s not something you can say about just any song. These two songs mean something. I invite you to figure out what they mean on your own.