Bet he never leaves the house, just sits inside doing macrame and snorting nasal spray.

Cancer?

and at cartoons of foul-mouthed third-graders.

Dude, even Kenny made it to 5th grade before an unexpected and tragic explosion of methane gas ignited his Wal-Mart jacket as he was emulating CANADIAN popular culture!

In the cause of relevance and realism, our common life is already decorated with excrement. Why should political discourse be any different?

Just as McCluhan once opined that: “The medium is the message,” what passes for political discourse on the MSM IS the bullshit!

For at least one reason: Because vulgarity is often the opposite of civility. This is not, of course, always true. I know a brilliant and large-hearted academic with roots in south Philly who uses the F-word with the frequency of “like” or “and.”

Gerson appears to have conflated the meaning of “civility” with “tasteful,” and the “vulgarity” with “crude language.”

But the vulgarity of “The Jerry Springer Show” or misogynous rap music — the cultural equivalents of Franken’s political “satire” — generally expresses contempt and cruelty.

Hey! At least Jerry Springer got an opera named after himself!

Franken is not content to disagree with Karl Rove; he calls him “human filth.” He is not satisfied to criticize Ari Fleischer; Franken terms him a “chimp.” The objects of Franken’s humor — including political opponents and women — are not merely mocked but dehumanized. His trashiness is also nastiness. Rather than lampooning the emptiness and viciousness of our political discourse — a proper role for satire — Franken has powerfully reinforced those failures.

Ad hominem and ad baculum are not satire. In this case, they are an appeal to popular sentiment–which Gerson might recognize if he didn’t spend most of his time in the rarefied atmosphere of Beltway with his head buried in his ass!

Some institutions must be more than a mirror to our culture, including families, religious communities and government. At its best, politics can offer examples of civility and generosity that challenge selfishness and prejudice — the tradition so far embraced by both John McCain and Barack Obama. At the very least, politics should not actively push our culture toward vulgarity and viciousness. This is not prudery; it is a practical concern for the cooperation and mutual respect necessary in a functioning democracy. And it is hard to believe those causes would be served by a Sen. Franken.

What fuckin’ planet is he ON! The handshake began as an impromptu weapons check. Eating utensils were developed by the Spanish armourers after the crossbow made heavy armour obsolete. Parliamentary Procedure became necessary when it quickly became obvious that a house full of lords was totally lacking in couth. About the only time politics is civil is when both sides are biding their time for just the right moment to knife their respective opponents in the back.

Sanctimonious is indeed the word for this guy.

PS: He’s not Catholic. He’s a member of an Episcopal church which broke with the rest of the church over the issue of confirming Rev Gene Robinson, a gay man, as the bishop of NH.

Otto: You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole.
Archie: How very interesting. You’re a true vulgarian, aren’t you?
Otto: You’re the vulgarian, you fuck.

Before I clicked through, I heard that bit of dialogue in the voices of Emilio Estevez and Miguel Sandoval. It makes for a much more surreal exchange.

(And yes, I have seen A Fish Called Wanda–many times. Just a brain fart, is all.)

But the vulgarity of “The Jerry Springer Show”

Why not go for a Maude reference? Jesus fucking christ, these guys have all the cultural currency of Shecky Greene.

And do we all have to pretend now that Cheney told Sen. Leahy to “fuck off” on the Senate floor? Or that Rove was quoted that he was going to “fuck him like he’s never been fucked?” Really? Oh, OK.

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Many more enjoyable whacks and less tiring.

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