Dirty Talk For Troubled Times

by digby

I can’t tell you how surprised I am that this guy only came up with 285 uses of some of George Carlin’s dirty words on my angry, unhinged, potty-mouthed blog. I honestly can’t believe it. Even factoring in the fact that my comments are on haloscan so my filthy leftist commenters weren’t counted (as they were on some other blogs), out of 5500 posts or so I know that I have used teh dirty words more than 285 times. There’s definitely something wrong with the methodology.

I have to admit that I’m even more surprised, however, that the manly warriors of the rightwing blogosphere are so genteel and restrained, which they seem inordinately proud of, as if they’ve won first prize from the Boston spinsters crochet society or something. There has always been a particular type of prissy conservative male who shares certain characteristics with fluttery Victorian ladies who get all breathless (and aroused) in the presence of muscular, earthy language. I didn’t realize that the alleged he-men of the rightwing blogosphere were like this but I suppose I should have. It certainly explains why they haven’t joined the military.

You’ll recall that a fussy little Annapolis grad named Ross Perot called on his Daddy to use his influence to cut his military career short because of all the vulgarity he was exposed to:

What a hilarious letter Ross Perot wrote the secretary of the Navy in 1955 explaining why he wanted to leave after two years, instead of the four he owed…

“I have found the Navy to be a fairly godless organization. I do not enjoy the prospect of continuing to stand on the quarterdeck as officer of the deck in foreign ports, being subjected to drunken tales of moral emptiness, passing our penicillin pills (we must assume this was not done to ward off pneumonia) and seeing promiscuity on the part of married men.”

Perot continued: “I have observed little in the way of a direct effort to improve a man morally while he is in the Navy, or even hold him at his present moral level.”
“I constantly hear the Lord’s name taken in vain at all levels,” wrote Perot. “I find it unsatisfying to live, work and be directed in an atmosphere where taking God’s name in vain is a part of the everyday vocabulary.”
— Molly Ivins
Austin American-Statesman, 27 May 1992

Dear me.

I’ll try to curb my brawny, robust language around these prudish little fellows if I find myself at one of their tea parties, but I can’t promise to do so on the blog. As far as I’m concerned, that chart shows that I have not been nearly salty enough. The state of our politics calls for big, bold angry rhetoric to express the level of outrage appropriate to the situation. Those with delicate rightwing sensibilities best cover their tender little ears.

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