Fuck da children...

No, seriously, fuck the children.

Okay, not really and not in a Michael Jackson (a.k.a "FUBAR") way, but kinda...

But I'm more than a little pissed off by Toyota's decision to pull ads from 'Nip/Tuck' (the greatest show evah! or on now) thanks to the efforts of the retarded PTC, who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than drum up protests from their devotees and trick networks and advertisers into thinking that hundreds of people are outraged at the filth pouring forth from their screen...

When in reality, it's like a half-dozen people sitting around, tracking violence and language and sex on television all day with the kind of obsessive single mindedness of the perverts they decry. No, seriously, there was some case, which I can't remember specifically at the moment, where the network discovered that a hundred 'complaints' they received actually only came from 3 people, writing over and over again.

Okay, it was Fox's crap reality show 'Married by America' - this excellent article points out that Fox got a 1.2 million dollar fine based on 90 complaints. But all but three of those were generated using the exact same form letters from the PTC -- which they put on their website and encourage people to send out, expressing dismay at show's content they may (and likely) have never even seen.

The article mentions the whole Towelgate fiasco -- in our TV class, Marc Cherry basically said it was a similiar situation -- it was days before someone complained, a small minority raised a lot of fuss and made it seem like it was a bigger deal than it was.

Back to 'Nip/Tuck', there are so many reasons why the PTC can go fuck itself and da children:

1)It's on a 10 p.m. at night, on a Tuesday. If your young, impressionable children (as opposed to teens, who the show would be appropriate for if they watched with parents) are up that late on a schoolnight, watching filthy TV behind your back...well, you got bigger fish to fry than trying to shield them from Julian McMahon's ass.

2) It's rated TV-MA. There are content advisory warnings. I know this because F/X airs them approximately every five minutes like a nagging mother -- 'hey, are you sure you wanted to be watching this? Are you sure? Well, it's dirty and potentially offensive and if you're offended. Don't come crying to me because I told you so...' Hey, PTC, if the network tells you point-blank that something may be offensive, what kind of gall does it take to act affronted and shocked when you are offended.

3)It's a dark show intended for adults but has never represented itself as anything else. A cursory glance at any review or interview or article will mention the show's graphic content and dark, satirical tone or describe it as "cutting-edge" or mention the controversy.

4)Millions of taxpayers' time and money were spent installing V-Chips on all our TVs. The show also airs on cable and the majority of boxes have parental lock codes as well. Groups like the PTC demanded these restrictions to protect the children without compromising a network's ability to air whatever content it pleases but have now decided to just try to restrict content since parents are too lazy or stupid to figure out how to work that technology.

Maybe it's the censorship class that I'm in raising all this anger, but I am so fucking tired of everything in our society having to be neuteured based on this stupid myth that children are all goodness and light and they must be protected at all costs (even if that interferes with the rights of society's non-children havers), lest they see a split-second of Kimber's breast and in that moment, instantly lose their innocence.

I must give props to Charles Taylor, writer extraordinaire and husband to my favorite critic, since he says a lot of this better than I could in his article 'The Morality Police'.

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In non-angry rant news, I was dubbed 'socially awkward' last night with the further explanation that 'I talk so much and about myself and never let anyone else talk and no one cares about such & such,' etc, etc. And I thought it hurt hearing that from Adam, but from my best friend? Damn. In my defense, though, it was a very socially awkward situation...which will all be explained later or not, depending on how things turn out with the person (besides me) who made it awkward and confusing.

And look, I know I'm no good at these things. I feel so out-of=place, sometimes. I know I'll never have that easy-breezy-beautiful frat boy confidence that I see on campus. But my brief stint in popularity around freshman/sophomore year couldn't have just been a weird fluke, could it? Okay, yes, because everyone is popular freshman year, but I'm saying I knew how to play the game then or was better at it or something. And maybe dropping of the face of the planet, having a brush with near-madness and living in isolation for a year or two aren't the best things for one's social skills...

It's my sister's birthday and I'll always envy her that she is much better at socializing than I.

Question? What does it mean when you invite a boy up and then he says he doesn't want to kiss you because he thinks he is getting a cold? Oh, we do anyway and it's really nice, and if he actually calls (I know, right?), it just may be worth it. I don't know if I want a relationship or anything, but he seemed like a cool/nice guy -- I mean, we actually managed to have an intelligent conversation. In Akbar, of all places.

Plus, at least I know he's gay unlike awkward-making people. *sigh*