I've listened to Howard Stern since I was in college. Not every day, not even every year, but since the early 90's, I've listened in when I had a chance. I am not the biggest fan, not the biggest critic. If anything, as time has gone on, Stern has mellowed out. He is not as dependant on shocking people for the laughs as he once was. Regardless, the point is the show is pretty much the same -- if not more tame -- now as it was ten years ago. So how the fuck is Clear Channel just dropping his show now? And how is the FCC just proposing record-setting fines now, after all this time? After I read about the record-setting fines, and the expected dropping of the show, I realized that the Bush administration actually has created a time machine. They have reversed any progress American has made in the past decade. I once thought a president didn't make that much difference -- that there was so much of a political system in place, that the president couldn't do much to change things even if he wanted to. I stand corrected. I have become ashamed of our country's leadership -- not only Bush, but the whole lot. After every decision like the one made today, I read quotes by these conservative groups called things like the Parents Television Council, who are pushing for some sort of return to the wonderful days of Puritan America in the 17th century. The part that confuses me the most, is the ideal of separation of church and state. We live in a country that is fighting to remove the words "one nation, under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and yet simultaneously allows Christians to define federal law and constitutional interpretation. It is a complete contradiction. My favorite quote from today's decision by the FCC is a description of a federal law which "bars radio stations and over-the-air television channels from airing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children may be tuning in." Man, I am so fucking sick of the notion that kids are somehow going to be harmed by the sounds of a fart played on the radio. When I was four years old, my older sister would force me to smell her farts and describe the smell. I am thankful to her, for it allowed me to develop the keen sense of poetic intelligence I have today. When I was in middle school, kids would sit around the locker room talking about popping cherries and getting hummers. Where they learned about farts and cherries is moot. The question is why are farts and popping cherries bad? A fart is the escaping of air from your sphincter. Sometimes it makes a sound. Sometimes it makes a smell. It is a natural element of the human body, and it has been deemed bad by society. So therefore, kids are unable to listen to the sound, lest they might start to fart when on their own. And if that were to happen, we'd have a horrible society of people who fart all the time, and pop cherries, and our society would devolve into a land of smelly, sex-crazed chimpanzees. The thinking is illogical, which is why i despise it. We should have progressed past this lack of reason. But we haven't. And these people are older than us, they should be smarter. Or maybe they should just read my blog .. if they have a question, i'd be more than happy to provide them with the common sense they lack.