...the coarsening of the culture, that is. Lindsay says she's innocent. Sure. Britney trashes a cover shoot. Now might be a good time to remember what Peggy Noonan wrote a few months ago: "Our country now puts less of an emphasis on public decorum, courtliness, self-discipline, decency. America no longer says, "That's not nice." It doesn't want to make value judgments on "good" and "bad." We have come to rely on censorship to maintain decorum. We are very good at letting people know that if they say something we don't like, we'll shame them and shun them, even ruin them.. ...But censorship doesn't make people improve themselves; it makes people want to rebel. It tells them to toe the line or pay a price. People who are urged in the right direction and taught in the right direction will usually try to discipline and improve themselves from within. But they do not enjoy censorship from without. They fight back. They are rude in order to show they are unbroken."
By the way, getting Don Imus fired way back when sure cleaned up the culture, didn't it?
