Cussing

Cussing

You know how Dale Earnhardt Jr. got punished for cussing live on NBC after the NASCAR race last week, right? Basically, Dale told a reporter that winning at the Talladega race last weekend "don't mean shit" in the big picture. For his use of a colorful metaphor, Little E got 25 points knocked off his total points in the chase for the big Nextel Championship Cup.

How big an uproar do you think it'll cause if those 25 points cause Earnhardt to lose that Nextel title?

But NASCAR wants to make its sport more family friendly.

Earnhardt's appealing. This is probably neither here nor there, but why do these sporting bodies even have appeals? I mean, you're not appealing to a power higher than the punishing body in most cases...you're appealing to the same people who just punished you.

Back to the point, this whole bit really twists my knickers because, to my knowledge, there's not one person whose brain exploded because Dale said the word "shit." Not one.

What's more, 99% of those watching the race had probably said the word "shit" right at the end of the race, either in terms of "Holy Shit! Dale Won!" or "Shit, Gordon lost again," or "Tony Stewart is a piece of shit!" or some other variation.

(Which reminds me of the only NASCAR joke I know:

Q: Do you know why Rusty Wallace is called Rusty?

A: Because you can't say Shitty Wallace on the radio...)

My contention (causing all the headaches): 'tweren't nobody offended by Dale's use of the expletive. Except those on the lunatic fringe. Even steady, ultra-conservative NASCAR finds themselves catering to these people. Why can't it just be about the rednecks running into each other in stock cars? Why do the seven people who actually give a shit that Dale Jr. cussed on the air get to raise so much ruckus?

Me personally? I'd like to see more cussing on the TV. Maybe TV ought to start listening to my cul-de-sac of moral-think. If TV shows more cussing, the cuss words get out there into the vocabulary enough that they're normal. Let them lose their power, and then there'd be one less thing to worry about, right?

One last thought: Do you think Dick Cheney's glad that happened after his little incident with the F word during the Senate group photo?

I mean, this NASCAR thing sets a precedent.

What if Cheney and Bush had gotten docked electoral votes over Cheney's colorful metaphor?

Sorry boys, Cheney dropped an f-bomb. You lose 8 electoral votes. We'll give them to Nader.

One more last thought (promise):

Here now, a brief listing of some of my favorite cuss/impolite words:

1. Shit
2. Damn
3. Bastard
4. Motherfucker
5. Balls
6. Cheney
7. Crap-in-a-hat.
8. Piss.
9. Son of a bitch (variations: sunovabitch and sumbitch).

There are others, but these are the ones that creep into my speech on a daily basis.