Posted 1:58 PM by Floyd

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales threw a hissy fit about Janet Jackson's exposed breast. This caused Jim Treacher to mock him as "teacher's little angel":

"...and there was a woman's you-know-what! You could see it and everything! And the horsey made a farty and there was a talking monkey and it said bad things! I'M TELLING!!!"

Also acting like a prig in the wake of the Super Bowl was ... Mickey Kaus?!

Neither the tiny $27,500 fines being considered by the FCC nor the 10X larger fines proposed in new legislation are close to sufficient to hold Viacom and MTV accountable. To achieve any sort of prospective deterrent effect, either some stations need to lose their licenses, or (preferably) high MTV or Viacom executives need to lose their jobs.

Well ... no ... actually ... I don't think anyone "needs" to be fined or censored or lose their jobs. I think NFL "needs" to reexamine its relationship with CBS. I think that easily offended viewers "need" to skip the halftime extravanganza, which consists of second-rate celebrities who are hopping mad that they are not the center of attention on that day.

Kaus wasn't just a prig. Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon handed him the violence-against-women crack pipe and he took a big fat hit:

P.P.S.: The issue isn't nudity but the implicit endorsement of acting out male fantasies of violent and invasive non-consensual sexual behavior.

Oh, brother. I must have missed the news reports of Justin Timberlake clocking Jackson over the head with a club and dragging her to a onstage prop labelled "RAPE CHAMBER." I mean, men do sometimes remove their sex partners' clothing, even without the woman's written consent.

Never mind the message it sends to international audiences--say young, angry Muslims, to pick a random example, who may have been wondering whether America really is immoral.

Yeah, and just before the boob-baring occurred those fundamentalist Muslims were happily chair-dancing to images of the nice wholesome leather-clad gyrating Miss Jackson. Just like down at the mosque!

And isn't there about a hundred times as much public nudity in Europe as in America? Why were planes crashed into the World Trade Center and not, say, the topless beaches of the Riviera?

What got into Kaus? I read him every day and usually find him very intelligent and perceptive. Watching Kerry become the front-runner must have left him mildly unhinged.

(Please note that I wrote an entire post about Kaus without having an inline conversation with an imaginary editor.)