You know its amazing to me to sometimes go back and read some of the posts that myself and others like Beerslinger and Fnliii have posted. Had wetwired been an outlet like Wizbang or Gawker are today when these posts were made, they would not have been in the wayside. Wetwired still is not a powerhouse, and most likely never will be when it comes to group blogs just because we don’t dedicate our lives to posting and gossip whoring like some blogs out there. Not that whoreing is a bad thing or anything…

Wetwired has never found its exact niche, we don’t comment on just politics, we don’t write just humor peices, we don’t pour our souls into the site and make it a tell all. We just post what we find amusing, or comment on how society is changing. And with that I give you a couple pieces from the past. Ones that I find pretty interesting and I think that you might too.

Mr. Stereotype
So last night I’m eating with Fnliii at Ryan’s Steak House for the first time in years. We attack the buffet with precision: scouting, reconnaissance, diversionary tactics for that last piece of meat loaf, knocking grandma over for the piece of pumpkin pie. It was like a dream within a dream.
When I sat at my table and looked around, I quickly surveyed our neighbors, and the rest of the people in the restaurant. I came up with a broad stereotype - as opposed to a broad that stereotypes.

The difference between upper middle class and lower middle class is Logan’s to Ryan’s, or Olive Garden to Ryan’s

You get the idea. The difference is night and day with the dining patrons. Now before you jump up at me and tell me I’m wrong. Go eat at Ryan’s. What you don’t like Ryan’s? There you have it.

-Pylorns

A solemn Authority
Vox Populas Vox Dei. The Voice of the people is the voice of God. Julius Caesar said this after his own coronation citing it as the reason for his becoming king. In other words the unified will of his people was so strong as to match the will of god in putting him on the throne. He was an arrogant little prick, but he had a good point. When our will as a society is united, we don’t just make rulers; we make little gods only we call them celebrities. Rock stars and movie stars tell use what to wear and what to think and how we should feel about this and that. We pay them to entertain us, but we beg them to lead us and somehow we are always just a little let down. A vague unease permeates us every time we make a new one, because we know it won’t last.
Some atavistic realist inside of us knows it won’t last.

Civilization has always had celebrities. Always. And it is simply human nature to look at someone getting that much attention and think they are better than the rest of us, but they aren’t. They just happen to be more visible. And the cold hard truth is, the reason they are celebrities is WE MADE THEM. And what we make, we can destroy.

I am so tired of watching these child gods, these princes of all things worldly taking the power we give them, and using it to bypass our laws. Why is it that just because someone is famous, we let them skirt by with all the infractions and mockery of our law they care to. They are not better than us. They are just more visible.

Michael Jackson is surrounded by his “Army of Love”, and he is accused of molesting Children. Did I miss something? Wouldn?t the very principles of love state that you run away from child molesters as fast as you can, or better yet, run toward them carrying a big stick? When did we say to ourselves that “Thriller” was a revolutionary enough video to excuse a little naughtiness with children? Exactly how many people do you have to tackle on a football field to get away with brutally slaying your wife and her lover?

Is it okay that I lie, cheat and steal to trade stocks with insider information as long as I make cookies on TV? All I get is a fine right? No Jail time! Exactly how many home runs do I hit to be excused for masterminding a steroid smuggling ring? Can I rape a woman because I play basketball and have a spit shined image?

You better believe you can, because we allow it. We crave it. Vox Populas, Vox Dei! By our collective will we tell these gods that whatever they do is all right. We tell them that they can get away with anything on our watch and we don’t mind. Do you think, even for a moment that a fine is enough to dissuade a billionaire? Is a four and a half minute apology enough for lying to a nation?

I’m speaking of course of a higher standard. “To whom much is given, much is expected.” say Luke and Captain America with one unified voice. The people that mock us with their actions are the same people that we have given EVERY advantage modern life has to offer. We have given them the most obscene wealth anyone can imagine and on top of that, we have given them a get out of jail free card.

No More.

It is time we say to all the people we elect in the court of public opinion that it is no longer alright to break our laws and taunt us with power, because it isn’t your power to begin with, it’s ours. From now on, whoever breaks the law, will be subject to the law, regardless of their status. And only we have the power to make it happen. With a unified voice we will call into existence accountability for gods, and punishment for lawbreakers.

It will be the new ‘Noblesee Oblige’ for the modern era. If we make you royalty, you must at least obey our laws. And there is only one way it will happen. Until we start throwing criminals in prison, even if they are famous (No! Especially if they are famous.) then we are simply wasting our breath. Fines don’t affect people with neigh-infinite resources, but two years in general population of a federal prison will. In order to effect change we must punish the same as we reward, with both hands.

Role models should be held to a higher standard. Celebrities, like all other people should be required to obey laws and live within the bounds of our society. “To whom much is given, much is expected”, as it should be. Our voice is more than just the power to make these people, it is the solemn authority to break them, and it’s time we use it

-Beerslinger

Power and its Corrupting Effects: An Examination of the Parents’ Television Council

Have you heard of the Parents’ Television Council, or of its founder L. Brent Bozell?

No? Hmm. Well, if you haven’t heard of this group I’ll go ahead and give you some clues as to who they are. What do these five things have in common: Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction,” “Friends,” “The Simpsons,” “Gilmore Girls” and MTV?

All of them have had complaints filed against them with the FCC in some form or another by the PTC. And in most cases, ALL of the complaints filed against the show or insident were from the PTC.

See, this “watchdog group” has taken it upon itself to become the standard-setter for what they feel should be allowed on television. During the year 2003, 99.8 percent of all complaints brought to the FCC were filed by the PTC. When “Nipplegate” threatened to shake the very foundation of Western society and civilization, it was the PTC that had filed most of the 550,000 complaints. What happened is that the group put up a webpage with links to a standardized form that allowed a person to click and complain- including those that hadn’t even seen the program or incident in question.

To give examples of their complaints, the AP reported that “One complaint involved an episode of ‘Friends’ that aired in May 2003. In it, a female character, her husband and the husband’s ex-girlfriend talk about fertility treatment at a medical office. There were multiple complaints about a November 2003 episode of ‘Gilmore Girls.’ In one scene, a character’s grandfather reminisces about college pranks involving nudity. In another, two college students discuss an incident in which a male student who was nude spent the night in a dorm hallway. A complaint over ‘The Simpsons’ included a scene in which students carried picket signs with the phrases ‘What would Jesus glue?’ and ‘Don’t cut off my pianissimo.’” (As an aside, all of these complaints were thrown out by the FCC for not being obscene, which is what the complaints were based around.)

Now, why does this group perform such an “important community service” is such volume? Why else- for the children! Heaven forbid that someone under the age of 18 hear about a bare breast on television waves, after all.

My problem with this group isn’t that they don’t like what’s on television, because to be honest most of what passes for entertainment these days on television is worthless. My problem is that a small minority of people have taken up such a large and vocal role in what is and is not on the airways. It is because of the PTC’s influence with the FCC that recently, a five-year-old episode of the animated series “Family Guy” was edited by Fox because it showed an image of the lead character’s bare butt. The butt was blurred and thus couldn’t be offensive.

In one of the most aggregious examples of lunacy regarding this issue, several dozen ABC affiliates refused to air the movie “Saving Private Ryan” for fear of complaints regarding the movie. In a sign of sanity, the FCC has since come out and said that it would not accept any complaints regarding the movie being aired on regular television.

Now, common sense regarding the issue states that if someone doesn’t like a show or the content of it, that they an simply change the channel. However, the PTC has said that they couldn be offended even by passing the show when changing channels.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent man with a pretty thick skin when it comes to what offends me on television. I’m much more bothered by a sitcom with shoddy writing and bad stories than I am of a boob. I truly hope that this was just an election year issue, and that people as a whole haven’t become so weak that they have to listen to the ramblings of a self-righteous group of holier-than-thou naysayers instead of making up their own minds about what they want to watch or listen to on radio or television.

Power does indeed corrupt, and right now the PTC is looking a little worse for wear. The backlash has already begun against the group, as well- see, CBS has refused to pay the $550,000 fine levied against them by the FCC after the complaints from the PTC over Janet Jackson’s performance at the Super Bowl last year, a performance that was offensive not for her boob being bared, but for the fact that the music and “performance” truly, truly SUCKED.

Oh, and if this offended you, and you feel the need to make a complaint about what I’ve written? Then I humbly and truly invite you to please… kiss my ass. And, I thank you.

Out.

- Fnliii

Tags: stereotype, wetwired
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