Since my spider sense tells me we're about to deal with another round of tut-tutting those foul-mouthed bloggers, it's perhaps time to comment on it yet again.
I use naughty words in my daily life. I know few people who don't. I've been in few situations when the doors were closed when people don't use foul language, and that includes pundits, journalists, members of Congress, and, as we know, the Vice President.
It's definitely the case that there are moments when more dignity and decorum are appropriate, but quite frequently I find that, as with the bogus "civility" concept, placing arbitrary limitations on appropriate language often helps to paint a deceptive picture of reality.
If I, who have spent little time around members of Congress, know that many of them tend to swear like sailors, then it's certainly the case that the David Broders of the world know that they do. So when people tut-tut pesky bloggers for their nasty foul mouths when they know perfectly well that just about everyone in the highest corridors of power uses that kind of language they're implicitly claiming political and other elites are somehow superior, more sophisticated and, above all, more polite individuals when of course many of them aren't. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
