Of Course It's Not Child-Friendly

So, I was going through my normal roundup of blogs today, and I happened across something interesting linked from Julie's Jihadophobic blogspot. Aside from an image including one of my favorite quotes ("Aside from ending slavery, fascism, naziism, and communism, war's never solved anything."), she had a link to another blogspot, where she'd found the image. Funny how that works out, isn't it?

Anyway, on that page, the writer had included a short rant on some busybodies who take issue with sex, violence, and foul language in television shows and movies, particularly taking exception to their inclusion of '24' on a list of bloody-violent shows. Since a link to the actual site in question, for the Parents Television Council, was included, I decided I'd go take a look. You know, since I'm still a child, and I watch such excessive amounts of television these days.

Now, I understand what these folks are purporting to be doing. They watch the shows so you don't have to, and all that. But let's be serious now. Should anyone be surprised if there's a bunch of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll on prime time TV these days? Frankly, if a parent doesn't want their kid or kids exposed to such things, they're going to be much better off not having a television than trying to pick and choose which programs are least objectionable. After all, doesn't that make the issue even easier? No longer do you have to worry about whether or not a show might be something you don't want your children watching, since they can't access it anyway! Well, on top of that, you'll probably have to toss out the computer, or those sneaky young'uns could find most of the shows on Youtube, at least until the next round of copyright-related takedown notices.

Sure, I'm being facetious to make a point there. Still, if they could then find non-objectionable books, maybe it could be the beginning of solving the functional illiteracy problem? Hmm...

Meanwhile, I found that the only three shows that I'm even minimally willing to brave the 16-minute wall of commercials to view on television (instead of just waiting for the season on DVD like normal) are all red on the PTC stoplight rating system. They are, in case anyone was curious, '24', 'House', and 'Heroes'. I just have to wonder what they'd rate some of the anime that I watch... Maybe they'd have to grow new levels of the stoplight for some of it?