21 June 2005

Morals and values

Recall that the values voters in Red America are horrified by the loose morals of us Blue libertines. As demonstrated by the song from beloved country star and Red America poster boy Toby Keith.
His name was Steve,
Her name was Gina,
You've never been here before have you?
They met at a bar called Cowboy Outcove Cantena,
He was a salesman from South Dakota,
She was a first grade school teacher Pheonix Arizona,
No, My first time here
They started dancing and it got real hot,
Then it spilled over to the parking lot,
One more tequila then we're falling in love,
One night together in Love

Don't bite off more than you can chew,
There's things down here the devil himself wouldn't do,
Just remember when you let it all go,
What happens in Mexico,
Stays in Mexico

He woke up in the morning and he made a little tellephone call,
To check on his wife and his kids back at home in Souix Falls,
She hopped right in the shower with a heavy heavy mind,
What am I doing?
He knew it was the first time Geena had ever crossed that line,
They walked down to the beach and started drinking again,
Jumped into the ocean for a dirty swim,
One more margarita then we're falling in love,
One night together in love

Don't bite off more than you can chew,
There's things down here the devil himself wouldn't do ...
It's not like I'm breaking new ground in waxing snarky about this; I'm ripping a page from Digby again. But I want to set up the allusion in a t-shirt currently for sale on the Rush Limbaugh website, pointed out to me by Yezida.

It's hard to make out the text on the shirt, I know. It says What Happens in G'itmo stays in G'itmo. So witty!

Of course, celebrating violence, war, and cruelty is a classic trope in the conservative t-shirt world. (Those links are all to sites found in the first batch of results on a Google of conservative t-shirts, by the way.)

And who can forget Support Our Marine? I can't.

Sorry I'm ranting. But this is a moral values thing for me. What is wrong with these people that they can think this stuff is funny?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am assuming your final question is rhetorical. If it is not, I would be happy to make a list.

Love,

Mom

Anonymous said...

Check out Lakoff's work on Nurturant vs. Militant Parenting. Tends to lend itself pretty sharply to divergences in political worldviews!!!

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/mp21/view

Here is some interesting anthropological bits on how different parenting styles affect later adult behavior:

http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i12/12a02201.htm

Jonathan Korman said...

Yes, Mom. And yes, Mark.

Readers who dig the Lakoff may also be interested in an earlier post of my own that talks about his work.