Thanks, Michael, for being the only source I’ve found (besides Rolling Stone, I suppose) to use Senator John Kerry’s quote. As I listened to reports about it–perhaps first on the news last night, then the radio this morning–I noticed that everyone was talking *about* what he said, but no one was saying *what* he said. Now that I know what the complete quote is, I don’t really understand why everyone is so ruffled. (I think I would use a form of the “f-word” to describe certain things related to the situation in Iraq, too.) Sometimes the media is so focused on talking about something that they forget to say what that something is.

It reminds me of when I edited a college literary magazine during my senior year and I wanted to print some things that used profanity. It was a big deal because we hadn’t printed those words before, but no one said anything to me about it after we printed them.

Maybe I’ve heard so much profanity in my lifetime it surprises me more that people expect presidential candidates not to use the words than for one of them to use the “f-word” in the media. Like none of our former presidents have ever said a bad word? C’mon people.