On Prudes and Sanctimony

At age 60, I still enjoy the revelation - the grand "ahaaa" - that comes from learning the meaning and origin of words.

A number of years ago, I was invaded with the accusation of being "sanctimonious" for discourging my family from watching a certain movie I felt was inappropriate at the time. I later learned that being called that word was a good thing, despite the negative intent of the name caller, as well as current usage. In fact, being sanctimonious is acting as though one has been sanctified; set apart; made holy through Christ. Of course our behaviors should be different from those who are neither sanctified nor sanctimonious. Those who are not sanctified tend to have a natural dislike of those who are. They like to ridicule.

Another word, "prude" comes to mind. Although I haven't been called a prude lately, I suspect some people think I am. But I was reminded by Laura Ingraham, speaking on her radio program, that the origin of "prude" is from "prudent" - a positive word suggesting thoughtfulness and care. I suppose since it is no longer fashionable (in the eyes of many) to be prudent, the natural thing to do is to ridicule those who are with a negative connotation via the word "prude."

I guess it boils down to this: If a person is and acts sanctified and you are not, ridicule him with the word "sanctimonious." If a person is more prudent than you believe is appropriate, ridicule him with the word "prude." The person who is called these things can take these words as a complement. As the Scriptures say, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."

So, to all you sanctimonious prudes out there - keep it up! We need more people like you.

Immature jackasses in need of adult supervision...

Here they are, the immature, irresponsible stupid guys - the lower end of the advertising professions' bottom feeder food chain.

Clever, but stupid. And what do you want to bet that these hacks will try to spin the circumstances to make the Boston officials sound like they over-reacted to their ill-conceived publicity stunt?

The truth is, these stupid guys fail to understand or care about the reality of the serious aspects of life. They clearly suffer from a lack of adult supervision, both from their parents and from CNN hierarchy. Apparently, the hierarchy at CNN also require more adult supervision, but I digress. Many "adult children" today have this same innate la la land mentality in common - an emotional IQ in the negatives.

This points to the larger issue involving the disconnectedness of generations in our culture. Parents are often too busy with sports, dancing, Hollywood gossip, divorce, watching TV, making money, and being otherwise too self-absorbed to maintain effective communication and respect to influence the next generation in a positive manner. Fortunately, despite parental lapes, some kids surprise their parents on the side of responsible and mature behavior.

In this case, though, what kind of parental upbringing, if they had any, do these apes reflect? Or are they degenerates inspite of parental influence?