orichalcum

So, the Catholic Church in England (and America) is trying to preserve and restore dignity to the service. One recent change is to discourage priests from saying "Good Morning" to their congregations. When asked why, a spokesman answered: ""It is a debate that has been going on in the Church for a long time – are we doing a cabaret or are we actually celebrating the Eucharist? The fear is that if some guidance is not given and general decisions are not put down, the interpretation of the liturgy leads to unsuitable things, like strobe lights and girls in hotpants."

Now, I deeply respect the right of the church hierarchy to modify their liturgy and guidelines as they see fit. But I do love the mental image of the direct line from "Good morning" to "girls in hotpants."

On a more depressing note, the only professional academic prediction I've ever made in print has come true. When I was writing my article about HBO's Rome series a few years ago, I analyzed the new appearance of incest as a sexually racy theme in television and mass media from 2004-7, with actual incest occurring for the first time and not being universally condemned. I suggested that it would not be long before incest became an insult or slander that was acceptable to use against modern political enemies, at least in non-official contexts.

Well, today, the blogosphere has gone there, sadly, and is in the midst of a tawdry debate about whether Bristol Palin's ex, Levi Johnson, has "overly close" relations with his sister. We'll see how long it takes before it hits the tabloids and so forth. But I do think that HBO and the networks have succeeded in desensitizing some portion of the American public to the idea of incest as absolutely unacceptable; what will they come up with next?