Peggy Noonan: Janet Jackson and the Frog

Opinion Journal ^ | 02/05/04 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

Has our culture gone iredeemably to pot, or can we jump for our lives?

On Saturday night Sept. 8, 2001, I did something unusual. I went to Madison Square Garden to watch the taping of a Michael Jackson special that was soon to be aired on CBS. A friend had come to town with tickets and we decided to meet for dinner and go together. We thought it would be fun because we thought it would be strange.

[Timesink]

This just in: Michael Jackson caused 9/11!

[GretchenEE]

For Peggy:

[GretchenEE]

Janet had no intention of kicking Justin the bustier-ripper offstage. She needed him to make it look just right.

What Super fries me is that only Janet got kicked off the Grammys, and Justin remains as welcome as Mom's apple pie.

[GretchenEE]

That sleazy act has stripped the SuperBowl champions of a whole lot of what should be being talked about / gloried in right now.

[hopespringseternal]

How to turn it around. I wonder if all the sane adult liberals and conservatives couldn't make progress here. But how. Readers?

Tune it out. Give up the false hope that they are going to surprise you with something decent. Why tune in to a bunch of rap artists? You had to know the superbowl halftime show was going to be a trip through the gutter by the people producing it and the entertainers they chose.

I don't even bother to watch the local news anymore. They are increasingly becoming irrelevent to the world real people live in, real people just need to realize that fact.

[alloysteel]

This only confirms to the young, angry Muslims that they were absolutely RIGHT in cheering the plunge of airliners filled with fuel and American passengers into the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. America is the Great Satan, out to twist and pervert the sensibilities of the world. Never mind that Americans on the whole found this behavior as offensive as the young, angry Muslims believed it to be. The fact is that we did not prevent it, as nothing like this would ever have happened on TV programming that originated from Muslim sources.

[Nick Danger]

I really wish Janet had kicked Justin's ass off the stage

That's just a different sort of debauchery. That's the one where the woman who planned the whole thing pretends she didn't and feigns assault. You see that as an improvement?

[coydog]

If I were a player in one of the teams at this last Super Bowl, I'd be furious right now. The achievement of a lifetime, and all overshadowed by Janet Jackson's boobie. The dignity of the event has been entirely trashed.

[lainde]

bttt Thanks!

[SendShaqtoIraq]

"I really think we are very ready for "The Movie."

20 more days and it's here. It will change a whole heck of a lot of people."

Doubtful. The people who need to change won't be going to see this movie.

[archy]

That's just a different sort of debauchery. That's the one where the woman who planned the whole thing pretends she didn't and feigns assault. You see that as an improvement?

From a Machiavellian point of view, the idea of using the creep who thinks he's privy to the well-thought-out plan but is in actuality a patsy with only a partial glimpse of his own role in the preplanned events does have a certain charm....

Think of it as *Justin Timberlake as Lee Harvey Oswald.*

-archy-/-

[archy]

I really think we are very ready for "The Movie."

Indeed!

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Evidently you do not agree with Peggy Noonan's conclusions about our culture.

Ms. Noonan's use of the word 'paganism', when referring to the whole halftime display, struck me more than any other thing she said. If you have read Augustine's, The City of God you will understand my reasoning, if not, let me provide a brief summary.

After the Goths (early Germans) overran and sacked Rome, many of the Romans who managed to escape placed the blame for the downfall of the Roman Empire on Christianity and its adherents. In The City of God, Augustine carefully examines their argument and proceeds to deconstruct and expose its multitude of weaknesses. Augustine shows irrefutably that the blame for the corruption and eventual destruction of the empire rests solely with the leaders embrace of paganism and idolatry.

Our culture is crumbling about our ears and it is our like embrace of these same twins that is leading us to a similar fate as Rome's. Janet Jackson's sad performance and uncovering of her body is not to blame, it is our refusal as a society to bend our knee and acknowledge the One who came to take our place on Calvary's tree, namely Jesus Christ of Nazareth! We need to thank the mighty triune God everyday for making us from the dirt we walk on and for providing the only way for us to avoid an eternity separated from the Lord of Heaven.

[TexasNative2000]

Thanks for the ping.

Liz Taylor came out in a stiff gown, looking like a statue in Madame Tussaud's that had been designed to retain water.

Absolute brilliance.

[hobbes1]

How's this for brilliance.

Blogger Mickey Kaus raised most quickly some big points. "The issue isn't nudity but the implicit endorsement of acting out male fantasies of violent and invasive non-consensual sexual behavior. Never mind the message it sends to international audiences--say young, angry Muslims, to pick a random example, who may have been wondering whether America really is immoral."

I say, to show those people we're really not that evil we extradite MTV Honcho Judy McGrath to Iran for an indececny trial.

[ArrogantBustard]

saw the big picture of Justin Timberlake, whose expression could have been described as evil if his face had more intelligence, turned toward Janet Jackson, whose face showed an equally evil expression. The whole thing, however highly sexualized, wasn't in the least bit (to me, anyway) sexy, erotic, or beautiful. It seemed to me wierd, perverse, and most strikingly mechanical and dehumanized. It seemed to me that the performers felt some sort of obligation to show off their privates, but had no clue how to present themselves in an appealing manner.

[maica]

NO ONE has noticed that it was a white man assaulting a black women...no mention of race... We're certainly deteriorating on the sexual moral side, but gaining on the racial equality side.

*****

Good point! That little twist had escaped me! I was more focused on the older woman, younger man angle to the 'performance.'

[ArrogantBustard]

the real story of the Superbowl is that it was a really great game.

Thank you.

The whole situation here is preposterous. The Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots put on one of the most spectacular examples of well played and well matched football I have ever witnessed. "We" "should" be thinking of, and remembering them and their display of excellence, not the perverted antics of a troupe of professional skanks.

[teeman8r]

it is very interesting to see one comment on naked breasts as immoral, and then use the "f" word in his comments...

asterisks hide letters but not intent...

hyp*****y? check the mirror, it is you...

t

[thesummerwind]

STILL, I really wish Janet had kicked Justin's ass off the stage, while singing in rhythm...

LOL! That would have been great, but maybe her simpering reaction was just more proof (as if we need it) that it was a purposeful act in the first place.