Thursday, May 05, 2005

I'm Moving to Texas

You know Texas must be a great place to live, because its state legislators have so little to do they have to invent busy work for themselves.

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200505/s1359862.htm

Apparently one of the most pressing issues in Texas is revealing cheerleader outfits and smutty cheerleader dance routines. I mean, come on.

Look, I'm no fan of the mainstreaming of pornography. I think schoolgirls performing for crowds dance moves that would look more at home in a topless bar is a bad idea, not to mention vulgar, tacky, and immodest. Teen girls--post-pubescent girls--being encouraged to act slutty doesn't disturb me the way children being encouraged to act slutty does, of course, but this is something that, once upon a time, the average American parent wouldn't have wanted their daughters doing.

But why should this mean the government must get involved? That's big government intrusion into the public. And it's not even necessary to solve the problem of smutty cheerleading. If people who dislike being exposed to a bump-and-grind show when all they wanted to do was watch a football game started going to their local principals or school boards and say, "Look, I've been paying to come to these football games for a while, but now I'm thinking about not coming anymore because your cheerleaders' behavior is so vulgar." It wouldn't take many complaints like that for your average school to tell the cheerleading coach to tone it down. A few local newspaper editorials or letters to the editor wouldn't hurt either. Local problems, local solutions. We don't have to run to the state (much less the federal) government every time we have a problem.

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