America, the land of the easily offended

Topic: Molly Ivins Language

Molly Ivins's latest column is posted over at creators.com, who found it necessary to include the following warning (caps in original):

THE EIGHTH PARAGRAPH OF THE FOLLOWING COLUMN CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION. -- CREATORS SYNDICATE

The paragraph in question?

John Ashcroft has left the attorney general's office, so we can once more view the nekkid tits on the statues of Majesty of Justice and Spirit of Justice. So far, no noticeable deterioration in the national moral fiber has ensued.

I'm assuming that the "offensive" part is that word "tits" rather than the egregious misspelling of the word "naked".

<digression> It's interesting that in almost every case the more "offensive" word turns out to be Germanic in origin — pretty much all the four-letter words are — while the more "polite" term is from French. But in this case we have more polite words (breast, bosom) that are also come from the Germanic. The only French-derived synonym I know of is "bust".</digression>

Creators.com, however, missed this one in the preceding paragraph:

The governor of Texas recently bid adieu to an interviewer by saying, "Adios, mofo."

I mean, quite aside from Ms Ivins's point about the appropriateness of the governor addressing anyone this way when he's in any official capacity whatsoever, I think most people would find "mofo" — an abbreviation of "motherfucker" — a lot more offensive than "tits".