When the Wheels on the Bus Come Off

Warning: This is a post about vulgar language.  It contains vulgar language.

Recently an AsianAir Passenger Airliner crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport,  This tragedy was compounded by an additional insult when the NTSB released the names of the pilots of the aircraft.  In an incredible demonstration of poor taste, the names were read on the local evening news.  If you read them fast enough, you will notice that they begin to sound like something other than their names:




It was done so subtly (or maybe I am such an airhead) that I did not even realize what it meant until this  morning, when I read that the NTSB apologized and blamed it on a Summer intern who released that information.  I doubt that.  I doubt that such a large agency dealing with such a sensitive issue would allow someone with no authority to contact the local news with such sensitive information.  What probably really happened is that some administrator with the NTSB went ahead and released the names as a joke, and now is throwing one unnamed intern under the bus.

All of this does not surprise me when you consider the Obama administration.  Recall that Vice President Joe Biden was overheard saying 'this is a big f-----g deal' to President Obama when he signed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law:



That tells a lot about the example set by the head of our country, when he allows such tasteless comments by his subordinates in his presence.  He doesn't seem to care that others could possibly hear such inappropriate words.  I would guess the the tone at the top has trickled throughout his administration down to the level of the NTSB.  Now we see obscenities and vulgar language promulgated on national television at the behest of the administration.  I haven't even mentioned the racist angle.

I base these assumptions on my own experiences as the head of a family.  I have learned (to my regret) that any allowance of vulgar language is noticed immediately by my children.   These slips may be initiated by me, or when I fail to correct my children at the moment I hear them using any inappropriate language.  Either way, it is my example which is followed.  The children certainly did not hear vulgar or inappropriate language from their mother; either the world or myself are to blame.

So I have to work on keeping my language - and that of my children - clean.  Unfortunately, it looks as if only the next president can change the tone of the United States government.