Morality Clause

The Daily Perv Link (TM) is dead, no more. Nada. And yet we have this.

In this week’s installment of American Taliban is this story of a former male stripper not being disqualified from the TV show American Idol. Yes, the fellow was not disqualified, so what am I complaining about? I’m complaining that his former occupation was sufficiently distasteful that some folks even considered bumping him off the show.

Yes, I’m aware that these poor fools probably sign a contract with one of those insufferable “morality clauses”. There was a rumour back in the day that Gates McFadden was temporarily bumped off of Star Trek: The Next Generation because her extra-marital pregnancy violated her morality clause contract with Paramount. I have no link or evidence for this rumour, so please treat it as unfounded.

My point of contention is this: why is being a stripper considered such an immoral thing that it even warrants inclusion in a “morality clause”? If an occupation is legal, if he pays taxes on his income, and is an otherwise contributing member of society, where do people get off excluding him because of “moral” reasons? And what defensibly constitutes a violation of a “morality clause”? What if the network had tried to bump him off because he was gay, or cohabitating without marriage, or a single parent, or –God forbid!– smokes cigarettes?

The preachy nature of our society and its institutions is really starting to get on my nerves.

In Other News…

Nasty Nicky B sends us news that intrade.com has not counted out our man Al Gore from the US Presidency just yet. Read all about it on Nick’s blog.

Also, got some new articles up at Skiffy.ca!