Peggy Noonan wrote a good piece about the “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl halftime. I’m proud of my 12 year old who watched about 30 seconds of the halftime show–before Timberlake and Jackson even came on–and decided without any prompting from anyone that this “show” was not something we wanted to watch. She quietly turned it off, and we watched the two year old dance instead. The best summation of the incident and my reaction to it come from Peggy Noonan:

“You have all followed the great controversy, although I’m not sure controversy is the right word for an incident the facts of which no normal human would debate. Was it deliberate? No, the Goth pastie, the lyrics “I’ll have you naked before the end of this song,” and Janet Jackson’s slowness to cover her breast and quickness to enact what she thinks is a look of shame, make it clear it was all an accident. Did MTV know it would happen? No, when they put out the announcement promising “shocking moments” from Ms. Jackson, they didn’t mean anything by it. Did the–let’s be generous–perhaps retarded Justin Timberlake realize he’d gone too far? Of course–that’s why he issued the winking statement about “wardrobe malfunction.” Was the NFL taken aback? Gosh, they must have been–who would think MTV would do something vulgar and highly sexualized? Will an FCC fine of $27,500 stop the networks? Oh sure, in their tracks.

Now they’re saying the answer is a tape delay. Believe me, half the country would like to put the entire culture on a tape delay.”

Now she’s asking for suggestion from us about how to slow or reverse the slide into decadence. I’m not sure anything short of a mass conversion will help.