Take a chance...

...you stupid ho!. Those are the rather catchy lyrics from Gwen Stefani's song "What You Waiting For." And, imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered this past weekend that the various SKY video channels that have the video in heavy rotation have made the rather silly editorial decision to bleep out the word - HO.
For those of you who aren't as "street" as me (oh...and by the way...when did it become pronounced "SHTREET"? Why has "SHT" become an accepted American prounounciation of every word that begins with an "ST"? Has everybody suddenly turned German on me???), ho is short for whore. Why has ho/whore suddenly become offensive to people? My guess is that a group of rather sensitive high-class prostitutes have lobbied against the music video channels to get them to bleep out this term that they find offensive - as if it somehow undermines the professionalism they have worked so long and hard (I'm sorry if you found that offensive) to achieve. I think people are just becoming too gosh-danged sensitive. All of this reminds me of some words or wisdom from one of my former work colleagues - David L. (I'm not sure if he'd want me to use his last name).
I worked with Dave for several years at my last company. Over the years I was amused by the fact that he was a devout Christian, went to church every Sunday, and...he swore like a truck driver (which was fitting because we were account managers for a trucking company). One day, I asked Dave how he justified peppering his vernacular with the word FUCK (...sorry if I've offended you) while attempting to adhere to the tenets of Christianity. Here was his response: "It doesn't say you can't say FUCK in the Bible!" Those words of wisdom have stuck with me through the years, and I've occasionally felt the need to repeat them in order to knock the easily-offended off of their pulpits. Their response is always the same: "Well...I find it offensive." And my response is: "Who cares?" And getting back to Gwen Stefani, my guess is that a handful people have called in to complain about the use of the word ho in her video, and they've managed to create a new swear word which is probably used a zillion times a day by English speaking people throughout the world.
I wonder if they're going to have to bleep out Santa Claus next Christmas. Bleep, bleep, bleep...Merry Christmas. There are going to be an awful lot of angry rednecks when they have to start calling them dad-burned things bleep-downs. It looks like Smith and Hawken have already buckled to the pressure by changing the long-used garden hoe to "precision weeder."
It's at times like these that I have to remember Dave's words of wisdom. It doesn't say you can't say ho in the Bible. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it!