Commisars of Censorship

Using HBO's Deadwood as an example, the wonderful Frank Rich celebrates American vulgarity and excoriates the namby-pampys that want to tell adults what to watch and what to listen to.

Here he defends Deadwood and argues why it's so important, especially when the commisars of censorship cruise the culture.

This is why "Deadwood" could not be better timed. It reminds us of who we are and where we came from, and that even indecency is part of an American's birthright. It also, if inadvertently, illuminates the most insidious underpinnings of today's decency police by further reminding us that the same people who want to stamp out entertainment like "Deadwood" also want to rewrite American history (and, when they can, the news) according to their dictates of moral and political correctness. They won't tolerate an honest account of the real Deadwood in a classroom or museum any more than they will its fictionalized representation on HBO.

As Rich observes, both the politically correct left and the culturally conservative right are waging a revisionist war against independent thought. As in politics though, it's the right who's winning.