What's your PQ?

Matthew Sheffield of The Washington Times:

"Are liberals more profane than conservatives? Online, the answer seems to be yes. Profanity, those taboo words banned from the broadcast airwaves, is a feature of many people's daily lives."

Sheffield goes on to measure the "profanity quotient" -- PQ -- of left- versus right-wing blogs. His math might be kind of wonky -- for instance, he doesn't make it clear whether profanity is measured in the posts or comments, or both. But I have to say, I'm not surprised.

Me, I don't think using profanity is right, no matter which end of the political spectrum one favors. I think it's ugly, and spiritually unclean (regardless of religion). Have I resorted to it? Sure. In the heat of a moment, and always regretted. Thus far, though, I've kept it rare.

"They're just words," it's been argued. Not so, thinks me. There's a reason why people decided certain words are taboo -- it's because as creative and intellectual beings, we strive to attain higher and higher levels of understanding and enlightenment. Words designed to drag one another back into the primordial soup are extremely negative and harmful, to say the least. Words evoke powerful reactions, and can thus become weapons.

George Carlin was (rightly) admired for finally exposing the hypocrisy surrounding the use of the "Seven Deadly Words." A great percentage of people were using them, and have used them throughout history, and it was silly to pretend they didn't exist in modern culture (films, TV shows, etc.).

However -- hypocrisy aside, they're still ugly. Speaking only for myself, I feel like I just wallowed in mud every time I say such words. And I'll always fight to rid them from my own DNA.