Wow, is our plate full tonight. Thankfully, I just had a big bowl of ham and bean soup, some saltines and a big glass of Red Diamond Sugar Free iced tea.

So, physically I'm satisfied, but we have to touch on several pop cultural and political points from Monday's headlines. First and foremost, Sally Field.

She's just won an Emmy for her role on "Brothers & Sisters," an ABC show that's apparently pretty good but that interests me none. Now, I love Sally Field, particularly the late 1970s model. However, this version of Field decided to dedicate her award to mothers in general.

Fair enough.

However, after some stumbling, she then raised her trophy and said something about there never being any "God damned wars" if mothers were in charge in the first place. America's FOX television network censored it, but Canada's CTV aired it.

And the United States is the home of the FREE?

While I understand the community standards issue and how Janet Jackson's boob changed everything, the real problem here is that it was FOX that did the censoring. Given that it was a curse word associated with a negative comment about war and recognizing that the FOX Noise Channel is a propaganda machine for President George W. Bush, this was a real conflict of interest for the network.

Now, I actually agree with Sally's statement but not because of all the wonderful characteristics that mothers possess. In fact, if mothers were in charge of everything, accepting a definite patriarchal role in government and society and even business, there would be no war because there would be no men interested in fighting it.

We'd be off watching sports, drinking beer, smoking cigars, scratching ourselves and farting. That's in no particular order.

In all sincerity, I am an anti-war American by nature, like Sally. However, we started the mess in Iraq, and we are absolutely morally obligated not so much to "finish the job" as to "clean it up and minimize the global damage," and that means ensuring they have a stable government and helping to physically rebuild the country.

And that means this liberal does not in any way support a retreat right now. Nevertheless, censoring Sally's "GD" remark might have been acceptable given that FOX is a free-air network, but given their associations, I don't believe their censorship had a thing to do with cussing.

***

Another good liberal, Barry Manilow, decides he's not going to appear on "The View" because show producers won't let him appear without Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Well, suit himself.

He said her political views are "offensive and dangerous," and I am thinking to myself: Barry, are you crazy? This show represents your primary demographic -- women over 30.

However, let's examine Barry's beef. He says Elisabeth's views are offensive. Well, she's conservative, pro-war, socially right wing, but she's really no different than any other conservative. In fact, Elisabeth is pretty moderate compared to many right wingers.

So, I'll have to ix-nay him on the notion that her ideas are offensive or even dangerous. The latter is pretty ridiculous, actually. Adolf Hitler's ideas were dangerous because he had the power to execute his ideologies. David Duke's ideas are dangerous because he had a vote in his state House at one point.

However, Mel Gibson's ramblings are offensive. They serve no real danger because there was never a class of authority figures or decision-makers ready to make law with the actor's drunken rants.

Poor little Elisabeth Hasselbeck? Offensive?

She's conservative, and I don't agree with much of anything she says, but I don't find people I disagree with offensive just because I disagree with them. This is a business mistake on Barry's part, and I would go so far as to say the crooner needs to grow up a bit.