And another irksome matter, the most serious of all, is that, given the audience for this event, both in the stadium itself and around the world (an audience that includes children, the elderly, people of all faiths and belief systems and moralities), these displays of rampant adult sexuality on parade were not just ill-considered and intrusive but in outright bad taste. That's true simply because they knowingly violated the norms of a substantial percentage of the viewing audience -- which isn't exactly the MTV demographic.

These conscious, deliberate actions also feed racism, as an unfortunate byproduct. They do so by portraying African Americans as uncontrollably dominated by their sexual urges, which lie just below their surfaces, ready to erupt at the most inappropriate moments. That's what bigots have said about them for four centuries. (Nor am I sure that the image of a younger white male stripping an older black woman in public and on stage does race relations any good.)

Next time you hear the Rev. Al Sharpton (whose uncharacteristic silence on this subject remains deafening) complaining about the negative representation of Black people in the mass media, remember Nelly clutching his johnson through his saggins and Janet flashing her nip at Bowl 38.

Does this event merit investigation by the federal government? No. Legal charges? No. Penalties of some sort? Maybe. Apologies from all concerned? Definitely, and not just from Jackson and Timberlake, but from Nelly, P. Diddy, MTV, and everyone else involved in calculatedly eroticizing the Super Bowl for publicity and profit.

Does it deserve censure from various communities? Absolutely. And that doesn't make us prudes.

And no, I don't see it as contradictory to add that I'd also censure U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft for covering the bare breast of the statue of Justice. Different contexts, different symbols, different messages. Different breasts. And different nipples.