But if you put ‘anal massage’ in their search engine, it pops up 3 ‘results’ boxes that are blank! sounds like someone at target did some creative editing due to unwanted attention.

oops … c for a … happens to the most careful among us.

kurtis (laughing his … okay, i’m done with the puns … off)

Keith’s right on target here (see, I can make bad jokes that don’t involve sexuality!). To get a sampling of the folks he’s talking about, just search snopes.com for “boycott” and get a heapin’ helping of boycott campaigns based on nothing, or practically nothing, or even an apparent willful disgregard for the truth, from both the “restrictive” and “permissive” wings of social activism. As can be seen, it’s taken a lot less than this to touch off yet another round of “those who know what’s best for us / must rise and save us from ourselves.”

In all seriousness, the post wasn’t meant to provoke any reaction except a few chuckles. My derision toward the “high-morals” crowd would perhaps have been better phrased as the “high-outrage” crowd, the very folks Keith was talking about, but in this case either descriptor is apt. And as I didn’t see “DVD” on the Target page, it looked like they were offering… well, let’s call it “personal service”.

Only the words “Anal Massage” and “DVD” appear on Target’s site. In time, they will probably disappear – it will be filtered out of Target’s shopping cart. Just my guess.

And the truth of the matter is that Eric is correct about the “High Morals Crowd” if he’s talking about the people I think he is. There is a group of folks out there who have nothing better to do with their lives than display their high moral tone to the world at the expense of others. I’m talking about the people who live for a petty fight.

I’m not talking about those who do what they think is right, and live by a certain code. Those people I respect. The people I’m talking about are on both political sides and we all know who they are.

These folks look for something small like this to start a “movement.” Nothing dangerous here, just two words. But it’s not inconcievable that one of these “We’re protecting you from you” groups would latch onto this and make it into much more than it is.

Personally, I thought it was amusing that the people who run Target’s end of the site missed it. Further, I had to giggle at the idea that a company that is so obsessed with image that it is banning Salvation Army Santas because it give the impression of “panhandling,” let this one slip through.

But that doesn’t mean that I won’t disagree with certain things. :o)

I reacted a little rashly because of the sarcastic tone of the post, and for that I’m sorry. This post was meant to get a reaction out of someone like me, and it did.

Apologies,

–J

For what it’s worth, the ability to get a more rounded picture, a fuller story, is the glory of this medium. When I was first at college I had to take, on face value, the words of the authors of my books despite knowing nothing about them.

These days I am provided background information which is marvellous. An ongoing discussion of your areas of expertise is wonderful and inspiring. Including in that discussion your interests, motivations and opinions serves to provide context.

I would rather lose commenting from this site than lose your freedom to post whatever the hell you want.

Because, after all, Target is clearly promoting a homosexual lifestyle by offering this item.

There is no way this item is clearly homosexual. I once saw a program which said one of the biggest buyers of strap-on dildos were married couples.

I like the mix of topics on this site. It’d be boring if it were all CSS. (Not that Eric’s CSS topics have ever been boring.) Watch out when talking about your radio show, Eric! That ain’t nothin’ to do with CSS. And Zeldman had better stop posting pictures of his newly-born daughter – after all, his site is supposed to be about web coding, right? And so on, yawn.