Some things are just done in bad taste. Sometimes those things are illegal and sometimes they aren’t, but regardless, they’re still shocking and offensive.

Take for example the lady who pulled down her bikini bottom and exposed her money maker to everyone during our dinner this weekend—that was not only a sight I would rather permanently forget, but it was just downright nasty—bad taste, pure and simple. Oh, and by the way, it’s also illegal, but the riff raff around her didn’t seem to mind. Must have been the ocean of beer they were swimming in—that'll cloud your better judgment. Heck, that'll cloud your anything judgment.

Deciding to take my cell phone that I mistakenly left on the chair next to me when I rushed to get my standby airline ticket was done in bad taste. Maybe the she-wolf and her little evil spawn thought I wouldn’t return. Maybe they thought I wouldn’t miss my social and work life-support. Maybe they thought I wouldn’t notice their suspicious looks or maybe the fact that they tried to ignore my ringtone. Who in the world can ignore Notorious B.I.G. singing Hypnotize from the depths of a purse being held by a 65 year old woman in a sari? Yep, that’s bad taste. You just simply don’t do that. And, the icing on the cake: when I demanded that she remove my phone from her purse, she said it was her phone! Right….my hot pink iPhone with my “biggie biggie biggie” ringtone and my calls to my phone corresponding to the ringing of said phone is NOT an indicator that it’s my phone. Only when I told her in no uncertain terms to give me my phone out of her purse or else did I get my phone back. Listen lady, you’re lucky I was happy to get on an earlier flight or else you’d be doing a lot more than pretending you don’t speak English. Again, all done in bad taste--oh, and yeah, it’s illegal.

Another thing that fits neatly under this bad taste umbrella is the proposed mosque in New York by Ground Zero. First, it’s clear that pursuant to this country’s property rights, anyone can build where they want to if they adhere to the laws, ordinances and regulations and rightfully own the land or the right to build on the land. Second, to me, the issue is not one touching upon religious discrimination or intolerance as the talking heads seem to suggest. What is the larger issue is that having a mosque so close to Ground Zero would just be in bad taste. It is a final resting place for many and a remembrance of a mass slaughter of life. It is where people will come to grieve, to get some semblance of healing and perhaps a reminder of why their loved ones are fighting in a war or have risked/given their life overseas. When the Carmelite nuns wanted to build a convent, a house of prayer and service, near Aushwitz, Pope John Paul II forbade it. Aushwitz, he reasoned, was a holy, sacred ground for the Jews and a place that held significant meaning for the entire Jewish people—not only for those touched by it directly. Regardless of the peaceful nature of the proposed convent, it would be in bad taste to build it near this holy ground. This same thinking should be applied to the mosque debate. The mosque can be properly built somewhere else. To build it where it’s proposed would just be to build it in bad taste.