Has anyone seen the System of a Down video for "Sugar"? If you own the CD, and even if you don't, you'll notice that a lot of the song is "bleeped-out."

For example, at the beginning of the song Serj (vocals) says "The kombucha mushroom people, sitting around all day, ..." But all you hear is "The kombucha ... oom people, sitting around all day ..." Okay, what's bad about the word "mushroom?" Is it because it's drug-related? Give me a break! You can say "heroin," "marijuana," "pot," and "cocaine" when they aren't in songs. But once you throw a drug into a song, they're bad. Sure they're bad, but not the words. Especially the way they're used in this particular song.

Also in "Sugar" the words "bullet," "gun," "Russian roulette" and "shoot" are used. And guess what -- they're bleeped-out too. And it's probably because of the Columbine incident. I understand that this was a terrible trajedy. I cannot understand why someone would want to take another person's life. My heart goes out to the victims and their families, but because of what two stupid kids did, all others must suffer. Once they did that, they were "representing" all teen-agers. And the media and the government decided that we are all capable of doing things like this. Well we're not. And just because we hear the word "gun" or "bullet" in a song, doesn't mean we're gonna kill everyone who has wronged us.

In fact, these words in SOAD's song are not used badly. Here: "I play Russian roulette everyday, a man's sport,/ With a bullet called life." He's saying he takes chances with life, not that he puts a bullet in one chamber of a gun and spins it and pulls the trigger. And what about Ricky Martin? In "Livin' La Vida Loca" he says "She'll take away all your pain, like a bullet to your brain." I think that is MUCH worse than what SOAD is saying, but is Ricky Martin bleeped-out? Nope.