Virginia attorney general decides X-rated state seal is OK

Risking earthquakes, Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli announced Monday that he is discontinuing the use of a new family-friendly state seal he created only days ago in favor of a more pornographic version (shown in the image above) that has been used for eons.

As we told you yesterday, Cuccinelli presented a lapel pin for his staff with the G-rated state seal last week.  The problem with the Revolutionary War era seal is that the Roman goddess Virtus had a breast exposed.  Granted, she's no Pamela Anderson (or Olive Oyl even) but her eroticism was too much for Cuccinelli and he had her adorned with a breastplate.

We theorized that the move was due to an Iranian cleric's recent declaration that women who dress suggestively increase the frequency of earthquakes.

Cuccinelli, oddly, didn't mention that in a statement he released Monday.  But he did blame the media for making too much of the issue (we're sure he wasn't talking about us though).

"The image on my office lapel pin is similar to that of a large antique state flag that hangs in....

...the Virginia Capitol," he said. "That is where I got the idea for my pin. I liked this particular image and thought it would be something unique for my employees."

"I cannot believe that joking with my staff about Virtue being a little more 'virtuous' in this antique version has become news. This is simply a media-made issue that has become distracting to the work of my office."

"I am going to end this distraction by discontinuing future use of the pin," he fumed.

So soon? That was fast.  One of our readers mocked that the attorney general should have done more!

"Perhaps next, Mr. Cuccinelli will prohibit women from looking down, lest they be scandalized from the sight of their own breasts," writes Brendan.

While Ticket reader John Stevenson sounded a bit like Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler when he wrote:  "That doesn't even looks like female. You could have told me that was a dude and I would have believed you."

-- Jimmy Orr

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Comments

[Liz - Native Virginian]

I am so glad that my Attorney General is taking a stand against cartoon boobies!

If this is the shape of things to come for AG Ken, I hope he continues to hurt his chances at running for higher office.

[DLM]

Would it be a bad time to cause further moral panic by pointing out that the VA state seal looks a hell of a lot like athena (zomg idols!), not that the US is lacking in these graecoroman religious symbols, thanks to our founders ;)

[Sean Collins-Smith]

The lapel he introduced was actually from the Civil War...the confederacy used is in the 1860's.

[Chipper J]

This is all just a simple misunderstanding. He overheard someone complaining about the boob in the AG's office and just assumed they were referring to the state seal.

[Bryan H]

Its a dude!!! Virtus is a Roman god - sometimes depicted as an old man, sometimes as a young boy, but mostly as a man. Like many Roman gods it could be a he or a she, but the image on the seal seems clearly to be male (Yes, Virginia guys wore tunics back in Ceasar's day). If this (ehem) lawyer was nearly as intelligent as he is sexually repressed, he might have thought to do the two minutes of research required to put his victorian era mind at ease.

[Scott Newell]

I'm a citizen of VA and would like the AG to return a prorata amount of his salary for the time spent engaging in this tomfoolery as well as the time spent by state employees at his direction.