Supreme Court To Rule On TV Censorship 426
Khashishi writes "The LA times and the Associated Press report that the FCC v. Fox Television Stations case is being heard in the Supreme Court. The FCC policy would impose a heavy fine on use of 'indecent' words on broadcast television, which Fox and others are claiming is a violation of free speech. The case was appealed after being ruled in Fox's favor in a federal appeals court in New York. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia support the FCC policy of censorship." Here's a transcript (PDF) of the oral arguments.
Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Incidentally most consumers of Fox News are too narrow-minded to realize this...or maybe being bad is okay only when it applies to them!
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You're forgetting that Fox made famous The Simpsons, Family Guy, Married...with Children, and many other shows which wouldn't have been given chances on other networks.
Those shows aren't really bad, they're just drawn that way.
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"the Supreme Court's leading conservatives made clear they would like to uphold an official crackdown on the use of expletives during daytime and early evening hours."
Reading this brought to mine Thomas Jefferson's warning:
"To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem [good justice is broad jurisdiction], and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control.
"The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves."
Clearly the conservatives on the court are NOT acting as judges interpreting law, but as private citizens trying to push their own agenda, and using their power to superimpose their religious views onto all 300,000,000 residents ("They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps"). This is just wrong.
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Here's another Jefferson quote that I like, mainly because he must have been peering into a crystal ball, because he so accurately predicted the future:
"This member of the Government was at first considered as the most harmless and helpless of all its organs. But the Supreme Court has proved that the power of declaring what the law is, ad libitum, by sapping and mining slyly and without alarm the foundations of the Constitution, can do what open force would not dare to attempt." --Thomas Jefferson to Ed
Or... (Score:5, Informative)
or
2. People that believe in social and/or financial conservativism (like me) can also appreciate off color humor (I own every season of Family Guy that's available on DVD).
or
3. Fox news and Fox entertainment division cater to different markets that they thought were being under served by their competitors
or
4. Some combination of the above 3.
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
5. Make as much money as possible, consistency be damned.
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If you like Family guy yo are not a social conservative. Really, you might want to look into social conservatives. You would be more of a moderate or liberal.
Call your self what you want, but it doesn't fit the definition.
Re:Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think Lewis Black put it best on one of his Back In Black segments on The Daily Show. People tune in to Fox (News) to seethe in outrage over what they saw on Fox (broadcast) the night before. It's a self-perpetuating business!
Re:Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Incidentally most consumers of Fox News are too narrow-minded to realize this..."
On the other hand, lots of the criticism I've seen aimed at the Fox network has been pretty narrow-minded, too. There are plenty of broad brushes to go around, it seems.
timothy
Re:Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:4, Insightful)
You have a point, Fox is not "conservative", they are just trying to be either entertaining or shocking and their kind of conservatism is deliberately trying to be outrageous and offending because that means people are watching.
Or pandering to people who actually believe it.
Re:Conservative moralists vs. Fox?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
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'Many conservatives don't like Fox any more than the rest of the liberal media.'
Pray tell where is this liberal media? There is no shortage of bias on the major media outlets but its hardly biased toward liberal or conservative.
If you want to hope to see real news you have to read foreign reporting.
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Hardocre Sex Channel (Score:5, Funny)
You know, Fox turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice!
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Well, now we know where your attention was...
Awww, So Much Headline Potential Wasted (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Awww, So Much Headline Potential Wasted (Score:4, Funny)
CENSORSHIP!
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The worst thing about Censorship is [comment removed by admin].
2 Elephants in the Room (Score:5, Insightful)
Ginsberg said that there is an elephant in the room: The First Ammendment.
As I read it, I see another one:
Potential Harmful impact? Ok... PROVE HARM.
Thats all, prove harm. Even prove potential for harm. Whats the scope of this supposed "harm"? How does this "harm" happen? How do we even know its real?
-Steve
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
He doesn't believe in his own bullshit. He's just trying to win court battles to further his own career.
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not an elephant. It's a dead horse. The SCOTUS has been ignoring the constitution in favor of direct violations of it for many years.
The constitution is 100% clear on this matter: Congress shall make no law... ...abridging the freedom of speech. Anyone who is even nominally literate knows exactly what "abridge" means today; a few minutes research will turn up that it meant the same thing in 1788. The bottom line is simple — there is no constitutional authority available (to anyone at the federal level, including the judiciary) to abridge (curtail, shorten) the freedom to speak in any form or fashion* by law, directly or indirectly (as per legislative surrogates like the FCC.)
Further, as this is an element of the bill of rights, the states don't have this authority either as per the 14th amendment, and as cities, towns, counties etc. all must comply with the same things that states have to comply with, this authority devolves to the people, as per the 10th amendment.
The fact that this is not the analysis of the SCOTUS is a direct indicator of the justices violating their oaths.
Not that it's going to change. When Bush said the constitution is "just a piece of paper", he was speaking a truth no one wants to admit. The feds, because they want you to think you live in a constitutional republic, the people, because they want to think they have a reasonable government. But the fact is, the only remaining effective elements of the bill of rights are amendments three and seven. Sadly, this is not because they are well written or somehow better than the others; it is simply that the government has had no need to make exception to them.
(*) Yes, that means that libel and slander laws are unconstitutional, that yelling "fire" in a crowded theater should be perfectly OK (and by the way, it makes sense that it should be OK), and that the seven "dirty" words should be just as OK to say on the air as "kitten" and "politician." The founders knew what they were doing when they wrote the first amendment. They didn't mean "unless the government says otherwise", they were explicitly limiting federal power because they knew it would be abused. And they have turned out to be 100% correct. Unfortunately, the constitution isn't up to the task of stopping our political apparatus from doing whatever they want to. Welcome to the machine.
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that I agree with them - but they'll point to a recent study that "links" teen pregnancy with sex on TV shows.
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope they would... it would be utterly tangential in a case about the banning of specific words in any context they might be used in.
Prove that the word "fuck", in all contexts, can actually cause harm to a person. Prove that for each of the words in question.
Prove harm, show the scope of harm. Isn't it up to those claiming harm to prove harm? So prove it, how can it be so much to ask to just prove that your not making stuff up and talking out your ass?
I mean, my mother believed that sitting too close to the TV was bad for kids eyes. Any eye doctor will tell you that its an old wives tale and kids sit so close really cuz their eyes are perfectly capable of focusing comfortably at that distance.
So... I would argue my mothers old wives tale belief doesn't prove harm, even in absence eye doctors professional opinions. Why? because its not based on data, its based on conjecture.
These arguments used by the FCCs supporters sound no more concrete to me.
Urban legends have no place in public policy.
-Steve
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I always followed the studies that said you're supposed to sit 8 feet away from the TV and had perfect eyes. Then I got a computer, and a year later, I needed glasses.
I always sat 18 inches from a monitor from the time I was a nubbin of a proto-geek and my eyes were perfect. I turned 30 and bam! Out came the astigmatism.
In other words, aging past your prime starts to suck.
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Nice anecdote. Come back when you ahve data.
BTW, I always sat close to the TV, and have been using computers since before the PC.
My eyes were fine until I was 42. My need for close up reading glasses is perfectly normal.
I hate it, becasue I ahve 20/15 vision. I miss being able to thread a needle at arms distance on the first try. Sigh.
Gad damn scientist, get on the cloning I want new body parts.
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But the issue isn't sex in this instance. It's "offensive language" particularly, the use of the words "fuck" and "shit".
So... PROVE HARM.
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Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Insightful)
Only if you can demonstrate that the kids alleged to be harmed actually know what fuck means. If it's just "a word you can't say in church", then there's no significant connection with sex.
In general usage, it's definition seems to be "a generic expletive stronger than damn but not as funny as mongolian cluster fuck". A person who actually means to logically connect slamming their finger in the door with a sex act has deeper problems.
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Only if you can demonstrate that the kids alleged to be harmed actually know what fuck means. If it's just "a word you can't say in church", then there's no significant connection with sex.
A similar point is brought up in that transcript. Personally, I would like to know why any word is considered vulgar. Context is the only thing that gives meaning to the human language. You can say the same thing in two different contexts, and one way will really hurt someone's feelings, and the other hurts no one. I partially blame this way of looking at words for the lack of tact in much of society.
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How can you blame that "way of looking at words" for the "lack of tact", when that way of looking at words is itself part of what society considers tactful?
I'm not trying to make a circular argument.
from m-w.com
tact
1 : sensitive mental or aesthetic perception
2 : a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Informative)
Personally, I would like to know why any word is considered vulgar. Context is the only thing that gives meaning to the human language. You can say the same thing in two different contexts, and one way will really hurt someone's feelings, and the other hurts no one. I partially blame this way of looking at words for the lack of tact in much of society.
I know some of the reasons that some words were originally problematic, but since their subtly shaded meanings have been lost in time, even in those cases it no longer makes any sort of sense.
Even the meta words have lost all shade of meaning, curse word, vulgarity, and expletive are different things (or were at one time).
For example, to say that someone was damned was to say they were literally so horrible that even God could never forgive them. That's a strong statement in a pious Christian society. Naturally, that makes the phrase "God damn you" a curse. Literally (amongst believers) a hope that God will find your immortal soul irredeemable and that you will spend eternity in hell.
To not give a damn was quite a different thing. Tinkers in the day had the same stereotype of emitting a constant stream of curses, expletives, and vulgarities that a sailor has today. Thus their curses were exceedingly common and of little value. So to not give a tinker's damn was just saying you felt the situation didn't have even that minimal value to you. It wasn't a curse. The willingness to utter a vulgar word to make the point did convey additional strength to the statement.
Mere vulgarities were simply less imaginative word choices that said more about the speaker than the person spoken to, implying poor breeding. However, in the right context, you could be implying that the person you're speaking to hasn't the breeding to understand a better word choice or that they simply do not warrant more refined language. Naturally, in some social circles that's quite offensive. Either way, you wouldn't want your children to say those words as it would reflect poorly on them and their parents.
Oddly enough, when people show great offense at words without even knowing why their use would be offensive they reveal mostly their own ignorance and "lack of breeding".
At the same time, constant use of expletives really weakens them. If you drop the F bomb every other sentence, how can you express a more extreme displeasure?
Personally, I think expletives in general tend to be over-used but at the same time I can't agree with censorship or claiming some special harm to children. Censure and watching something else are much more appropriate.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In general usage, it's definition seems to be "a generic expletive stronger than damn but not as funny as mongolian cluster fuck".
I thought that sounded odd so I looked it up in my Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, and fuck me running, that's definition #3.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Twitter.
No, not the service but the /. troll. That's my favorite but no one understands unless they read /. so, well, that is no one around here. But you get some really good looks with, "You're such a fucking Twitter."
I imagine people think I'm using a long form of the word "twit" though that's not the case. I get some strange looks.
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Yes, everytime you say "fuck", 10 million teens get pregnant.
On the other hand I don't see whats so bad about sex. Yes, it can be overdone on the media, but I find it a little more tasteful than trying to raise our children as little Rambos.
As for "shit", not even my parents got mad at me for using that one, when I was growing up.
They're just words, words don't hurt, only our perceptions of them hurt us.
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How about a study that adjusts for the effect of abstinence-only sex "education"?
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Interesting)
Teen pregnancy didn't become normal until... oh wait... thats right... it was always normal. Its not getting pregnant until later thats a new development. A good one if you ask me but...
teens having sex is well... pretty much them doing exactly what they are "supposed to do" from any reasonable biological standpoint.
We can put all the morality around it we want.... the human animal hasn't really changed much in the past few tens of thousands of years.
-Steve
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Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:5, Insightful)
When did vulgar profane speech become harmless and the Bible become harmful?
Let's compare body counts, shall we? We can skip everything before the Crusades if you'd like a handicap on this hole.
I belive that mom and dad should be allowed to determine what may or may not be harmful to their children. I deem it harmful. No proof necessary.
I fully back you on this. Now, control your children.
Re:2 Elephants in the Room (Score:4, Insightful)
I fully back you on this. Now, control your children.
You'd think that the V-Chip [fcc.gov] would be a raging success with all the froth and fury that exists over "indecency" on Television....
Yet every survey has shown it to be a resounding failure.
Parents don't RTFM and they don't use the V-Chip.
Words (Score:5, Funny)
Shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits
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at the time this list was compiled, those two words both still referred to animals.
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Re:Words (Score:4, Insightful)
A monument to free speech (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember listening to an interview with an artist who had been commissioned to create a monument to free speech. This is what he came up with: A giant outdoor blackboard. Free chalk and erasers provided.
In response to the question "Won't people write obscenities? Draw porn? Offend people?", he said "Of course they will. And that's part of what free speech does."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Do the erasers represent the FCC?
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Hm. A more curious question than it seems. At first, I was going to say that the people can use their own erasers on their own stuff. Except, really, can you really take back something you've said? I mean, once you've said it, it's been said, and you're not going to un-say it.
Maybe the piece would've been better without any erasers.
Re:A monument to free speech (Score:4, Informative)
A video on this very monument (I'm not intentionally karma whoring, I promise):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kV0xRcC1aA [youtube.com]
Re:A monument to free speech (Score:5, Funny)
And we shall call it: "the internet".
Offending is relative (Score:3, Insightful)
The whole idea behind FCC's censorship is to prevent upsetting somebody, what they don't understand is that we CHOOSE our feelings. When somebody says something upsetting, it is each one of us who CHOOSE to feel upset.
I found ridiculous that laws get written because a group of people decided to feel upset about something.
Which definition of Conservative do we go with? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the 80's, the Rhenquist Court time and time again decided that federal agencies did not have the power to create meaningful rules (i.e. agency rules and agency "law" could not carry the weight of, never mind trump, Federal law).
That was the "true" Conservative position. Funny how we've come full circle, deciding that now a federal agency is free to engage in prior restraint. Instead of, you know, just doing what they're supposed to do, which is to make sure people are using the right frequencies that they're supposed to use.
Fuck the FCC (Score:5, Interesting)
How?
The first amendment seems pretty clear that congress can't make any laws restricting speech, so how could it make a law delegating authority on speech either?
The FCC should ONLY be responsible for regulating who can use specific airwaves, not what can be sent over the airwaves. (And ideally the "who can use the airwaves" would be based on highest bidder to prevent any "you allow 'shit' and 'fuck' to be used on your program, you can't renew your license")
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I think that these licenses should always be reauctioned every year.
Winning the bid means you get to use the airwaves for the next year.
Proceeds should be parcelled out to towns and counties for the development of internet infrastructure.
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Personally, I believe that it is - free speech on talk radio, that is. All of the proposals revolve around re-regulating the AM band of the radio so that it is "evenly" balanced - like it was in the 1970's. The problem with that is that talk radio (which is heavily weighted towards conservative viewpoints) does compete with other forms of communication (like TV) that tends to more liberal viewpoints.
If the "Fairness Doctrine"
No restraint of free speech... (Score:2, Interesting)
These are public airwaves, and the public (through our representative government) has every right to restrict how they can be used. Saying you can't broadcast porno over the public airwaves doesn't limit free speech, it just means you have to find somewhere else to do it.
Limiting what content licensed broadcasters can send over the public airwaves is no more censorship than the fact that I'm not allowed to broadcast my speech on any frequen
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Explain how that is different from the current "free speech zone" nonsense.
Both strike me as a clear and obvious violation.
Absolutely restraint of free speech... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, you claim that the airwaves are "public" and that means that censorship there is ok?
I would say the opposite is true:
Since they ARE public airwaves, censorship there shouldn't be tolerated at all. Would public (through our representative government) has every right to restrict how they can be used being applied to a public place also be acceptable?
What the fuck? That IS ABSOLUTELY censorship. You are LIMITING what they can say. THAT IS CENSORSHIP.
It is just censorship that you agree with.
Free speech means that I can say whatever the fuck I want to, with no restrictions. Add restrictions, and you no longer have free speech.
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This is one of the fundamental flaws in our democracy today. If the constitution said "Congress shall make no law against wearing blue clothing" then congress would merely create the Federal Clothing Commission, who would then make a rule banning blue clothing. And somehow, that would not violate the constitution.
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The key point isn't if those words are harmful or not or by how much. Your example is perfectly fine -- they are your kids, your decision. Now, no one should do any jail time or be thrown out of anything for cursing around them, its really your job to remove the children not the other way around. But above and beyond that, it isn't the government's job to set a law ahead of time regulating this exchange for both of us.
You never know, the parent standing next to you might prefer me to explain teen pregnan
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It's called protecting my desire to not be surrounded by it. It's on the same level as public nudity or lewd behavior. The burden shouldn't be on me to remove myself from that in a public location or for that matter on broadcast TV. And I think it is the government's job to set a law ahead of time because we as a people have proven that we can longer regulate or control our own behavior.
If it's on cable that's my problem - I'm paying for it.
I would expect broadcast TV to uphold some standard of decency,
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Sorry, but that's one of the things you have to put up with in a free society. Why is your desire to not be around such language inherently more important than someone else's desire to express themselves in their own words?
It pisses me off to no end that so many people love to wave the flag and talk about how much they love "freedom" and want to protect it, without the first thought to what freedom really entails. Just because you disagree
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Absolutely nothing happens to their freedoms. No one is guaranteed the right to go through life without being offended, and it's just too bad for those folks that are too thin-skinned to deal with it.
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We all know how this will turn out (Score:4, Insightful)
Roberts is W's appointment, and Scalia is insane.
Because he wants to follow the Constitution? (Score:3, Informative)
Scalia thinks otherwise. He thinks his role is to follow the Constitution. So much so, that the Federalist Society considers him a hero [csmonitor.com].
If that makes him insane, I want more crazies on SCOTUS.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Bit of advise, Scalia, the federalist society, and the constitutionality party, are historical revisionists that claim the constitution says the US is a solely Christian nation, and believe in the divine right of the US government. You only reaffirm Scalia's insanity if the federalist society endorsed him.
This is bunk (Score:5, Insightful)
"Think of the children."
Precisely how does the use of expletives ever harm children? Arguments against sex and violence do hold a small amount of water. After all, many people who watch scenes of sex will feel various biological cues to engage in it. There are links between sex on TV and teen pregnancy. Of course, given the existence of the internet and cable television, access to contraceptives would probably be a more effective strategy to prevent teen pregnancy...
The same, to a less extent, with violence. The reason television violence is not as harmful is that it is difficult for the 'children' watching it to actually engage in violence, even if watching it on TV makes them want to. While almost anyone can have sex, assuming they find a partner, it takes training and practice to hit someone and cause real damage. Firearms are usually not just lying around, either, and also take practice before they can be used effectively.
So there isn't a neurological pattern in your brain that lets a person go from the couch to doing whatever violence that person sees on TV.
But course language? It never was the word that was offensive, it was the meaning...and there are plenty of messages to get the meaning out without using the words.
Heck, the F word is so over-used that it really isn't that offensive. "We fucked" can mean "we had sex in a lustful, vigorous manner". "fuck you, I'm quitting" can mean "this job does not compensate me at what I consider market value for my services, good day sir".
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And, my all time favorite ... "fuck you, you fucking fuck." :-P
Of course, the trick is to see how many times (and for how many parts of speech) you can use fuck in a single sentence, and still have it be (essentially) grammatically correct and con
Oh really? (Score:5, Insightful)
The words in question begin with the letters "F" and "S." The Associated Press typically does not use them. "The reason these words shock is because of their association with a literal meaning," Chief Justice John Roberts said, suggesting his support for the policy
Then why are we allowed to say copulation and feces on TV?
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The words in question begin with the letters "F" and "S." The Associated Press typically does not use them. "The reason these words shock is because of their association with a literal meaning," Chief Justice John Roberts said, suggesting his support for the policy
Then why are we allowed to say copulation and feces on TV?
Indeed. The literal meaning of "rape" is a million times worse than the literal meaning of "fuck," and yet we unfortunately hear the former quite often during news broadcasts.
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We can say it on TV but not on the intarwebs! Come on! Children might be reading!
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Children might be reading!
This is slashdot. I guarantee you they're reading.
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Because they're boring and nobody cares.
Welcome to Democracy. Have a nice stay!
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And then, as Mr Carlin pointed out so brilliantly, there are words that are perfectly fine to say in some contexts and completely indecent in others: "Nomar Garciaparra has 2 balls on him!" is fine if you're talking about baseball, but not if you're talking about anatomy.
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Then why are we allowed to say copulation and feces on TV?
Because those words are latin derived, and they have specific meanings.
"Vulgar" words in English are typically old english derived, where vulgar means from the mob, or common people.
Basically, this all boils down to a social status thing.
A judge does not say "Fuck you, I'm going to send you to the ass slamming prison, and that will teach you!", he says, "I sentence you to a sentence of no less than X years and no more than Y years in prison, blah bla
V-Chip (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks to mandating the V-Chip in every television set and tuner over 10 years ago there really isn't any excuse that people can receive "offensive" or "inappropriate" content. Parents and those who agree to tap into the airwaves (people who buy the TV) have to configure it: plain and simple. I mean, we trust them to configure their equipment already to tune to specific channels, right?
Not right. (Score:2, Informative)
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The networks have no way of preventing these sorts of occasional, often one-time outbursts from occurring.
Sure they do: it's called a delay. It's standard practice for radio. If they're anticipating a bunch of potty-mouths at a live broadcast of a comedy show, hey, just block the time as TVAO and turn the delay off. If it's a live broadcast of The Lion King on Ice, block it as TVG and turn the delay on in case a naked streaker runs across the ice shouting "Ba ba booey."
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This case is largely about "incidental profanity" such as what comes out of the mouths of celebrities at awards shows or miked athletes in a football game. The networks have no way of preventing these sorts of occasional, often one-time outbursts from occurring. Blocking all live broadcasts with a V-chip or any other method is not a very practical solution.
By that logic children can't go out in public either. The other day at a restaurant I had to tell the college kids in the next booth to cut out the Carl
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Hush.
You'd make them feel stupid if they realized they could just change the damned channel.
saveusobama? (Score:2, Insightful)
I assume the "saveusobama" tag is a joke, since that's referring to the guy who's about to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.
What everybody else does (Score:3, Insightful)
Why not do what everybody else does? If it's on at a time when kids are likely to be watching, take it easy on the profanity. If it's on later, when kids should be in bed anyway, don't worry about it.
This works fine in other countries. Why doesn't the U.S. do it?
...laura
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Define "should be".
I think it's all Nanny-state crap anyway. Let people have a CHOICE, naked and naughty vs clean and sober.
If the majority don't want to watch it, it will die a natural death.
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This is exactly what the US does, and what the FCC is advocating. Fox is arguing for the right to use "fleeting expletives" (isolated use of "fuck" and "shit", usually during live broadcasts) during a pre-10pm window that the FCC says is off limits. Post-10pm, broadcast television can say anything it wants, although it generally steers clear of "fuck" and "shit" at all times of the day.
For the record, I think the FCC's guidelines on when you can use expletives is arbitrary and capricious ("Saving Private
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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You know what else fell out of fashion? Stoning. Man, I miss a good stoning.
All of society's ills could be fixed with a few proper stonings, including but not limited to:
Cursing
Blasphemy
Adultery (including rape victims who don't protest loudly enough)
Disobeying your parents
Touching Mt. Sinai
Not being a virgin on your wedding night (Ladies only!)
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/stoning.html [skepticsan...dbible.com]
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Freakin' FCC was sung by Peter, Brian, and Stewie in FG417 "PTV":
Peter: They will clean up all your talking in a manner such as this
Brian: They will make you take a tinkle when you want to take a piss
Stewie: And they'll make you call fellatio a trouser-friendly kiss
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: It's the plain situation! There's no negotiation!
Peter: With the fellows at the freakin FCC!
Brian: They're as stuffy as the stuffiest of the special interest groups...
Peter: Make a joke about your bowels and they order in the troops
Stewie: Any baby with a brain could tell them everybody poops!
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: Take a tip, take a lesson! You'll never win by messin'
Peter: With the fellas at the freakin' FCC And if you find yourself with some young sexy thing
You're gonna have to do her with your ding-a-ling, Cause you can't say penis!
So they sent this little warning they're prepared to do their worst
Brian: And they stuck it in your mailbox hoping you could be coerced
Stewie: I can think of quite another place they should have stuck it first!
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: They may just be neurotic Or possibly psychotic They're the fellas at the freakin FCC!
Unreliable Scalia (Score:5, Interesting)
Scalia, who happens to be one of my favorite SCOTUS justices, is very reliable to uphold the originalist meaning of the Constitution. That is, unless he doesn't like the behavior that the law criminalizes.
See Gonzales v. Raich [wikipedia.org] for a specific case where he throws his philosophy out the window because he doesn't like the idea of people getting high.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Also look at DC v. Heller (2008), where he effectively writes the "well-regulated" portion of militia clause out of the Second Amendment, ruling that that only refers to all male citizens capable of common defense and reads self-defense against criminals (and not just defense of state or country) into the Second Amendment. He also goes to considerable lengths to pull in additional interpretive documents, like parallel state constitutional clauses, to interpret the text instead of sticking to the textualism
The Supreme Court knows fuck all about swearing (Score:3, Insightful)
Two of them, anyway. From the article (emphasis mine):
GENERAL GARRE: It can be -- it certainly can be used in a non-literal way. It can be used in a metaphorical way, as Cher used it here, to say "F them" to her critics. But the -- the non-literal/literal distinction is not unique to the isolated expletives versus the repeated effort -- expletives.
JUSTICE STEVENS: You think it's equally --it's equally subject to being treated as indecent within the meaning of the statute regardless of which meaning was actually apparent to everybody who listened to it?
GENERAL GARRE: I wouldn't say equally, Justice Stevens, but what we would say is that it can qualify as indecent under the -- under the Commission's definition, because even the non-literal use of a word like the F-Word, because of the core meaning of that word as one of the most vulgar, graphic, and explicit words for sexual activity in the English language, it inevitably conjures up a core sexual image.
JUSTICE SCALIA: Which is, indeed, why it's used.
GENERAL GARRE: Which is, indeed, why it's used as an intensifier or as an insult
So who read the title of this posting and endured a "sexual image" of the Supreme Court justices? Anyone?
It's a bit worrying that they're ruling on language which some of them don't understand.
High court favors "fucking strong" indecency rule (Score:3, Funny)
Conservative Supreme Court judges want to uphold an FCC crackdown on the use of salty language during daytime and early evening hours. [today.com]
U.S. Solicitor General Gregory G. Goatse said the strict regulation of broadcast TV preserved it as a "safety zone" for families with children. "They'll never hear the foul shit they'd hear on the Internet, on cable or, God fucking perish, the schoolyard."
The Federal Communication Commission imposes heavy fines on broadcasters who broadcast any of "shit," "piss", "fuck," "cunt," "cocksucker," "motherfucker" or "tits," though saying them in sequence functions as a First Amendment "cheat code" and is allowed as artistic expression. Broadcasters can be fined more than $325,000 for a single utterance of the F-word, even some fuckhead blurting it out on a live broadcast.
Chief Justice John G. Lemonparty Jr. and Justice Antonin Stilea dominated Tuesday's argument and strongly supported the FCC.
Stilea said he understood that foul words would be heard at a football or baseball game. "Those assholes ain't fit for polite company. But TV's a different fucking one cup of two girls. TV coarsens the public debate, not like that fucking Internet thing. I'm not persuaded by the argument that people are more accustomed to hearing this shit than they were in the past."
During Tuesday's argument, only Justice Ruth Bader Tubgirl, waving her naked hairy butt at the courtroom, suggested the court delve into the 1st Amendment issues that underlay this dispute. It is "the fucking huge pile of elephant dung in the room," she said. "I can't believe this fucking retarded goddamn bullshit."
Re:How ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Precisely. Everyone thinks Fox is a conservative lap dog, when the reality is that Fox works for no one but themselves. They fill a niche in a market that is usually considered a liberal stronghold (the media). This gets them viewers who would prefer to see their views up in CGI and coming out the the mouths of talking heads.
Let's bear in mind that while Obama won, his electoral college landslide was really only a few percent difference of the popular vote. There is a huge pool of people in the US that
Or... (Score:4, Interesting)
or
2. They are fighting to cut down on the overhead associated with getting everything approved by the FCC for purely financial and organizational reasons
or
3. They think that it is ok in principle for the FCC to censor TV in certain situations, but that the FCC is being Capricious and they need the clarity that can be brought by adjudication via the highest court in the land
or
4. some combination of the above.
If I had a penny for every time someone who didn't even watch Fox news made some derogitory comment about it's supposed bias I'd be richer than Bill Gates. If I got another penny for each attempt by those people to justify their belief by using a partisan reference to back it up I'd have enough money to pay of the National Debt.
If you've watched Fox News and don't like it, then don't watch it. I don't care for most of the personalities on Fox, but I also don't care for most of the personalities on CNN or MSNBC. I think most major news anchors are, for the most part, a bunch of pompus tools that aren't worth listeninging to no matter which station they are on.
Re: (Score:2)
so true :)
Re: (Score:2)
That's also not news.
Now if Lurleen would run naked through Springfield, THAT would be Fox News-worthy-ish, kinda.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure there are about 100 ways to prevent your kids from watching shows that are rated for language or whatever. What I want is a way to ban commercials for my kids without having to completely turn off the TV. Commercials are WAY more dangerous since they are about real life things that you can buy or do. Drugs, alcohol, sex, self-loathing, junk food... on a TV show is bad enough... but on a commercial that advertises crap you can get at the local fix Dr.'s office or buy at a convenience store is a whole different ballgame. Fuck all these drug advertisements on TV too... who needs that crap on TV? Go to a fucking M.D. or stop smoking if you are sick.
Besides, I don't want my kids nagging me about lame toys. Whatever happened to the cool violent toys of yesteryear? As much as I appreciate cartoons, I'm sick of all the ultra-cutsie stuff.
Indeed. .. as long as the pharma lobby has more money than the comedians
I am amazed to hear that "For the children" is a viable argument when we are blasted with commercials for cialis and viagra... not to mentioned those hideous "mucus" commercials that seem to only be on during dinner time.
Commercials using language that any 5 year old can easily decipher given context clues, but hey, thats ok!
Re:My two cents (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess girls in skirts higher than the knee are "asking for it" as well.
In a fundamental, biological sense, how are they not?