For anyone in the DC area, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama will be visiting the UM campus in the next few days.
I’m considering going to see Huckabee. I don’t know whether there’ll be a question-and-answer period, but just in case, I’d like to have a question or two prepared. Anyone got any suggestions? (Preferably ones that won’t get thrown out immediately if questions are screened.)
The Language Log has an article about ABC showing an episode of some show where a woman’s buttocks were visible. “So nu?” you might think if, like me, you were kickstarted into puberty by seeing boobs on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Benny Hill Show in the 70s and 80s.
But no, the FCC decided that showing a butt demanded a $1.4 million fine. the most puzzling bit is this statement by the FCC:
Although ABC argues, without citing any authority, that the buttocks are not a sexual organ,22 we reject this argument, which runs counter to both case law23 and common sense.
Does the FCC really think that buttocks are involved in sex as more than erogenous zones? If so, they’ll need to ban everything from eyes to well-turned ankles. Is “asshat” a sexual term?
The Language Log does a fine job of fisking this arrant nonsense, from both linguistic and legal standpoints, so go read that. But in an amusing coincidence, I was watching Australia’s The Chasers War on Everything and something from the BBC, and wondering why they get to say “fuck” on TV, while Jon Stewart gets bleeped when he says “blow job”.
Welcome to the US, the last industrialized nation that
Yes, I occasionally listen to the Intelligent Design the Future podcast. But I had trouble today downloading the latest episode:
For those who can’t or won’t read the image:
There was a problem downloading “Predictions from an Intelligent Design Perspective”
A while back, some people were getting bent out of shape because Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials had sex in a children’s book.
(Spoilers after the jump.) Read More