According to Fox News
and
Variety,
(… ← help yourself to a grain of salt) Yoko Ono has lost
her suit against the makers of
Expelled: No Intelligence Involved Allowed
for the unauthorized use of John Lennon’s Imagine. The
movie will be rereleased in theaters.
In related news, Expelled has gone from 9% on the
tomatometer
to 8%, which puts it in the same Outback as
Kangaroo Jack.
Basically, Webster Cook, the U. Central Florida student who
precipitated this whole mess, is filing charges against the church,
because the university’s rules on hazing prohibit the “forced
consumption of any food”. I’m sure that’s not what the rule was
intended for, but hey.
Just in passing, I think one thing bears repeating: as far as I know,
at no point in this whole sordid affair has the Catholic church, or
anyone else, presented what ought to be the most obvious defense of
their actions: that there’s evidence supporting their
assertion that a piece of bread is a god.
Until such evidence is presented, the assertion that a wafer of bread
turns into a god is just unsupported opinion. Which means that Bill
Donohue and his fellow subpontibians are going apeshit because someone
doesn’t agree with them, and has the unmitigated gall to say so
(granted, rather rudely, in PZ’s case, but still).
Recall the recent Texas Supreme Court case that ruled that freedom of
religion means it’s okay to subject an unwilling victim to an
exorcism, the church used all sorts of lines of defense, but never
once tried to establish that the victim was actually possessed, or
even that there is such a thing as possession.
I suspect that at some level, people who claim to hold these sorts of
nutty religious beliefs don’t actually believe them. Well, okay, maybe
the rank and file do, as evidenced by the people who were up in arms
about Cook holding their god hostage, or the ones who threatened his
and PZ Myers’s life (and you thought we’d left the “crime” of host
desecration behind with the middle ages? Ha!). But by the time it
percolates up the hierarchy, when it comes time to actually put up or
shut up in open court, suddenly they’re very quiet.
Republicans (natch) have introduced yet another “Defense” of Marriage amendment bill.
It’s co-sponsored by Larry “Wide Stance” Craig and David “Diaperman” Vitter.
This has got to be a joke. No one can be that irony-blind.
At a time when I, like a lot of the country, was starting to suffer from outrage fatigue, it seems that today brought a higher-than-usual number of news stories in the “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” department.
One of Erik Prince’s companies (no, not Blackwater; another one) invokes Shari’a law when it’s convenient:
RALEIGH – To defend itself against a lawsuit by the widows of three American soldiers who died on one of its planes in Afghanistan, a sister company of the private military firm Blackwater has asked a federal court to decide the case using Islamic law, known as Shari’a.
Last year, they tried arguing that the airline was a government contractor, and individuals can’t sue the government, but judges didn’t buy that. So now they’re arguing that since the crash was in Afghanistan, the case is subject to Afghan law, which is basically Shari’a.
Remember when questions like “Is it okay to torture people as a matter of government policy?” were no-brainers?
Ah, those were simpler days. Yesterday, John Yoo, the guy who came up with the legal rationalization for Gitmo and torture, in testimony before Congress wouldn’t say whether the president has the right to order that someone be buried alive.
In a blast from the past, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington regales us with last year’s hit single, “The Vice President Isn’t In the Executive Branch“.
I just heard that George Carlin died on Sunday.
Well, shit.
Fuck.
Piss, cunt, motherfucker, cocksucker.
Tits.
I first ran into his Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV when I was, oh, twelve or thirteen. At the time, I thought it was the funniest thing ever.
Later, I decided it wasn’t actually all that funny; that the humor came entirely from the fact that you’re not supposed to say those words—in other words, it was an elaborate poop joke.
Still later, I listened to the sketch again, and realized that no, it’s funny even if you’re not shocked by words like “cocksucker”. And while the humor is based on the fact that you’re not supposed to say words like that, it’s more subtle than just a poop joke; it’s more of a commentary on society, and the interaction between the meaning of words and their connotations.
But to hell with that. Here’s a sketch of Carlin’s that’s all about death and heaven:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqVVENiY2c&hl=en]
And finally, let’s thank the sun for the fact that we had Carlin as long as we did. And Joe Pesci, if you’re listening, please make sure he’s not in any discomfort.
Well, crap.
Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. Not that this was entirely unexpected, but it still sucks.
I was going to write up Mike Huckabee’s visit to UMD, but Ariel Alexovich than I would have. Plus, her article has a photo that might plausibly have me in it (the second guy on the rent-a-cop’s shoulder).
(Photo: Chris Maddaloni for The New York Times)
Okay, a few comments below the fold.
Mitt Romney, bowing out of the race:
Now, if I fight on, in my campaign, all the way to the convention … I want you to know, I’ve given this a lot of thought – I’d forestall the launch of a national campaign and, frankly, I’d make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.
Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
Asshat. Is fearmongering really all the Republicans have left?
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