First, there was the decision to uphold the FCC’s right to fine people for swearing and other verbal slips:

The Supreme Court said yesterday that the Federal Communications Commission may penalize even the occasional use of certain expletives on the airwaves but left for another day the question of whether such a policy is constitutional.

The court’s narrow ruling said the FCC — prompted by Cher’s use of the F-word during a 2002 live broadcast and similar remarks by what Justice Antonin Scalia called “foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood” — was justified in changing its policy in 2004 to fine broadcasters up to $325,000 every time certain words are allowed on the air.

This from a man who laughed as Stephen Colbert flipped him off (Italian-style) at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner a few years ago. Then again, the WHCD is just one massive circle jerk when the media and the politicians in bed with said media get together for an orgy of mutual masturbation.

Fox Television Stations and other networks had challenged FCC’s actions under the Administrative Procedure Act. They said the agency did not adequately explain why it changed its policy, which previously held that one-time utterances of expletives did not constitute a violation of FCC rules.

…Fox said it was disappointed but “optimistic that we will ultimately prevail when the First Amendment issues are fully aired before the courts.”

For Christ’s sake, Supreme Court, you’re making me side with FOX on this one? Something is seriously wrong here.

My favorite quote, however, once again comes from the Justice I love to hate the most. Mr. Scalia, take it away:

“Whether [the policy] is unconstitutional will be determined soon enough, perhaps in this very case,” Scalia wrote in sending the case back to the appeals court. In the meantime, any suppressed “references to excretory and sexual material surely lie at the periphery of First Amendment concern.”

Essentially, if it refers to sex or feces, it’s automatically naughty! Because we’re not going to go by the intention of our Founding Fathers — especially not the so-called Constitutionalist Scalia. Oh no. We’re going back further, to the true founders of this country, the Puritans! They knew the score, and that is to say that scoring is bad, mmm kay. Sex is bad, it’s something we do, but we should still be kind of ashamed of, because we enjoy it! And we shouldn’t! It’s dirty! It’s wrong! It is animalistic and uncivilized! It’s horrid! WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP THINKING ABOUT SEX! DIRTY!

Then, to drive the point home, the Supreme Court decided to send the FCC fine of CBS over Nipple Gate back to the lower courts for reconsideration.

The high court on Monday directed the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to consider reinstating the $550,000 fine that the Federal Communications Commission imposed on CBS over Jackson’s breast-baring performance at the 2004 Super Bowl.
…
Last year, the appeals court threw out the fine against CBS, saying the FCC strayed from its long-held approach of applying identical standards to words and images when reviewing complaints of indecency.

The appellate court said the incident lasted nine-sixteenths of one second and should have been regarded as ”fleeting.” The FCC previously deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so ”pervasive as to amount to ’shock treatment’ for the audience,” the court said.

But, ah, see the Supreme Court just decided two things in Tuesday’s ruling: sex is always naughty and not protected by the First Amendment on it’s face (THANKS SCALIA!) and that “fleeting” does not equal “excusable”. So, if you’ve been dying to see Janet Jackson’s nipple again, you’re in luck, because this case just won’t go away! The nip slip seen and heard round the world returns, and this time, it’s personal.

Or something like that.

References:
Supreme Court Revives Fine Over Super Bowl Incident
Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for ‘Fleeting Expletives’

Someone who enjoyed bringing babies into the world by attending births could be a midwife, a birthing coach, or a maternity nurse to avoid dealing with the termination of pregnancy. But that would greatly decrease his or her ability to bring in revenue for annual PAP smears, treating women with HRC, etc.

So, when those who’d opt out via the “conscience” clause say it’s about religion, what they’re really saying is that it’s about the money, honey.

Did you forget the existence of this mediocre blog? The tagline is, after all, we update when we get around to it, so if you were expecting something a bit more regular, shame on you!

Actually, the reason for extended radio silence without the sporadic updates you know and love is that The Husband and I moved to a new residence! And, let me tell you, MOVING SUCKS. No matter how much money you save up, it’s never enough, and the experience leaves you broke, indebted to everyone you know and love, and on the verge of suicide.

Or at least, that’s always been my experience.

Good news, though! Apparently, through some miraculous turn of events, I’m going to get all my moving expenses back and then some, to the tune of 18 MILLION DOLLARS! How, you ask with the skepticism I expect to hear in your voice? Easy! Apparently, a Colonel Uday of Iraq was murdered and left all of his money in a Hong Kong bank with no next of kin to claim it! All I have to do is help a nice Asian business man retrieve the money, and he’ll cut me in for 70%.

At first, I thought it was one of those Nigerian scams, but it clearly can’t be, because it’s all involving ASIAN people!

MR. Song Li le
Hang Seng Bank Ltd.
Sai Wan Ho Branch,
83, Des Voeux Road,
Hong Kong.
(songlile64@gmail.com)

Good Day,

Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr. SONG LILE, Director of
Operations of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd. I have an obscured business
suggestion for you. Before the U.S. and Iraqi war, our client Colonel
Sadiq Uday, who was with the Iraqi forces and also businessman, made a
numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar months, with a value of Twenty Four
Millions Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars($19,500,000.00usd)
only in my branch. Upon maturity several notices was sent to him, even
during the war which began in 2003. Again after the war another
notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found
out that the Colonel along with his wife and only daughter had been killed
during the war in a bomb blast that hit their home.
You can read more about the bombings on visiting these sites below:

1.http://www.ccmep.org/usbombingwatch/2003.htm#3/19/03
2.http://civilians.info/iraq/deaths_data.php

After further investigation it was also discovered that Colonel Sadiq
Uday, did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the
paper work of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time
he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank.
So, Twenty Four Millions Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars
is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it.

What bothers me most is that according to the laws of my country at the
expiration 5 years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong
Government if nobody applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my
suggestion to you is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the
next of kin to Colonel Sadiq Uday, so that you will be able to receive his
funds.

MODALITIES:

I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall
come out successful. I have an attorney that will prepare the necessary
document that will back you up as the next of kin to Colonel Sadiq Uday,
all that is required from you at this stage is for you to provide me with
your Full Names and Address so that the attorney can commence his job.
After you have been made the next of kin, the attorney will also fill in
for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary approval and of probate
in your favor for the move of the funds to an account that will be
provided by you. There is no risk involved at all in this matter, as we
are going to adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all
the necessary documents. Please endeavor to observe utmost discretion in
all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds have been transferred to
your nominated bank
account we shall then share in the ratio of 70% for me, 30% for you.

Should you be interested please send me your,

1, Full names,
2, private phone number,
3, current residential address,

And I will prefer you reach me on my private email address below:
(songlile64@gmail.com) and finally after that I shall provide you with
more details of this operation.

Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Mr. Song Lile

My reply:

Please reply to my information below with all of the information regarding this transaction!

Weysan Dun*
11 Centre Place
Newark, New Jersey 07102
(973) 792-3000

* this would be the name, address, and phone number of the acting director of my local branch of the FBI, FWIW

BoingBoing Update:
If any of you were betting on last night’s conspiracy theories regarding the unpublication of Violet Blue, you’ve just hit pay day if you bet on option number five, at least according to ValleyWag:

“Sex blogger Violet Blue may have tried to ride the Boing Boing coattail express to microfame by airing grievances publicly. But once upon a time she waged the same kind of war on Boing Boing cofounder Xeni Jardin’s side against Matthew Neal Sharp, curator of xenisucks.com, and the New York Times. Now, after the bad breakup between the two bloggers became serious business”

Moreover, a liberal reading of an interview Xeni Jardin and a few other member of BoingBoing did with the LATimes seems to hint at “affair gone sour” as the reason for Jardin’s deletion of Blue from BoingBoing existence. Jardin admits she unilaterally made the decision to exorcise BoingBoing of the specter of Ms. Blue for personal reasons.

“But at the time, I did that for personal reasons, and for a back story that will always remain private.”

“…I didn’t bring it up again in part because it involved some personal, private stuff that I don’t tend to get into. Like whether someone’s character is this or that, or whatever kind of personal dirty laundry was involved.”

So there you have it.

Interestingly, while Pescovitz (who seems genuinely upset by the whole thing) and John Battelle (BoingBoing’s business manager and CEO of site sponsor Federated Media) were interviewed for the article, Doctorow and Frauenfelder have been very quiet about the whole situation. As I mentioned last night, I can’t imagine Mark ever saying a bad word about anyone, but despite my polar opposition to most positions of Cory, I’ve got to feel bad for him right about now. If there are two things Cory loves, it’s BoingBoing and free speech/transparency in publication, and now there’s a cleft between the two because of Xeni’s actions. And then her lovely, not at all self involved quote:

“But –- it was my work. And I felt like: This is my work, this is my blog. This is not the same thing as Wikipedia or the paper of record. It’s BoingBoing. And I have the right to take these things down while I think about whether I want them out there or not.”

…and I have to feel bad for Cory. If I was in his position, I’d be ready to inflict some serious bodily harm to someone who had just made my website, which I love, look like it compromised its integrity. Because if there’s one thing that Cory doesn’t want to be seen as, it’s a hypocrite, so I imagine he’s torn between presenting unified support for a team member or the copy-left, anti-censorship rage he’s probably feeling right now.

Or he could be cool with the whole thing. Who knows.

What I do know is that, because Cory and Xeni are the two BBers who tend to post about certain subjects (if it’s copyfight or anti-government, it’s Cory; sex or space, it’s Xeni) they are most likely at odds with each other right now. Because Xeni is, essentially, the sex blogger of the site, any post that wasn’t written by Violet Blue is hers, and copyright would remain with her. But copyleft isn’t so forgiving.

The Consumerist: Think Similar!

In other Leftist blog news, to show solidarity with BoingBoing, The Consumerist has also jumped the shark. The Consumerist is a Gawker Media site dedicated to helping shoppers fight back against corporate oppression, which usually entails how to get through to humans in customer support, how to get through to executive customer service, what consumer rights are, and how to execute an Executive Email Carpet Bomb (EECB) to get results when all other avenues have failed.

Except the oppression has recently seemed more like consumer inconvenience and entitlement, and the commentors have responded with ire and disbelief at the petty shit people will use EECBs on, like managing to get themselves on the wrong plane and only being flown home for free by JetBlue, or a fast food chain that is completely incompetent and should fire all workers at one store because they forgot the pickles. And the fries were cold!

Any other website wouldn’t take the readers to task for calling out bullshit abuse of utilities that should be saved for truly horrendous customer screwing, or wouldn’t post such ridiculous complaints at all, except on a very slow news day. The Consumerist, however, Is Taking This Seriously and put forth a Ten Commandments (of sorts) regarding posts. No longer can you say that the original poster’s argument is without merit. You cannot blame the consumer. You cannot, essentially, criticize the consumer or the site moderators. Oh no. All you are allowed to do, in public on the site, is offer advice, unless the only advice warranted is “shut your fucking mouth and stop your bitching, you idiot.” Oh no! Their consumers are beautiful, precious, infallible snowflakes that cannot be criticized or called to task for acting like the humans in a certain new Pixar film.

Some describe it as a cult or a sect, but in reality the term ? derived from the word “emotional” ? encapsulates a trend that is becoming hugely popular among Britain’s schoolchildren.

A trans-Atlantic import, its followers dress in black, favouring tight jeans, T-shirts, studded belts and sneakers or skater shoes.

Hair is all-important: often dyed black and straightened, it is worn in a long fringe brushed to one side of the face.

Music also plays a critical role.

Emos like guitar-based rock with emotional lyrics.

American bands such as My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte and Blink 182 are particular favourites.

…

My Chemical Romance made it to No.1 in the UK chart with Welcome To The Black Parade in October 2006 – the ‘black parade’ is a place where all emos believe they will go when they die [emphasis ed. at BoM]

Wow! And this from a paper which is published in a country that brought the world The Smiths, The Cure, and The Sex Pistols, none of which were as dangerous for children by influencing depression or anarchy (or a weird love of toast and fax machines) like Emo bands!

That’s right, lock your children up ladies and gents! The Plain White Ts are going to make your children commit suicide in numbers that would make the Japanese envious.

Wait, the Plain White Ts can’t be emo! They’re plain white ts. Now, if they were plain black ts, maybe…but only if they teach kids about joining the black parade.

Ah, the Daily Mail: scare mongering that even FOX News can find excessive!

One could imagine it was just a cruel joke gone wrong, that is until it came out that Drew knew about Meier’s history of depression! And the fact it was caused by a falling out between Meier and Drew’s daughter. And the fact that Drew has seemingly no remorse.

Drew stated she knew “arguments” had broken out between Megan and others on “my space”. Drew felt this incident contributed to Megan’s suicide, but she did not feel “as guilty” because at the funeral because she found out “Megan had tried to commit suicide before.”

Drew explained the neighborhood had recently found out her involvement in Megan’s suicide and her neighborhood has become hostile toward her and her family. Despite the recency of the suicide and several neighbors recommending she not confront the Meier family (especially on Thanksgiving), Meier stated she and her husband attempted to contact the Meier family three times, “banging on the door” although Mr Meier had already told them to leave.

She attempted to contact them on Thanksgiving, six weeks after she indirectly caused their daughter’s death. And that statement is from the police report Drew filed against Mr. Meier when he bused up a foosball table the Drews had asked the Meiers to store for them. Hell truly is other people, especially suburban helicopter mothers without a soul.

Today, however, the Federal courts have indicted Drew on conspiracy and fraud charges. Whether this will stick, of course, remains to be seen.

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

“The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl’s weaknesses,” Hernandez said. “Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she’s responsible for her actions.”

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

_{Source: AP]}

According to the co-conspirity, Ashley Grills (who, if I may say so, has no right to make fun of someone what so ever) Lori Drew wasn’t going to just stop the torment. Oh no, she had better plans:

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

“The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl’s weaknesses,” Hernandez said. “Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she’s responsible for her actions.”

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

_{Source:ABC News}

But I honestly don’t know which is more reprehensible: what this bastard did to that poor girl or the comments on the USA Today page about the incident, which include taking a shotgun and “blowing his teeth through the back of his head” and other forms of torture. Then, there are the blatantly racist comments about how raping children is “normal” or “acceptable” for “Mexicans” and that if America stopped letting immigrants in, this wouldn’t happen. (Because, you know, there aren’t any white, American men who go all Rapey McGee on children. That only happens in Mexico. And Austria.) And then there are the people who turn it into an anti-abortion cry with “we never would have caught him if she’d had a late term abortion” because, you know, the girl’s word or the DNA test on the fetus would have been bullshit. Especially the girl’s word, though, because you know those little girls, always lying about being raped by older men….

Now, however, Ms. Rowling (AKA Mrs. Murray) says that her child cannot be photographed in public! Yesterday, a British court of appeals overturned a ruling against Ms. Rowling in a lawsuit the billionaire author initiated against a publication who wished to print photos of her son. The court’s ruling was that ordinary people would expect a level of privacy when wandering about in public insomuch as they would not expect their child to be photographed.

Really?

Maybe that’s the way it is in England, but in America, you can photograph people in public, famous or not. You cannot reprint without permission if the person is not famous and is clearly the subject of the photograph, but famous people are not held to this same standard (obviously — without such there would be no tabloid press to speak of) and even this standard of privacy in public is not uniform. For the most part, if a photographer takes a photo of you and your child in public at a public event, in a crowd, etc. it’s going to be published, probably whether you like it or not.

Now, about Ms. Rowling: yes, her son was the subject of the photograph, but guess what sweetheart, you are famous, and so is your husband and your children because they are caught in the reflected glow of the light of fame that hangs around you. Sure, when you were a frumpy single mother toiling away in coffee shops at your labor of love while your child napped (if that story’s even true — there is some debate) you never imagined this would be your life. But then your books exploded. Now, you could have kept yourself hidden away like J.D. Salinger, or even just led a ho-hum life like Stephen King or John Grisham, neither of which are photographed constantly despite being their work being guarenteed on the best seller list. Oh no. You got the hair done, the nose fixed, the face lifted or at least botoxed. You’ve had work done, you’ve bought glamour girl clothes, and you’ve gone out in public, seeking that attention that you do deserve. I don’t begrudge you that. You earned it, live it up.

However, just as I’d say to any Hollywood starlet turned mother, you’ve made the bed, and now you have to lie in it. You’re a famous face by your own doing and you cannot try to protect your children from the limelight. It won’t happen. If you’re lucky, you’ll go back to having some sort of cult status and your child will either emulate you with bad writing or just drop off the face of the earth and lead a normal life, like Frieda and Nicholas Hughes, respectively.

But that’s if you’re lucky and if you do your damnedest to stop suing people and just live a quiet, normal life away from all the Hollywood premiers and parties and shit. Fade away and collect your millions every year. If you stay in the spotlight, your children will stay in the spotlight. If you are lucky, your child will be the next Stella McCartney or Sean Lennon. If you are not, your son will be the male version of Paris Hilton.

She said she was going to “fight like Rocky” against Obama.

If you don’t get the joke, and this is a massive spoiler alert, Rocky loses.

Rocky, The Husband pointed out, also beats meat. In response, Bill Clinton was heard to remark “That’s definitely something Hillary does not share in common with Rocky.”

Chelsea then cried. Like her mother.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama did some ADR for The Rock’s new film, Ralph Nader whined that no one takes him seriously which “just isn’t fair”, Gravel and Paul announced a joint Libertarian ticket that sure to gain at least one vote in November, and little Dennis Kucinich fucked his wife, to the jealousy of all.

Happy New Year April 1st, everyone.

Is anyone else having flashbacks to Starship Troopers right about now?

Ah, Starship Troopers, the first movie to make you root for the Nazis and hate the good guys (the bugs). Too bad I understand the book kind of sucks ass. Not that I have read it or have time to read it, what with pouring over What Color is Your Parachute right now and all.

Shit, that just got personal. Forget that last sentence and just remember: US Air Force Uber Alles.

*whistles “Springtime for Hitler”*