I’ve posted earlier about whether words like “fuck” should be allowed on TV. I won’t repost that one, but I will note that the Second Circuit seems to be reading weeklyrob, because they ruled as I would against the FCC.
Meanwhile, The Week magazine has just violated my two strike rule, and I’ll be canceling my subscription. I love The Week, but this is the second time that I’ve read their condensed version of an article only to find that they make stuff up.
Once again (as last time), they make up an entire angle completely different from what the original author wrote or implied. And not just an angle, but they put words in his mouth to make points that just weren’t really there. I won’t even bother getting specific, but if anyone has the July 29th The Week, compare the Henninger condensed article (pg. 12) with the original here.
Like last time, they make more of a controversy than there really is, and they use inflammatory language and accusations that are nowhere to be found in the original.
I’m finished with them. Their whole raison d’etre is to bring the articles to me so that I don’t have to go to all the sources to find them. But if they can’t be trusted to present them honestly, then what’s the point? Sigh.
In other news: I’ll be out of town on vacation for a week, so weeklyrob will be even quieter than usual. See you when I get back.
How timely! Just the other day, I was at a family-friendly quasi-amusement park with my wife. A woman there was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with “Your fucking up my buzz.” I thought, if I were the management, I’d have barred her. Not only to spare the kiddies from the vulgarity (and is that a spelling or a grammatical error?), but also because she had, by wearing the shirt, loudly proclaimed herself to be trash. When I was teaching, I’d have sent any student wearing such a shirt away.
If you’re looking for a new source of entertainment and information, may I suggest The Onion (“America’s Finest News Source”)? You won’t have to worry about them occasionally making things up. They’re very reliable, and have the best Horoscope around.
I wouldn’t bar someone from an amusement park for being trash, but I think I’d bar her for wearing an offensive t-shirt. But that’s different from the FCC prohibiting it on the airwaves.
I’d personally prefer to keep those words off TV, but I don’t think that my preference should be the law without some good reason.
Your amusement park would have different rules than mine, and that’s fine. I also see a big difference between private individuals and companies controlling what’s done on their properties and a governmental body controlling public behavior. When we were concerned about what our daughter would hear on TV or read in books, we controlled her access to them, and I bet that would be your approach, too. If you knew that CBS didn’t allow vulgar language and ABC did, wouldn’t that be enough?
BTW, be sure to get Paddington books for when she’s old enough to read to.
Hmm…rambling *and* ending a sentence with a preposition—all that’s missing is a poorly-constructed sentence.
I posted two comments, and both times forgot to say “great title”! I laughed as soon as I saw it.
I probably wouldn’t be allowed in your amusement park!
But you’re right about the TV thing. I’d vote with my remote control, and my kid would be watching CBS.
And I never believed the whole, “don’t end with a preposition” thing. As Churchill supposedly said, “that is the sort of thing up with which I will not put.”