On February 16, the House passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 (H.R. 310) by a vote of 389 to 38. This legislation would impose vastly higher fines—up to $500,000—on broadcasters who air so-called indecent material. What it doesn’t do is provide any relief from the vague standard of indecency that the Federal Communications Commission can arbitrarily apply. That… return to article
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Reader Comments (100)Page 1 of 1 pagesI am so against this idea. If you don’t like it, turn it off or change the channel. Please do not regulate what in my opinion is good TV.
Posted by Brandon on Mar 8, 2005 at 8:06 AM Hey whats up howard, im a senior in high school and the biggest belief i have is that no one should be denied the expression of there opinion or idea, i fear this country is heading towards the not so fictional george orwell’s 1984. it seems far fetched to think that that could ever happen but the grim reality is closer than most americans think. i wrote a paper for my high schooland it expresses my opinon as well. feel free to use it to show people or post it to make society aware of the reality of the situation if you like......
My Views on the First AmendmentI think that the first amendment is probably the most important right we as Americans have and utilize, although we may not agree with how some people or groups use this right, it is still an important piece to the structure of the American way of life.
I don’t believe any piece of literature or document should be banned from any public libraries or bookstores. The Anarchist cookbook may be corrupting in most peoples opinion and does have topics in it that are illegal and dangerous, especially after disasters such as Columbine, 9/11 and other American tragedies, but it is still knowledge and only a book. I also believe that if someone wants to unleash terror and destruction, banning a book isn’t going to keep them from doing it.
No music, television program, movie, or book should ever be censored. Music is an escape not an entrapment. As a musician, writing lyrics and venting your feelings of anger, hate, or even tranquility is a necesity to keep you from exploding in a violent or destructive manner. To censore mine or anyone elses lyrics is to assassinate a form of art and expression. Putting a stop to independent thinking. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, this clearly states what I fear will happen to this country if consorship continues to run the lives of common America. This could branch off into modern day socialism and communism. Or the most extreme examples of the 1900’s, 1940’s berlin with the reign of terror under Adolph Hitler or the deadly governing under Joseph Stalin in 1940’s U.S.S.R or better known as today’s Russia. When you censore a lyric or quote, you have killed a form of art, expression and an idea. If people don’t want their kids to hear profanity or slang then stick to the designated kids networks. Also, if children grow up oblivious to the world around them, then when they grow up, the real world will hit them harder than anyone. I also think that no clothes should be banned at school. This is also a form of self expression and does not hurt anyone. Myself or somebody else may not agree by the message on their shirt, but everyone has the unalienable right to express themselves.
The topic of burning the American flag is also a 1st amendment issue. Even though i am completely against burning any American symbol or symbol of freedom, it is still their right and should be allowed. I just hope whoever does, catches fire as well.
Being a Catholic, I don’t mind any American currency, schools the pledge or anything else having a reference to god in it. I think prayer should be allowed in school and for the most part it is. This school has “The Alliance” and bible classes and stuff. So that really dosen’t bother me and I couldn’t care less about if people don’t want it to be in America’s Symbols.
The first amendment is the most important right in my opinion. It allows us to do most of what we do in our everyday lives. And i think there should be no censers on any thing. If people don’t like this idea they can do what every American has the ability to do, and that is to, change the channel, lower the volume, don’t look at my shirt, close the book, or stop reading this document.
Posted by Anthony on Mar 8, 2005 at 8:16 AM The mear thought of the FCC telling me what I can or can’t watch as an Adult is scarey, what’s next a mandatory injection into my brain telling me what I have to think? Just wondering, Isnt this sorta the way HITLER started out? ANY and ALL Govt. Officials who vote this into effect should and shall be no longer be voted back into ..PEOPLE WAKE UP the Govt must be told..STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS...run the govt. kill the Terrorist if you must,but leave my 1st amendment rights alone..
People you have to raise your chilren the way YOU want them,NOT let or turn the goverment into babysitters, OUR Forefathers fought to give us this freedom , don’t let the new leaders TAKE it AWAY.
Call or write your Congressmen NOW and tell them . You DEMAND their vote AGAINST this ACT.
Everything you watch ,say or Do is riding on this, Don’t become the next WWII- GERMANY or IRAQ..SPEAK UP NOW or YOUR FREEDOM IS GONE
Posted by Keith Dempsey on Mar 8, 2005 at 10:43 AM i dont quite understand the warning against “modern day socialism and communism” that you give, Anthony. the form of communism that mao and stalin purportedly subscribed to was not at all what communism or socialism is really about. read the literature, or go to the website. www.worldsocialism.org.
ultimately the only people who can do anything about this unwanted censorship, as well as the policies and other acts being put into place by the current government, are the people themselves. organization is vital.
Posted by josh on Mar 8, 2005 at 10:55 AM This is such bullshit, it seems like every month we just pull closer to having our rights more and more revoked. All you ppl who feel as though everything is so damn indecent and intolerable don’t pay it any mind. Our countries been built around ‘indeceny’ since before the 1900’s. If you cannot shelter your children any better, then deal with it you fucking boring squares. I’m sorry I don’t want to live in your perfect world of fake smiles. Lets take all of DJ’s/radio broadcasters off of public radio so that everyone has to pay 100+ $ a yr or whatever it is for satelite etc. THANX!!
Remove the sand from your vaginas, look around you, realize things are not always ment to be so damn perfect.
Posted by Mike H on Mar 8, 2005 at 10:57 AM Can you say Nazi? That is where this country is heading! First we censor the media, then we burn the books, then we euthanize the undesirables! The Patriot Act is the preamble to George Bush’s Mein Kampf!! Using terrorism to take civil liberties away and the American people are too blinded with hatred for the middle eastern enemy that they do not realize that we are the ones being punished! Freedom is a terrible thing to lose, we have fought so hard for 200+ years to achieve what we have and now we are losing all of the freedoms that our forefathers have died for! Wake up America before it is too late!!
Posted by BigDan on Mar 8, 2005 at 12:07 PM When is America going to wake up and take care of our people? We have issues such as urban blight, homelessness, health care, social security, if we did not have this Imperialistic crusade we have been on to bring democracy to an unappreciative middle east, we would not be 500 trillon dollars in debt, a debt that was nonexistent during the last democratic presidency!! Lets start using our oil and stop subsidizing the bastards in the middle east, then they won’t have money to buy bombs and support terrorism!
Posted by Jethro Finney on Mar 8, 2005 at 12:23 PM Although it all looks dim now there is light. The young are the future and they see what has been done in the past few decades, lets just hope that this is something they can learn from. These old shrives who are in office now were the kids who were picked on in high school, the ones who got beat up for polishing thier shoes or telling on you for chewing gum in class. They didn’t listen to raw music or look at skin mags, they were at home with mommy washing dishes and learning the piano, thats why they are always caught doing the things they do now (Drugs, Hoes, Inside deals, and Fuck your rights.) They appeal to the older crowd of goodie goodie folks. Next time Vote in Kerry KIng or Rob Zombie for Congress and stop the MADNESS. Stay High
Posted by Brian Colby on Mar 8, 2005 at 12:38 PM I can’t believe we have to discuss these issues in 2005! Didn’t our parents already fight the battle for the rights that “W” and his cronies are now trying to take away?
I’m not a parent but I am a hard-working, tax-paying, rule-following adult and am sick of the argument that “we have to protect the children from indecency.” Sorry, but if you are a parent, your children are your responsibility! Feel free to shelter the children from anything and everything you’d like but not at my expense!
Perhaps if so many parents didn’t use the TV as a babysitter this wouldn’t be such a big problem. They just put their kids in front of the TV and let them watch for hours on end. No wonder so many of our children are obese - perhaps parents’ energy is incorrectly focused. Shouldn’t they be more concerned about physical activity and the health of their children rather than television and radio programming to which they might be exposed?
Posted by Laurie M on Mar 8, 2005 at 1:30 PM One of the first laws Adolph Hitler made was a ban of all street postering and handbilling.It was in 1942 that the US government had to order GW Bush`s grandfather to stop doing buisness with the Nazi`s.1 plus 1 = 2.....In 2005 America is on the verge of a total dictatorship run by neo-con religous hypocrits who bomb innocent people in the name of god and spreading democracy!!
Posted by Warren B on Mar 8, 2005 at 2:31 PM Come on people. We have to take action. Are we going to let the FCC tell us what we can and can’t listen to and watch? Right now they don’t want us to listen to Howard Stern. Soon it will be we can’t watch soap operas. Then it will be we can’t watch HBO: something we fucking pay extra for they want to crack down on. Then it will be you can’t watch porn. And what will stop them from telling us that we can’t listen to that Cannibal Corpse album because it’s “obscene?”
Contact the FCC and tell these UNELECTED officials that they have no right to impose their views of morality and their beliefs onto us. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan once said: “If there is a bedrock principle of the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” The First Amendment states: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech. For those of you who do not completely understand what “abridging” means; it means: Shortening, as by omission or condensation (expression in fewer words). By passing this bill fining radio personalities $500,000 PER OFFENSE, don’t you think that that will severely abridge speech? They are talking about fining someone an amount for talking about Sphincterine that is more than you would pay on bail for a 2nd degree murder charge! Howard Stern was fined $27,500 for saying a person’s anus looks like a balloon knot! It’s ridiculous! That is already a bigger amount than a convicted crack dealer would pay in fines (someone who is ACTUALLY a danger to society and children).
Oh, and that is another thing; the children. If you decide to contact the FCC and tell them that they are doing something unconstitutional and imposing their own views of morality onto us, they will give you some bullshit about protecting the children. That is BULL!!!!! The standards of indecency set by the FCC are most heavily enforced on weekdays between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 a.m.: the hours of the weekdays in which children are either in bed or in school! If your kids are in school, you don’t have to worry about them listening to Howard Stern unless you have stupid teachers who have it on. If they are in bed, who cares. If they are in the car while you are driving them to school, don’t have the radio on Howard Stern! It is that simple. The FCC rules are not, however, so heavily enforced on Saturday nights. You see the problem? Those are the times that children are actually at home watching that shit on TV and hearing it on the radio.
There are two forms of offensive behavior: That which you actually have control over by turning the fucking knob and that which you have no control over because some asshole pulls up in a car next to yours blaring some rap song saying that all bitches must die while your 5 year old is in the back seat. Why does that asshole have the right to blare that shit in front of my kid when Howard gets fined $27,500 for saying anus and people can turn the knob? You see, you know what Howard is all about and so you should know not to have it on around your kids. You DON’T know that this guy is going to blare, “Fuck the bitches” right next to you. I was driving in downtown Buffalo last year when I saw a guy with a HUGE poster of an aborted fetus in front an abortion clinic. Can we all agree that that is incredibly obscene? Yet he has the right to do that because he was on the street and not on the property. Why does he have the right to offend thousands of people and terrify children and Howard can’t talk about Sphincterine? Double standard?
We all have to stand up to the Big Bully who calls itself the FCC. The point is that these people are unelected and they act like they have the right to tell us that because they feel a certain way about something, we all should feel the same way or suffer.
They say it is an issue of indecency and they actually believe that. But their definitions of indecency are so arbitrary that it is scary. And doing this to radio and television is just the first step in destroying the First Amendment. This is greatest country on Earth and I love America. But America is great because of the freedoms we have. In Iraq, the government ran the radio and television. We are very close to having that happen to us! In Iraq, you weren’t allowed to have the internet. If they get their way, that will happen to us as well sometime.
Do you want Big Bully telling you that this radio or television show is to offensive so you can’t listen to or watch it? Soap opera ladies; Do you want Big Bully telling you that your soaps are so steamy that you either have to watch a watered down version or you can’t watch it at all? Do you men (and some ladies) want Big Bully telling you that “porn is dirty to us and so you can’t watch it?” Do you want the government telling you that you can’t listen to Eminem, Cannibal Corpse, DMX, or Marilyn Manson because they are indecent? I sure as hell don’t.
Let’s keep America free and great. Let’s not let the government destroy our First Amendment. If this truly is a democracy, you should have the right to have a say in the going-ons of the government and the power to stop things we don’t want happening. After all, the government, in reality, works for the people. And as the people, we should let them know that they can’t just push us around.
Posted by Jose on Mar 8, 2005 at 3:13 PM This is a HUGE deal. The main point is this: If this goes into effect, what will be next?
Posted by Steve C. on Mar 8, 2005 at 3:20 PM I agree wholeheartedly with Laurie M as to the fact that parents must be the only one’s responsible for their childern and the no one, government or otherwise, should tell us what to watch, listen to, read, etc…
I also agree with Jose, but it’s not the FCC we need to contact, it’s our House & Senate representatives, who will be the ones voting for or against this bill.
Go to www.house.gov or www.senate.gov to locate your area’s congressman or senator, then call, write or email them of your objection to this bill. Try not to use profanity when conveying your view, so it will be looked at as a rational citizen who is against this law for legitimate reasons. Good luck everyone.
Posted by Eric F on Mar 8, 2005 at 3:25 PM My thinking on this issue is that I don’t want Federal government tells me a grown man what to listen on radio or see on t.v. Don’t get me wrong, the screw-up of Janet Jackson gives censorship more power. I thought I was living in a free society, I guess not. I bet European Countries are laughing at us for being prudish.
Posted by Steven Shropshire on Mar 8, 2005 at 5:30 PM PUBLIC RADIO BROADCASTERS AND PUBLIC TV STATIONS SHOULD BE WATCHED BY THE FCC. BUT THE STANDARDS THE FCC IS FORCING UPON THESE PUBLIC MEDIUMS IS THE OUTRAGOUS PART. HOWARD STERN CAN’T PLAY A EXTENDED FARTING SOUND!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??? HE CAN’T SAY VAGINA!!!! I MEAN COME ON!! AND THEN THE FINES FOR A INFRACTURE IS INSANE. 500,000 FOR EACH OFFENSE. THAT’S CRAZY. NOW THEY WANT TO TRY TO GET CONTROL OF SATELLITE AND PAY CABLE. WHATS NEXT, THEM TELLING YOU WHAT COLOR CAR YOU HAVE TO BUY?
Posted by Rob F. on Mar 8, 2005 at 6:41 PM I am An American, and Proud of it. Until I realized that we are regressing into a Right wing Bible thumping nation. I am NOT of the christian persuasion, and feel that I should be allowed to decide FOR MYSELF what I will or will not watch. I should not have to be censored by another RELIGION. RELIGION, more so than politics, is the driving force behind this WITCH HUNT. People of my faith have already been through one Witch Hunt, in Salem Massachusetts. This is no different. A minority is trying to press It’s opinion upon the majority, as to the decency of something that IS TOTALLY CONTROLABLE, with the turn of a knob. Those are MY two cents.
Posted by Ed Bouche Jr on Mar 8, 2005 at 7:45 PM Sometimes I feel bad that I voted for Bush in the first election… that is until I realize that this government stole it anyway, so it really wouldn’t have mattered.
Which brings up my next point… how can we stop this? Bush’s government is going to do what it wants because it can. I really wish we, as citizens, had the power to stop this nonsense. We have become exactly the opposite of what this country was founded on.
One of the biggest problems in this country is the blind acceptance of “the party”. Whether Democrat or Republican, folks never want to really admit when their party is screwing it up. I have been a republican all my life, and I would guess I still am. However, I refuse to endorse this jackass in the White House or his personal Axis of Evil. The problem, I see, is that republicans that I know refuse to admit that W is making an ass out of all of us. He has ruined international relationships. He’s started a war that wasn’t necessary with a country that had nothing to do with the NYC attacks. And now he is pissing off a trigger happy North Korea. Let’s not even get started on the collosal defecit he has created all by himself.
I would love to see the people of America do as the people of Iraq should have done and revolt in some fashion. This just can’t continue. A message needs to be sent to current and future governments that we can not accept this type of condescending leadership.
Posted by Rick Wuebker on Mar 8, 2005 at 9:11 PM The Goverments focus is way off base.
Dumping toxic waste into the ocean.
Fine: $60,000.Giving terrorists finacial aid.
Fine: $250,000.Saying a naughty word on the radio.
Fine: $500,000. (with a maximun of $3,000,000.
per day)This is insane and it seems most Americans are blind and cannot see where this is going.
Posted by Huevaro on Mar 8, 2005 at 9:34 PM I agree with most people who see censorship and the FCC as illintentioned, pseudo-Facist assholes, but there is another side to it all. We live in a capitalist world, so whatever sells will survive. Stern sells, porn sells, and so does vice city. “Freedom” has suffered since 9/11, but one can still find unedited media online and elsewhere.
Posted by Bob on Mar 9, 2005 at 1:16 AM GEORGE ORWELL 1984 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.
Posted by BUMPSY on Mar 9, 2005 at 6:32 AM the gov’t might decide to pass a law or bill stating that internet providers must block certian sites that they deem indecent or offensive. it seems totally possible, and likely that it will happen. the worst part is, we can’t do anything about it. sure we can tell our congressman, but ultimatly the decision is up to him, and if somebody persuades him to vote the opposite way, we’re sol.
Posted by Chris on Mar 9, 2005 at 9:45 AM I have read all of the previous posts on the subject of the FCC and censorship (which wasn’t easy in some cases due to the incredibly poor grammar and spelling!) and all I can say is Hey, Dumbasses! Get off of your high horses and quit your bitching! Public obscenity is not and never has been protected by the First Ammendment!!!!! You are all so worried that the government is taking away your rights and you have forgotten that if you are 18 or older you can walk into a video store and rent all the trashy movies you want or you can walk into the corner 7-11 and buy all the dirty magazines you want. What about the rights of everyone else that just want to sit down and watch TV with their families and are afraid to because the content is so sexualized? You all think that a tiny little faction of citizens is trying to tell you what you can watch on TV and listen to on the radio but you don’t give a shit that YOU are imposing YOUR type of ‘entertainment’ on them and their families. No one is taking your strippers and porn away from you, you perverts, they are only trying to get it off of television and radio, 2 formats that obscenity and nudity were not allowed on IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Posted by Robert on Mar 9, 2005 at 10:13 AM Bob, I disagree. I felt as you do, but no longer.
The game WAS to get eyeballs hooked to the screens. That’s been done.
Now that control has been gained, and people are hooked on the product. The government can then begin to impose it’s agenda...in this case...DEFINING DECENCY...with punitive fines on the media conglomerates.
The conglomerates will comply and simply adjust their programming...in small steps...keeping the addict hooked through the process.
Consider methadone programs.
Posted by Liberal AND Proud on Mar 9, 2005 at 10:22 AM Robert...in response to your..."No one is taking away this or that” argument.
My response...very simply is...YET.
Posted by Liberal AND Proud on Mar 9, 2005 at 10:23 AM Robert,
Simply change the channel! I f you don’t like what’s being offered on TV or Radio, turn the channel or turn it off completely. Nobody says you have to watch or listen to it. Isn’t that called freedom of choice?
Posted by Drew on Mar 9, 2005 at 10:50 AM All TV’s made since 2000 must have a v-chip installed. Therefore indecency legislation is unnecessary.
Posted by Sammy Mengo on Mar 9, 2005 at 10:51 AM It is insane that americans have to be exposed to such a communist type government that seems to just justify all of their answers toward indecency with some type of bullshit that makes absolutely no sense at all. Saying they want to protect people from watching or hearing obsenities. And for some reason these people can’t protect themselves by changing a channell. In Canada there is very little censorship, on public TV i have seen movies like showgirls without any type censorship at all. It is not like all Candians have some kind deficiency because of it. It is absolutely insane that Americans must forfit their rights because someone thinks it is bad for the people who want to listen to. As a Canaian i truly feel sorry for all of you that have to put up with social hypocrocy.
Posted by Matt on Mar 9, 2005 at 11:44 AM Some of you just don’t get it. It is so very easy for you to tell me to change the channel if I don’t like it but you are apparently too crippled to change the channel yourself to get to the content you want. The point I am trying to make is that the PUBLIC airwaves belong to us all and as such, should be free of content that is offensive and overtly sexual. There are PLENTY of other channels that offer sleazy programming so why is it that there is absolutely NOTHING out there in TV land that is free of sleaze for the rest of us? By the way, note to Matt in Canada, I don’t live in your country and I really don’t care what your country does. I am an American Citizen and therefore I care about what goes on in the U.S.A.
Posted by Robert on Mar 9, 2005 at 12:09 PM Robert, hoping for something that is not offensive and overtly sexual? Good luck. Unless you hit the wayback machine and land in a 1955 easy chair, there is no point of supporting such blatant acts of censorship as these FCC fines. Are rights will be slowly picked away. Have kids? Then you do have the power to change the channel, use the V-Chip. But guess what, kids will always have friends who watch whaterver they want - and they will find their way to those televisions. Worried about the content? Just wait until they go to high school, college… the real world. Radio and TV will be Dr. Suess in comparasion. Go with the flow and lighen up. Unless they have a short circuit upstairs everyone, even young ones, know the difference between right and wrong, reality and fantasy. And if you are a good parent and teach them well, then you can scratch off TV and Radio of your worry list, because with kids the list is long enough. So they see some skin or hear a dirty word - big deal. Better they have an idea of what waits for them than they be blindsided and golly gee appalled. The world will eat them alive. Have a nice day.
Posted by Brian on Mar 9, 2005 at 12:32 PM Robert, you are missing the point of the article. the article states that the gov’t wants to limit what NON PUBLIC tv and raido is allowd to air. and i’m not pushing my type of entertainment on anyone. if you don’t like it good for you, if you do like it, good for you, too. i can change the channel to find something that i like to watch, but those choices are getting fewer and fewer. and if this bill passes then there will be nothing that i would like to watch, even on CABLE, which i PAY for. THAT is what this bill is all about, regulating PAY tv and radio. and i’m not talking about porn either. it seems to me that you are making a generalization that everyone oppose to this thing passing is a porn enthusiest and perv. so why don’t YOU stop imposing YOUR type of entertainment on US.
Posted by Chris on Mar 9, 2005 at 1:37 PM Bob...its out there because it SELLS.
And c’mon...you have Lifetime, the Family Channel...and other neutered viewing suitable to gentle compositions. There IS choice. That is why this whole “nanny” approach to some governmental agency telling ME what I can watch in my own home is wrong and UNAmerican.
As for videos, etc...just wait...the thing about oppression is the line is never drawn...it keeps moving progressively forward, encroaching more and more on freedom.
Posted by Liberal AND Proud on Mar 9, 2005 at 3:29 PM As a lawyer who happens to be named Tom, I can’t stand censorship. The article’s description of how fines on individuals and/or the companies they work for freezes free speech often has a similar effect on news reporters. First, a reporter gets an idea for a challenging article, and brings it to his editor who tosses it. Second, the reporter self-edits his idea before bringing it to the editor for tossing. Third, the reporter thinks of the story idea but doesn’t bring it to the editor. Fourth, the reporter never thinks up ideas for original articles.
Posted by Tom on Mar 9, 2005 at 3:36 PM robert howard stern is on at fuckin 11pmnormally little kids are sleeping by then
Posted by gary on Mar 9, 2005 at 4:28 PM My family stopped watching television in 2000, and the best part about that is no commercials! (We don’t eat fast food, either, and my kids have never been in a Wal-Mart.) My friends tell me that even public television has commercials now, and I know that public radio does. We get plenty of news from the internet, and we get to choose the slant. I still think that censorship is way wrong, and by the time we realize what the corporations have done to us, it will be too late.
Posted by Sian_Llewelyn on Mar 9, 2005 at 4:37 PM I am happy, to know, that, the FCC is taking a strong stand, in order, to eliminate pornography from America’s airwaves. The smut business is a multi-billion dollar, empire and it has spread it’s rotten tentacles into every facet, of American Life. The proponents, whom profit from this evil empire hide themselves and their degenerate wares, behind the first amendment. Most Americans, state loudly and clearly, that, we have had enough, of this avoidance chicanery.
Posted by Patricia Hand on Mar 9, 2005 at 6:03 PM Geroge Bush and the radical right wing Republicans that he supports are turning this nation into a christian theocracy. Make no mistake about it Bush is an off the hook extreme radical. His plan is to reduce the role of government by transferring all public assistance pograms to churches (remember faith based initiatiaves?). In the current proposed budget all manner of programs are being cut head start, food stamps, you name it, if it involves the government helping out citizens it will be cut. Just look at the extreme lengths he is going to to sell Social Security reform. Business on the other hand will have no constraints whatever, even to the point of removing all environmental concerns. Some people even believe that Bush and his cronies are aggressively pushing for all out war in the mideast including the use of nuclear wepons. The idea is to bring about armagedon and hasten the return of Christ.
We have been loosing our freedom of speech in small steps. Everytime the government allows clearchannel and the two or three other media giants to gobble up another market we loose another point of view. Now we are at the unthinkable point where people censor themselves at home, at work and in public for fear of reprisals. I am quite sure that the Dept. of Homeland Security has a file on me and anyone who dares to post to this site or oppose in any way the agenda of the radical right.
Want to learn more about the real Bush agenda? http://www.theocracywatch.org/ Get involved or pay the consequences. Real Americans do more than just vote once every four years.
Posted by JIM Moffat on Mar 9, 2005 at 11:19 PM 1) I believe that Patricia Hand needs to get laid. This does not mean that she in fact does, just that I believe that she does. I am still allowed to own my thoughts, yes? Or am I considered un-American for not “self-censoring”? In any case, the irony is that the freedom she has to make her comments is the same freedom I have in making mine...and wait...isn’t this the same freedom all Americans have; the freedom to have a thought and express it publicly? Her comments offended me, as I am sure mine will offend her) She doesn’t have to read it. If she were smart, she would have stopped reading by now. She doesn’t have to stop, but she could choose to. Am I going to be banned from posting what I want to post? Fined? Let’s see… Lesbian strippers (one Catholic, one Jewish) perform oral sex on an 18 year old boy who is tied up and gagged. Their vaginas, incidentally, are very hairy...and bloody. The boy’s penis is enormous. But it would be. He is black. Potentially, millions of people worldwide just read that. Will I get fined for saying it? If Howard Stern said it, would he? Absolutely! Why? What is the difference? They attack what they fear. Recently Howard was finned for having a conversation that Oprah also had. Was Oprah fined? No. Why? They don’t fear Oprah. They fear Howard. I hope they don’t fear me! Heck, I could be wrong, after all, I remodel houses for a living, what do I know.
2) We all know the whole glass half full/glass half empty saying, correct? Why can’t we apply that principle here? It would make everyone in the country happy really. See, American’s DO have a choice. I have read these posts from people saying our rights are being stripped; that as adults, we shouldn’t have to deal with censorship....all half empty views. Don’t you see? We ARE allowed to choose. We DO have a choice. We can CHOOSE to watch/listen/read the watered down censored crap that the GOVERNMENT TELLS US WE CAN… see, half full. (For the slower folk reading this, I am being sarcastic)
3) We all know how Americans are so fat, so lazy, so entitled....blah, blah, blah. What I find most disturbing is that so very few posses English grammar comprehension. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I learned early on in my grade school career that a period (.) separates thoughts into things called sentences. I also learned how to correctly identify the beginning of a sentence, target the first word, and capitalize the first letter (make the letter bigger than the rest). I learned all about commas (,), and most importantly that a sentence can be TOO long. *Notice that throughout this post that there are words whose letters are all “big” even though they are not “starter” letters. This is to emphasize a point. Fat, lazy and entitled is bad enough. I don’t want the list of adjectives used to universally define Americans to also include stupidest. (That was a test. If you thought that my use of the word stupidest was ok, consider yourself part of the problem).
Well I appreciate your ear. If I have offended you, good. Call the FCC. I hope they do fine me. Howard would have a field day.
Posted by David Neu on Mar 10, 2005 at 2:06 AM I do not care to have other people make up my mind. If there is somethng on that offends you then don’t watch it turn the channel,but let others who do want to watch or listen to it make there own decisions. The bottom line is mind your own business and stay out of everyone elses.
Posted by Tom Deckard on Mar 10, 2005 at 6:31 AM Someone recently pointed out in a letter to the editor of a major us metropolitan newspaper that one of Dubya’s podiums - /lecturn/bully-pulpit/pulpit - whatever you’d prefer to call it - has an uncanny resemblance to a contemporary styled cristian cross. Never mind the ten commandments displayed in the highest court in this land...is this sort of obviously intentional/subliminal symbolism befitting of a president of the usa or, for that matter, legal?
Posted by Winston on Mar 10, 2005 at 6:51 AM I need to get laid too and too often it is with MY HAND!! Can I do Patricia Hand, if she is breathin, I am available!!
Bennie Compton, MR 1/2 inch!
Posted by Bennie Compton on Mar 10, 2005 at 9:46 AM I need to get laid too! and it is usually with my hand! Can I get a real HAND JOB from Patricia Hand?/ If she is breathing and 500 pounds I am ready to go! I like to be sodomized as well!!
Love Bennie
Posted by bennie compton on Mar 10, 2005 at 9:50 AM IN EUOROE WHERE PEOPLE HAVE LESS UPTIGHT ATTITUDES ABOUT WHAT WE HERE IN AMERICA CALL INDECENCY THEY HAVE A MUCH LOWER RATE OF SEX CRIMES THAN IN OUR INCREASINGLY MORE PUTITANICAL SOCIETY
Posted by kevin on Mar 10, 2005 at 10:17 AM For those of you who are supporting this proposition, I think you’re nuts! You want the government to make all of the decisions for you, instead of being a stand-up INDIVIDUAL! Hey Bobby, ever heard of the V-chip? If your TV. is too old to come equipped, don’t worry, the FCC will send you one free of charge. Or, you could quit arming the government with president to remove more liberties and use those bitchy little fingers of your to CHANGE THE CHANNEL!
Posted by moonman on Mar 10, 2005 at 11:41 AM What Robert doesn’t grasp, or doesn’t seem to care about, is that Bush and the Morality Mafia aren’t trying to take “dirty” words off TV and or radio… they aren’t trying to take cleavage and butt cracks off NYPD Blue. They are trying to do away with those shows entirely… but not just that. If they had their way, I couldn’t watch anything on HBO, Cinemax or any other premium cable channel because of some language that they deem unacceptable. So, he says turn the channel to see what we want. He doesn’t get it, shows we like will not be on TV in any capacity if these laws are passed.
Posted by Rick Wuebker on Mar 10, 2005 at 12:58 PM Hopefully, “Patricia Hand” is an anagram or a “nom de plume” for some pundit making satire of the unenlightened bumpkin, the illiterate buffoon, who endorses Bush and his agenda. (I’ve been working on the anagram angle, haven’t solved it yet. Anyone else?) If indeed she does exist, and if she is typical of supporters of our current regime, we are in deep shit, people.
Posted by Everclear on Mar 10, 2005 at 2:14 PM just remember one day that when you wake up and you cant do what you were able to do the day before, just think of the things you should have done to fend off these acts of it was for your own good. just remember you have a mind and you had better use it to spread the word that if you do nothing now you will end up with nothing in the end plus you will have even less in the end that you started with. just my opinion
Posted by rodney ring on Mar 10, 2005 at 6:57 PM I agree with David Neu that Patricia Hand needs to get laid. If you have about 40 min. to burn listen to her message. For those of you who have better things to do then just know that she does not support Bush.
Removing our freedom of speech is just another item on the to-do list of the right wing radicals. We need to regain control of our country. The only way I know to do this is to email your senators and representatives on each and every issue as it comes up. This helps them decide wich way to go on a given issue. After all it is their job to represent you.
Emailing your congressman is easy to do and they always respond either by email or snail mail. In their response they usually explain their position on the issue. If a particular guy doesn’t have a good voting record on issues that concern you then vote him out.
Posted by Jim Moffat on Mar 10, 2005 at 7:30 PM They’re afraid, that’s what it is. They’re afraid their kids will grow up with ideas they don’t like. They’re afraid they might be made to feel uncomfortable if they see Michelangelo’s David, or an old lithograph that shows tits, or the statue of Justice with an exposed bronze breast (of course, we can spend $1000s in taxpayer money to remedy that one). They feel shame that under their clothes they’re naked, and they can’t understand why all of us aren’t put off by sexuality as depicted in art, or discussed as a healthy part of human life beyond in-the-dark, missionary-position baby-making. It’s absurd to suggest that “liberals” or whoever want to allow XXX blow-job videos on network or cable TV, or whatever other extreme example could be used to back extra FCC fines and restrictions.
Is this an ad hominem or straw man argument? Whatever. Doesn’t change the observable fact that the crusader faction feels it is on a roll, and are trying to gain all the yardage they can while they control the ball. But there are enough FCC strictures right now to protect kids from adult subject matter presuming parents are willing to observe what their kids are watching and to guide them accordingly. And in the absence of government trying to push a particular cultural agenda, it’s just cowardice for a media organ to refuse to allow political spots that are contrary to the incumbent faction du jour. It truly is unAmerican. What are they really afraid of? Will they really lose substantial market share if UCC invites gay couples to worship with them? Will they if MoveOn.org present their take on Bush’s deficit?
If you’re upset with the decline of pop-culture overall, don’t look to the TV to be your source of elevation anyway. Read a book, and give some to your kids.
Posted by Kuya on Mar 10, 2005 at 8:15 PM I am a college student that is going to be a high school history teacher, in fact I graduate in 8 weeks. I am so disgusted by these fines and others peices of legislation that congress ahs passed. In my studies I have learned alot of political science and alot about government and I can tell you that this is appauling. It seems like we as a society have regress to the 1950’s when everything was so “innocent,"yet ignorant southerners were killing and lynching blacks....was there not some crazy and absurd religous justification behind it???????? Now we have this border line communist act that is formulated by a bunch of congress men, many of whom are not good people (if there is one thing that politics has taught me, it is that no one goes into the profession to help, they go into it for power...Jimmy Stewart’s “Mr. Smith” is as real as a snowball in hell). I think it is just plain nuts that in a country where there is supposed to be a seperaation of chuch and state, something like this can be passed. Who is to say what is indecent? Can some mini-van driving soccer mom or a 22 year old college student or some congress man. Whatever the case, it is obvious that the bible thumpers in this country (many of whom beleive that the rest of the world is going to “hell” or whatever because Jesus is not their savior...I suppose that is why the Tsunami hit where it did...a regular modern day Sodom???)love George Bush, they did vote him in. Further more, I have never been ashamed to be from the Buckeye state, but it turns my stomach to know that my state put him in office, especialy after all the jobs that were lost. Either way, my rant is done. Now if you don’t mind I’m going to listen to Howard, worship Satan, and do some coke (right Mr. Bush).
Posted by Todd Schneider on Mar 10, 2005 at 10:08 PM Remember, The first amendment not only gives US the right to say what we want, it also gives our neighbor that same right. If you support free speech, you must support speech that you DONT like, as well as youyr own.
We’re all in this together guys. If one thing is banned today, tomorrow they may ban something YOU like.
Posted by Stephanie T. on Mar 10, 2005 at 11:44 PM Elmer Graham, shouldnt be Elmer Fudd!!! Hey Stephanie T. want to see my 1/2 incher? Remember its not the size it is how you pinch it!! I cant handle it, its not big enough! Being a 1/2 inch, it bearly sticks it uncircumcised head out so I am able to piss! then it goes back inside to hide from our evil world! If Bush gets his way, I wont even be able to touch it! I wonder if he gets any from his daughters? Incest is best!! especially if your from Texas!
Posted by bennie compton on Mar 11, 2005 at 8:33 AM Hmmmm, Why dont we just shoot off all our nuclear missles and aim it directly at ourselves. That way we can start our country all over. At least it would be intelligent.
Posted by Peter Jennings on Mar 11, 2005 at 10:15 AM Hey Peter Jennings you Limey dickhead!! Go read some news in England!! Do you like to be sodomized? I got 1/2 inch to take your temperatue with!!
Posted by bennie compton on Mar 11, 2005 at 11:05 AM I agree with most of these comments and I am against the Act.... but did anyone notice that the vote was 389-38 in favor of the Act. This Act is supported by BOTH parties, including Kerry and Hilary. This is not just a Republican issue. The Democrats could have stood up and voted against this Act or even made it an issue but they support is as well.
If naything, Republicans favor kess gov’t interference and smaller gov’t than the Democrats.
Posted by Allen on Mar 11, 2005 at 11:50 AM DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE OFFENDED?
This legislation emanated from Ted Stevens, a powerful, scary senator from Alaska. He usually gets what he wants. And if he does, even the things you choose to pay for will now be defined as “indecent” because certain sects of our society choose to be offended (see Robert’s comments on p.1). Some day this absurdity will stop, but it doesn’t appear as though that day is soon.
Do Robert and others of his ilk have the right to be offended? Based on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of our country, the answer is no, you don’t - for a variety of reasons.Nowhere in our history has the protection from offensive writings or material been guaranteed to you. However, our laws and history very clearly guarantee other people the right to say and scribe offensive things. We call it the first amendment.
When someone reacts to something he finds offensive, that person is not, in fact, exercising his first amendment rights. He is in truth trying to suppress the other person’s right to free speech.
If a Christian stands on the corner preaching the word of Jesus and an offended atheist walks by and calls the man a liar, it is only the Christian who is within his actual rights. The atheist is hiding behind the first amendment to somehow proclaim that he has the right to react to his childish feelings of being offended. The fact of the matter is, the only right he has is the one to ignore the Christian and go on his way. It’s the right to freedom, liberty and personal choice.
The first amendment does not guarantee anyone the right to be heard. You can say whatever you want, but no one has to listen. If I walk through the mall and am handed an offensive PETA pamphlet, I have the free will choice to simply throw it away...ignore it. However, if I choose to become offended by the pamphlet, I have just validated PETA’s freedom of speech by allowing them to be heard. I have made the CHOICE to listen; therefore I do not have the right to be offended.
Speaking your mind in America is a right. The opportunity to be offended by what is said is a privilege, one that is not granted to people in North Korea, Iran and dozens of other places in the world. If we allow the Roberts of America to mususe their privilege to be offended in ways that stop others from speaking, we will add another block of destruction to our decaying social scrap heap.
Posted by Rob W. on Mar 11, 2005 at 3:49 PM Recently, Rolling Stone Magazine reprinted highlights from a fourteen page interview article with the late Johnny Carson in 1979. Here’s what he had to say about censorship:
“Q: I wonder how much the audience objects when words are bleeped out of a broadcast?
“A: It’s little ridiculous to bleep a dirty word, whatever it means. Even “damn” and “hell,” for years, were not used in motion pictures, which always intrigued me. I was watching ‘Patton’ the other night, and it was remarkable that they let “bastard” go through. They wouldn’t let “shit” go through, you see. They had to draw the line there, becasue that was apparently too much for people to take. They substituted “dung.” And you’d see Patton say “horsedung.” I thought that was hysterical. somebody sat in an editing room and said, “We have to edit this. What can we have him say instead of ‘horseshit’?” Probably the most commonly used phrase, by men, women and children, is, “Oh, shit.” You step on your friend’s toe and you say, “Oh, shit.” But they still had to draw the line on that for mass consumption on TV. For some reason Patton saying “horseshit” was going to have some effect; I don’t know what, but that’s worthy of sitting down and having a psychologist, a sociologist, discuss it. What would it have done to people? Would children be corrupted? I doubt it, since every four-year-old says that word.”
-issue #968, pg.35Well? Will children be corrupted? How many of you heard a dirty word growing up or saw someone naked? Are you willing to see yourself as corrupted? I doubt it. You probably turned out fine, like most of the rest of us. Why? Because your folks raised you to know right from wrong, and their influence on you was greater than the Box (TV).
Much as it is not society’s responsibility to provide money to those who refuse to work for a living, neither is society obliged to create a rose-colored bubble out of the media for those who refuse to think for themselves.
One day I will visit a major art museum and be confronted with yellow post-it notes covering the nipples on all the paintings of the renaissance masters, because said nipples painted in the 1600s migt offend someone. Absurd!
If people wanted to start a really useful letter-writing campaign, they would begin to rally against the constant advertising that is EVERYWHERE! Now THAT is offensive! That the media theinks we are so stupid that we won’t notice the strategic product placement that is popping up in movies, television shows. At a public restroom recently I noted ads taped to the inside of the stall door! Talk about a captive audience! ENOUGH already!!!
Thank you for listening to my rant, and by the way, in response to Everclear, here are some anagrams for “Patricia Hand” (some funny, some lame):
a hip acid rant
I patch a drain
a C.I.A. hind part
Iran hid a pact
hid in a rap act
a paid tar chin
I art handicap
Data chain rip
air pinch data
can’t I.D. pariah
Iran acid path
Paid air chant
C.I.A. drain path
Posted by Rocky on Mar 11, 2005 at 6:54 PM This is so insain I want my gov to handle the things that I can’t like terrorism what to do if my town is attacked or a bomb is exploded,I need them to fine the Idiots that are dumping waste and radioactive waste 500.000.00 dollars not howard stern who I can handle on my own if I so choose,I want my govt. to worry about the health care system that we don’t have why do we waste so much time and energy on things that don’t effect me adversly,the govt needs to stay out of my personel life and worry about my public life issues they start all this other crap to distract you from the problems at hand the moral right wing has so much egg on its face from the priest thing they need to distract you from thinking about those problems this just so bothers me what the hell is this country comming to the elections are bought and paid for and we have the nerve of trying to oversee other countries elections and claim them tainted have we forgotton our last two elections wakeup people this country and the rights all our young men and women have died for we are taking so for granted we will wake up one day soon and fine you have them no more and your govt is nowhere to be found WAKE UP THIS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG!! ps. please forgive all bad grammer and spelling thanks BOB
Posted by Bob on Mar 11, 2005 at 10:53 PM I’m a Canadian citizen and I can’t believe that Congress is going forward with this legislation which is a direct sign that 1984 is very real and Big Brother is watching and telling us what we can or cannot do when it comes to TV/Radio.
Thinking back to 1985, and specifically the Live Aid benefit concert that took place in both London and Philadelphia, I remember the Mick Jagger/Tina Turner set where Jagger tore off Tina Turner’s skirt exposing her black leotards (sp?)underneath.
Why in 1985 was that consider acceptable for a prime time worldwide event when only last year the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfuntion” caused a major uproar for the same type of global event perhaps just not to as many people? I don’t ever recall that ever being an issue back then but it’s a pretty scary comparison as to how things have changed in America 20 years later.
Heaven forbid if that were to be seen in 2005! Old men would be keeling over in their chairs! Mothers would be covering their children’s eyes in disgust! Are we moving forward in evolution or somehow going backwards?
What’s even more troubling is that I notice the same trend here in Canada with the CRTC (the Canadian Radio & Telecommunications Commission) which even sounds like something out of 1984! They are a Federal government agency that basically regulates everything we watch or listen to on the radio as you’re quite aware of Howard.
Their main goal is also said to promote Canadian artists and future talent by ensuring there’s a certain % of Canadian content on TV/Radio. In 1991 there was a sattelite agency called CANCON that would not recognize an album by Bryan Adams because it did not meet their criteria as “Canadian content”
Apparently because the album was recorded in America and co-written by an American (I believe but I might be wrong) it was considered to be a non Canadian album and wouldn’t get the special attention had it been deemed Canadian.
Now my mind you Bryan Adams was already a pretty big star back then and eventhough I don’t like his music I’d still be willing to argue he’s just as Canadian as myself. He obviously didn’t need the airplay but my point is it just goes to show you how governments are gradually taking over and regulating our every day lives. I do applaud him for speaking out against the CRTC and CANCOM back then.
My biggest fear is that legislation’s such as the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act may soon become a reality here too in Canada.
Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948 (he just reversed the 4 and the 8 for the title) and close to 60 years later I would say he was about 20 years shy of vision but it’s a pretty fucking accurate one if you ask me.
Opps I swore! Hope the Thought Police don’t come for me in the middle of the night!
Posted by Andrew on Mar 12, 2005 at 12:02 AM Reply to Bob’s post of March 11, 2005 at 11:53 PM
Bob I grant you absolution for your transgressions in spelling and grammar. Your pennance is to go forth and become involved in government by keeping abreast (I love that word!) of the news and advising your Senators and Representatives by email how to vote on the issues of the day. And for God sakes Vote! Vote in presidential elections. Vote in Congressional elections. Vote for F’ing dog catcher. Do this and you will live in peace and prosperity. Spread the word.
Posted by JIM on Mar 12, 2005 at 6:06 AM Welcome to communist America boys and girls, I hope we all enjoy the ride.
I am not a political person, either pro democrat or pro republican, but I have to laugh at the mentality of american voters ( which is largely to blame for all these sanctions ).
The election hailed a bunch of sportsmen voting for Bush, in fear that Kerry would take away our guns, a week later, people are standing in line to turn in guns for Wal-Mart gift certificates.
Are my the only one to see the stupidity in this?
Guess what boys and girls..the people doing this are the people we voted in....look at it this way. just think of all the money we can save on TV and radios...no channel selections and no on/off buttons...just one meaningless brain-ashing channel of ritious dribble.
Posted by Carl Reidy on Mar 12, 2005 at 6:46 AM congress is allocating their time to mindless bills - they should be concerned about fines to polluters, protecting our police and citizens, also making sure our soldiers are protected.
their efforts on this bill are wasting tax payers dollars -
Posted by karl rasz on Mar 12, 2005 at 11:26 AM howard Stern is a Jerk I do NOT !
like him I just enjoy watching him
Talk to Dumb New yorkers and watch him talk dumb brods to undress.
Mr Stewart from Dry Washington State
Posted by Mr Stewart on Mar 12, 2005 at 8:34 PM You know what’s sick about all of this? In the 1930’s, my grand parents came to the US from Lithuania to escape the rising power of Hitler so they could raise a family in the land of the free. Now we are in 2005, will I have to move to some other country to do the same thing?
Anyone here that agrees with what our government is trying to do is missing the big picture. Government is telling us what we can say, what we can see. As responsible American adults, we are capable of making our own decisions. Regulations to keep hard core porn and excessive profanity off of the public air waves are tolerable in my opinion. When it comes to what I want to PAY to see, meaning I will take money out of MY pocket to watch or hear whatever I want, dammit, I better be able to do it! I listen to Howard Stern. I watch movies with sex, violence, and profanity in it. You know why? Because I want to! Know what I do when kids are around? I change the channel!
Are we becoming so mindless of a society that we need to let someone else make our decisions? Someone, anyone, we need to be heard by the Congress, Senate, House of Rep’s, WHOEVER WE NEED TO SPEAK TO, about this!
Posted by Rich P on Mar 13, 2005 at 12:43 AM ALL i can say is this FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THE FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEMM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THE FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEMM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM....................... AND THATS, THAT
NOW EVERY ONE GOTO WWW.THEHUN.NET and jerk one off, or two , or three. WHAT ever float’s your boat. CAUSE one thing the GOVERMEANT has’nt got it’s grimmmyyyyyy little hands on isssssssss
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PORNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…
ok it’s time for me to have a spanking fest.PEACE OUT....... love ya howard love ya robbin
love ya fred and artty....... and OH YAAAAA FUCK JAKYYYYYYY the JOKE MAN best thing that ever happened to the show is when that lame DICK LEFTTTTTTTTTTT........ OK IM OUT...WWW.THEHUN.NET .WWW.THEHUN.NWWW.THEHUN.NET ET WWW.THEHUN.NET ..WWW.THEHUN.NET WWW.THEHUN.NET WWW.THEHUN.NET WWW.THEHUN.NETWWW.THEHUN.NET WWW.THEHUN.NETWWW.THEHUN.NET
Posted by Jerry Aka Boohd on Mar 13, 2005 at 10:36 AM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS TELLING ME WHAT I CAN OR SHOULD WATCH OR LISTEN TO. THAT IS MY CHOICE. THEY ARE TRYING TO INSTALL A “CHRISTIAN” SET OF LAWS. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN THE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES THEY CONDEMN FOR GOVERNING THEMSELVES BY “ISLAMIC” LAW.
Posted by Don O'Neill on Mar 13, 2005 at 3:41 PM Reply to Don O’Neill
Ironic isn’t it that we are trying to ram democracy down the throats of the mideastern countries when we are losing our democracy in the USA. I think someone is trying to have their cake and eat it too. According to Bush we are doing our humanitarian duty by concquering their country (and and installing a puppet democracy). All the while our freedoms at home are in grave jepodardy. Our first amendment is just about dead, fourth amendmendment crippled. Who knows what’s next. I know that freedom of religion is a high priority on their list. All non-christians shoould get their affairs in order because they will be leaving the country the way Jews did in Nazi Germany. Evangelical Christians will be the ruling class.
Sadam was an evil man murdering his countrymen by the hundreds. Bush is killing them by the thousands. So why is Bush better than Sadam? Bush can quote the Bible chapter and verse. You see when you are that close to God the rules don’t apply. If killing heathans is a good thing then Bush is closer to God than the Pope.
Posted by Jim Moffat on Mar 13, 2005 at 5:18 PM Yikes! Don’t get a callous goin’, bro. Lose yer sensitivity. Too much hand, feel like sand.
Posted by Kuya on Mar 14, 2005 at 9:15 AM Hello,
Thank you for all the though-full reading.Indecency,censorship,nudeity and all the rest of the hair raising toppics you have posted. I read them all, and I agree with everyone except the few jackass drone’s who like the FCC view on destroying the 1st ammendment. The blood presure really goes up when we read the posts about revolt! Well, lets do it, yes we can, and all can be done leagely. Lets get out to our town meetings and start pushing our officals to close liberarys. And apply for permets to burn the public books, all of them. Someone can be offended by ANY book,So we will take no chance and burn them all. When the soccer mom’s or daddy’s Get up an utter there first words out of order at you or your group of FOOTBALL DAD’s Have them called out of order and escorted off YOUR township’s floor. Keep at them, Give them what they want. GIVE IT TO THEM! they have no clue what they asked for. Don’t let them make you feel stupit or singled out. Orginaze your dominance over them. Use tact when going after them, expand there views and opions to achive our adgenda when they make any motion for changing the way your town is run. Get them, hit them hard. Get there kids arrested and in the system. Child services will show up if there is sussispion. Cause it.
Lets all wake up!
Posted by Billy on Mar 14, 2005 at 2:59 PM Response to Billy on March 14, 2005 at 3:59 PM
If you want to burn books start with the bible, Koran the Tora. Or maybe we should just edit the parts that offend.
Posted by JIm on Mar 14, 2005 at 4:48 PM This is a sad day for the American people!! We have to organize and vote the bastards out of office. Bring in young, intelligent people, if there is such a thing, and get rid of some of these archaic laws!! The youth of this country are afraid to take a stand!! The last resort is arm yourself because they’ll come to get you next!!
Posted by Meangene on Mar 14, 2005 at 6:08 PM What happened to the notion that the marketplace will determine what society deems acceptable? If there truly exists a huge market for 24 hour beaver-cleaver programming, surely some genius would capitalize on it and get huge ratings. If broadcasters cross the line and offend audiences, people will change the channel, ratings will drop, and they will eventually have to change their programming or go out of business.
I’m no logic professor, but if that which is labeled “indecent” is determinted by “contemporary community broadcast standards”, and shock-jock programming gets high ratings, then couldn’t one conclude that it is clearly accepted by that community’s standards (since they’re tuning in) and therefore not indecent at all?
What’s sad is that when I was growing up (and I’m only 26 mind you) there was no need for blanket governmental regulation...the regulation was my mom walking into the room and grounding me for sneaking a peek at the Playboy channel. Instead of trying to keep kids from being exposed to things that occur in real life, how about just teaching them what is appropriate at their age and what is not...(sigh) or maybe that’s just too much work for parents these days.
Posted by Gabby on Mar 14, 2005 at 8:45 PM I Believe your taking my right away to watch what I choose.
Posted by Edward Lambert on Mar 15, 2005 at 12:24 AM http://www.buyblue.org/alphalist.php
You may have voted blue, but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest. By purchasing products and services from companies that donate heavily to conservatives, we have been compromising our own interests as liberals and progressives.
BuyBlue.org is a concerted effort to lift the veil of corporate patronage, so consumers can make informed buying decisions that coincide with their principles.
Currently, we are developing an extensive and interactive website where users will be able to monitor corporate activity in real time. We cannot do this alone; we need an army of Blue buyers to be the eyes and ears of this movement. All we have to do is put our money where our mouth is to make it profitable to be ethical.
Our collective buying power WILL make a difference, and we WILL be heard.
Posted by Yellow Head on Mar 15, 2005 at 11:59 PM What America needs right away, is to continue sending jobs to India and Mexico, and then continue opening McDonalds to employ those displaced workers. Who needs to have manufacturing jobs in your home country?? We can always count on stable countries like Mexico and India and China to continue manufacturing things for us!!! These countries do not harbor terrorist, they love America, like the rest of the world does!!! We need to expand our service industry base and get rid of those high paying manufacturing jobs, and keep underfunding education so our people continue to dumb down to a point where they do not question the government!!! All of this is of course a stupid thing to do, but yet it happens everyday in America, right now!!! I would love to see president Bush live on 6.50 an hour!!! I can’t seem to understand how a person making 6.50 an hour is supposed to buy a 25000 dollar car and a 500,000 house??? I thought that if prices rise, so should wages?? But if youre only offered a job at Mcdonalds making 6.50 an hour, how are you supposed to enjoy the American Dream?? The middle class is slowly but surely disappearing thanks to the one world government philosophy currently employed by our democratic leaders! That means that we are going to have a 2 class sytem like every other country in the world! We are only good for being the policemen of the world and forcing our imperialistic ideals on the rest of the world in the name of democracy!!
When is it all going to stop?? When the American people take their government back, vote the GOP out of office, before it is too late, expand the 2 party system, allow other parties to voice their concerns, you may be surprised what you hear, maybe we will hear the truth for a change!!
Posted by BigDan on Mar 16, 2005 at 7:18 AM It’s a shame that the United States government continues to strangle it’s citizen’s rights, as well as the cultural diversity of US culture. While other countries admire the global cultural contributions the US makes through every medium, restricting US audiences from seeing what is considered “offensive” also restricts the level of foreign cultral content available to the public at large. Because of this new legal barrier, the US public is even less likely to have access to an endless number of films and televison programs from around the world.
The first example that springs to mind is Jerry Springer, The Opera - a piece of art perhaps even more relevant to Americans than to the British, who (despite a record number of complaints about it’s content) were given the opportunity to see it on free television. This is not to say that the JSOpera is high art - in many ways it’s a piece of fluff, but one that speaks to the zeitgeist ina very loud voice. But it represents the tip of the iceberg, and demonstrates that programming which challenges its audience often contains words and ideas that are just as important as they are potentially offensive.
If America is the greatest democracy in the world, and a country that values personal freedom above all else, many of us outside the US can only look on in amazement as American citizens loose freedoms we take for granted. It’s a shame that the US, the country which gave us the groundbreaking and profanity-riddled plays of David Mamet, has chosen to become even more culturally disconnected from the rest of the world.
Posted by Michael Cowie on Mar 16, 2005 at 7:33 AM Has there ever been any scientific evidence that children or anyone else are harmed by watching TV? It seems to me that most of our fear is not about people being harmed by things on television, but ourselves being embarrassed when our children come to us with questions. After all, we seem to think that sex is more dangerous than graphic violence.
When an exposed breast is more frightening than an illegal war in which a hundred thousand innocent people are killed, the world is truly topsy-turvy. The people who believe this are not moral, they are pathological.
Posted by Tony Quinn on Mar 16, 2005 at 9:13 AM Put quite simply. Any person promoting censorship in America, should do me a “censorship” favor and shut the fuck up.
Posted by Carcass on Mar 16, 2005 at 2:43 PM Your just Jelious that ohter people have rights to
Posted by Edward Lambert on Mar 17, 2005 at 12:47 PM we have a right to watch whatever we want when we want. and no one should try and take that away. i thought this was a free country.
Posted by 01 on Mar 17, 2005 at 7:11 PM In England you will see a set of female breast on local TV before you will see the portrail of violence and/or murder. Breast will get a lower censor rating where if you show violence: you get a higher rating.
In America we use the opposite scale as if we reward violence and not the human form. Hey if you don’t like the human form complain to the artist/creator.
Then we have the so called Christians: Christ like? These so called Christians are force feeding us an agenda that is anything but Christ like. How many of these sharlatins would stop an agry mob from stonning a prostitute? How many would knowingly suffer the beating given by the Roman guards with prior knowledge? He even knew his fate at the cross and all the pain and suffering ahead of time!
No these are more like sheep in wolves clothing feeding on the morals of others intent on controling behavior than allowing the human spirit to embrace the freedom of choice, exploration, and conclusion towards the path of their spiritual awareness.
Be careful the rights you wish to take away as it may come round to your rights and due to your earlier actions you become powerless to affect change.
KEEP AMERICA FREE FROM CENSORSHIP
SPEAK OUT
Posted by DennyPM3 on Mar 18, 2005 at 5:39 PM It’s laughable that broadcasters have to say “dooty” or “pee” on the radio instead of other words. Kinda ironic that those are the words children are going to understand. Reminds me of when my parents used to spell out naughty words so I wouldn’t hear but I knew what they were anyway.
Here’s an idea - how about Congress doing something about the up to 3 bucks a gallon for gas, which results in a domino effect increase for all needed goods and services.
I’m a lot more concerned about that, than if somebody says asshole instead of aye-hole on the radio. Or if some baseball player is on steroids. Get real.
Posted by Lancer on Mar 18, 2005 at 8:14 PM Wow! Look at my post right above this sentence - guess the radio stations aren’t the only ones getting censored.
And no, you won’t get $500,000 from my sorry ass either.
PS the word blanked out strongly resembled donkey hole, but substituting donkey with ass. Glad they cut that word out and left fuck in all the other posts, since it is a lot more offensive.
Posted by Lancer on Mar 18, 2005 at 8:20 PM If you believe at all in anything Christ said you know he can defend himself.he doesn’t need the governments help.
No thinking Christians would have voted for this foul excuse for a President.
If you believe what is said in the Bible you can’t pick&choose;to fit your ideas for life.
“ And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God !”
iTS NOT ME SAYING IT IS JESUS.pRESIDENT bUSH&ALL;HIS RICH FRIENDS ARE GOING TO HELL.
Posted by Peter S.Mulshine on Mar 18, 2005 at 9:24 PM Everyone here seems to agree that censorship is bad and free speech is good. We all know that talk is cheap. What realy matters is action. Friends if you are angry at your loss of freedoms then TAKE ACTION. Do something. If you want your freedom of speech back. If you want your Fourth Amendment rights back (freedom from unjust searches and seizures) then DO SOMETHING! If you have never done anything more than vote then be prepared to live in a Bizarro World where the USA is the enemy of the world and the citizens live in third world poverty.
May I suggest going to http://www.moveon.org or http://www.truthout.org
Get involved in the political process. The good guys are way behind and need all the help they can get. Tell your congressmen what you want. Its their job to represent you in congress. Voting is for wimps. Real men get their hands bloody.
Posted by JM on Mar 19, 2005 at 4:14 AM Bush and his cronies took this once proud nation and injured its soul we must all stand up for our rights and get this bullshit artical thrown out at any cost are we a bunch of pussys or are we americans???
Posted by willie lewis on Mar 19, 2005 at 7:38 AM Censorship is nothing but a tool for the current government to fine into submition or out of exzistance any media that may have the balls to tell the truth. useing Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction or Howard Stern’s vulgarity as a sprinbord in a atemped to hide the truth..why now,whats so close to being exposed that the current government need to put a stragle hold on the voice of all media.What are thay so scared of that thay need to wipeing their ass with the bill of rights to hide it? The internet has information at your fingertips like no other media before it..In it the truth can be found!Thay got to get control of it any way thay can .And thay will, going on the path that JIM Moffat on March 10, 2005 at 12:19 AM Posted here.So what is the truth in the internet thay dont want you to see..look here for your self......http://www.taxableincome.net this is a must read!its bigger then you think.
Posted by robert wilson on Mar 19, 2005 at 12:23 PM Reply to willie lewis on March 19, 2005 at 8:38 AM
“Bush and his cronies took this once proud nation and injured its soul we must all stand up for our rights and get this bullshit artical thrown out at any cost are we a bunch of pussys or are we americans???”
Evidently Americans are sheep they believe what they are told on Fox News because the TV can’t lie. Besides the president is second in power and holyness only to God himself. We all know that presidents can’t lie.
Just a thought on abortion. Right wingers say that abortion is wrong. I like to think of those dead Iraquis as very late term abortions. So why is not wrong to kill Iraquis? Is it because they are brown or is it because they are Muslim?
Somehow the citizens of Iraq are not supposed to angry at us for killing 100,000 of them. Somehow they are not supposed to notice that they don’t have electricity or running water or jobs or schools or food to eat. Somehow they shouldn’t mind the fact that they risk their lives every time they walk to the corner store or to the mosque. They should be kissing our feet because we rammed a puppet democracy down their throat. I think the bastards are just plain ungratful.
I know one thing for sure, if we pull our troops out of there the war will be over. I mean who the fuck are they going to shoot at when we go home?
We are the cause of their instability and when we leave they can get their shit together. Frankly they would be better off if they split into three seperate countries. The Kurds can do their thing while the Shias and the Sunis each go their own way. Why force these diverse peoples to live together? It just doesn’t make sense to me. Unless our government has an agenda that they are not telling us about. Whatever the agenda might be it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that its about the oil stupid.
Posted by Joe Lunchbox on Mar 19, 2005 at 7:05 PM No robert, we are NOT too lazy to change the channel. But, if “Dubya” gets his way, there will not be a channel with what we want to watch! If Dubya get’s his way, this country will be the second coming of the fucking soviet union!!!!Dasvedanya to you too, mother fucker!!!!!!
Posted by JASON on Mar 21, 2005 at 8:29 AM I think the entire point has been bypassed in these arguments. My concern is that this law could effectively be used to limit art and free expression. Many people I’ve spoken with don’t believe that books could ever be censored by the government. Why not? You’re talking about censoring private T.V. programs. Those are, in effect, movies. So why couldn’t they find a movie offensive? And aren’t movies really just plays? And what are plays? Books. Music belongs to a different progression, but the idea remains that if this law is passed, the result will be the censoring of private forms of expression.
Posted by bedroom records on Mar 23, 2005 at 3:05 PM Yes, we are adults and should have a choice in what we watch and what we listen to. But it is sad to say our 80’s push for less censorship opened up a disgusting chain of events that..best to give an example..I was driving my little nephew and we were listening to a “average joe’s station” when I heard the word B****, F*** and other swears. I turned to another station and heard the same song, still with all these swear words. What made me more upset then ever was that it was 9:00am. Just think, the buses that take our youth to school have stereos. I just wonder what next? Does anybody see the problem?
Posted by Jennifer Bates on Mar 29, 2005 at 12:08 PM One more thing, when did it become bad to choose to stay with religion and believe in morals???
Posted by Jennifer Bates on Mar 29, 2005 at 12:13 PM I am for and against censorship...just imagine sitting with your family watching T.V and what’s on… kiddie porn ....that is one good thing censorship keeps off the T.V and radio. Yes if we give a little they will take a little but not all censorship is wrong…
Posted by Jennifer Bates on Apr 4, 2005 at 1:48 PM So you would have your freedom of speech taken away so that your kids won’t hear bad words for a few more years? How noble and entirely naive of you.
Posted by bedroom records on Apr 6, 2005 at 6:45 PM That’s just it, it’s not just a couple bad words that they could hear. There’s more out there that is “bad”...I understand that most people can not see the obvious..that censorship already provides us with a blanket of protection..didn’t the American people label a certain kind of speech as “hate speech"( most of whom are fighting for the freedom of their own speech)? That’s why I don’t understand..Can someone please explain to me why?
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