Nobody's Business

Swearing, Blowing Up Nukes: Same Thing?

This February will go down in history as the month in which the Bush administration got House approval for a bill that raises the maximum FCC fine to half a million dollars. Saying fuck or shit on radio or TV is now going to cost a pretty penny (actually, fifty million pennies.)

Rolling Stone puts it neatly into perspective:

"If the bill passes the Senate, Bono saying "fucking brilliant" on the air would carry the exact same penalty as illegally testing pesticides on human subjects. And for the price of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors. (Actually, you might be able to afford four "nuke malfunctions": The biggest fine levied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year was only $60,000.)"

Racing to Stop Tobacco

What's the most dangerous thing about Formula One racing? The billboards, of course. That's right: European lawmakers have decided that car racing must kick its tobacco habit, so billboards or decals with cigarette logos will no longer be tolerated. In fact, the sport must bid adieu to its tobacco sponsors entirely. The Guardian reports that

"The UK Tobacco Sponsorship and Advertising Act, coupled with a European commission directive, will remove the sport's biggest commercial supporter, and has left team principals searching for alternative brands."

Ah yes, as you're gazing out at a track full of smoke-belching, bullet-speeding supercars, and you're breathing rocket-fuel fumes all afternoon, no health risk could be greater and more dastardly than the sight of a Marlboro sticker.

Busybodies Health authorities are celebrating, but they may soon have to push for further legislation in their heroic quest to stomp out vice:

"Last week McLaren [Formula One's most famous team] announced they were swapping fags for booze, and that on August 1 — the day after the Hungarian grand prix — the West cigarette branding on their cars will be replaced by Johnnie Walker whisky in a £15m-a-year deal."

UPDATE: Nick Schulz of Tech Central Station chimes in, via Reason:

"I was at the Montreal Grand Prix last year where tobacco ads were banned on cars as well as everywhere else. What's the sponsor Benson & Hedges to do? On the fin of the car they sponsor, they covered the letters 'ns' and 'H' and 'ss with black tape so that instead of reading "Benson Hedges" it read 'Be on edge.' Of course, everyone in the crowd knew it was, in effect, a Benson Hedges ad. It was really a clever stroke for the forces of fun and humor."

Good Intentions, Unintended Consequences

Case 1
The good intention: Installing cameras at intersections to discourage drivers from running red lights.
The unintended consequence: More rear-end collisions.

Case 2
The good intention: Compensating airline passengers for delays.
The unintended consequence: Pilots might ignore malfunctions to avoid actual claims.

Bruce Springsteen, Mass-Murdering Thug?

What do these people have in common? Roger Ebert. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Tim Robbins. Zacarias Moussaoui. Robert Byrd. Mohammad Atta. Bruce Springsteen. Ramzi Yousef.

Haven't the foggiest? You're not alone. It's hard to figure out how assorted terrorist swine are related to a senator from West Virginia or a mainstream movie critic. But this website, discoverthenetwork.org, places their photos side by side, trying to have you believe that these individuals are all part of a "network" of freedom-despising, violence-preaching, America-hating revolutionaries. It's all about "defining the left's (often hidden) programmatic agendas."

There is no dearth of kooks with web skills, so ordinarily I wouldn't give this the time of day. However, the site in question assumes a certain legitimacy because it's set up by the same folks who bring you Frontpage Magazine, in particular publisher and editor David Horowitz. I have no problem with Horowitz or even necessarily some of his ideas (for instance, I agree with him when he defends academic freedom for all, not just for lefties). The one time I've had any dealings with the guy — when I pointed out to him that one of his writers, Alexis Amory, had committed an open-and-shut case of plagiarism — Horowitz was a pretty straight shooter. He looked into it, confirmed my allegation, thanked me for bringing it to his attention, and promptly fired his thieving contributor.

Now, about that new (to me) website. There's nothing wrong with making a database of the left. There's nothing wrong with making it highly partisan — informed readers know where Horowitz, a hard-bitten conservative, comes from, so they can add salt as necessary. But it's either clumsy or scandalously malicious to imply, by juxtaposing those pictures, that there's no fundamental difference between Bruce Springsteen and terrorist ringleader Mohammad Atta, or between Robert Byrd and mass murderer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Then again, it's an impossible stretch — an epic fallacy — to even think of Islamic terrorists as being on the left in the first place. These people have mindsets that are straight from the Middle Ages. They abhor all the freedoms that the American Left, for better or for worse, has fought for, from abortion to equal rights for women, from separation of church and state to freedom of speech. Pundits on the right habitually call extremist Arabs "Islamo-fascists," which is an apt enough label, one that I've frequently used myself. But you can't have it both ways. If monsters like Atta are on the extreme right, can they also be on the extreme left? Only in an Alice-like universe where two plus two equals five, and where Roger Ebert is the moral equivalent of shoe bomber Richard Reid.

I don't know why, but Horowitz must be content to preach to the rabid-right choir. No moderate on either side of the divide will be swayed by the nutso message of his little photo collection.

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UPDATE, late afternoon: Horowitz e-mails to say that friend and foe have criticized him for the site, and that he has rebutted much of that criticism here.

He adds: "The big picture behind my inclusion of all these figures is laid out in my last book Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left. [But] after talking to a writer at Salon who is doing a story on our site, I have decided to modify the [photo] grid. It will now be divided into four columns: Totalitarian Radicals, Anti-American Radicals, Leftists and Moderate Leftists. That way the potential for misunderstanding and confusion will be reduced."

Let's hope that on the new picture grid, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be very conspicuously separated — thick lines, David, and lots of white space! — from, say, murderous scum like Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

(If you happen to read this post after discoverthenetwork.org has been altered as per Horowitz's plans, and would like to see screenshots of the original web page that caused the hubbub, look no further. Click on the images to see them full-size.)

 

U.K. Nannies Exact Their Pound of Flesh

How fat is too fat for the British authorities? Over his own objections and those of his family, 400-lbs Chris Leppard was carted off to a mental institution, where he's been held against his will for a month now. The 23-year-old's crime: having an eating disorder (Prader-Willi Syndrome). Chris's illness prevents him from knowing when his stomach is full. (thanks, Reason)

Guess Who's Gayefying America Now?

Oh no! Not Shrek!

But I still wonder why the people who, of late, see a gay boogeyman behind every animated character, don't ask for Bug Bunny's head. The rabbit's loopy adventures are filled with cross-dressing, and lots of cross-species kissing and canoodling. Take a look here.

You can find plenty of questionable messages in other children's series too.

Here are some examples, courtesy of Mark Hoolihan.

• Oscar the Grouch — Living in a garbage can, Oscar takes whatever "handouts" he can get from people who work for a living. A homeless welfare role model for kids.
• Barney — Not just annoying, Barney is a living symbol of evolutionary theory who also promotes "multiculturalism" through enforced interspecies friendships. Only affirmative action could get a dinosaur with a brain the size of a walnut a spot on a tv show.
• Aladdin — Not only Middle Eastern (known to contain Muslims) but the main character is a thief who lives on the streets. Not to mention the obvious symbolism in the "magic carpet ride" the unmarried couple takes.

Hoolihan is kidding, of course, but the Falwells and Dobsons of this world aren't. No matter — they make me laugh all the same. I'm positively tickled every time a group like Focus on the Family or the Traditional Values Coalition or the American Family Association finds more evidence of cartoon characters' "perverted" messages. That's because it's obviously (to everyone but their fans) an exercise in self-ridicule. You don't have to be a left coast liberal to recognize the kookiness from a mile away. The more 'filth' they unearth, the deeper they dig their own graves.

Free Mojtaba and Arash!

With an international day of protest, the Committee to Protect Bloggers is doing what it can to free two imprisoned Iranian colleagues. Seems clear-cut enough to me, but there are naysayers, and one of them — regrettably posting anonymously as "Lee" — raises a point here that deserves to be addressed.

"The US Government doesn't really need propaganda any more — it can just rely on bloggers. Anyone notice that this is happening as the US is gearing up to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian government?  This is not to say that the Iranian government is good (as an atheist I would not do well there — or in the USA), but surely it is not coincidental! Yes, there are problems in taking such action as that of the Iranian government [smothering free speech, RvB], but ask yourselves why not elsewhere? Why is it that Iran is the focus when the USG is threatening it?"

Lee adds that there are bloggers in Nepal, China, the U.S., Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Israel, Western Europe, Russia, Pakistan, and other countries whose governments have prevented them from speaking out.

Yes, so? As regular readers know, 75 percent of this blog is about liberties, especially freedom of speech. I don't care where the muzzling of writers and activists takes place — it isn't acceptable. The Committee to Protect Bloggers seems to feel the same way. On its home page are posts and links that call attention to censorship in China, France, Tunisia, Iran, Cuba, and other nations.

There is a difference between skepticism and cynicism, and for my money, Lee finds himself on the wrong side of that divide. I agree with George Bush on virtually nothing, and I find the neocons' outright threats against Iran cause for concern, to put it mildly. But speaking out against injustice is a no-brainer. If bloggers' protests against the imprisonment of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad happens to play into the Bush administration's hand, hey, I'll survive. And with any luck — and more to the point — so will Arash and Mojtaba.

Victims 'R' Us: Welcome, Catholics!

Here's one ancient blame game that never goes away (though it does get stale): Claiming that if someone portrays a few people from an ethnic or religious group in a critical light, it's an insult to all the members of that group. And to their hard-working, salt-of-the-earth ancestors, of course.

So, in Chicago, we get American-Italians going to court saying that the HBO hit series the Sopranos slanders their heritage. In places like Frankfurt and Amsterdam, we've seen Jewish pressure groups succeed in halting a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder because they proclaimed it anti-Semitic. In London and elsewhere, there's been much excessive handwringing over Shakespeare's the Merchant of Venice — in particular the upcoming Michael Radford-directed movie version — because Shylock is (horrors!) not a Nice Jew. Gay pressure groups in southern California have enthusiastically sabotaged movies like Cruising and Basic Instinct, because those flicks ostensibly paint homosexuals in an unflattering light. In Washington D.C. and other cities, Arab-Americans seethed with sanctimonious anger over movies like The Siege and Rules of Engagement because the filmmakers didn't include enough "sympathetic or positive images of Arabs." In Manchester, protesting Sikhs managed to violently shut down a comedic play by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti that they claim disparaged their faith and community.

On and on it goes. The latest round of this My-Skin-Is-Thinner- Than-Yours game is being played in India, where it's local Catholics' turn to cry foul.

>> Roman Catholic organisations in India have demanded the withdrawal of a film that depicts a priest having an affair with a girl half his age. Indian television channels are now refusing to run the promotional material for the film, Sins, ahead of its release on Friday. The director of the film, Vinod Pande, says the movie is not offensive and has refused to withdraw it. Catholics are planning a protest in Mumbai (Bombay) on Wednesday. The president of one of Mumbai's main Catholic organisations, Dolphy D'Souza, says the portrayal of an ordained priest as a man of loose moral character has hurt the religious sentiments of India's Catholic community. <<

Will these non-Christian infidel movie-makers stop at nothing? Everyone knows there just couldn't ever be a priest who'd want to have sex with young people. No sir.

And there's this:

>> Catholics have urged Mr Pande to withdraw the film to show respect to the Christian community's hurt sentiments. "Religion needs to be a personal affair and should not be a subject for entertainment or for commercial use," Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum, said in a statement. <<

Yes, religion does need to be a personal affair, I suppose. A good thing the Catholic Church has such a stellar track record of not butting into people's private lives. And because religion should not be "a subject for entertainment or commercial use," the Vatican would of course never endorse a motion picture on such a sensitive subject.

Glad we got that all straightened out.

Homer and Spongebob Unite

Not in holy matrimony (yet), but in making a mockery of heterosexual marriage. Oh no, wait, that was Britney Spears. Anyway, reliably enough, Brent Bozell III is a bit hot under the collar — and not, it is presumed, from watching gay stag DVDs.

My Not-So-Pervy Pictures

I've blogged about my mixed experiences at a recent Belfast public event here and here. Don't worry, I won't flog a dead horse. I've nothing to add to those posts, except the pictures I took — the ones that needlessly became a contentious issue that evening. Click here to see for yourself. Yes, that really is as dirty and provocative as they got. Aren't they scary?