Beautiful photographs, as typical of the Big Picture.
Tagged
politics
Justice Ginsburg:Are those the only two words in the FCC's new policy or are there other words on the list?
General Garre [FCC]:Well, certainly, the FCC's action in this case focuses on the use of the F-Word and the S-Word, and I think everyone acknowledges that a word like the F-Word is one of the most graphic, explicit, and vulgar words in the English language for sexual activity. And I think even the networks here concede that it was -- its use was gratuitous and inappropriate here. And that would control --
Justice Stevens:Isn't it true that -- isn't it true that that is a word that often is used with -- with no reference whatsoever to the -- the sexual connotation?
General Garre:It can be -- it certainly can be used in a non-literal way. It can be used in a metaphorical way, as Cher used it here, to say "F them" to her critics. But the -- the non-literal/literal distinction is not unique to the isolated expletives versus the repeated effort -- expletives.
Justice Stevens:You think it's equally -- it's equally subject to being treated as indecent within the meaning of the statute regardless of which meaning was actually apparent to everybody who listened to it?
General Garre:I wouldn't say equally, Justice Stevens, but what we would say is that it can qualify as indecent under the -- under the Commission's definition, because even the non-literal use of a word like the F-Word, because of its core meaning of that word as one of the most vulgar, graphic, and explicit words for sexual activity in the English language, it inevitably conjures up a core sexual image.
....
Justice Stevens:Maybe I shouldn't ask this, but is there ever appropriate [sic] for the Commission to take into consideration at all the question whether the particular remark was really hilarious, very, very funny? Some of these things you can't help but laugh at. Is that -- is that a proper consideration, do you think?
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Source:http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts.html
Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather boa!
“There is an interesting variant of the OSS Hitler skull stamp that was produced by U.S. agents in Berne. The 45-pfennig propaganda variant depicts Hitler more crude, skull-like and horrific than the regular OSS parody stamp, and the ‘45’ denomination probably indicates the year 1945. The text on the stamp is Futsches Reich. There is what appears to be a hand-written propaganda message in German just below the stamp that says:
New for philatelists!
45 - Third Reich with plate flaws
“The German is oddly written so was probably penned by an American. Specialist Wolfgang Baldus thinks that the OSS might have planned to make people believe that German stamp dealers were offering the ‘45’ stamp. To make it look like a real stamp they drew the perforation and added a black area around the perforation. The German inscription was added to give the impression that the stamp was offered by German dealers.”
From a fascinating article on propaganda and espionage philately. Discovered via Boing Boing.
She’s high on her own fumes.
I love elitism. That’s why I wrote about these very elitist seventeenth-century Jesus freaks. I’m talking about the Puritans. The thing that’s great about them is their love of knowledge and language and words and learning. They’re building their little cabins and then they get cracking building Harvard because they want their sons to know Hebrew and Greek and Latin and to have read Aristotle and they want those people to be in charge of them, the people who know stuff.
Actually quite fun to explore.
