Brrrr!

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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It's cold this morning. I don't know if the temperature got down to the thirty degree mark that Erin, the Tucson Weather Girl said it was going to or not... Well, I just left the keyboard long enough to run in and check what Erin says this morning: the temperature at this time is only 34 degrees.

But, yes,that's cold enough to suit me. Eva is wanting to go out but I am going to try to convince her to wait a little longer, at least until the sunlight shines over the mountaintops. At least for another half hour or so.

"What? You have to go? Oh, O.K. then... Come on...."

Woo Hoo! I'm back inside. The pool deck thermometer reads 34 degrees. Bright Venus is high overhead, The brightest (and onliest)light in the sky at this time of morning -- at daybreak.

Note: The Traffic Lady reports that it's smooth sailing both East and West through Tucson on Interstate 10.

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Did You Know . . .?

A fysigunkus is a person devoid of curiosity.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1933, a federal judge ruled that Ulysses by James Joyce is not obscene. The book had been banned immediately in both the United States and England when it came out in 1922. Three years earlier, its serialization in an American review had been cut short by the U.S. Post Office for the same reason. Fortunately, one of James' supporters, Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, published the novel herself in 1922.

Ulysses, with its radical stream-of-consciousness narrative, deeply influenced the development of the modern novel.

Joyce's final novel, Finnegans Wake, was published in 1939, and Joyce died in 1941.

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WORD FOR TODAY

censorship [senn'-suhr-ship]
noun
The act, process, or practice of censoring.

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet or other controlling body.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Gina Hecht
(born December 6, 1953)

Gina Hecht is an American actress. Her big break came in 1979 when she was hired for a role on the successful TV series Mork & Mindy. Her first film role was in the 1982 Ron Howard movie Night Shift, alongside Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton.

Lindsay Jaylyn Price
(born December 6, 1976)

Lindsay Price is an American television actress and singer who was born to a father of German and Irish descent and a mother of Korean descent, best known for her roles as Janet Sosna on Beverly Hills, 90210 and as Victory Ford on Lipstick Jungle. She also is known for her work on soap operas such as All My Children and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Dulce María
(born December 6, 1985)

Dulce Maria is a Mexican actress, singer, and songwriter. In October 2009 she signed a contract with Universal Music and recorded a solo album Extranjera, with its first part released in November 2010, and the second part in the summer of 2011.

Margaret JoBeth Williams
(born December 6, 1948)

JoBeth Williams is an American film, television and stage actress and director. She rose to prominence appearing in such films as Stir Crazy (1980), Poltergeist (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Day After (1983), Teachers (1984) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).

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Stopping leaks is a new form of censorship.
--Julian Assange

This Is Who I Am

    

You Can't Say That . . .

    

Tucson Weather Today


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On March 25, 1955 the U.S. Customs Department confiscated 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's book Howl, which had been printed in England. Officials alleged that the book was obscene.

City Lights, a publishing company and bookstore in San Francisco owned by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, proceeded to publish the book in the fall of 1956. The publication led to Ferlinghetti's arrest on obscenity charges. Ferlinghetti was bailed out by the American Civil Liberties Union, which led the legal defense. Nine literary experts testified at the trial that the poem was not obscene, and Ferlinghetti was found not guilty.


I have discovered that non-governmental censorship exists today, in March of 2013. Exists and thrives by the hand of creators of supposed flawless poetry, poets who wield self-centered big sticks to feed an ever-growing mass of artificial ego.

Unaware, in their blindness, of the negative possibilities.

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WORD FOR TODAY


obscene  [ahb-seen]
adjective
1. Offensive to accepted standards of decency or modesty.
2. Inciting lustful feelings; lewd.
3. Repulsive; disgusting.
4. So large in amount as to be objectionable or outrageous.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Elton John

 

Born Mar 25, 1947
Age:   65 years old

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight), is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor.

In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in the history of the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

Sarah Jessica Parker

 

Born Mar 25, 1965
Age:  47 years old

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American actress, model, singer and producer. She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City (1998–2004). She played the same role in the 2008 feature film based on the show, Sex and the City: The Movie, and in its sequel, Sex and the City 2, which opened on May 26, 2010. Parker has also appeared in many other films.

Howard Cosell

 

Born March 25, 1918
Died  April 23, 1995

Howard William Cosell (born Howard William Cohen) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. There's no question that I'm all of those things.

Cosell rose to prominence covering boxer Muhammad Ali, starting when he still fought under his birth name, Cassius Clay. The two seemed to be friends despite their very different personalities, and complemented each other in broadcasts. Cosell was one of the first sportscasters to refer to the boxer as Muhammad Ali after he changed his name and supported him when he refused to be inducted into the military.

Gloria Steinem

 

Born Mar 25, 1934
Age:   78 years old

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s.


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The only thing that is obscene is censorship.
--Craig Bruce

Women should be obscene and not heard.
Groucho Marx
    

Verboten!

     

Tucson Weather Today


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That  annoying long BLEEEEP! covering up supposed blasphemous or overly crude words that the FCC deems unfit for me (not being a cable TV subscriber) to hear absolutely enrages me. Why must I pay money to a Cable or Satellite Company to secure that right?

Oh well . . .

 I had planned to write a diatribe of sorts on the subject of Freedom of Speech and how FCC censorship ignores that basic constitutional right because the religious folks in the audience are afraid their children might hear words that these very kids use (constantly) themselves when gathered together among their peers.

 But then I discovered that I do not have sufficient knowledge nor sufficient passion left in me to do so.

So I didn't do it.

Yet . . .

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HISTORICAL CLIP

On March 3, 1873 Congress enacted the so-called Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" book through the mails. Also unlawful under the law is sending anything "designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion."

The law was named after its chief proponent, the anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock. The enforcement of the Act was, in its early days, often conducted by Comstock himself as postal inspector or through the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice which he led.

The Comstock Law prompted many states to add laws of their own, and heavy-handed restrictions on sexually oriented material continued for many years. James Joyce's Ulysses was even barred from the United States until court challenges finally determined that it was not obscene. The current Supreme Court standard exempts from obscenity prosecution any material that has literary value.

The Comstock Act targeted pornography as well as contraceptive equipment and many educational materials such as descriptions of contraceptive methods and other reproductive health-related materials.

Comstock's ideas of what might be "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" were quite broad. During his time of greatest power, even some anatomy textbooks were prohibited from being sent to medical students by the United States Postal Service.

The ban on contraceptives was declared unconstitutional by the courts in 1936, though the remaining portions of the law continue to be enforced today. However, definitions of obscenity have changed over the years, and it was determined that obscenity was material whose "dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" to the "average person, applying contemporary community standards," and was, "utterly without redeeming social importance.

See Comstock Laws . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY

prurient
adjective
Having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.
Synonyms
lascivious - salacious - lustful - lewd - lecherous

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


James Doohan

 Born March 3, 1920
Died   July 20, 2005

James Montgomery Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek. Doohan's characterization of the Scottish Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise was one of the most recognizable elements in the Star Trek franchise, for which he also made several contributions behind the scenes. Many of the characterizations, mannerisms, and expressions that he established for Scotty and other Star Trek characters have become entrenched in popular culture.

Jessica Biel

 Born Mar. 3, 1982
Age:  30 years old

Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model and singer. She is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven. She has since starred in many films including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007), The A-Team (2010), New Year's Eve (2011), and Total Recall (2012). She will appear in the thriller indie film Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes in 2013.

David Faustino

 Born Mar. 3, 1974
Age:  38 years old

David Anthony Faustino (born March 3, 1974) is an American actor and rap artist primarily known for his role as Bud Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children and voicing Mako in The Legend of Korra.

Jean Harlow

 Born Mar. 3, 1911
Died June 7, 1937

Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" (owing to her platinum blonde hair), Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute. Harlow starred in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death at the age of 26.

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Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
--Bertrand Russell
   

Are Naive And Innocent Always Synonyms?

Tucson Weather Today

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Overheard from a tyke in a supermarket:
"The teacher showed us a picture of a naked boy and girl... the boy has a penis down there but the girl ain't got nothin'."

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I do not remember from where I copied the image below but I liked it so much that I decided to post it here without permission. If the owner requests me to remove it, I will, of course, do so immediately.

"The Ballerina in Green" (2007)

Don't know what it as about that particular picture, but as I said, "I like it." And that's enough reason to post it.

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Isn't it curious that the image below if shown on Broadcast TV will appear with the upraised middle finger blurred out?

Ah, censorship.

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I have some notes about other subjects but prefer to save them for a time when I feel better.

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I wouldn't kid Our Lord if he was on the cross. But I would attempt a joke with him if I ran into him chasing the money changers out of the temple.
--Ernest Hemingway

Censorship, KFC, Etc.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

You can listen to and read a sweet Valentine poem and then read all about Valentine's Day over at The Writer's Almanac if you want to.

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That little faggot, he's a millionaire is the title of a Language Log posting by Geoffrey K. Pullum regarding Canada's censorship of the song Money For Nothing. It's an interesting article.

Click HERE to hear Money For Nothing by Dire Straits in a Youtube video.

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This is a Wild Pig

No reason for displaying this...

just thought it was intriguing.

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Yesterday, while on my daily fitness walk through the desert's edge on the East side of Tucson I stopped at a roadside yard sale, where I had a most enjoyable conversation with the residents, a knowledgeable Classic Car enthusiast and his lovely lady companion who questioned me about how to start up a blog. The Classic Car guy said that she is a frustrated journalist. I told her all I could about blogging, which was not much since I am certainly not an expert and told her that if she would email me I will get her some more info on starting up a blog.

She can learn about blogging by clicking HERE

Sure hope I hear from her. If I do, and if she starts up a blog of her own, I will report on its progress and provide my multitude of readers with a link to it.

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The plural form of dwarf is dwarfs, not dwarves.
--Mark Liberman

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KFC has a new sandwich -- with no bun...

Check it out HERE http://www.kfc.com/doubledown/

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Two kids are walking in the woods when one sees some rabbit pellets on the ground. "What are those?" he asks. "They're smart pills" says the other kid, "eat them and they'll make you smarter." The first kid says, "Really?" He picks a couple of them up and eats them. "They taste like shit," he says, and the other kid says, "See, you're getting smarter already."

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Censorship and the Banning of Books

The mother of a student in Menifee, California complained that the 10th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary contained inappropriate material regarding Oral Sex, to which district officials over-reacted a bit, proposing to ban the dictionary from the school's library shelves.

Here is the supposedly offensive definition:

A district official that stoops to removing books from a school library has merely done his job in a manner he believes right and proper, even if only to further enhance his own eminence in the eyes of a deplorably ignorant electorate.

But a community that condones such actions has injured only itself. Students will mature and self-educate and move on. The village, if ignored by a wiser external society, will stagnate and eventually choke to death on its own vitriolic vomit.

Here are some books that have been banned in the United States.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was outlawed in Alabama schools due to "sexually offensive" passages. Adding to this, four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of this book because it is a 'real downer.'

Alice Walker's The Color Purple, where parents and school leaders in Jackson County West Virginia banned the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel due to its sexually and socially explicit nature, in addition to the book's "Troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality."

The Grapes of Wrath, a novel by John Steinbeck. Banned in many places in the US. In the region of California in which it was partially set, it was banned because it made the residents of this region look bad.

Howl a poem by Allen Ginsberg. Copies of the first edition were seized by San Francisco Customs for obscenity in March 1957; after trial, obscenity charges were dismissed.

Lady Chatterley's Lover a novel by D.H. Lawrence. Temporarily banned for obscenity in the U.S. but the ban was lifted in 1959.

Tropic of Cancer a novel by Henry Miller. Banned in the US in the 1930s until the early 1960s, seized by US customs for sexually explicit content and vulgarity. The rest of Miller's work was also banned by the United States

Ulysses by James Joyce. Challenged and temporarily banned in the US for its sexual content. In 1933 the ban was overturned.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Banned in the Southern States due to its anti-slavery content.

United States-Vietnam Relations: 1945-1967. A government study by Robert McNamara and the United States Department of Defense. Also known as the Pentagon Papers. US President Nixon attempted to suspend publication of classified information. The restraint was lifted by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision.

Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland. Banned in the USA in 1821 for obscenity, then again in 1963. This was the last book ever banned in the USA.

That's just a few. A list of the most often challenged books can be found on a page of The American Library Association.

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

September 25-October 2, 2010 is hailed by the ALA. as Banned Books Week

(BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Banning books, indeed censorship in all its multi-cloaked disguises is inherently damaging (often lethal) to the citizens of any supposedly Free State. Any government eventually will, and must, demand the power to regulate the distribution of information to its subjects.

Thinking individuals should always keep that principle in mind. When a government acts (or seeks to make laws) to suppress the free flow of information on grounds of religion, morality, or simply that it knows "what is best for you" or that it

"NEEDS YOU" -- Watch out!

. . . 'nuff said?

Laughter is God's most soothing balm.

--Gene Chambers