R.I.P. George Carlin, May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008 (Wikipedia | WFMU Blog). From 1972’s Class Clown, “Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say on Television” (7:03):
The above aired on WBAI-NYC, resulting in the 1978 Supreme Court F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation ruling prohibiting broadcast of “indecent” material during hours “when children are undoubtedly in the audience.”
In 1963-4 two Atlanta residents collected live recordings at freedom movement events in the deep south, mass meetings, sermons, rallies, interviews. Their collection, now at the Library of Congress, is called “Movement Soul.” This interview is with one of the recordists, David Baker; slideshow sequenced by Max Darham. “Movement Soul: Civil Rights- Live:”
StoryCorps cuts yet another devastating slice of real-life this week, “Hector Black remembers the murder of his daughter, Patricia Nuckles, by an intruder in her home.” (3:00):
From BBC NEWS | UK chooses most ludicrous laws, the results of a UKTV survey asking which laws were most ridiculous. The top 10 laws on their list of legal lunacies:
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down (7%)
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned(5%)
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet (4%)
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)
The top 10 bizarre foreign laws as voted by those polled:
1. In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk (9%)
2. In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation (8%)
3. A male doctor in Bahrain can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror (7%)
4. In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm (6%)
5. It is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle in Alabama (6%)
6. In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed (6%)
7. Women in Vermont must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth (6%)
8. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits (5%)
9. There is no age of consent in Japan (5%)
10. In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon (4%)
As the recent victim of a bike theft, this story in today’s Washington Post was particularly poignant:
As Web Fuels Bike Thefts, Victims Turn Vigilantes
Favourite Quote:
“You steal someone’s bike, and God have mercy on you if they ever find you,” he said. “It’s something so insanely personal. People have a more personal connection to their bikes than their iPod.”
and, this admittedly depressing closer:
“He posted to the site startlingly clear photos of a man riding what he said was his bike, and he filed a police report. Police have followed up on his tips to no avail, McKenna said.”
SF Chronicle columnist reports “Bush Pardons Entire GOP:”
Prez “pre-emptively” saves all Repubs from becoming “prison bitches.”
Dems: “Can he do that?”
Cato Institute has a Google map of SWAT and paramilitary police raids in USA where innocents were harmed: Botched Paramilitary Police Raids, along with their policy paper “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids.”
(Found at Center for Citizen Media: Blog.)
Thoroughly depressing article on an Al Jazeera camerman who’s been incarcerated at Gitmo for nearly six years: “Prisoner 345,” Columbia Journalism Review.
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