Archive for April, 2008

Lesbian Fight

I’m going to get a lot of disap­pointed visitors for this one. Three citizens of the Greek island of Lesbos (also spelt Lesvos) are suing a Greek orga­ni­zation named “Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece” over the use of the word “Lesbian” in the organization’s name. The islanders claim that their geographical demonym (“Lesbian”) has been unjustly co-​​​​opted by the orga­ni­zation to their detriment. They want the Greek government to prohibit the orga­ni­zation from using the term “Lesbian” in its name. There is inter­na­tional precedent for the islanders’ claim. Terms like champagne, chianti, and Roquefort are restricted by laws in various countries to products [ . . . ]

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Incompetent Industrials I

Remember when you worked at that company? And they made you watch those cheesy indus­trial videos about sexual harassment in the workplace? You know, the one you slept through because it was so awful? Did you ever wonder why they’re so awful? Because the producers realize their target audience is an unin­ter­ested but captive one, so they try to over­com­pensate for the general lack of enthu­siasm for these things. They are uniformly heinous, but some are more heinous than others. Here’s one touting Microsoft’s SP1 for Vista: If you have any awful indus­trial videos, send them to or post them in [ . . . ]

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Why Laserdisc Still Rocks

Some movies just aren’t available in any other format. I once had a roommate who had a large collection of movies on laserdisc that were either unavailable on DVD or were otherwise greatly superior to the DVD versions. Among them was The Cheap Detective, written by Neil Simon and starring Peter Falk, Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing, Sid Ceasar, Dom DeLuise, Abe Vigoda, and a half-​​​​score of others in a WWII detective spoof. It is one of those comedies, for which Simon had a penchant, that was able to pull off absurdity without devolving into farce. I actually like it better than its more-​​​​popular prede­cessor, Murder [ . . . ]

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Assemblywoman Calls Atheism a Dangerous Philosophy

Illinois State Representative Monique Davis said some nasty things to atheist activist and Green Party candidate for State Representative for the 53rd District of Illinois Rob Sherman during an Illinois State Government Administration Committee hearing, to which the latter had been called to testify on the propriety of the Governor’s proposed plan to give $1M of the taxpayers’ money to the Pilgrim Baptist Church for restoration and preser­vation. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Partial tran­script, borrowed from Eugene Volokh: . . . Davis: . . . What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous– Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am? [ . . . ]

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FCC Does Something Right. . .

. . . Fifth Circle to expect light flurries.