Saturday, January 24, 2009

WTF!

When I read the news, I said "oh shit!" Senator Robert Ford (D-SC) is hoping to outlaw lewd language and is pushing for a bill which would make it a felony, punishable by up to a $5,000 fine or 5 years in prison, to use profane language in any public place. The bill would also make it a felony to make material of a "profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature" available to the public.

So here we have another politician out to destroy the First Amendment... he shouldn't even be allowed near our nation's capital. But I'm not going to rant about freedom of speech or even about the record number of people we already have in prison which is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more. Nope, I'm not going to talk about that.

I'm just going to mention how absurd it must be to bring a profanity case before the court. How many dozens of times do the lawyers, witnesses, jury and judge have to speak or hear the "bad word" during the course of the trial? And when it's all over, do all participants have to go to jail? I think it would only be fair...

These illogical laws are as good as anything the Communists ever legislated. Here is a classic Russian joke:
A judge walks out of his chambers laughing his head off. A colleague approaches him and asks why he is laughing. "I just heard the funniest joke in the world!" "Well, go ahead, tell me!" says the other judge. "I can't - I just gave a guy ten years for it!"
Pretty soon we can make that joke our own!

3 comments:

People in the Sun said...

And no dancing in public!

Kristen said...

Funny you should add that. I considered linking to this sign instead: Please No Singing No Dancing No Swearing This Is A Respectable House!

nunya said...

"The bill would also make it a felony to make material of a "profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature" available to the public."

Umm, would it include the "wide stance" and morse code foot tapping of senators in airport bathrooms?