Month: April 2009

Playboy Gets Fined

British media regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV 22,500 pounds ($32,990) for airing sexually explicit images in breach of broadcasting rules.

It said on Thursday the free-to-air channel Playboy One had broadcast unencrypted raunchy, and what the watchdog deemed offensive, material until September 2008.

Ofcom had received five complaints relating to seven late night programs broadcast between September and December 2007.

Shows investigated included: “Sexy Girls Next Door,” “Sexy Urban Legends” and “Adult Stars Close-up.”

“Depending on the individual breach, the explicitness, strength and, or, sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel,” Ofcom ruled.

It said Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd had failed to ensure adequate protection for viewers from “potentially harmful or offensive material.

First of all….HUH?  What did they think they were gonna see when they tune in to a channel labeled “the Playboy Channel”?  Are there people that stupid that they think a show called “Sexy Girls Next Door” was about 6 maids a milking?  Absolutely no one is that flipping stupid!  This is just a ridiculous story.

To Smoke Or Not To Smoke

OKay, Irene….where do these people plan to stop this whole thingy?

Oregon smokers have been elbowed out of bars, shooed away from entrances, and now they could get a ticket for lighting up in their own car.

The Oregon House voted Wednesday to fine anyone caught smoking with a child in a vehicle, windows rolled up or not. Minors are defined as children younger than 17 and tobacco as cigarettes, cigars or the loose stuff in pipes.

If approved, House Bill 2385 would make such smoking a primary offense, punishable by a maximum $90 fine for a first-time offender.

I can see where they are going with this and I can see where it would be a more healthy thing…but I also see where it is involving the government into the lives of a family…..child abuse?  Then why not say because the government is not moving fast enough on emissions that they are also practicing a form of child abuse?  We can play this lame ass game for ever.

Vermont Joins Other States

Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote, the minimum needed, to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Tuesday morning’s legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states’ laws.

Douglas called override “not unexpected.” He had called the issue of gay marriage a distraction during a time when economic and budget issues were more important.

The list grows longer and longer.

Sh!t Happens!

Found while surfing…..reported by the Associated Press…..

A federal judge sentenced a Sioux Falls man to probation, a fine and restitution for sending a letter containing animal feces in the mail. Jeffrey Dezeeuw, 45, pleaded guilty to a count of mailing injurious articles.

Prosecutors said he smeared the excrement on a traffic citation, a note and cash that he sent to the Minnehaha County Clerk of Courts on July 21.

Dezeeuw was sentenced to three years of probation, a $500 fine and ordered to pay restitution of $451.

There is NO humor in the court system what so ever……joking…….

About Damn Time

The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state’s same-sex-marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where marriage is legal.

In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge’s ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.

“The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion,” said a summary of the ruling issued by the court.

Are you sure we are talking about Iowa?  A unanimous decision?  All the others like New Hampshire or California were split decisions, but Iowa?

This is a great civil rights victory for gays and will be interesting to see where it will lead.  Will other states follow suit?

Someone Thank A Smoker

Federal taxes also are going up Wednesday on other tobacco products, including cigars. Federal per-cigar taxes, which vary based on weight and price, used to be capped at 4.9 cents but now are capped at 40.26 cents.

The tobacco tax hikes, which President Obama signed into law in February, will be used to finance an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The expansion, which will cost $35 million over five years, is expected to secure federally funded health care for an additional 4 million children.

Before the expansion, SCHIP covered almost 7 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid — the federal health insurance program for the poor — but can’t afford private insurance.

So if anyone is benefitting from the SCHIP program in the future then the smoker is helping your child get the medical care that they are needing.

Someone…somewhere…say thanks.

Workers Beware!

The measures announced Monday confirm once again that the Obama administration is a government of, by and for the financial elite which exerts a stranglehold over the economy and controls the entire political establishment.

The investment bankers represented by Obama are using the economic crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally restructure class relations in America. Culminating a three-decade offensive against working people, they are destroying whatever remains of the gains made by previous generations of workers so as to intensify the exploitation of the working class.

The attack on auto workers will become the spearhead for similar attacks against workers throughout the country and internationally, in every sector of the economy. Wage cuts, layoffs and cuts in benefits and social programs will be implemented across the board. The Obama administration has already made clear that it is targeting basic entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

After the auto companies received government loans last year, the UAW promoted the lie that the Obama administration would take a pro-worker position and the union bureaucracy enthusiastically backed his campaign. This, just as every other policy of the union, has proven to be a trap and betrayal of the workers’ interests.

The War of the Collars is approaching……which side of the line will you stand?