 Thiel-a-VisionThe personal website of David Thiel in Champaign, Illinois. It's a geek thing. |
The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. --George Costanza, "Seinfeld" |
As a service to you, here is a free copy of my newest publication, The Tomorrow Times. It’s the newspaper that doesn’t require a subscription!
Just click on the graphic, print out the .pdf and read it every morning. You’ll be entirely up to date!
This past Tuesday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court gave me a huge early-birthday present. They struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s onerous indecency regulation for being “unconstitutionally vague.”
I’ve posted about this issue a number of times, and you may safely assume that I’m in absolute agreement with the judges when they said, “We query how fleeting expletives could be more essential to the ‘realism’ of a fictional movie than to the ‘realism’ of interviews with real people about real-life events.”
The headline of a follow-up article by the Hollywood Reporter suggests that TV is about to get a lot racier, but I doubt it. For one, as the article points out, the court’s decision will likely be appealed (for the second time) to the Supreme Court. And even though the high court previously declined to rule on the 1st Amendment implications of indecency regulation, there’s no guarantee that they’ll leave it be a second time. The pack of jackals currently in charge of that body have been giving “activist judges” a bad name.
Furthermore, networks are already beholden to advertisers and (to a lesser extent) audiences. Entertainment executives (and local affiliates) really don’t want to cheese off too many people. And most sponsors don’t want to be associated with “softcore” material. You aren’t going to be seeing bare boobies weeknights at 8:00 pm, or even 10:00 pm.
But hopefully we can all fucking grow up a little, and realize that it’s not the end of the world if someone (say, a public television programmer) allows the occasional “naughty” word onto the air.
I was extensively quoted in Sunday’s State Journal-Register in an article about the upcoming analog TV shutoff. To my annoyance, I am once again David “Theil,” despite my specifically pointing out to the reporter that many people screw up my name, and carefully spelling it for him.
This political ad seems to be running every time I turn on the TV. It’s from Colleen Callahan, the Democratic candidate for Illinois’ 18th Congressional District.
And every time I see it, I want to say “Really? The ‘Daisy’ ad? You’re invoking perhaps the most infamous political commercial of all time to go after some schmoe who has about as much chance of starting a nuclear holocaust as I do of perfecting mind-over-matter?” I mean, I give her points for knowing her history, but surely there must be something more relevant to run on.
This is a simply amazing piece of video: the Republican mayor of San Diego, who ran on a platform opposing gay marriage, makes a complete 180 degree turn in a tearful, heartfelt speech. This is the sort of thing I wish that more politicians–Republican and Democrat alike–would have the balls to do.
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