It’s a hot, lazy weekend. Well, maybe not lazy; but the kind of weekend more suited to chopping blackberry canes out of the camellia bushes than to sitting at the computer.<\/p>\n
So here are a few random ruminations that have crossed my mind while I’ve been out in the yard this weekend. <\/p>\n
Doubleplusungoodspeak<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Tolerance = bigotry<\/p>\n Diversity = sameness<\/p>\n Rights = privileges provided by the many to the few<\/p>\n Racism = people of pale persuasion believing they have rights, too<\/p>\n Freedom = the ability to intimidate and silence opponents<\/p>\n And we all carry around our personal telescreens to make sure we’re practicing rightspeak.<\/p>\n The appropriateness of f-bombs<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n And on the subject of rightspeak … the question comes up occasionally about whether it’s okay to drop the f-bomb in a comment here at the blog.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that we’re rotting our brains and degrading public discourse with over-reliance on the f-word, the short answer is yes, it’s okay to use That Word. Judiciously.<\/p>\n When this blog was at BHM, I’d delete any use of the f-word in comments and either wouldn’t link to cussing articles or would post an NSFW warning. That was because we were operating on the Duffys’ property. Here things are looser.<\/p>\n Still, when I posted a graphical funny the other day, I blacked out That Word because it seemed the courteous thing to do. I don’t want more conservative people feeling they can’t come here (or let their children come here) without finding vulgarities on the front page. In comments, it’s less problematic. Just don’t go overboard.<\/p>\n That said, I’ve been known — perhaps more than once or twice — to explode f-bombs around the house. Don’t tell anybody.<\/p>\n