MetaFilter posts by tiny pea.
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In an 8-1 ruling with Justice Stevens dissenting, the U.S. Supreme Court has partially upheld the Child Online Protection Act against objections that by relying on community standards it was unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment. COPA is the 1998 federal law making it illegal to make pornography available to children on the Internet. Passed in the wake of the Court's 1997 ruling striking down the Communications Decency Act but never enforced because of various court injunctions, COPA is still undergoing other lower-court challenges whose merits today's ruling does not address.
posted on May-13-02 at 10:32 AM
Koleen Brooks, in getting elected mayor of Georgetown, CO, was hardly the first to successfully transition from the stage to politics. But what makes her story unlike the high-profile successes of Ronald Reagan (and perhaps more akin to the that of Gov. Ventura both in notoriety and for their "independent" political affiliation) is that her stage had a metal pole and lots of nudity (NSFW). In a recent interview, Koleen Brooks discusses her political forays cut short for now by a recall election last month.
There is certainly nothing new about controversial celebrity characters being elected to office, especially local office, and as the mayor of Inglis, FL has demonstrated with her anti-Satan proclamation, it is easy to obtain national notoriety while remaining well within the bounds of "traditional conservative values". Nevertheless, might Brooks's successful candidacy be the beginning of a more significant trend within American politics as the sons and daughters of the Sexual Revolution bring their sexual dilettantism into the dominant elderly voting bloc?
posted on May-8-02 at 12:58 AM
Thanks to a breakthrough in medical technology allowing HIV-infected semen to be purified of the virus, thousands of men will now be able to father children whose high-school graduations they'll never live to see. Is there no limit to human vanity?
posted on May-2-02 at 9:46 PM
Step #1: play Everquest twelve hours per day. Step #2: shoot yourself in the head. This being America, step #3 is of course: have your mother sue Sony on your behalf. She expects to uncover documents proving Sony knew Everquest is addictive, but maybe she'll just discover why she didn't do more to help her epileptic son as his life spiraled out of control.
posted on Apr-2-02 at 11:44 PM
According to this editorial, April Fools hoaxes violate a fundamental trust between readers and the media and undermine the mission they're supposed to serve. Though opinion polls have never put "The Media" high on anyone's list of favorite organizations, I probably have to disagree in that April Fools hoaxes actually do more to help the media by revealing their sense of humor and giving them a touch of the everyman.
posted on Apr-1-02 at 9:24 AM
Felt threatened since 9/11? Take this survey. It attempts to link our perception of threats with our exposure to particular media -- good approach, unlike some other 9/11 surveys.
posted on Mar-2-02 at 3:33 PM
It's time to stop racial profiling and start profiling rich white men. So says one man's editorial. I think we can all agree -- it'd probably prevent another Enron.
posted on Feb-26-02 at 10:19 AM
An "enthusiastic amateur astrologer" lays out the case for teaching astrology, a "hard science", in the public schools. Judging from the article, he doesn't quite understand the difference between "astronomy" and "astrology".
posted on Jan-18-02 at 5:55 PM
Anime from a religious perspective This could never get tiresome - Jack Chick and others may think they have cornered the market in (unintentionally) hilarious Christian interpretations of popular culture, but this excoriation of Anime by (I suspect) a Baptist and definitely a fundamentalist is wonderful reading, and provides some competition. Quite apart from the fire and brimstone article itself, the pictures are a good laugh too.
posted on Nov-29-01 at 12:20 PM
This article proves what I've always suspected: no matter how strange a fetish may be, some idiot is going to take it to its logical and extreme conclusion.
posted on Nov-7-01 at 8:30 PM
posted on May-13-02 at 10:32 AM
Koleen Brooks, in getting elected mayor of Georgetown, CO, was hardly the first to successfully transition from the stage to politics. But what makes her story unlike the high-profile successes of Ronald Reagan (and perhaps more akin to the that of Gov. Ventura both in notoriety and for their "independent" political affiliation) is that her stage had a metal pole and lots of nudity (NSFW). In a recent interview, Koleen Brooks discusses her political forays cut short for now by a recall election last month.
There is certainly nothing new about controversial celebrity characters being elected to office, especially local office, and as the mayor of Inglis, FL has demonstrated with her anti-Satan proclamation, it is easy to obtain national notoriety while remaining well within the bounds of "traditional conservative values". Nevertheless, might Brooks's successful candidacy be the beginning of a more significant trend within American politics as the sons and daughters of the Sexual Revolution bring their sexual dilettantism into the dominant elderly voting bloc?
posted on May-8-02 at 12:58 AM
Thanks to a breakthrough in medical technology allowing HIV-infected semen to be purified of the virus, thousands of men will now be able to father children whose high-school graduations they'll never live to see. Is there no limit to human vanity?
posted on May-2-02 at 9:46 PM
Step #1: play Everquest twelve hours per day. Step #2: shoot yourself in the head. This being America, step #3 is of course: have your mother sue Sony on your behalf. She expects to uncover documents proving Sony knew Everquest is addictive, but maybe she'll just discover why she didn't do more to help her epileptic son as his life spiraled out of control.
posted on Apr-2-02 at 11:44 PM
According to this editorial, April Fools hoaxes violate a fundamental trust between readers and the media and undermine the mission they're supposed to serve. Though opinion polls have never put "The Media" high on anyone's list of favorite organizations, I probably have to disagree in that April Fools hoaxes actually do more to help the media by revealing their sense of humor and giving them a touch of the everyman.
posted on Apr-1-02 at 9:24 AM
Felt threatened since 9/11? Take this survey. It attempts to link our perception of threats with our exposure to particular media -- good approach, unlike some other 9/11 surveys.
posted on Mar-2-02 at 3:33 PM
It's time to stop racial profiling and start profiling rich white men. So says one man's editorial. I think we can all agree -- it'd probably prevent another Enron.
posted on Feb-26-02 at 10:19 AM
An "enthusiastic amateur astrologer" lays out the case for teaching astrology, a "hard science", in the public schools. Judging from the article, he doesn't quite understand the difference between "astronomy" and "astrology".
posted on Jan-18-02 at 5:55 PM
Anime from a religious perspective This could never get tiresome - Jack Chick and others may think they have cornered the market in (unintentionally) hilarious Christian interpretations of popular culture, but this excoriation of Anime by (I suspect) a Baptist and definitely a fundamentalist is wonderful reading, and provides some competition. Quite apart from the fire and brimstone article itself, the pictures are a good laugh too.
posted on Nov-29-01 at 12:20 PM
This article proves what I've always suspected: no matter how strange a fetish may be, some idiot is going to take it to its logical and extreme conclusion.
posted on Nov-7-01 at 8:30 PM