The seven words

Not too long ago a posting was devoted to the merger of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio.
This, because the chairman of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), Kevin Martin, had been speaking publicly in favour of creating this monopoly.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

Kevin Martin pops up again as Chairman of the FCC because yesterday comedian George Carlin died.

Comedian George Carlin

Who became famous because he initiated a public discussion about what you can and cannot say in public.
This has put George Carlin in conflict with Kevin Martin’s FCC.
Because not only is the FCC deciding if Sirius and XM Satellite Radio can merge or not.
The FCC is also in charge of the “Regulation of Obscenity, Indecency and Profanity”.
They are a watchdog of what is said and done on American TV having even the power to fine breakers of FCC rules.

Officially it reads:

“The FCC has authority to issue civil monetary penalties, revoke a license or deny a renewal application. In addition, violators of the law, if convicted in a federal district court, are subject to criminal fines and/or imprisonment for not more than two years.”

And that the FCC is serious leaves no doubt when they say:

“The FCC vigorously enforces this law where we find violations. In 2004 alone, the FCC took action in 12 cases, involving hundreds of thousands of complaints, assessing penalties and voluntary payments totalling approximately $8,000,000. The Commission has also toughened its enforcement penalties by proposing monetary penalties based on each indecent utterance in a broadcast, rather than proposing a single monetary penalty for the entire broadcast.”

Kevin Martin’s FCC is very specific about what can be said and what cannot be said on TV.

“What makes material “profane”? Profane language” includes those words that are so highly offensive that their mere utterance in the context presented may, in legal terms, amount to a “nuisance.” In its Golden Globe Awards Order the FCC warned broadcasters that, depending on the context, it would consider the “F-Word” and those words (or variants thereof) that are as highly offensive as the “F-Word” to be “profane language” that cannot be broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.”

George Carlin made the “The seven words you can never say on TV” famous.
Of course he said them and has been arrested for it.
Taken away by police.


Nowadays anybody, even children, can know without any problem what those seven dirty words are.
They are for everybody to read on Internet.
But they can also be heard in the everyday life of most people.
Including that of children.
Especially between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

In all this is a lot of hypocrisy.
And this is what George Carlin brought to the surface.
In every day’s life many of the seven words are heard repeatedly.
It is a part of reality but this reality is not allowed on TV.
To create an artificial reality that does not exist except in the minds of the moral knights of the FCC.
In this way children are taught how to be hypocritical.
Hypocrisy is a very serious disease of the mind comparable with cancer in the body.

To have a watchdog in a society, with powers like the FCC, results not only in hypocrisy but also it creates an atmosphere of fear.
Fear of not living according to rules put on everybody from above.

This fear is widespread.
An example is the blog service of Microsoft called MSN Spaces.
If somebody publishes a blog on MSN Spaces and in the title is one of the seven words like “Piss” or “Tits”, the posting is eliminated by MSN.

It is unknown what the policy is of Google, the kind service taking care of this blog.
To check this out, tomorrow a posting will be published with the FCC forbidden word “Piss” in the title.
If fervent and loyal blog readers will not find a posting tomorrow, they will know not a new abduction by the Mexican Senorita took place, but that it was the long arm of Kevin Martin.

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To learn more about George Carlin, click on:

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080623/D91FPBTG1.html


To find out what are the seven words, click on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words






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The devil at work

After the prayers of Sunday, there is a return to the agnostic attitude reserved for weekdays.

On a windless Monday morning, the barometer rising while currently at 1007,6 hPa, the humidity at 70 % and the temperature at 7.38 am about 25 Degrees Centigrade. (77 F)

Another beautiful and peaceful day in Baja California, Mexico.

In the margin of this gay existence the news has come that it is likely that the two companies offering satellite radio in the USA, Canada and parts of Mexico will be allowed to merge.
To create a monopoly.
These days we have Sirius Radio with 8.3 million subscribers and XM Radio with 9 million subscribers.
Sirius wants to take over XM for 5 Billion Dollars but has been stopped until now by lack of approval of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
And there is intense opposition from the land-based radio industry and most consumer groups, who say the deal will create a monopoly.
And consequently brutal exploitation of the consumers.

The satellite radio deal has also drawn an unusual amount of scrutiny from Capitol Hill, where the National Association of Broadcasters has fought an expensive advertising and lobbying campaign to block approval.

But guess what, the shareholders of Sirius and XM are in favour of the deal.
And the Justice Department has already approved it.

Now, the Chief of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has come forward to say that he recommends approval of the merger and the monopoly.
Leaving the other four commissioners of the FCC behind.
They, for the most part, keep their views on the deal to themselves.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

FCC chairman Kevin Martin is not a democratically elected official although he decides about matters concerning the general population of his country.
Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001.
He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.
Martin is therefore a political appointee and is most likely not to speak for himself but for the interests of the political party he is representing.
A political party always defending the interests of business and money.
A political party recently allowing oil companies to make windfall profits while millions and millions of good Americans suffer of high gasoline prices.

FCC chief Kevin Martin is saying: "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest."

Martin doesn’t explain what is exactly in the interest of the public when Sirius and XM merge.
And of course he will not be responsible if the two companies do not stick to the voluntary commitments they promise to make.

One of those promises is that Sirius will not raise rates for the next three years.
This cannot be true.
For sure somehow they will go up.
Both Sirius and XM have been making annual losses until now.
They were never profitable.
To this comes the 5 Billion Dollars needed to create the monopoly.

All Sirius and XM subscribers must realize that in the near future they will have to pay considerably more.

And that Kevin Martin is merged with the devil.

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Kevin Martin invites people to send him an e-mail.
Check:
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/martin/mail.html







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