The High Cost of Swearing

Did you grow up in a family, or know someone who did, with a Swear Jar? The concept was every time a family member cursed he or she had to put a dollar in the jar. The jar served two purposes. It supposedly cut down on swearing in the house and the proceeds usually went toward a weekly family take-out meal like a pizza or such.

Well times have changed. In Pennsylvania, if you swear in public you are ticketed. If proven guilty you can be fined up to $300 (that'd be some pizza party) or jailed. I kid you not. Geez, a small fortune could be made at Philadelphia Flyers games - just ticketing the players!

One woman was given a citation that carries a maximum penalty of $300 and 90 days in jail after she swore at a motorcyclist who cut her off. In another case a man was arrested and jailed for several days after swearing at a policeman giving him a parking ticket. Come on, we've all done that! Well, maybe not to his face.

Virtue, Liberty and Watch Your Mouth!

But fear not profane citizens of Pennsylvania, the American Civil Liberties Union is on your side. The ACLU is suing the Pennsylvania police, arguing that the right to use profanity is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Huh!

And they've been getting clients off because there's a difference between profanity and obscenity. I guess if you drop your pants and moon someone, that might be a different matter. But the ACLU has taken advantage of this crack in the law to get their clients off.

Shit, where was the ACLU when I was a kid?

This post first appeared on The Parody Files

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav...

30 Days of Writing - Day #1 - Cheese

Well, here we go again folks. As if it weren't enough that I knocked myself out in April participating in 30 Days of Photos, now dear Nicky and Mike over at We Work For Cheese have corralled a bunch of us suckers into a 30 Days of Writing exercise. Yeah, I know. I must have stupid written backwards on my forehead. I don't know how they figured it out. They would have had to look in my mirror to realize it. Anyhoo, the first day's theme is - surprise, surprise - cheese. And here are the internet imbeciles Nicky and Mike managed to sucker into to this little exercise: Well, first off there's me! Once you've read my post you can visit: Mike and Nicky , Cheryl , If I Were God , Katherine , Laughing Mom , Linda M , Malisa , MikeWJ , Sandra , Leeuna and Still Unfinished . Okay, who cut the cheese? Well growing up in my house it was usually my mother. She prepared and served the food and the knife ...

nonamedufus

Search This Blog