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When Using Profanity Gets You Fined

One of the biggest arguments regarding profanity I ever heard in school at every level — grade school, high school, and even at Rutgers — was that profanity was arbitrary because people just decided that one word was going to be a profanity and another would not. Historically, words that were once rather vulgar can sometimes lose their insulting quality. Some terms that have lost their insulting quality to some extent include once highly offensive terms like dork, nerd, and geek. Now some people even wear the words as though they were a badge of honor!

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A Defense of Christian Fundamentalist Terrorists on NOLA.com

In the wake of the massacre in Norway by yet another Christian Fundamentalist Terrorist, we must now put up with, and rightfully condemn, the defenders of these murderers in print.  I was bemused to learn my name had been drawn into the fundamentalist fire in an essay published in NOLA.com on August 2, 2011.

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Did Shakespeare Smoke Pot? Does it Matter?

The good name of Shakespeare has suffered through numerous slings and arrows over the years. He has been accused of anti-Semitism through the various interpretations of his play The Merchant of Venice. Then there is the actual authorship itself — was it Shakespeare’s hand that wrote all of the plays and sonnets, or were there multiple writers that wrote under the common name of Shakespeare — or was it all Sir Francis Bacon? Some would even point to poor quality interpretations of his works as being grave insults themselves — Gnomeo and Juliet, anyone?

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Big Brother 13 Live on iOS

One of my Summer rituals is watching Big Brother online and this year’s iteration started last night.  I enjoy studying the live interaction of the houseguests.  This year, Big Brother 13, is unique because the Real SuperPass is finally now viewable on iOS devices — for an extra $10.00USD fee, of course — but that extra money to watch the feeds on your iPhone and iPad is worth every cent.  One of the twists this year is the return of “power couples” including Brendan and Rachel, Jeff and Jordan and Evel Dick and his Daughter Danielle.

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Reflections on the First World Problems Blog

While browsing the popular link aggregating site Reddit one day I found a link to a tumblr blog called “First World Problems” and while I went seeking humor I came away from the experience feeling just a little blue. I gave it a little more thought and realized we who have the ability to get to such a blog and read it are some of the more privileged in the world.

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