Rhinocrisy

I was just reading my daily dose of Jonathan Schwarz over at Tiny Revolution and it occurred to me that I had a mental image of what he looked like. This would be normal at a blerg like Bob Harris’ or Saheli*’s, where there are photos of the blawgers, but I do it with everyone. When I saw Tom Tomorrow at a book reading, I was suprised at how little he looked like his characters. I expected him to be a white man in a plain beige suit with slicked down hair, sort of a much geekier Tom Wolfe, and to be a bit short and squat. I won’t ruin the surprise for everyone, but let’s just say I was right. He was white. Similarly, I met regular commenter Saurav, who to my eyes was much more hyper, rather than laconic, than I expected, and just generally more of a clean-cut New Yorker rather than a dreadlocked chain-wielding punk. Among other differences.

What about the rest of us? What do we look like? Describe your favorite blawger-you-never met. I want to know. Later I’ll post my description of Schwarz.

A news search for the term “oaxaca” is informative: following a teacher’s union strike in Oaxaca City, three thousand cops attacked demonstrators, apparently opening fire on the crowd and killing up to eleven people. There are zero wire service reports about this; the only place it’s being discussed is in places like Pacifica, NarcoNews, Indymedia, etc. I only got this from my friend Nancy who happens to live there. One presumes that stories like this go unreported all the time. Just banal, routine violent repression of working people.

If the FCC has a comment line where I can demand more smut on TV and radio, I would like to know what it is. This isn’t for my own benefit, as I have no trouble finding sweaty bodies to watch. I am just concerned about the good people at the American Family Association. They need this info, fast.

As it stands, they are using their Internet bandwidth broadcasting video recordings of the most banal, soft-core porn — from prime time — to their eager, hungry audience.

Clearly, the “Family” folks are desperate. Maybe there aren’t good video stores in their small towns, or maybe they haven’t quite figured out the Internets. Or even more likely, they can’t wait through the dullness of prime-time dramas and the bizarrely psychadelic commercials (fairies coming and touching you in the sleep? a woman’s head projecting from your shoulder at all times? a guy with a bunch of stuffed fruit on his head playing cards in the park with people who are trying not to notice? Acid, anyone?) to see action considerably more tame than what I saw today at Coney Island. (Speaking of which, is there a V-chip for the beach?) Instead they go to the Cliff Notes version for the juicy bits. (Via This Modern World.)

The problem comes when they write the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to request more concentrated and revealing porn in prime-time. They keep messing up and using the complaint line, a practice that recently landed CBS with a $3.3 million obscenity fine.

Please, help the Families. Find us the “more porn, please” line at the FCC!