The American Humanist Association has sent out an action alert asking those interested in human rights to urge CBS and NBC to reverse their censorship of a United Church of Christ advertisement. The ad, which can be viewed at the UCC Web site, depicts a gay couple being turned away from the church as other, heterosexual, couples are allowed to enter. The networks have censored the ads on the basis that they’re “too controversial.” The AHA gives the following background:

Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC’s communication ministry stated in response to NBC and CBS’s refusal to air the advertisement, “We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies or titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church’s loving welcome of committed gay couples, that’s where they draw the line.”

In a written explanation from CBS, the advertisement was considered inappropriate because “the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.” NBC deemed the advertisement “too controversial” and declined to air it.

As the Federal Marriage Amendment failed to pass in both the Senate and House of Representatives, CBS shows partisanship toward the Bush administration and those who support the Federal Marriage Amendment. Furthermore, the FMA prioritizes certain religious beliefs over others and over those without religion.

This follows on the heels of the pre-election move by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns the largest group of television stations in the nation, to air an anti-Kerry film. Sinclair owns stations affiliated with all of the major networks, including 20 with FOX, 19 with the WB, eight with ABC, six with UPN, four with NBC, and three with CBS (source).

As long as this homo-loving, baby-aborting, Jesus-trashing, old-lady-bullying liberal media’s in charge of the world, there’s simply no hope for anybody in possession of a modicum of common sense and compassionate conservatism who wishes only to keep our sex missionary, our babies plentiful and impoverished, our religion fundamental, and our old ladies safe.

Via Jason Kottke, I ran across today a column by William Safire entitled “Kiduage” in which he goes over some recent slang neologisms. Some of them, such as “fo shizzle” and “hella,” I was already familiar with (so they must not be so neo, as I’m definitely not up on the trends of youth speech). Other, such as “crunk” (crazy drunk) and “marinating” (replacing “chill out”) I hadn’t run across. I believe I had heard but had forgotten (inexplicably) about “dropping the kids off at the pool,” a phrase for defacation, the vivid and often crude naming of which is one of my guilty pleasures (I’ll spare you examples of my own virtuosic neologisms).

As a bonus, Safire mentions one of my former professors (Connie Eble) as a source he tapped to find some of these phrases. Just a few years ago, I suppose I was one of the students helping to provide examples of such phrases; I believe I recall that Eble had us do a survey or at any rate to provide her with some slang terms we were familiar with.

Lennie had her first food for Thanksgiving. You should have seen what she did to that turkey. Um, no. And actually, it was two days before Thanksgiving, when we had the big meal with Mleeka’s family. We mashed up some banana and fed it to her. She didn’t really take to the spoon, but she was all for sucking it off Mleeka’s fingers. It turns out that bananas bind Lennie up a little. She usually craps several times a day, but it was late the next evening before she produced anything. And when she did produce something, it was laced with the little brownish banana fibers you can see in banana bread. We’ve given her bananas another time or two, and last night, she had her first rice cereal. She’s getting better with the spoon and has discovered the joys of spitting food out onto her little tray and smearing it all around with her hands. Needless to say, she eats stripped down to her diaper.