h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I meant "afford" not "afford". I was only kidding, so please don't "neutralise" me NSA/CIA/MI5, etc.!

That is still technically illegal in England, under the "blasphemy against Christianity" laws

Now what would be a good idea is to take this stuff to Iraq and blow them to bits woo hoo

I would have to see evidence to believe any American jurisdiction would allow an arrest like that. Just doesn't happen. Can't criminalize individual words here.

Urban legend, methinks.

Censorship stops kids hearing the word 'c**t'

I for one am against such a thing.

Swearing is wonderfully expressive and can be used to great effect, but only when used sparingly.

Remember the boy who cried wolf.

Censorship, if it has a function, is to help keep those rude words from being overused, and so helps to maintain their shock value, for all those special occasions

PS

America is a hotbed for intolerance and bigotry. Rich as you may be, you sure can be ignorant and reactionary. A person being arrested for a slight on Jesus would surprise me considerably less than if it happened in the UK

Stick that in your pipe, uncle sam

How does President Bush get away with having his business interests in oil dictate foreign policy? It's a disgrace, and the media does nothing about it even though it has been shown that there are significant links between Bin Laden and Bush which effectively make them business associates.

Bin Laden and Saddam are sworn enemies as well, W is a far greater ally of Bin Laden than Bush, FACT.

Why is the subject title had the *** treatment, but post 25 hasn't?

Because posts aren't actively moderated anymore, but they were when this thread was started. h2g2 is now self-policed, and offensive material isn't removed until someone complains about it.

If you find post 25 personally offensive, then you're perfectly entitled to yikes it

No man, doesn't bother me. I just didn't realise it was self moderated, I thought it was combed consistently for posts which contain words like "c**t", "b*****d", "f**k", and "bum". Wow, this is fun, hope no-one yikeses me... c**tb*****df**kbum. Yippee!

Let's just hope that no moderators, Italics or the easily offended read this thread

Swearing is still against the house rules, bear in mind.

You can't be arrested in the United States for a religious slur, however vile.

That's a fact. And if you think otherwise, you've bought into a lot of lies about the USA.

England, on the other hand, has an official church that the Queen swears to defend. THAT is something to be ashamed of.

George bush?

However dubious and outdated our monarchy is, she is not our national mouthpiece. Mr Bush is an semi-literate chimp, who has difficulty walking and talking at the same time. The USA is a supposedly secular society, but is religiously bigoted and backward, especially in your response to anyone bar christians. You allow people to carry guns, and you have the death penalty.

Shame on YOU, Uncle Sam

Wow, a stern lecture of a liberal nature from an American! People in glass houses...

I am an atheist, I might add. And a proud American. You are so badly misinformed I weep for you.

The right to bear arms is central to American freedoms. It ensures all our other freedoms can never be taken away if the governments winds shift.

As for the death penalty, that I do not defend. In fact, I'm going to law school in the hopes of seeing it abolished.

We're not perfect. The death penalty is a major stain upon us. But our system, overall, remains far better than any other for the long-term preservation of freedoms.

Furthermore, where do you get this impression that America is religiously intolerant? That bewilders me. As someone who belongs to a very small religious minority (atheism), I've never felt pressured to become a Christian. Sure, there are many Christian blowhards, but they have no actual power.

I'm sick of this attitude from some people that Americans don't understand the rest of the world, because comments such as those from the two of you show that the rest of the world has an even poorer understanding of us.

The things you say ... they are just so fundamentally false, I'm not even sure how to begin responding to them because I don't even begin to see how you came to believe them. Unless you get your impressions of America soley from tapping into our AM radio stations.

Misguided idea of America?

Yeah, I'm not so sure. The stereotype is that of a people with an underdeveloped sense of humour, and no sense of what you fellas like to call 'irony'

Were just messeing with you cos you're one of our transatlantic cousins. Try and see it coming next time.

And since when did Atheism become a tiny minority

America not religiously intolerant? Oh please!

It is precisely this sort of attitude that led to the Band Of Mohammeds performing emergency landings into your office blocks.

While the oil dollar may dictate your foreign policy it manifests itself in the continued mistreatment of the global Islamic community.

http://www.geocities.com/cradleoffilthuk1/censorship.html

it was in the UK not the US where fans where arrested for wearing the Jesus is a C**t shirts. My bad.

I don't think that global tolerance is the strong point of ANY empire, past or present. Personally I'd like to see the nation state, imperialism, and all religions chucked in the dustbin, along with a lot of other unnecessary baggage.

PJ it sounds like your talking about "Anarchism"
(which for those that are unaware is a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups).

A good idea in my book BUT I do think the change over to such a system from the current one would be both messy and painful for an awful lot of people.