Originally Posted by
ND Sol
First, I doubt much, if anything, Bob is deleting is "obscene."
Second, I am not aware of how the FCC rules have anything to do with blogs. The FCC's rules are generally about what can be broadcast over-the-air.
Third, CYA is not an obscene word by any stretch of the imagination. Some may consider it profane, but it is not obscene. In fact, I can't think of a single word that by itself would be considered obscene.
Freedom of speech still is permitted on the web. That is why people can use profane language and why "adult" websites exist.
Like I said, I can't find the regs on it, but I am fairly sure that the rules are going to be a fairly comparable set of rules on language. That just seems to be the way the gov sites work (again, I can't find the regs, so don't hold me accountable on that one, I am merely making an observation on how there are similarities). I disagree with you on the CYA thing. Look at it from a different perspective, things that we post now would have probably gotten us a jail sentence 50 years ago. It is about socially acceptable at this point and the common lexicon does not allow for the same level of language that this site or similiar ones do. As for CYA, a large amount of people will look at it and have no idea what that means, another larger part will think "cover your a**", and then there are those that will get outraged because the next thought after recognizing it is something like "how dare they let that filth on a government website" then they call their congress person, or senator and rail about how the site is trashy, blah - and so on. I think the limiting of things like CYA and other short versions is a form of heading off that type of situation (you might say another version of CYA). There are several words that are considered obscene by themselves by a large contingent of the populace, therefore they are not allowed. You may be an anomoly, but I was in the Army and sometimes it seems like I can't think of a word that is obscene enough (although I have a rather extensive vocabulary of vulgarities in many languages). I also know that those words are much better suited to private conversation (usually with myself) and with others that share that type of speech pattern. This just seems like a normal limiting of language that could be percieved as obscene or offensive. Of course, this is just my opinion and I am a guy from NC that likes to fish, so what do I know?
