As IF Times

link GoDaddy pulls Super Bowl puppy ad after outrage from animal rescue groups | Fox News.

In the wake of the outrage over the Charlie Hebdo events, life goes on as usual on this side of the ocean.  While everyone’s figurative heads are nodding like bored parents at a school play when it comes to the principle of rights of free expression, the exact same practices of restriction are tolerated or encouraged here.

Outraged Muslims (are there any other kind?) were upset about a caricature of their guy.  Outraged pet nuts (are there any other kind?) are upset about a caricature of pet ownership.  To be fair, there has been no violence or threats thereof directed against Go Daddy, but the resulting nix-ing of the ad is the same kind of censorship that was so objectionable when applied to the events in France.  Je Suis Go Daddy? Seldom is the main course of sanctimony served without the side dish of hypocrisy.  I guess it really depends upon whose ox is being gored.  Relax, that’s just an expression, no ox’s were harmed during this piece.

If we’re going to head down the road of having certain topics being out of bounds for humor, who’s going to be the arbiter? It’s not a huge stretch to see legislation drawn up to categorize the types of humor that are eligible for public consumption.  It’s ridiculous that just anyone should be allowed to make light of anything; maybe it makes sense for people to be licensed to convey humor.  That way, there are boundaries, codes of ethics, penalties etcetera to protect the public from sensitive topics and nobody gets any hurty feelings.

Rational people would say that the Muslim response to any or all slights to their beliefs registers a 37 on a scale of 1 to 10 for overzealousness.  Well the PC guys in this part of the world are rapidly moving up that scale as well as they ‘defend’ their particular cause of the day.  Only they aren’t armed with guns; they use lawyers.

Perhaps the best advice on this kind of stuff is expressed by a dialogue from the 1981 film, Stripes, featuring Bill Murray.  The dialogue is between a Sergeant and a tightly wound young man named Psycho:

Psycho: The name’s Francis Soyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I’ll kill you.

Leon: Ooooooh.

Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. And I don’t like nobody touching my stuff. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I’ll kill you. Also, I don’t like nobody touching me. Now, any of you homos touch me, and I’ll kill you.

Sergeant Hulka: Lighten up, Francis.

And that’s the relevant message to everyone.

link Sony Cancels Theatrical Release for ‘The Interview’ on Christmas | Variety.

All I can say is, where were the hackers when they released any movie in the past 10 years starring Will Ferrell or Jim Carey? Or any movie featuring Eddie Murphy, Oprah or Whoopi? How about any of the teen horror flicks featuring chain saws, isolated hotels, talking dummies and supernatural crap. This kind of carnage has been inflicted on the American public for years and until now, no one had the guts to stand up to Hollywood and say, “no more!”

Given the success of the James Bond franchise, with their depictions of evil
Eastern Bloc villains, it’s a wonder no one thought of doing what the North Koreans are allegedly doing today. Obviously the Koreans are a tougher audience. In this particular case, apart from the fact that they have criminally hacked Sony and are using extortionist methods, they are saving us from another Seth Rogan epic, so there is a kernel of redemption there.  But isn’t it a bit galling that the evil mastermind purportedly behind this extortion resembles Elmer Fudd with a bad haircut?

It’s interesting to note that the reason Sony decided to pull the showing of “The Interview” is based not on threats of violence per se.  It is really based on liability.  In effect, the fear of lawsuits by people who may be hurt by going to the theatre is more of an issue than people who may genuinely be harmed.  So the real fear is with the American legal system. It doesn’t take an evil genius to determine that this model can be used to attack all sorts of commercial operations.

What has happened to America in the aftermath of “The Greatest Generation”? Can anyone imagine this scenario being played out in the 1940’s? The entire mindset of American society has devolved from “Bring it!” in the face of adversity to “Bring me a latte” in our neutered times.  Over the generations, people have been lulled into believing that “somebody” has the obligation to make sure people are safe; that some authority is charged with protecting people against all harm.  We’ve seen this stupidity through the grotesque machinations of the TSA at airports.  As a society, collective risk tolerance has fallen to comical levels.  But it’s not because people are less brave, it’s because of legal liability in the event of misfortune.  Lawyers again.

Eventually, people will be allowed to go to the theaters again, but it may be after the implementation of metal and perhaps body scanners and dogs at the ticket windows.  The tickets will be 3 times the size they are now because they will need the room to print all the disclaimers of risk and acceptance of such.   That still doesn’t take away the risk of viewing a crappy movie.