Pete Masko runs a bar and restaurant called Backstreets Pub and Grill in the college town of Clemson, S.C. That state recently passed a law saying that it was OK to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants. The wrath, of course, was not really about the sign - it was about gun rights and gun freedom and the famous Second Amendment rights to own as many weapons as we damn well want and to carry them everywhere - because, you know, protection. The sentence followed with a derogatory term used for an obnoxious person. How badly would it provoke? I'm betting that the derogatory term starts with an "a," but that's just a guess. Not that this is particularly unusual; every newspaper I know about has banned words. Speaking of the title characters, Ben Brantley writes, "They mock and torture those who are less cosmetically perfect and more studious, with epithets usually banned in public discourse." Not OK on public discourse, but fine in a musical about teenagers? There are people who object to medical care on religious grounds, but we still have doctors. Women who require counseling around various aspects of reproduction have a much harder time getting it in some states - all because people object to it on religious grounds. Elsewhere in the world, people are getting serious about women's health, despite the efforts of well-connected evangelists who travel the world spewing hate.
Reported by SFGate 3 hours ago.
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