Saturday, April 22, 2006

Lyle vs. Warner Bros. - update

More on the lawsuit I bitched about here and here.  Thankfully, it ended well and is another victory for Free Speech, though I doubt most Americans even knew about the case… much less gave a flying fuck.

From XBiz News:

Calif. High Court Rules Obscene Speech Not Always Workplace Harassment
By Rhett Pardon
Friday, April 21, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO — In a ruling that could help protect adult entertainment companies from lawsuits, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that obscene speech is not always workplace harassment.

The justices agreed with Warner Bros. Television Productions that explicit comments in staff meetings during the production of “Friends” TV scripts were part of the creative process and, therefore, the studio and its writers could not be sued for workplace harassment.

Some of the comments queried were relative to the defendants’ own sexual experiences, the making of sexually explicit drawings in an erotic “coloring book” one of the defendants kept on his desk, speculation about the sex lives of the actors on the show, relation of sexual fantasies, repeated use of the “F word” and a Yiddish word for penis, disparaging remarks about women’s breasts, and simulated masturbation, among other things.

Amaani Lyle, 32, claims she was constantly subjected to comments and jokes made by the writers and producers during meetings.

But the justices thought different. Sometimes vulgarity is not just acceptable but necessary in the workplace, they said.

Lyle, who is black, worked for the show for four months, as a writer’s assistant. Producers of the show say she was fired because she could not type fast enough and that dialog developed during meetings was often missing as a result.

California Justice Marvin Baxter, who wrote for the majority of the court, said Lyle had no case for sexual harassment claims because she could not show that the offensive speech was directed at her or at other women in the workplace and because “considering the totality of the circumstances, especially the nature of the writers’ work, the facts largely forming the basis of plaintiff’s sexual harassment action ... did not present a triable issue whether the writers engaged in harassment ‘because of ... sex.’”

The case is Lyle vs. Warner Brothers Television Productions, No. S125171.

I rarely get the luxury of gloating, so I’m going to savor this… bwahahahah!

update: 7/11/06 - since the spammers have been hammering this entry with trackback and comment spam, I’m turning it off.  Stupid fucking cocksuckers who can’t peddle their shit the right way.  Die you fucking douchebags!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Atheists Turn the Tables on Christians

Beyond Belief Media and Brian Flemming, the filmmaker who gave us one of the best movies of all time, The God Who Wasn’t There, has launched a campaign to bring the truth to churchgoers.  According to their press release of April 11th:

Hollywood—April 11, 2006. Declaring War on Easter, Beyond Belief Media has launched a preemptive attack on the Christian holiday, the company announced today. “Operation Easter Sanity” has already begun.

Using its documentary THE GOD WHO WASN’T THERE as the chief weapon, Beyond Belief Media is covertly planting DVDs of the film in churches throughout the United States. The popular movie, currently ranked #1 on Amazon.com’s independent documentaries list, is critical of the irrational beliefs of Christians and asserts that Jesus Christ did not exist.

A total of 666 DVDs will be hidden like “Easter eggs” in sanctuaries, church yards and other holy areas by Beyond Belief Media’s national team of volunteers. The DVDs will be slipped into hymnals and other locations where they are likely to be discovered by unsuspecting worshippers.

Some DVDs will be planted by undercover operatives among actual Easter eggs at churches holding egg hunts on Easter Sunday.

“People go to churches to hide from the truth,” explained Beyond Belief Media president Brian Flemming, a former Christian fundamentalist. “At no time is this more apparent than Easter, when Christians get together to convince each other that a man died, stayed dead three days, rose from the dead and then flew into the air above the clouds.

“Our nonviolent campaign sends the message that nowhere in the country is safe from the truth. Wherever Christian leaders are indoctrinating children with 2000-year-old fairy tales, the truth may just find its way there.
“Our ‘War on Easter’ is of course completely without violence of any kind. Christians believe that beating a man to a pulp and nailing him to a cross somehow solves all the world’s problems. Beyond Belief Media does not.”

More details as well as “battle reports” from field operatives are available at:
http://www.waroneaster.org

ABOUT BEYOND BELIEF MEDIA

The mission of Beyond Belief Media is to provoke conversation about the dangers of religious belief.

A quick look at the comments from Christians on the War On Easter site illustrates that while they are happy that their brand of proselytizing is protected by the First Amendment, the Beyond Belief Media volunteers doing the same is somehow more along the lines of “a hate crime.”

Calling bullshit on delusional thinking is a hate crime?  Wow… we’re living in fuckin’ Bizarro World!

I support the War On Easter.  And for good measure, I’ll also take this opportunity to say I deny the Holy Spirit!

However, the most heinous of my sacrilege and blasphemy is the following admission:  Marshmallow peeps are GROSS!!!

Friday, February 17, 2006

Justices in the Amaani Lyle vs. Warner Bros. Case Agree with ME!

In May 2004, I wrote about the ridiculous sexual harassment lawsuit brought against Warner Bros. and “Friends” by Amaani Lyle, a writer’s assistant who felt her 4-month stint exposed her to a hostile work environment because of the writers’ crass language and overly sexual comments while brainstorming.

Here’s what I said:

The fact of the matter is that in spite of the strides made by women in the workplace, it’s still a man’s world and boys will be boys… especially in the entertainment industry where eternal Peter Pans keep the machine going by giving the people what they want - the idea that whatever’s in front of them will somehow get them laid.  Sex sells, and the entertainment industry sexualizes anything and everything.  Any woman who expects to be treated with kid gloves in the business is woefully naive and deserves to be run off if she’s too easily offended AND can’t bring herself to tell the boys when they need to shut the fuck up already.  When you’re playing with the boys, you’d best have balls enough to stand up for yourself once in awhile or you’ll get chewed up and spit out in short order.  Hooray for Hollywood.

It would appear that the California Supreme Court Justices hearing the case on Tuesday are inclined to agree, according to this article on Law.com yesterday, Crass or Creative? Harassment Case Involving ‘Friends’ Sitcom Reaches Calif. Justices:

Joey Tribbiani would be thrilled.

On Tuesday, the justices of the California Supreme Court seemed inclined to keep their fingers—and jurors’ second-guessing—out of the creative process that helped breathe life into his sex-obsessed character, and others, on the sitcom “Friends.”

The court, in a case televised live by the California Channel, had been asked to rule that writers’ sexually crude comments and simulations while hashing out TV scripts could constitute sexual harassment serious enough to cause a hostile work environment, especially for women and minorities.

But the six justices on hand for oral arguments appeared uncomfortable with the thought of forcing writers to curb their thoughts, words and actions even if they often push the boundaries of sexual harassment.

“This case is unique, is it not, in that it arises in the context of this creative environment,” Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar said.

Justice Ming Chin, recovering from surgery, was absent, but will participate by reviewing tapes of the arguments.

Tuesday’s case was filed by Amaani Lyle, a former writer’s assistant for “Friends,” who claimed that the vulgar language and graphic antics used by the show’s male writers during her four-month employment in 1999 subjected her to a hostile work environment. She argued that constant talk about anal sex, blow jobs, “schlongs” and degrading descriptions of women as “bitches” and “cunts” had nothing to do with the show—which was much tamer on air—and was simply lewd, frat-boy entertainment for the writers.

The writers and Warner Brothers Television Productions, which produced “Friends,” responded by claiming that dirty talk and lewd actions—such as simulating masturbation—were part of the free-rolling, creative process that made “Friends” one of the most popular shows ever on TV.
[Whoa, deja vu!—OB]

“It was one of the tools of the trade,” Adam Levin, a partner at Los Angeles’ Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp who represented the writers and Warner Brothers, told the justices Tuesday.

[snip]

On Tuesday, the high court seemed to be in Levin’s corner, with more than one justice noting that Lyle had been warned before she took the job that she would be exposed to foul language of a sexual content.

“If she’s told there’s going to be sexual banter back and forth—and that happens—where’s the alteration to conditions of employment?” Chief Justice Ronald George asked Scott Cummings, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Lyle.

George was referring to provisions of the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act that prohibit harassment so pervasive that it alters some condition of an employee’s job.

Levin had earlier argued that Lyle faced no change in employment conditions because exposure to sexually charged speech was part and parcel to her work.

Even so, Justices Werdegar and Carlos Moreno played the devil’s advocate by asking whether writers had absolute immunity from harassment claims or if there were limits on what could be said in writers’ meetings.

Levin said there “are limits, no question about it,” such as not being able to direct racial epithets at minority employees. He also said that writers for the movie “Finding Nemo” or the TV series “Sesame Street” likely wouldn’t engage in such banter.

Amaani should have stayed at Nickelodeon if she’s so goddamned sensitive to crude humor and the sort of sexual banter that goes on between adults, especially in an environment where a “sexy” show is being written.

Stupid fuckin’ cunt, heh.

I’m glad the Justices seem to be aware of the chilling effect ruling in favor of Ms. Lyle would have on the creative process, and that making an exception due to the “intensity” of some of the comments she’d “endured” simply because of her sex would be unfair.  According to the statute, harassment must be “because of a person’s gender”, and there’s “no indication that the writers’ comments and actions were based on sex.” So tough titties to you, Amaani!

Get used to the frat-boy humor and sex jokes, babe, or you’ll never make it in this town!

(Found via the Free Speech X-Press Newsletter)

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Lovin’ the Sheeples!

Normal Bob Smith has put faces to the folks whose hate mail is laugh-out-loud and piss-your-pants hilarious.  Check out The Sheeples!  Here’s one of my favorites:

Yeah, the First Amendment only protects speech as long as it’s not offensive to Christians… at least in the utterly delusional world in which they must live to continue believing. Heh.

Sunday, June 10, 2001

Don’t read this if you’re easily grossed out!

For anyone with an IBD or similar medical condition, such plain talk is generally the norm… but “polite society” deems speaking of such things to be inappropriate in public.  Which is why so many sufferers go undiagnosed for years, generally until their symptoms become life-threatening.  Fuck polite society anyway.  Everywhere we turn, there’s pressure to be on guard and carefully craft anything we say so that no one feels harassed, or libeled or (oh! the horror!) shocked and offended by our words.  Little by little we’re losing our right to speak freely.  The government faces some (but not enough) opposition to legislate away our 1st Amendment rights, and since it’s a tough road, apparently it’s become necessary to put the burden on our culture to shame one another into never speaking of life’s ugliness.  But I digress.

On March 20, I had surgery to remove the many huge and painful hemorrhoids I got as a bonus for having Crohn’s Disease.  Normally I’d have been back to work in 2 weeks’ time, but because the surgery was extensive and complicated I wasn’t released until after 4 weeks of recovery.  Naturally, before I could be released I had to be examined by the surgeon, Dr.Q.  Since as a Crohn’s patient my risk of developing an abscess or perianal fistula was quite high, during that visit I expressed my concern about a small area that was painfully inflamed and seemed to be draining.  I’ve lived in this body for 39 years, and I know when something isn’t right!  Dr. Q blew me off with, “I did extensive surgery, it’ll be at least 2 months from the operation before everything will be healed.” Whatever, dude… it’s not YOUR ass that’s leaking something that’s not supposed to be there, and making you miserable with the pain.

So I made an appointment with my gastroenterologist, Dr. A, because I knew something wasn’t right, and all the research I did leads me to believe I have developed a perianal fistula.  I see Dr. A and tell him I think Dr. Q’s full of shit, ask him to please take a look.  He does, and tells me he agrees with Dr. Q; things should be normal (for me, anyway) soon, and advises me to continue with sitz baths and keep the thing draining.  Ok, so what you’re really saying is I’m just a Nervous Nelly wasting the time of valuable professionals with my paranoia over something that, while painful and EXTREMELY difficult to live with on a daily basis, is apparently nothing to worry about.  Uh-huh.

Just this past week I went back to Dr. Q for a check-up.  I tell him, “Gee doc, I still have this lump near my butt crack that’s leaking pus out of my anus when I push on it to drain it.” He takes a look and says, “You’ve got an abscess, a perianal fistula.  That’s Crohn’s.  I’ll give you some Cipro, but if it doesn’t go away in 3 weeks, I’ll have to do surgery to correct it.” That was the last straw.  I reminded him (quite bitchily) that I’d brought it to his attention 6 weeks ago, and he blew me off for “worrying over nothing,” when MY diagnosis was correct all along.  I know my body goddammit!  I also insisted that before I’d let him perform another surgery on me, I’d be asking Dr. A to try Remicade infusions.  Dr. Q can go fuck himself if he thinks he’s cutting me again.  After this last fiasco, I’ll be asking Dr. A to refer me to a different surgeon. 

Dr. A just recently started taking care of me when my favorite doctor, Dr. C, left the medical group to work at UCLA Medical Center.  Dr. C was fabulous!  I’d have stayed with him, even driving all the way to Santa Monica for visits, if only my insurance would allow it.  He thought I should put off a hemorrhoidectomy as long as I possibly could, which I did (far longer than I’d have liked, too!).  Shortly before he left, I asked again about surgery.  He told me he’d give me the name of a good colorectal surgeon (who unfortunately wasn’t covered by my insurance either), and that he’d prefer Dr. Q not operate on me, but he had to refer me to him for any surgical procedures because of the medical group agreements.  So I held out as long as I could but by March things had progressed to where the constant pain was seriously affecting my ability to lead a normal life.  Not only do I have to take a dump at least once every day (or 15 times on some days), but I’m a web geek and sit on my ass for a living—just two daily activities that had become nothing less than excruciating.  All I wanted was to have my asshole back!  I should have heeded Dr. C’s advice and seen if there was any way I could have Dr. A find a different surgeon to refer me to. 

Too late now, though.  The best I can hope for is that Dr. A will prescribe the Remicade infusions, and that they’ll work.  If I have to have surgery again, I don’t care WHAT I have to do, I’ll be getting someone other than Dr. Q.  As an intelligent person who has to deal with doctors on a frequent basis, I am absolutely furious over those bad apples who fail to give any credence to what their patients tell them.  I realize they’ve attended umpteen years of school to learn their craft, but that doesn’t give the sanctimonious pricks the right to discount what’s being said and felt by the person who’s been living in their own body their entire life. Because of Dr. Q’s ignoring my concerns almost 2 months ago, I may end up needing yet another surgery that will take me off my feet and out of work again… and I’ve got this painful pus-filled pocket on my ass that requires frequent care at home, where I have everything I need, meaning on work days it doesn’t get tended to and becomes almost unbearable.  Thanks, Doc.

Speaking of work and a painful pus-filled pocket… I hate AOL!  We’re forced to use it for our corporate mail now, and it is absolutely unmanageable.  I spend so much time trying to figure out where mail is in my “handy Filing Cabinet,” that I’d like to request a separate category in our time-tracking program just for dealing with the unwieldy piece of shit every day.  To add insult to injury, my new corporate screen name has already been harvested somehow by spammers, despite the protection we supposedly have when there is no profile associated with the screen name.  I sent a nasty email to the TOS team, not that they’ll give two shits.  The largest internet and media company in the world, and no one can come up with a better corporate mail system than a consumer app written for the braindead?  That’s just priceless.