Dan Gross

No something has changed in the way they enforce. They have decreed that the F-Word falls under the "profane" requirements for violations of 18 USC Section 1864, after an appeal. They used that opportunity to "serve notice" that they will crack down on this in the future: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/atta...OC-245133A1.pdf Order (very long) here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/atta...FCC-04-43A1.pdf Do you really honestly think that the stations would have been fined for just the erection commercials? As I mentioned before, there is so much inconsistency in how this was handled. I can point to several commercials that I feel were inappropriate for children that were aired during the Super Bowl (including, as I mentioned on this (or a related) topic, an ad for the movie Van Helsing). Heck, most of the "planned" halftime show could have easily been considered inappropriate (certainly by those who feel their kids are "damaged" by the sight of a human breast). Heck, even the action that lead to the exposure, if the "wardrobe malfunction" hadn't happened, in itself might be considered inappropriate. But yet the furor is raised over a "boob shot" that was hardly visible. So your kids didn't ask "Daddy, why does that guy keep grabbing his pee-pee?" but "Daddy why did they show a naked booby?"

Doesn't "Dave Thomas" (really Boreanz) go by "Dave Roberts" now? Glad to hear things went well...

If Antowain was so capable, why couldn't he hold the starting job against Kevin Faulk? Their numbers were statistically identical for last year, yet all of a sudden using Faulk this year means the Pats "have no running game."

Many didn't last year with McGahee, even while Henry was getting yardage. Why should it be any different this year with Losman? And besides, our resident medical expert says that Losman is healed, the Bills are just pretending he's still hurt.

Common man, if MM wants to be a genius he has to pull genius moves! Just look at Dallas, with the genius Parcells. They are 3-5 on a 4 game losing streak with a starting QB that's considered "washed up" (9 TD, 10 INT) and a backup "QB of the future" who is healthy (and reasonably mature). What does Parcells say about owner Jerry Jones' hints that Henson might start soon? "Jerry's not making the personnel changes. I am," he says. And benching Testaverde "would be giving a sign to my team that I'm giving up on the season, and I'm not ready to do that." ....Ummm, nevermind...

Yeah, the Jets were done two seasons ago with the same record at the midway point....

2001 and 2002 came before the ruling by the FCC regarding Bono's use of the "F-word" at the Golden Globes. It was decided that the use of the "F-Word" falls under the "profane" guidelines, which means it's illegal: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/opi.html

It has everything to do with the Super Bowl half-time show. It became the "straw" that drove the FCC to over-react and come up with ludicrous fines for broadcasting "indecent" material (granted that Bill is stalled). What's indecent? Well, the FCC will tell you after you air it. Try to find out before (like the stations did), and you will get no comment. It doesn't matter who your target audience is, no matter who you expect to watch, it's who does watch, and if it is reported. http://www.fcc.gov/parents/content.html Though admittedly the true precedent was set by the "Bono" incident, where he dropped the F-Bomb at the Golden Globes. Though it was determined that the use was inappropriate, and would be fined under the current rules, the network was not fined, as they were not appropriately made aware of the new rules before the incident. BTW, I was kidding about the statue comment. An obvious bad effort to do an Ashcroft tie-in to the whole thing. Though the thought that seeing nudity and bad language somehow has a more dire consequence on our kids than violence really throws me. You can show what someone looks like dead, but you can't show them the way they came into the world. For all the hubbub about the Super Bowl halftime show, it was the trailer for "Van Helsing" that gave my daughter nightmares for a week....

It's what's called collateral damage in the war against indecency. I heard the movie will actually be edited. There's apparently a scene in which there's a naked statue in the background. That scene has been digitally edited to add a robe to the statue....

"We have to make sure they don't score more points than us." What were you expecting, the Defensive game plan?

and I think the counter-argument is that you are taking this respectable case to an illogical extreme. What CBS did wasn't "news," it was marketing for their hurting news department. Now they can say "we were the first to report...." whoopdedoo! If a healthy Arafat was killed by an Isreali bomb, that's "breaking news." If Arafat dies after a lingering illness because they decided to pull the plug at 6:15 as opposed to 6:19, I'm sorry but that's not "breaking news." What new ramifications are there the minute after he died that weren't there (and gone over to a great degree) in anticipation of his death? What about those ramifications are so important that they could not wait five minutes? I haven't seen any details, but I would not be surprised to see the networks pre-empt shows tonight to show their one hour retrospective that they've been spending the last two weeks putting together, that they carefully intermix with "live" footage to make it look like they miraculously threw this well-thought out program together at the last minute. That is fine. The way you describe it, I can't imagine how the networks have been showing anything else all day. That is fine too. Go into his life in great detail, talk at great lengths (some more) about how this affects peace in the Middle East. Get off your high horse pretending that the pre-emption happened for the "goodness of us all." It was done to try to regain some "face" after the Bush/National Guard fiasco. Will you guys be upset if they don't break into regular programming to air the news conference held by the Ohio Sec. of State when he says "it's official: Bush won Ohio?" After all, that's "news" that affects our every day lives as well, and it will be just as "surprising" and unanticipated.

My understanding is that the stations have asked the FCC if they would be fined for showing it, and the FCC refuses to say they won't be fined. The FCC doesn't want to get caught in a predicament where it says "we won't fine you" then be inundated with complaints (why they would in this case is beyond me....). I also understand that ABC has offered to pay the fines.

Pictures of the Week More Bills pictures before that one, but I found it humorous that they jumped to conclusions like that...I actually think this was the scramble....

You can point to one or two WTF?! plays in each game, but that's a given. Heck, even the "geniuses" have them. The key to this coaching staff is adaptiveness. They are not afraid to tinker with the depth chart to add spark or improve the team overall. And they aren't afraid of going game-by-game (or even play-by-play) with positional assignments as well, though in the play-by-play case you can give away too much when you have "situational" players (Bannan comes in at guard, D says "It's a run play guys"). One of the other things I saw as a knock early on was that Williams seemed to talk like "players are players" and there's no difference between 1st and 3rd string on the depth chart. Again it's about adaptability. Where Williams would say "I don't care if he's the 3rd stringer, he's a pro football player, he should be able to play the plays that are called in just like the 1st stringer," Mularkey says "Okay, we have to put the 3rd string in. What can we do to provide help to him?" Overall, I like what I see. But I'm a positive pollyanna homer, so what do I know.

Congrats! I'll say what I always say to first-time parents: If you think time has been flying, well it just kicked into Warp speed. I still can't figure out the physics behind how some nights felt like they were a week long but yet the weeks flew by like they were hours....

No kiddin'. Wasn't he looked at as "too soft" by his own people? The devil you know...

Hey, if we go 8-0 that would put us at 16-0, and the 72 Dolphins would have to "undrink" the Champagne they drank on Sunday! (as an aside, they owe the Steelers at least two rounds of drinks!). Hey, Brad, I can see what you mean about the lack of quality questions! Thanks for stopping by!

good pics...wonder how long before you get hits from "takeospikes51.com" and before this picture shows up there: http://www.billszone.com/coppermine/displa...lbum=227&pos=67 Looking stylish in the cap!

"Well, of course you beat the Patriots, after their secondary was depleted, etc etc..let's see you beat Pittsburgh on the road with 100 lbs of ballast strapped to the Bills players' backs in 120 degree heat with no water on the sidelines. Beat that and then we'll talk."

But before that happens he needs to fire Gray.

PS: Tell that site-crasher Rosen to leave us alone. There's NFW he gets credit for that crappy picture.

Pete spelled it with a "y," or else I would have asked if he was related...(might still be, as I know immigrants are known to change or use alternate spellings....).

Cool. I'm pronouncing my swear word right!

I've been meaning to ask for a while: Do you pronounce your name like the kicker (j=y) or with a hard "j"? I'm guessing the former, even though I pronounce the latter in my head (or out loud when I hit my thumb with a hammer) whenever I read your user name.

A tourist is in Spain, and goes to a fancy restaurant for dinner. As he looks around, he notices a diner being served a beautifully garnished dish with two gigantic meatballs in the middle. When the waiter asks him for his order, the man asks him about the meatball dish. The waiter explains that the meatballs are bull's testicles, and when the bull loses the bullfight, the bull is brought to the restaurant, and this beautiful dish is made. The diner tells the waiter that he wants the bulls testicles for dinner, but the waiter tells him that only one bull a day is brought to the restaurant, but he can have it tommorrow. The diner agrees. The next day the diner goes to the restaurant, and orders the testicle dish. When his food is brought out, he notices that the meatballs are extremely small. He mentions this to the waiter, and the waiter replies, ''Well sir you have to understand, sometimes the bull wins''.