Stupid News Items of the Day

In today's news we have a stupid headline and a stupid story. The stupid headline comes from the Associated Press: "Schwarzenegger Cool to Electoral Reforms." This headline is stupid because the proposal to which Governor Schwarzenegger has given a Mr. Freeze reception is not a "reform," but rather, a Republican attempt to steal the next and future elections by altering the Electoral College System. The Republicans want to apportion California's electoral votes (one-fifth of the entire nation's) to Presidential candidates based on the votes they receive, rather than compete under the current winner-take-all system. Like so many times before (phony Justice Department "voter fraud" cases against Democrats, intimidation of minorities at the polls, removing thousands of voters in Florida from eligibility to vote because their names sounded like those of felons, redistricting Texas to add numerous Republican seats in Congress, holding a "special election" to oust unpopular California Governor Gray Davis and to elect Schwarzenegger in the first place), it's another case of the Republicans trying to steal votes instead of competing for them legitimately. So please, Associated Press, don't call it "reform."

The stupid story of the day comes from the Hollywood Reporter via Reuters. It's hard to know whether these organizations were merely reporting rather than creating the stupidity, or whether, as I suspect, they added to the stupidity. The article, entitled "'Lust' Too Hot for Hollywood Censors," reports that Ang Lee's new film "Lust, Caution" has received an NC-17 rating, which makes it harder to distribute, exhibit and profit from. According to the article, and here comes the stupid part,

"Sources who have seen the film said it contains at least three scenes -- one a long montage -- featuring multiple acts of aggressive sexual activity in different positions. There's no full-frontal male nudity (the source of some NC-17 rulings when shown in sex scenes), but male-on-female oral sex, non-S&M restraints and several nontraditional sexual positions are depicted, conveying the aggression and emotional conflict between the main characters.
When asked if anyone was shown, say, upside down, one viewer said, 'It depends on where you're standing. They're very flexible.'"

Does anyone want to count the stupid parts with me? How's this for starters? "Several nontraditional sexual positions"? Based on whose standard? Did the ratings board take a look at the Kama Sutra first? Did they look at the ancient frescoes in Pompeii?

"Non-S&M" restraints?

"Upside down"?

Hopefully, this stupidity has ended with the week.