Got Jesus in your Headlights Goddamnmuthafucker?

Question: Which of the above words might be considered obscene?

Answer: They all are.

This story about a proposal to filter SMS/Text messages containing certain keywords that Pakistan considers obscene, becomes even more bizarre when you read the list.

Most are obvious, but there are a few in the list that make a fellow ponder. F'rinstance 'K Mart' unless of course, I'm out of the loop on that one, but it seems to me we getting into the...... see below.

And then there is the obvious part to this story. It is the twenty first century and not the Victorian era, and trying to whack electronic moles by the billion!

Pakistan orders text message filtering

Nov 18, 2011,

Islamabad - Pakistani authorities have directed mobile phone companies to ban what they called 'offensive' text messages, officials confirmed on Friday.

Telecommunication watchdog Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered all mobile phone operators this week to arrange to filter the text messages containing 'obscene' words by November 21.

'We have taken action on the innumerable, repeated complaints from consumers,' said Mohammad Younis, a PTA spokesman. 'They say they constantly receive text messages that contain unwanted, undesired and obscene words.'

Officials from the five major operators - Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong - confirmed that they were working on software that could block the words deemed unwanted by the PTA.

Younis did not explain how many words were in the initial list, but he confirmed they included words in English, the national language Urdu as well as Punjabi, Pashtu, Sindhi and Balochi.

Media reports said the list initially contained 1,500 words.

The unconfirmed list circulated on the internet contained medical terms like athlete's foot, breast and condom. Everyday words like deeper, fairy and harder made the list. Jesus Christ was also included.

The move to control SMS content stirred suspicions among the country's 100 million mobile users and 18.5 million internet users among the population of more than 170 million.

Contributors to various social networking sites condemned the move.

'This funny and extremely foolish decision will have one outcome: the emergence of a new language, where the ordinary words will be used to communicate the profane. And that is very dangerous,' wrote Noon Memon on the website of The Express Tribune.

'So I cannot message about Dick Cheney, Randi Zuckerberg, an American internet entrepreneur and a former marketing director of Facebook.' In Urdu randi means a prostitute and the term 'dick' is included in the banned list.

The authorities defended the plan and said it was to protect Islamic culture.

'Abusive language has become so common in our society these days that even the girls use such a language that nobody wants to hear,' Younis said.

'The way the girls talk - this is terrible. Our society does not allow that. Many families were destroyed due to this. Divorces took place and even people were murdered. We cannot control it 100 per cent but we are doing as much as we can do,' he added.

Some analysts see it as a first step to control text messages that have been a major source of criticism of government and the military's attempts to deal with the problems the country faces - a declining economy and terrorism.

A writer at the Express Tribune said that the whole scheme was devised 'to control texts/jokes regarding the Supremo of Pakistan,' an apparent reference to President Asif Ali Zardari, who is widely disliked for his alleged involvement in corruption. M&C

h/t Ellie Mae O'Hagan

A man goes to see a clinical psychologist. After completing the clinical interview, the clinical psychologist decides that she will administer the Rorschach Inkblot test. The clinical psychologist shows the man the first inkblot and he says he sees a man and a woman making love at the beach. In the second, a man and a woman making love in a hot-tub. The third, he says has a man and a woman making love in a park. In all of the inkblots, the man sees a couple making love. At the end of the test, the clinical psychologist looks over her notes and says, "You seem to have a preoccupation with sex." The man replies, "You're the one with the dirty pictures." (Sourced from the web)