Law and Magic Blog

Atheist Bus Ad Campaign Hits Snag In Bloomington

The Atheist Bus Ad Campaign had hoped to launch in Bloomington, home of Indiana University, but alas, the Bloomington Transit Company refused to accept the ads, saying they were "too controversial." So, the group sued. Here's a link to the complaint. The ACLU has taken up the cause. Here's a link to the group's website.

But, ads are going up in South Bend, home to Notre Dame University, where President Obama is giving the commencement speech this Sunday.

Update: The South Bend campaign has hit a snag too. Although the company that handles the advertising for South Bend's Transpo (the bus people) cashed the check for the ads, the bus company itself thinks the ads are too controversial (because of what's going in Bloomington) and so has deferred deciding to run the ads until it meets on Monday, after the President has left town.

Pinker on Word Magic

In an essay for the Atlantic, Steven Pinker suggests that part of the attraction that swear words have for those who use them lies in their "word magic": their ability to frighten or scare away those who object to them.

People believe, contrary to logic, that certain words can corrupt the moral order—that piss and Shit! and fucking are dangerous in a way that pee and Shoot! and freakin’ are not. This quirk in our psychology lies in the ability of taboo words to activate primitive emotional circuits in the brain.

He brings up the late George Carlin, who made a cause celebre out of le mot juste as well as les mots de justice. Dr. Pinker discusses this theme further in a chapter in his book The Stuff of Thought. I argue something similar in my recent article George Carlin: Constitutional Law Scholar, 37 Stetson L. Rev. 899-940 (2008). Though I don't discuss the magic of words, I do discuss to some extent why taboo words have such a grip on our souls (and our legal system). Nice to think that a renowned philosopher like Dr. Pinker and I are on the same page.

Harry Potter in Court

A woman who attempted to get a court to ban Harry Potter from public school libraries has lost her latest round, and says she may make a federal case out of things next. Laura Mallory says she won't give up the fight to take J. K. Rowling's novels out of her local public schools, even though Judge Ronnie Batchelor found in favor of the Gwinnett County School District's right to make decisions about what books to put in school libraries.