Am I to understand correctly, since my letter of Jan. 24, "Use term much more carefully," omitted its usage, that the Advertiser will not print the acronym "SOB" for sons of lewd women in any context whatsoever? Can this acronym not even be printed when applied anonymously to big tobacco companies, environmental polluters, pornographers, criminals or those that some have labeled as terrorists for aborting millions of fetuses?

Now surely this term could be accurately applied to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida terrorist network . The Advertiser isn't going to tannish its good image by using this acronym to describe international terrorists. Certainly no one with any say in the matter is going to risk their life to come out of hiding and sue the newspaper. If they do, I'd like to claim some of that millions of dollars in reward money for poking them out of their holes!

But should the editors of the Advertiser in their esteemed pursuit of good taste wish to delete this acronym, perhaps you will at least print "S_B." If not, then at least be so gracious as to include that most notorious phrase "expletive deleted," used so wisely by the publishers of President Richard Nixon's Watergate tapes, to indicate that something unprintable was uttered.

Certainly if reader's are to be permitted the misnomer of calling doctors who provide family planning services "terrorist," it is warranted to suggest they are not terrorists, but that acronym you wish not to print.

Certainly the majority of Bible belt readers of the Advertiser will not be offended as they probably use this term frequently in their daily lives, not to refer to female dogs, so much as to describe anyone who gets upon their sacred, sanctimonious nerves or rials their more holy than thou moral fibers. No doubt I would qualify to many in that respect, though certainly my dear mother, being the daughter of a Methodist minister and Army officer's wife, would be proof this was not fact, but fiction.

Now I'm not suggesting that the Advertiser print all the spit and spittle which is spouted by right to lifers, beer belly Bible babbling baby making hypocrites, or rebel flag flapping fanatics. But perhaps if this acronyms were permitted, certainly in cases where it is obviously used in jest, then people could have a happy chuckle reading this column. It surely would make my day!

Sincerely,
Terry Lynch
Date: 30 January, 2002

Do you have a beef? Send your comments, opinions, letters or other remarks to Byteland. In doing so, you agree that all submissions may be reprinted, edited and/or published without compensation or restriction whatsoever. Warning: If you send hate mail or other trash we may publish it and you agree to release Byteland.org, its agents and representative, from all liability, whatsoever, and to be totally responsible for your own statements and/or actions, including but not limited to slanderous or libelous remarks! You also agree to release Byteland.org, its agents and representatives, from any claims of slander, libel or other damages whatsoever, in regard to reprint, publication or editorial comments or usage with respect to any material you submit for publication.