The Chris Moeller Archives

F DOT

Preposterous American censorship of the day: Today's Des Moines Register has the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the state Department of Transportation's attempt to strip Chevrolet Corvair owner John Miller of his so-called objectionable license plates. The Boone man's classic "hot rod" has the plate inscription "F NADER," a reference to consumer advocate Ralph Nader and his 1965 book "Unsafe at Any Speed" attacking General Motors for the production of the staggeringly dangerous automobile.

The first I can recall reading about these plates-- and what may have originally brought it to the attention of the DOT-- was an article several months ago by Register columnist John Carlson highlighting the various personalized plates in the state. Before that, Miller presumably motored around central Iowa with the plates without incident for several years.

I'm probably as big a fan of Ralph Nader as there is in this state-- only two thousand of us voted for him in 2004, but this effort to revoke the plates is-- as a I said above-- preposterous. "F" is not a vulgarity, and the only people who haven't heard the word "fuck" are the kids who don't know what it means anyway. If Miller wants to tool around Boone and evoke mild chuckles from his gearhead buddies, while conveying a vague sense of corporate dupability and, by the way, still inviting a fiery explosion, that's his business. (Except for maybe that last part.)

The word "fuck" is utterly arbitrary as vulgarity anyway, only as powerful as we allow it to be. Now people are offended by even the sparest abbreviation of it. We let these completely meaningless language restrictions dominate our lives. I noticed driving in Cedar Rapids a couple weeks ago that in a residential neighborhood, the intersecting street signs went from A Avenue to B Avenue to C to D to E to Franklin to G. People can't even allow themselves to live on F Avenue, such is the current power of the word "fuck." Let me tell you, I've been to your F Avenue, and it doesn't look like you're doing a lot of fucking there. People won't think any less of you if they see the sixth letter of the alphabet on your postal correspondence.

I need an F'ing drink.

posted by CM @ 7:13 PM