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The TV show "Breaking Bad" on the AMC Cable TV channel --
is a GOOD show. I first heard about it when it started, but didn't watch it
for the first two or three seasons.
Then fairly recently, I thought I would try renting the DVD of that show
to try it out, and I did, and enjoyed it very much.
The show is about a chemist who teaches Chemistry in High School
who suddenly gets cancer, and is diagnosed as having a few months left to live.
He's left thinking how he can support his family -- wife, house, son going off to college, when he will die soon.
What can he do? So he decides to start making ***(amphetamine).
He uses his knowledge of chemistry to make the perfect ***.
The show's about that, and the decisions he has to make as a result...
It's interesting to think about that, philosophically,
supposed you had to do that, could you or would you?
The show is good. There's one scene I will never forget,
in which the man and his partner, who is a young HS dropout,
have a dead body they need to get rid of, but how?
They come up with the solution to use acid to dissolve the body.
So they collect several gallons of hydrofluoric acid.
The man tells the kid that this acid is a very strong acid, and
and tells the kid to go and buy PLASTIC bins -- as big as possible --
the kid goes to Home Depot and finds the biggest they have is only about 3' x 4',
which is not big enough to hold a full-sized male body.
He's a bit squeamish about the idea of cutting up the body to fit,
so he comes up with the idea to take the body upstairs into the bathtub and pour the acid into the tub to dissolve the body.
The kid drags the body upstairs by himself, pours the acid into the tub,
and leaves it to do its work.
Several hours later or the next day or something, you see
the ceiling under the bathtub dripping liquid,
and then the whole thing comes crashing down -- body, blood, acid and all.
The man asks the kid what happened, and he explains how he put the body up in the tub instead of the bins.
The man bawls him out for not having used plastic bins,
since hydrofluoric acid will eat through everything -- ceramic, metal, glass --
except for one thing -- plastic. Quite interesting!
Why am I talking about this TV show?
I watched the first 3 or 4 seasons on DVD,
and finally got caught up to the current season.
So I can watch the current season NOW on AMC and not have to wait a year for the DVD.
It must be understood that the show has a lot of bad words -- swearing --
doesn't bother me.
As I watched, I was stunned to find that this show, on a cable channel, at 10:00 pm,
while the Hearing people hear the swear words (no bleeping)
we Deaf see on the captions: "H---", "B----".
All the "offensive" words are censored.
Of course I can usually figure out what word was said, but it takes work and distracts from the enjoyment of the show,
but the thing is, if Hearing people can hear the word, why can't we see the word?
So I sent an email to the AMC channel objecting to this practice,
and told them we want full captioning.
I didn't get any response.
I then contacted the FCC -- the Federal Communications Commission --
and explained the problem.
Several days ago, I got a letter from them
acknowledging my complaint and that they will check into it
and determine what the appropriate action should be.
But the problem is,
the FCC's rules are that the channels must caption the shows,
but there is a lot of room for "interpretation" regarding how well or accurately that captioning must take place.
The rules don't give specific guidelines in that area.
So AMC's censoring of the words doesn't really violate the FCC's guidelines.
So this means that the FCC will get my complaint, do their checking,
and determine that AMC is technically within their guidelines and let AMC continue with business as usual.
But who made those rules? Hearing people.
Who interprets the rules? Hearing people.
On another blog, one person said AMC told him their reason for doing this is
that "children may be watching".
That's not a good excuse, and it's not their decision.
I will take care of MY children; I don't want them treating ME like a child!
This needs to change -- we Deaf have the right to full, COMPLETE access to information.
It's not their right to decide for us.
So now, what can we do from here?
As it happens, Greg Hlibok, one of the DPN leaders,
is now very high up in the FCC.
And he's Deaf.
I challenge you, Greg Hlibok, to change the rules
and make it so that AMC or any other cable channel, or ANY channel,
doesn't have the right to make decisions for Deaf people,
that they don't have the right to treat us Deaf like children.
Greg, you have this position of power, influence, authority and responsibility --
I challenge YOU to use this position to
to push for a change to these rules
so that AMC, and any other company that wants to
look down on Deaf as children, are forbidden from being able to do so from now on!