Posted by Hemant Mehta in Is “I” a bad word? No, of course not.
How about “Choose”? Nope.
“Hell”? It refers to an imaginary concept — a scary one — but there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. Its meaning depends more on the context of how you use it.
Which is why it’s strange to hear that filmmaker George Kalman’s company “I Choose Hell Productions” had its name rejected “because [Pennsylvania] state law prohibits names that ‘constitute blasphemy, profane cursing or swearing or that profane the Lord’s name.’”
“It struck me when I saw it that the statute seemed like it was from another era,” said Thomas H. Lee II, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who is handling Mr. Kalman’s lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Philadelphia.
A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State said it had not been served papers and had no comment.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Kalman, who referred questions to Mr. Lee, picked the name “because of his personal philosophy, expressed in his films, that it is better to struggle through difficult times in life than to commit suicide.”
Kalman has run his company under a slightly different name, ICH Productions, LLC, and gone on with business, but it’s not nearly the same thing.
Hopefully, the lawsuit will prevail.
There’s nothing wrong with Hell.
So do you think they would reject my company name of Jebus sucks C*ocks!!
What blasphemous names would everyone call their production company’s
The relevant code seems to be here. Enacted 1973, amended 1992.
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/019/chapter17/s17.5.html
“There’s nothing wrong with Hell.” How could those who reject God enjoy heaven?
Isn’t Hell in Norway?
Blasphemy laws should be utterly un-constitutional in the USA.
I know this is wrong, but it’s also very funny… XD
“How could those who reject God enjoy heaven?”
In order to reject God one must accept the existence of God. Show me proof and I will accept it’s existence, and then, I will decide whether or not to reject it.
I guess Linotype-Hell won’t be setting up shop in PA anytime soon.
When told that I would be going to hell, I always replied, “That’s ok. That’s where all the fun people are.”
This kind of anachronistic BS law needs to be wiped off the books. How in the hell (pardon the expression) is it even constitutional?
Actually, it’s apparently in Michigan.
If Hell is the absence of God, then yeah, it seems alright to me, at least at the moment. Though I could do with a sandwich.
I guess a similar name “I Choose Heaven, LLC”, would be acceptable to this bunch of cretins.
Pennsylvania, another place to boycott.
[...] learned about this thanks to Hemant Mehta(who runs a blog called Friendly Atheist). He writes about a man who attempted to name his film [...]
Hell’s a cool place, especially in the summer. It’s about 30 minutes NW of Ann Arbor. And you turn LEFT on DARWIN RD. to get to Hell. There’s a resturaunt/bar, an ice cream stand and a little touristy party store. The local weather people go there every year to do their “Hell freezing over” story. It’s pretty much surrounded by state parks so there’s all kinds of outdoorsy things to do.