Comments

1
That was a complete waste of everyone's time. You must be so very proud.
2
Dumb....
3
Christ what an asshole.

So what you have proven here is that some poor 19 year old airman in the US Air Force is infinitely more professional and mature than you.

Congratulations.
4
The big question, was more stupid to make that call or to write it down, read it, and not realize how stupid it made you sound?
5
A++ would read again.
6
You mean they couldn't find any swishy metrosexuals to fly F18s?
8
wow, this was military-grade stupid.

got any good prank calls about farts?
9
I really hope this didn't actually happen.
10
Does you mother know you're playing with her phone?
Time to change your pen name, pal.
11
The Blue Angels contacted The Stranger, with a number to call to speak to their public affairs officer. The Stranger editors asked me to call it and have some fun. So I did.

If I'm an asshole, great. Good for you. Really sorry you didn't like it. Maybe try to lighten up, just a sinch? Not all at once. Entertain the notion of allowing yourself to lightly scoff at something so far below you, toiling and lazily slurping along in chasms of idiocy, then go back to your chiseled self mind.

You think it makes me sound stupid? REALLY? YOU THINK? Whoa. Oh no. Not that, please not that. Save me.

If you are outraged and angered by this post and make a comment about it, actually, your stupidity outweighs my stupidity. Your lameness reaches past my lameness. Either way, you win.

I'm an asshole? God I'm sorry. What do you think of Capt. Gregory McWherter?
12
there's no reason you can't BOTH be assholes.
13
LEUTENANT DAAAAAAYN.

I can only hear Forest Gump in my mind...
14
@11 - the source material is interesting, but you just aren't funny. Don't need an open or closed mind to recognize when someone doesn't know how to make a joke. You're just bad at it.

You're good at being sensitive, though, looks like. Neither of these traits are going to serve you well going forward.

15
This just reminds me that I need to return to skipping ALL of your posts. Thanks!
16
So not only are you painfully unfunny, you're thin-skinned and defensive. But you know, I can always go back to my "chiseled self mind", whatever the fuck that is.
17
14- you're WRONG. I bet you're about as fun as road kill. This cracked me up. So there. Something tells me you're not as great as you think you are. You're in the comments section of a website telling other people what's funny and not funny. That's funny.
19
Are you 12? Admittedly, you're going above and beyond the senior members here and actually picking up a phone and speaking to somebody, but damn.
20
Nobody is offended by your call, dude. It's just cringeworthy, especially given the lack of outrage on the part of the lowly airman as you tried way too hard to elicit a reaction. You didn't even bother trying to call back and talk to someone that matters.
21
@11 This was "fun?" What? Are you nine years old?

Clearly not. As you couldn't even find a porn reference that anybody under 30 would understand. You hack.

For christ sake - "Amber Lynn" is 49 god damned years old. You may as well call back and ask to speak to Linda Lovelace or Marylyn Chambers or fucking Lili St. Cyr for all the good it would do. HI-larious.

You might —might— have gotten away with this amateur hour Bro Borat horse shit if it had been remotely funny. But it was not funny. Worse, it was boooooring. This might have entertained your cretinous fraternity brothers while beer bonging Goldschläger in 1994.

22
What 21 said. Amber Lynn?????
23
Are you a middle school intern that Tim hired for free? Seriously dude, man the fuck up. We're only going to be much crueler to you in the future.
24
Which is more childish, the original "joke," or the hilariously whiny comment?
25
@11: So you call people up and sexually harass them at work often? Or just when other people tell you to?
26
>> What do you think of Capt. Gregory McWherter?

i think, "McWherter was reprimanded after a disciplinary proceeding this week and was previously relieved of his duties as an executive officer."
27
What is a sinch?
28
@27 I know.

AND we're to "lightly scoff" (which, if he understood what scoff meant - as in to 'treat with derision', we ARE doing) "lazily slurping along in chasms of idiocy" ...wha... lazily slurping... what are we slurpling?

Oh. After we go back to our "chiseled self minds." Chiseled self mind?

Parse that shit.

Is this randomly generated text by some Markovian filter?

Or is it some cipher buried in the screed of some lonely teenaged psychopath Youtube manifesto.

Quite the conundrum.
29
Hurgh hurgh it's funneh because the writer was stoned hurgh hurgh
30
"If I'm an asshole, great."

Assholery is forgivable (and sometimes even desirable) in the course of humor. Unfortunately, you are deeply unfunny.
31
This is perhaps the worst piece of pointless drivel ever concocted and published by The Stranger, which is a powerful contention in its own right.
32
What the hell is the matter with you?
33
Not funny, not cool, not enlightening. Basically sexually harassing the person you were speaking with. Jesus christ. Really embarrassing.
34
Hahahahahaha, Trent! This is great! There should be a page dedicated to this sort of thing every week.
35
Do yourself a favor and go back to your job as a barista.
36
I liked the transcript. If fielding that call was the worst part of the airman's day (which I seriously doubt), then he had a pretty good day. If reading this short blog entry really made you angry or deeply bored you, then you're hardly in a position to criticize its writer's supposedly thin skin. You don't have to laugh or even smile--God forbid you enjoy yourself--but maybe you should quit whining.
37
Seriously, how many more examples do we need that Line Out and the idiots that run it need to be exiled from Slog (back to their own circle jerk of a blog or from the Internet entirely)? I don't consider Slog particularly high-brow, but it's still miles above this garbage post, and Moorman's subsequent defensive douchebaggery.
38
@37 your clicks and responses almost certainly offer evidence to the contrary, since the people to convince would be the people who run the website for the purpose of profit driven by things like clicks and responses.
39
@38: So what? Web traffic and stats are good for marketing but it doesn't imply good content.
40
I snickered.
Do more.
41
@39 that's why I didn't say anything about quality in that post. Though, of course, evidence of quality (good or bad) is tough to come by, since it's purely a matter of opinion where humor is concerned. Another reason why I addressed measurable metrics in dealing with the irony of @37's actions given his thoughts.
42
So...was the person with whom you spoke male, or female? Actually, it doesn't really matter. Because you clearly planned out this sophomoric script ahead of time, assuming that you would be speaking to Lt. Amber Lynn, who is clearly a woman. That's fantastic- way to compound the sexual harassment she's probably already facing from her coworkers and commanding officers. You know what would be cool? If there was some actual reporting going on here, of any kind; maybe you could look into military sexual assault statistics and the copious research on how exposure to and acceptance of sexually objectifying and misogynistic imagery, jokes, and comments affects attitudes and behaviors towards women, and draw some conclusions. Or ask some actual hard questions of a branch of an institution with shameful rates of sexual assault, instead of just harassing (or intending to harass, assuming the person you spoke to was male) another female member of the armed forces. Also, your ridiculous attempt to deflect criticism by mentioning Capt. MacWherter is so not helping- your behavior is on a continuum. And you two? Are on the same side of that continuum. Whining that someone else is behaving more badly than you yourself does not constitute a defense.
43
So you called a female officer in the military--an organization demonstrably overrun by sexual harassment and rape--and left messages about porn, sending her porn, orgasms, guys jerking off, etc. because.....it's funny? or something?
Brilliant!

/go fuck yourself.
44
That was so lame. Not offensively, lame just unfunny lame. Hopefully this article gets back to the guy you called and you get sued for sexual harassment, now that would be funny.
45
Trent brings up some good points. Also existential points. This wasn't a "stupid" post at all. These fancy pants airmen are looking at porn while they fly at "high Mach speeds" or something. Why is this?

Trent is raising a question. I freaked out a bit like 15 years ago looking at dudes watching porn as they drove in their car. Back when having some screen in your car was "weird".
46
It's he Stranger fault for giving you the assignment. You don't care what your readers think; they're so beneath you. Okay, maybe you're stupid but so is everyone else. And it isn't so bad compared to actually looking at porn...

Further choreographing your self-degradation with this adolescently defensive drivel shows how desperate and small you really are. Please - post another one so we can enjoy the "music critic" drowning in his own self-pity over a bad review, instead of acknowledging you tried something that flopped and you're big and confident enough to take well-deserved criticism.
47
This is nothing more than sexual harassment. The author is a scummy piece of shit.
48
@46: I doubt that staffers are assigned posts or even need to request approval. It is not a newspaper after all, it's a blog.
49
Yes, Trent, you're a fucking asshole.

It's like if you have a problem with the produce at Safeway and go fuck with the grocery bagger.

It's like if someone thought Christopher's joke about avoiding Malaysian Airlines was in bad taste and called the Stranger's receptionist pretending to be an airline that the receptionist's parents were flying that day and trying to convince the receptionist that the parents had just died in a crash. Ha ha.
50
Trent, thank you for doing this. I laughed my ass off. These people in their show planes have harassed our city too many times. Please call them back every hour.

All the people who think this is stupid - um, that's the point. What an incredible observation you made. You people are so ignorant. Trent wasn't trying to be "funny", he was fucking with them. Yes, being stupid, being off base. I wish he had been even dumber. I think what the Blue Angels did and do is stupid. I don't think Trent was stupid enough. I'm offended he wasn't stupid enough.

To people calling Trent stupid and unfunny and an asshole, and a scummy piece of shit, you should never be allowed to look at the internet again. What the fuck is wrong with you people? How do you do anything at all? Really. How do you even get out of bed each day? It must be hard being that lame. What do you people do when something happens that's really offensive or bad? You must crumble and die hundreds of times a day. That's got to suck.

I didn't know they painted a penis on a hanger roof that could be seen by Google Maps. It seems like maybe they should not have done that. Gregory McWherter seems like a jerk.

51
@41 oh. For fuck sake a prank call like this as "humor" is only a "matter of opinion" to sexist morons and dipshit frat boys.

God damn. How low do you want the bar to be? What kind of tasteless equivocating apologist do you have to be to play the "lighten up, guys he was only sexually harassing IRONICALLY" card. The Daily Show this is not.

In this thread it was "funny" to three people. One a known troll. And. One of which is a sock puppet account created for one comment. Probably by this Trent moron. And you. So. Pardon me if I don't take your judgement seriously.

And then there is his illiterate defensive retort. My god. Total gibberish. Was he on meth? Was he at a sleepover with other nine year old girls? What?

This is a paid writer. What is he paid in? Bottle caps?

That come back shit alone appearing in digital print in any other so-called serious Pulitzer Prize winning weekly would see him shit canned.

Or in his case -- grounded, with out his bottle cap allowance, dismissed to his room with out supper.

Humor. Shut the fuck up already.

52
I don't think lampooning an organization with a record of silly, ridiculous, and seemingly dangerous sexually tinged antics by playing up that angle is sexual harassment. I also don't have a stick up my ass. Meanwhile, everyone whining in here continues to undermine their words with actions that effectively support the post, and encourage posts like it in the future. Very smart.
53
There was just zero reason for this to happen. I realize the Stranger gleefully doesn't give a shit (while also REALLY giving a shit), but this borders WAY too close to sexual harassment for a paper that loves being a watchdog for other people's shitty sexist behavior. It wasn't funny...and it didn't shed any new light on the situation or even make any point via satire. It didn't lampoon the hyper-masculine fratboy environment of the military...it just made it slightly worse for one woman for a few minutes.
54
tkc, you sure are worked up over this. You've probably spent more time thinking about this and writing comments than it took to actually make the call and write the post. What a weak minded pitiful dumbfuck you are. Your comments are "humor".

People like you luuuuuuv to stare at blogs and be offended. How do you even walk down the street? Thinking about your day to day existence makes me laugh. For real. I am laughing at you right now. You should remove yourself from the equation. I'd tell you to go on a hike and enjoy nature but you would more than likely be offended by birds chirping in the trees. Fuck, I don't know what to tell you. Your miserable existence and relegation to making frustrated blog comments I guess is punishment enough. Your sad frustration gives me much joy.

55
@50 I don't tolerate blatant sexual harassment, that's what's "wrong with me". This isn't parody, this isn't satire, it's pinning down an uninvolved party and forcing them to endure sexual embarrassment.

Of course, folks like you are the type that laugh at rape jokes.
56
Righto 55. This isn't parody, this isn't satire. This a crank call to the Blue Angels. Who are absolute fuckers.

This is not blatant sexual harassment.

I don't think rape jokes are funny at all. Good points you made all around. Bravo.
57
Hey, Anna Anna Anna, mind posting your email so I can send you some Gang Rape porn? That would be way funny, huh? What if I send it to you from Trent's hacked email account, that would be just rolling funny, eh?
58
57, yeah you know what, I've been raped. I've been harassed. You want to send me gang rape porn go ahead. Trust me, it won't be anything I can't handle. As far as threatening to send email from Trent's hacked account, I think that might be something you can discuss with your lawyer or therapist. Or maybe take a lesson on how to sting someone in blog comments, cause your falling short.
59
@56 Look Trent... er... Anna Anna Anna... or what ever dipshit sock-puppet you are.

He didn't call "The Blue Angels." He called a low level functionary NCO in an Public Affairs office.

He basically harassed a secretary. Understand?

Moorman was punching DOWN. Not up. The key to satire is to punch UP. Take on somebody with real power. Not harass some low level flunky.

And preferably do all that while, I dunno, being funny. It would help.

Get it through you low sloping skull he wasn't talking to some admiral. Or even a ranking officer. Or even a god damned pilot. It was probably a Petty Officer who barely makes above minimum wage.

It was a nobody. A nobody who was infinitely more patient and professional than I would've been.

On top of that, regardless of what the Blue Angles have or have not done, the pilot in question - Capt. Gregory McWherter - who looked at porn, was relieved of duty, investigated, reprimanded.

So. Case fucking closed.
60
"Anna Anna Anna" must be Trent's teenage sister.
61
@60 it's clearly a sock-puppet account of somebody since there is no bio and posting history is blocked.

Along with the "Letsplayallday" account that was created just to say how funny this post was.

So the sum total of posters that thought this was a laugh olympics is four. Two sock puppets, one troll, and one semi-professional contrarian. Quite the fan base.

Before this stupid prank call post I would have denied that a Stranger Staffer would stoop to create a sock puppet on their own thread. Now I'm not so sure.
62
57, yeah you know what, I've been raped. I've been harassed. You want to send me gang rape porn go ahead. Trust me, it won't be anything I can't handle. As far as threatening to send email from Trent's hacked account, I think that might be something you can discuss with your lawyer or therapist. Or maybe take a lesson on how to sting someone in blog comments, cause your falling short.
So you don't think it's funny when I sexually harass you? But it's OK for Trent to sexually harass some young lady over the phone because it fits your political views about the Blue Angels?

Double standards if they support your Political Correctness?
63
Hate to break it to you but last I checked I was not Trent or a sock puppet. I hide my activity and that makes me a sock puppet? I hide activity as much as I can wherever I am online, not that big a deal. I know it's not what you want to hear.

I'd say there's more chance you're a "sock puppet" than me. "tkc". You're online as "tkc" all flamed up accusing other people of being sock puppets. Are you in 6th grade? I'd look at your "bio" and all that, but I could really care less.

Keep making comments though tkc. It's entertaining AS FUCK watching you huff and puff.

62, I could care less what you say to me here. It doesn't affect me in the least. Trent's not sexually harassing anyone.

Where does it say he spoke to a woman? Nowhere does it say that. He spoke to someone of some sort of rank. I was assuming it was a guy. If it was a male or a female, it doesn't matter to me.
64
@61, your polling methods are both scientific and binding. I am sure no one will ever laugh at a prank call again, now thst a dozen or so commenters on Slog have deemed it illegal and unfunny. And the Stranger will ban the author for life. And you will have won the Internets. Way to go.

But before your highly convincing, deeply informativ declaration of sight into the objective laws of comedy, and before I even opened the comments, I laughed. I enjoyed myself, and (so far as we know) no one was hurt.
65
Hey. I know let's call to speak to Lt. Amber Lynn Daniel. A total stranger.

Amber Lynn! GET IT! HI-LARIOUS.

Because this woman is a Lieutenant in the US Navy— with the same name as a woman porn star from the early 1990's Women. They are all the same. RIGHT?

So, get this, it would be hilarious to pretend we're from a porn magazine called... I dunno... Schluggs... wait? Is that supposed to be a euphemism for boobies? Or dicks? Doesn't matter, because it sounds kinda dirty, right?

Anyway... and then when the Navy officer lady answers the phone we talk to her about dicks and tits JUST like SHE is a porn star. HAHAHAHAHA.

DANG! We didn't get to talk to Lt. Amber Lynn Daniel. She wasn't available.

Doesn't matter. We'll play our joke on whoever is on the phone. DICKS! TITTIES! FUNNY! This is going to be SO awesome! The poor schlub who answers the phone will have talk about dicks and tits. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hey. You guys? After we phone prank can we go look in the bathroom mirror and play Bloody Mary?

GOD. Sleepovers are So fun!
66
Anna Anna Anna pontificated:
I could care less what you say to me here.
Since you keep responding to me, it's clear you could care less. For example if you cared less, you probably would simple be ignoring me.
Where does it say he spoke to a woman? Nowhere does it say that. He spoke to someone of some sort of rank. I was assuming it was a guy.
Are you suggesting that men can not be sexually harassed in the way that Trent did? You assume this person was male and therefore the sexual harassment is "OK"? Interesting.

67
@58 This is textbook sexual harassment. The fact you can't see it speaks only to your own ignorance.
68
Prank calls about which we have no known complaint from the parties involved are in a tectbook about sexual harassment?

So far as I understand it, sexual harassment is defined as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct if submission to such conduct is nade either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, submission to or rejection of such conduct by an indovidual is used as the badid for employment decisions affecting such individual, or such conduct has the prpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment." Unless the person receiving the call felt like this made his or her work environment intimidating or offensive, to the level that they felt harassed, which we do not know to be true, and cannot say is the case, there was no harassment.
69
You know you when start pull-quoting a dictionary you've pretty much lost the argument.
70
@ 68, unsolicited speaking about pornography to women is one of many things defined as sexual harassment by HR departments of almost every American company you could name.
71
It's not even that.

Walking down the street screaming "nice tits!" to women you don't know is sexual harassment, right?

And actions like that don't fit this idiotic pedantic corporate definition above.

And that's essentially what Moorman set out to do: call a woman he didn't know and compare her, an officer in the US navy, to a porn star. Becuase they share the crime of a first name and both have vaginas.

And something something pilots watching porn something ...hilarity ensues.

The apologists for this shit are all over the place. But it's heartening to see that they are only a few fringe idiots. So that's progress I guess.
72
"Whoever happened to be on Blue Angels phone duty in Pensacola, Florida"

"whoever" is someone serving our country, sacrificing for this nation. And by 'sacrifice' I don't mean "I didn't get my reach around" kind of sacrifice, I mean working 18 hr days, 7 days a week, for low pay, following orders that might lead to your death. you see, quite often, folks who are 'answering the phone' have often served in combat and have been given desk duty.
73
"Unless the person receiving the call felt like this made his or her work environment intimidating or offensive, to the level that they felt harassed, which we do not know to be true, and cannot say is the case, there was no harassment."

Kinda like calling a tranny a 'man' in a pizzeria then?
74
And it is heartening to see the best arguments you, tkc, can come up with are ad hominem attacks, baseless assumptions, and dissimilar circumstances which could be construed as harassment. You are a paragon of reason, and I am happy to learn from you. Please, tell me more.
75
@ 71, I hope you're not lumping me in with the apologists. I can't tell, given your dismissal of policy that has helped improve yhe workplace atmosphere for countless women. I didn't bring it up for thatvreason, which ought to be clear from the ckntext of whom I was addressing.
76
@70

Seriously, I don't get what's so fucking difficult about this. This type of "prank call" is the clearly and unambiguously an example of sexual harassment.

Why in the fuck does this publication pretend to be anti-rape culture and yet publish shit like this?
77
@70, I don't think the policies of private companies are all that instructive if the question is a matter of law. Employees are typically contractually obligated to follow company policy. Trent probably does not work for the USAF.

Unless this policy exists as a federal law--and I admit ignorance of such, and do not claim it is not or could not be a federal law--banning potentially offensive calls across state lines or to federal employees and treating such calls as necessarily sexual harassment regardless of the intent of the caller or the feelings of the person receiving the call, standard HR policy would appear to be inapplicable to the situation as reported.
78
I hope the Navy investigates this.
79
I don't think the policies of private companies are all that instructive if the question is a matter of law.

It is also (to use tkc's example) not illegal to yell at some random woman on the street "Nice Tits". So as far as you are concerned, that's OK? That's not "sexual harassment" because there isn't a law against it? Sexual harassment is strictly defined by what the law says rather than what is outside common decency? If there's no law against something, it's automatically hunky dory?
Employees are typically contractually obligated to follow company policy. Trent probably does not work for the USAF.
Neither does the person that Trent sexually harassed over the phone, that person works for the Navy.
80
SLOG jumped the shark when Goldy was let go. All we're doing now is watching lousy episodes of Happy Days.

Or Slog has become a horrible car wreck on the side of the road that we're driving past and just can't help looking at. This ridiculous post is so bad it's good. That's what Slog has become.
81
@75

I hope you're not lumping me in with the apologists.

I was not. Sorry, if that was not clear.

@70
You really are this stupid. We're not talking about the fucking law you credulous pedantic simpleton.

In this case the INTENT was to call a total stranger, a woman named Lt. Amber Lynn Daniels, to harassing them in a puerile overt sexualized manner. This is sexual harassment. He ended up talking to another NCO or Junior officer instead. But the intent and outcome is the same.

Just like walking down the street with the intent of yelling "nice tits!" to the first woman you see and settling on whoever you come across first. there no law against it. It's just something assholes do and think is funny.

I know. I know. You also think it's HILARIOUS!
82
Jeez this argument is tedious. So I'm going to settle it once and for all. To the extent that "sexual harassment" is a legal term of art, what happened here is not that. In terms of the plain meaning of the words, the caller's "jokes" were sexual in nature and were persistently annoying, so yes, sexual harassment in that sense.

For my part, I thought it was a dick move on the caller's part and not funny. And way worse if the person on the phone was a woman (I assumed that it was a man, since the Navy is 80+ percent male)
83
Alright everyone, pemulis has pontificated the only acceptable view! You can all go home and hit the phones looking for young ladies to spew innuendo on, because it's not sexual harassment, it's just boys having fun!
84
@79, I'd say there's a difference between being a jerk or a creep and doing something illegal. Sexual harassment is a legal/contractual term, like assult or theft. If you think Trent was being a jerk, I don't disagree. If you think he was being a creep, I do not concur, but like the matter of humor, I'd say it's just a difference of opinion. What bothers one person doesn't have to bother another. But if you think he sexually harassed that worker, without knowing that to be his intent or knowing how the person he spoke with felt, then I would say you are jumping to a conclusion for which you do not have ample evidence.

Once more, the act of yelling a single, contextless, lude sentence at some lady is not relevantly similar to prank calling an institution with reference to recent news. They are not equivalent. Also, the assumed narrative of micro-aggressions and patriarchal opression that underlies the experiences of that hypothetical woman, which can be deemed to render yelling such an epithet sexual harassment does not necessarily or apparently apply to the Navy as an institution or the person Trent was actually talking to. But even if it did, the two situations would still remain relevantly dissimilar. Shouting at random individuals can clearly be intimidating in a way this prank call almost certainly was not.

@81 your assumptions are amusing, but baseless.
85
@83 since you don't seem to think what Trent did was illegal, you should realize Pemulis actually agrees with you. Read his post again.
86
No dipshit. Nothing is baseless. It's right there in the article. Your reading comprehension is about as on par with your cognitive dissonance.

Lt. Amber Lynn Daniel is a woman (https://twitter.com/soubabyblue). That is who Mooron wanted to talk to. You know. So he could make his porn star joke.

Are you saying he would've altered his approach had he got Lt. Daniel on the phone and not made these puerile sexist references to her name?

Who is being baseless now.

You are the only person defending this. Defending a stupid, unfunny, sexist, tired phone prank that even utterly failed as satirical comeuppance for a pilot looking at porn. Because the pilot in question had already been relieved of duty and punished by the Naval authorities.

This is the hill you want to plant your flag and die on. You and Mooron deserve each other.
87
Correction: "Your reading comprehension is in inverse proportions to your cognitive dissonance."
88
@83 since you don't seem to think what Trent did was illegal, you should realize Pemulis actually agrees with you. Read his post again.
I never said I thought Trent's sexual harassment was not illegal. I'm not a lawyer. However this link suggests it might be: http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2012/11…
Some states' definitions of disorderly conduct include offensive and abusive language intended to arouse anger in others. Similar to harassment, for a prank call to constitute disorderly conduct, the call typically needs to be more severe than just a dumb joke. Instead, think verbal abuse and other demeaning conduct.

But you make a mistake if you insist on defining "sexual harassment" only in terms of what can and can not be prosecuted under the law.

By the way, help me visualize your tits: Are they big bodacious "porn star" tits? Would you describe them as "fun to play with"?

The above line of questioning is not sexual harassment, you know. Under your definition, perhaps I could even describe what I might like to physically do with a nice pair of tits... It's not sexual harassment, you know. At least not to you.

It's just boys being boys... Right?
89
TKC, your whole approach is an angry, overblown series of disconnected logical leaps and fallacies. Your verbal acrobatics are a marvel.

Arthur, that actually depends upon both your intent and the effect of your words upon me. Since you are trying to argue that it is sexual harassment, you clearly think it is, and thus intend it as such, which defintionally renders your actions sexual harassment. If Trent is a jerk or asshole, by your lights, for engaging in what you also consider sexual harassment, you can't think much of yourself right now. That's unfortunate.

As to the law, since it involves a cross-state call and a federal employee, Trent's actions would have to break federal law. I admit this is a possibility, as outlined previously (@77). I also admit it is possible, though unlikely, that Trent's actions created a meaningfully hostile work environment for the Naval representative by offending him deeply or troublingly, in a manner worthy of filing a complaint. But I have no reason yet to believe these possibilities are actualities. This is the kernel of our disagreement, and I do not see it being resolved without aid of someone practiced in this area of federal law or the person who handled Trent's call.
90
As to the law, since it involves a cross-state call and a federal employee, Trent's actions would have to break federal law.
If it were a violation of Federal Law, perhaps he could be prosecuted by the Feds. But that does *not* necessarily preclude prosecution under state laws should this victim make a complaint to the local authorities. Local prosecution is not off the table simply because these two people were in different states.
91
More, the irony of arguing against the morality of Trent's supposed act of sexual harassment by repeatedly sexually harassing others lies not in its hypocrisy or what a bad person it makes one, but in this:

If this tactic is morally permissable or otherwise justifiable, that then means Trent's action was permitted or justified in the same way, since it was in reaction to years of sexual harassment within the unit and branch he contacted. If, however, such a tact is impermissible, or unjustified, not only are you, Arthur, wrong for partaking in it, you are also showing just how small a transgression Trent's was--not simply because your approach is much more aggressive and personal, but also becauseyou engage in it so readily and with apparent gusto.

This undermines your position, your argument, and yourself without affecting me at all.
92
@90 I'm fairly certain it is. But even if it were , it would be up to those trying to show criminal behaviour to prove it, which necessitates not just that it be something Florida or Pensecola arre allowed to pursue, but also that it is in fact illegal there. No one has shown this. Assuming it is unjustified.
93
I can't believe someone would call a real military command and spew this dribble to the duty officer. Do you realize that a Cdo that answers the command phone is probably a 19 to 20 year old kid that just got to the Navy and is only trying not to screw up? They shouldn't have been subjected to this open verbal assault and Amber Lynn certainly didn't deserve the accusations and mistreatment from this. She wasn't even part of the squadron during the McWherter term. This aggressive attack was worse than unprofessional, it was borderline prosecutable.
94
*even if it were not
95
Hey tkc and Ziffereli,

What do you do for a living? Do you have jobs?
96
Ok, one more go at this. No, this call cannot have created a "hostile work environment" for the purposes of applying sexual harassment laws, because this stupid Trent guy isn't the call recipient's boss, and there's no indication that the employer creates or maintains a situation in which this kind of call is permitted or encouraged. The Naval employee cannot complain to the EEOC about Trent, because Trent doesn't work there.

The behavior of the Blue Angels themselves (allowing pornography and sexually explicit references to various female flight crew members to be passed around at the work place) is actually sexual harassment as the law defines it, which is, again, solely for the purposes of employment law.

If Trent committed a crime, that crime, whether state or federal, would be more along the lines of intimidation, disorderly conduct, or some obscure federal thing nobody's heard of. For the purposes of assessing possible state criminal liability, the activity took place in the state where the call was placed and in the state where the call was received. Trent would maybe have a valid argument that attempting to impose any criminal penalty for this (stupid, offensive) speech runs afoul of the first amendment. But even if he was successfully prosecuted for intimidation or something, that would not be what we talk about when we talk about sexual harassment law in the U.S.

All that said, and as I said before, it was certainly sexual and it was certainly harassment, as far as the plain meanings of those words go. It was not just boys being boys. I did not mean to imply that I think it was good or ok or that it ought to be dismissed as no big deal.
97
Pemulis, are Caucasians born in Africa and residing anywhere in the Americas actually African Americans because the words 'African' and 'American', taken separately, could be construed as allowing for a white person in Buenos Aires who was born in South Africa to be called African American despite the term meaning something else?
98
Alright! I have permission from the progressive granola girls of The Stranger to start auto-dialing random women and asking them offensive sexually oriented questions... Seattle is so progressive! When I'm making these calls, can I masturbate?
99
I hate the blue angels as much as anyone. But this was just dumb.
100
I wonder what the women at The Stranger would think if someone called them to sexually harass them under the auspices of a "joke."

Trent, would you mind posting your phone number here so we can call you/your family and sexually harass them whenever we want? All in good fun, right?
101
@100 -

Trent's address is available through Whitepages.com (and what a swanky address it is), but unfortunately his phone number is not listed...
102
@100 & 101 Okay, now you guys are being an assholes.

It's clear nobody thought this post was funny (except for a couple idiots who can be ignored). But when you start posting links to peoples home addresses you've lost any high ground.

You are not helping.

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