PRIORITIES STRAIGHT

Buttocks:

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue.

The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted "multiple, close-up views" of the woman's "nude buttocks" according to an agency order issued late Friday....

The agency said the show was indecent because "it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs -- specifically an adult woman's buttocks."

The agency rejected the network's argument that "the buttocks are not a sexual organ."


Dangerous chemicals:

Dallas gas plant fined $6,300 in July blast that injured 2

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Southwest Industrial Gases $6,300 after an acetylene gas explosion at its facility near downtown Dallas spawned spectacular fireballs and sent metal canisters flying over freeways in July.

OSHA said Southwest Industrial exposed employees to serious hazards that were likely to cause death or serious physical harm, according to citations issued Thursday and released Friday.

The agency said the plant could have reduced the fire risk by installing a sprinkler system in the loading dock....

OSHA also cited the company for two other violations: failing to properly mark trucks that carried pallets of acetylene cylinders and having a hazard analysis that was conducted only by the general manager, instead of by a team of employees....

Okay, okay -- the second story does say that Bush's OSHA was unable to reach the conclusion "that any of these violations caused the July 25 blast, which severely burned two workers."* But, er, was anyone actually able to reach the conclusion that the earth-shattering site of (gasp!) a woman's ass on TV warped anyone's mind forever?


*Funny how so many cases of this kind end the same way -- "Gee, your company's practices could have led to something exactly like what happened, but somehow we can't find the link, just as your team of expensive lawyers argued."