Forum: Author Hangout

That's the whole point of free speech. The right to be a asshole.

Correct. However, in something that Hollywood actually DID get right (to a certain extent) in the old westerns, it's when someone says "Them's fighting words!" In other words, from a legal perspective, a verbal assault by person A upon person B can be used as an effective defense by person B as to why he committed battery upon person A.

Note that when you hear someone being charged with assault and battery that those are, legally, two different actions. Assault is the threat of, or attempt to cause, physical violence. Battery is the actual act of physical violence. Saying, "I'm going to kick your ass" is assault. Actually swinging and connecting in an attempt to do so is battery.

As I understand it, not all US states maintain the distinction between assault and battery that you describe.

Same article:

Assault is often defined as any intentional act that causes another person to fear an attack or imminent physical harm. This definition recognizes that placing another person in fear of bodily harm is itself an act deserving of punishment, even if the victim of the assault is not physically harmed. This definition also allows police officers to intervene and make an arrest without waiting for the assaulter to actually strike the victim.

While the statutes have been changed to reflect the current model of charges being pressed against an offender, that does not change the underlying definitions of the actual acts themselves, which go back to common law times. And if you don't think defense attorneys or prosecutors will reference that if necessary, you're sadly mistaken.

It's actually interesting, because while it also says later on in that same article that words alone are not considered assault, the WAY those words are delivered can MAKE them an assault. I'm sitting back in my chair and chilling with a beer (NOT a Bud Light) and I look at you and say, "Dom, I'm gonna kick your ass." That's not assault. I lean forward in the chair, and slam my empty glass on the table and say, "Dom, I'm gonna kick your ASS!" THAT'S assault.

If assault and battery are 2 different things does that mean country and western music are 2 different things?

According to The Blues Brothers they are!

"We got both kinds! Country AND Western!"

Actually, they are, and were only combined due to the recording industry. Country music has its roots in 'hillbilly' music - and you may as well start thinking of Dueling Banjos in your mind, because that's EXACTLY what hillbilly music was all about, stuff with roots in the Appalachia mountains. Western music was more the swing and cowboy songs - 'Git along, little doggies' and such.

Western is Hank Willams Sr. and country was Hank jr.

The roots of country music and western music go further back in time than both men. I grew up listening to Lefty Frizzel, Red Sovine, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, and others.

I mean, c'mon - if you're from that generation, who can't remember and sing along with "It was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June, in a Kenworth, pulling logs. Cab over Pete with a reefer on, and a Jimmy, hauling hogs. We was headin' for bear on I one oh, bought a mile out of shaky town, I said, Pig Pen, this heres Rubber Duck, and I'm about to put the hammer down!"

Although I do think Bud Light was paying homage to both Senior and Junior with their new cover of the William's famous song, with just one changed word. 'There's a queer in my beer ...'

The first would be an over 14, preferably over 18, character who is petite or otherwise plays into a lolita fetish.

The second would be to write a story that's all about the protagonist's desire for the young character. As long as there is no sexual contact

The codes only work if they are used the way SOL defines them. Lolita is:

A pre-pubescent child (boy or girl, 12 or younger) initiates sexual contact with an adult.

I'm planning a reveal in a future chapter for a character who's 12 but not pre-pubescent. Her mother catches her with her husband (step-father). What will be written has the distraught mother crying to her sister about how she walked in on them and "I just can't bring myself to describe it" leaving unsaid any details, just that something sexual happened. The point of having it in the story is not to show any details but rather how it affects the other characters.

first would be an over 14, preferably over 18, character who is petite or otherwise plays into a lolita fetish.

Not if you use ANY of the physical descriptions of the female body. I know this quite well as I had this discussion with Laz because a character in one of my stories is similar to the young lady in 'Interview with a Vampire'. Made into a vampire at age 10, but now over 300 years old. (Babette, from Skyrim.)

My recent story "Photographs" uses this method. The narrator talks about watching and photographing a girl as she grows up but doesn't act on his feelings until she's 14.