Hoyess. Long before Leann Rimes sang "Life Goes On," there was Neocolours and "Tuloy Pa Rin." I heard this song when I was on the jeep last night going home, and it is so upbeat I wished I could often hear it in the morning when I am starting my day.


Tuloy Pa Rin
Neocolours

Sa wari ko'y
Lumipas na ang kadiliman ng araw
Dahan-dahan pang gumigising
At ngayo'y babawi na

Muntik na
Nasanay ako sa 'king pag-iisa
Kaya nang iwanan ang
Bakas ng kahapon ko

CHORUS:
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin

Kung minsan ay hinahanap
Pang alaala ng iyong halik (alaala ng 'yong halik)
Inaamin ko na kay tagal pa
Bago malilimutan ito

Kay hirap nang maulit muli
Ang naiwan nating pag-ibig (alam ko na 'yan)
Tanggap na at natututo pang
Harapin ang katotohanang ito

CHORUS:
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin

Muntik na
Nasanay ako sa 'king pag-iisa
Kaya nang iwanan
Ang bakas ng kahapon ko

CHORUS:
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko (tuloy pa rin)
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo (hugis ng mundo mo)
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo (hamunin)
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin (tuloy pa rin)
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko (tuloy pa rin)
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo (oh..hoh..)
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo (handang harapin ang mundo)
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin
Tuloy pa rin ang awit ng buhay ko
Nagbago man ang hugis ng puso mo
Handa na 'kong hamunin ang aking mundo
'Pagkat tuloy pa rin

And... I cannot resist the temptation :P


It Still Goes On (The Song of my Life)
Neocolours / Translation by Laya

I believe
The darkness of the day is passing
Slowly waking up
And now I'll make up for

Almost
I have resigned my self to being alone
Able to leave behind
The footprints of my past

CHORUS:
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...

Sometimes I still look
For the memory of your kiss (memory of your kiss)
I admit that it will be long
Before I can forget

It would be hard to revive
The love we left behind (I already know that)
Accepted it and now I am learning
To face this reality

CHORUS:
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...

Almost
I have resigned my self to being alone
Able to leave behind
The footprints of my past

CHORUS:
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...
The song of my life still goes on (still goes on)
Even if the shape of your heart would change (shape of your world)
I am now ready to challenge my world (challenge)
Because it still goes on... (still goes on)
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...
The song of my life still goes on (still goes on)
Even if the shape of your heart would change (oh...hoh...)
I am now ready to challenge my world (ready to face the world)
Because it still goes on...
The song of my life still goes on
Even if the shape of your heart would change
I am now ready to challenge my world
Because it still goes on...

I had been planning to write something about the end to the Great Book Blockade of 2009, but I guess this is what we mean when we say that the war has officially ended, but the mopping-up operations are still going on.

After everyone's efforts, and Rock Ed's Bookbigayan, GMA herself, on a Sunday to boot, ordered the Department of Finance to revoke the book tax. And Sales would comply.

We thought it was over, right?

But Malacanang told Teves to rescind the order. Teves, it seems has complied... by suspending it. Customs said, according to the Philippine Star, that some importers failed to submit some documents that would prove their entitlement to the exemption, which is why the order had been issued in the first place. And I recall reading somewhere... *searches* that DOF is planning to challenge the order anyway?

I mean HUH? First time I ever heard of THAT. And what documents do you need to prove your entitlement to the exemption from book tax? Isn't the fact that your shipment is made up of BOOKS enough to exempt it? This isn't like one of those cases where the authorities acknowledge a right then make up all sorts of requirements so that people can't assert it anyway, is it?

And anyway, it seems that the order is taking mighty long to trickle down the chain of command. Here's a comment from MLQ3's blog:

I have recently ordered a few books (total cost $US 77.26). I sent someone to pick them up yesterday (May 28, 2009) but she opted to not claim the books after seeing that she had to pay P1,216 in duties and other fees.

Here is the breakdown:
Customs Duty: P182
Value Added Tax: P519
IDF (this is illegible so I’m not 100% sure but it looks like I D F but could also be something else): P250
Customs Doc Stamp: P250
BIR (again illegible) Stamp: P15
Total: P1216

Also, they opened the package so that they could get at the invoice and see how much it was worth.

What’s legit? What’s not?

It seems, dear friends, that people at the post office are still implementing that idiotic search and seizure procedure taught to them by Customs of opening your package and looking for the original price of the books (search) and then charging you all sorts of fees based on that price whether or not you bought the books or got them gratis (seizure). After all, you have to pay if you want your books, right? And it seems you have the money to get books sent to you from abroad, so you must have the money to ransom, er redeem, them. The fee is in pesos. Peanuts to the dollars you must have expended to get those books.

The solution, according to our most esteemed bloggers, twitterers and plurkers, is to bring a copy of GMA's order, as well as news articles about the issuance of the order, with you to the Post Office when you go to claim your books. And do not budge even when they try to intimidate you with their hoity-toity I-work-in-the-government-and-you-can't-do-anything-about-it manners. All they can charge you is a minimal package-handling fee (and make a fuss about it if it seems too big, too).

Okay. Right. Bring out the mops!

Whaaaaaat!! SRSLY?!? I can't take this anymore!

I went home a little late just the other night so took a taxi. The taxi driver was only too eager to discourse on his reactions to the Hayden Kho - Katrina Halili scandal.

"Kawawa naman talaga yung si Katrina Halili mam, umiyak pa nga (I felt so sorry for Katrina Halili, she was crying)," he said. "Bentang benta na ang video ngayon, tag-50 isa (The video is selling like hotcakes, 50 pesos each)."

I told him I thought the police were cracking down on the vids. He said it was only in Quiapo. There are other places in Manila, after all, like Monumento and Divisoria.

Okay, I was glad to see my own street corner. I had been writing an article about Hayden Kho and wanted to not see or hear that name again for like a couple of days.

But what is this??

In the alley I usually pass through to get home, there are some benches. I usually have to excuse myself passing through groups of people busy gossiping. Usually, there were older people but that night teenagers, aged about 15 or so, were there. Girls, at that. I could not believe what they were talking about!

"Grabe naman yung si Hayden Kho, hot na hot (That Hayden Kho is really something, he was raring to go at it)," I heard one of them say as I approached.

"At nakita nyo ba si Katrina, pumapadyak padyak pa ang paa (And did you see Katrina (Halili), she was even pedaling her feet)," another put in. The whole bunch collapsed into giggles then went on discussing the sex videos in detail without a trace of embarrassment.

I felt SO mortified for them. I was shaking with indignation when I finally got home.

What are these people thinking about? What are the politicians and leaders of our country thinking? What are the parents thinking?

How did the videos proliferate so much that even the children had easy access to it, to the extent that they could discuss them chapter and verse? And who let them watch those videos?

Why is it that those children could easily discuss Hayden Kho's videos and dissect his performance in bed, but probably could not summarize the Noli Me Tangere or the El Filibusterismo? Why is it that people could summon up outrage over his behavior but not over the book blockade, or over corruption, or over all the other issues besieging the country?

Why is it that people can probably recount in detail all the things that happened from Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho's breakup to present updates, yet cannot even name one symptom of swine flu?

OMG whyyyyy????

"The day after the first shipment of books was released, an internal memo circulated in customs congratulating themselves for finally levying a duty on books, though no mention was made of their pride in breaking an international treaty," Robin Hemley says of Philippine customs officials in the book blockade.

People are up in arms over the issue, yet so far no official action has been taken (Komikero Gerry Alanguilan has a blog post on what we can do about it). We are cautioned that the more we press the matter, the firmer the government will stand by its decision. Even gifts of books from abroad are now being charged by customs, it seems (and the customs officials also READ the blog writer's personal correspondence, who died and left them GOD? Now that they perceive the higher-ups as being on their side, do they think there's no limit to what they can do?) and she is not the only one with the same complaint. I hear from Twitter that Powerbooks will not be in the Manila International Book Fair this year:

"jfnord RT @charlesatan: Talked to Powerbook's GM. #Bookblockade is taxing them 5% for their books. Won't be participating in Manila Book Fair."

So far, although there's talk of official action to be taken, (Miriam has put in her two cents, and scuttlebutt on Twitter is that Loren is going to file a case) none has materialized to date. Instead, our wonderful legislators have chosen to focus on making a big issue of a sex scandal. Heck, even a city council hundreds of miles from Manila was falling all over itself discussing the controversial videos. Whoo hoo, score one for morality (double entendre not intended)!

Yes, I understand that morality (and just plain good old human DECENCY) is a serious matter. But so is literacy. So is education. So why are our good politicians choosing to make a big fuss about these sex scandals to the extent of personally calling for punishment of the people involved yet make no move to call for the investigation into and punishment of people who (a) just made our country violate an international treaty, and (b) just helped to lower our literacy rate even more?

Is it because:
(a) sex scandals are more "interesting" and "juicy" to a lot of people, and thus gives politicians more media coverage for the coming elections (who cares about books anyway, since they do not help to win votes?);
(b) customs duties on books means more revenue, more pork, more kurakot, more income for private storage facilities, in short more money to spend on the upcoming elections, besides, the people implementing the blockade are part of the same institution (the government), so why stop the blockade;
(c) people will shift their attention to the scandal and forget about the blockade; or
(d) (the most insidious of all) they don't really care about the literacy of the people in this country because ignorant people are easier for them to convince and manipulate, so it's better to keep most of the country illiterate and ignorant? I say illiterate and ignorant because a person who cannot read has effectively been barred access to a lot of information that he/she would otherwise have known.

I sense smoke and mirrors here. Lots and lots of smoke and mirrors.

Someone suggested that customs, in fact, is correct in what it is doing, because letting books go through customs tax-free is depriving the country of income, while booksellers make handsome profits out of their books.

FEH. You are weighing income against knowledge? Like those persons who commented in the Philippine Star:

“Books are more of a luxury than a necessity and reading is a hobby for the more affluent”
“If they do that, people would be forced to buy Precious Romance pocketbooks instead of the Harry Potter series or foreign-authored computer science books. At least there would be less inflation by chance.”
“The BoC is right to impose higher taxes on imported books so that people will patronize our own books. We must always buy Pinoy-made products.”

In effect, "books are a privilege of the rich" (facepalm, headdesk, are we still that feudal?). And compare Precious Romance with Harry Potter? True, they are both flights of fantasy, but PR is, sorry to say, pure brain-numbing fluff with kilig moments and steamy scenes thrown in, and with the same plots in endless repetition. I stopped reading them when better books were available, and why should I spend 45 pesos on a 120-page Tagalog romance when I can get a copy of an 800-page award-winning opus for the same price? Conversely, I have a long list of Filipino books I am dying to buy, except that they are all way out of my price range even with an employee's discount. The really good books, the ones I would bother to read, are all priced above 300 pesos each, while I can douse my weekly cravings for reads with three to five second-hand books worth from 15 to 40 pesos each (I have a preciously hoarded paperback copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, 15 pesos from Booksale. The benefit I get from it, as a writer and editor: Unmeasurable). It's not the books themselves per se, not the paper and ink and binding, but the words, the concepts, the insights they bring us that cost way, way more than 15 pesos. What price knowledge? What price the boundlessness of the mind? Priceless.

Have you ever had a close encounter with illiteracy?

I once thought of illiteracy in the abstract sense: does not know how to read and write. Fine. But until I met and got to know a person who does not know how to read, I did not know the full sense of the word.

A person who does not know how to read cannot read signage. They cannot read even simple lists. The people I know (and they are among the greatest, most wonderful people I've been privileged to have in my life) have to rely on their children to read and write everything for them.

I once asked one of their children to accompany me to an event. She would be away from home for two days. She regretfully declined because there would be no one to keep her small sari-sari store open. Her mother does not know yet the prices of the goods for sale, she said. I unthinkingly suggested that she just make a price list for her mom. She gave me a strange look and pointed out that her mother would not be able to read the list and would not be able to list down what had been sold and for how much. Such a simple thing that we are used to doing and taking for granted, but she could not do it.

My friend, that mother's daughter, loves to read, in fact cannot get enough of books. She is very happy when I pass on to her those books I've already finished reading; in fact, a good percentage of my personal library is at their house already, where she keeps it under her bed. They are just those 15-30 peso (around 30-70 US cents) secondhand books I find on my regular passes through Recto and Booksale, but their contents are golden to her. Her older sister tells me that she reads the books from cover to cover, almost memorizing them till she can quote them chapter and verse. I know the feeling, right down to putting one's finger on a word in the book to literally pin it down and savor it.

For people like us who love to read, whose reading brings us to other worlds limited only by our minds, barring our access to books, or even just making it harder for us to get them, would be closing doors on us. It would be enclosing us in cages that get smaller and smaller. Some people do not notice the cages because they are more focused on staying alive, but for us who do, it is not a very bearable feeling.

As they say, read or die. Shall we let them kill us, then?

Latest Internet buzz: another scandal involving Dr. Hayden Kho. No wait, drop that "doctor" from his name, or the rest of the medical practitioners in the Philippines will react violently. Hayden Kho. (The ladies on Plurk have a discussion going here.)

After featuring prominently in a love triangle with the eminent Dr. Vicky Belo and the luscious Katrina Halili and attempting suicide, scandal continues stalking him, it seems. Not only was a video of him and Katrina getting, um, intimate, posted on YouTube, but this time, buzz has it that he is in another scandalous video with ANOTHER girl. Okay, that makes me wonder whether the first instance was really, well, tsamba.

There's talk of getting him disciplined by the professional associations he belongs to (I heard interviews on the radio earlier today).

But really, guys. What is this thing about sex videos? Why do people have to go and take videos of themselves during such private moments? For what? Personal gratification? To share with the whole world?

Why?

It's no concern of ours who you men (and I use the plural, this is not directed at any specific person) sleep with, as long as you are both consenting adults who will not be hurting anyone else by your actions (i.e., unmarried or uncommitted). That is an intimate, private act between two individuals. At the very least, a sense of decency should stop you from talking, or even boasting, about it to your friends, or to anyone, much more from taking videos of the act, and worse, showing them off to the rest of the world. If it doesn't, if you don't have even a scrap of that sense of decency, then you are a jerk. There are worse things to call you, but jerk is the only thing that comes to mind at present.

Some men would say that chivalry is dead, that there are no gentlemen left. How low could you sink? That's not even an excuse to treat women with disrespect. A woman getting intimate with you, sleeping with you, doesn't immediately convert her from angel to whore. (And even sex workers have rights, don't forget that.) It is not an excuse for you to treat her as if she is not entitled to feel shame or embarrassment anymore. Women have feelings. They have senses. Same as you.

I hate to have to say this, but we Filipinos know "mabilis ang karma (karma works fast)." You may be men, but you have mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, even nieces, daughters and granddaughters. What you do to a woman may not rebound on you or affect you directly, but it might just happen to one of the women in your life. Perhaps, in several years more, you would be watching a scandalous sex video but this time with tears and anger, for the girl or woman in the video is a member of your family. Hypocritical tears and anger, for after all, did you not do the same thing yourself in the past? How does the shoe fit, in that instance?

Or wait. Maybe you just wouldn't care. But then, would you still be worthy to be called a human being?

Were it not for Robin Hemley's article, it seems, we would not have known that imported books might not be available to us in the future. (Backgrounder on the Great Book Blockade of 2009 here.) Reactions have been flying fast and furious. It seems everyone has put in their two cents and more... you only have to search #bookblockade on Twitter to see how people are reacting to this issue.

Robin Hemley has brought the issue to the attention of the AWP, but the Department of Finance is standing its ground on the matter, even daring critics to take the matter to court.

With the elections so near, and the reputation of customs for corruption, some people view the DOF's position with a jaundiced eye. There was, after all, mention of the need to fill a quota as the initial impulse for the imposition of a tariff on books. Add to that the now-famous lines:

"For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you alone have interpreted it correctly?" she was asked."Yes," she told the stunned booksellers."

-----------------------------

I spent my childhood in the back of beyond; my only friends were books and magazines, most of them foreign books, thanks to librarian aunts and the donations of the Asia Foundation that made their way to our distant province.

Those books were my window to the world that no one else in our small barrio saw or cared much about. I eagerly devoured The Black Tulip, Son of Black Beauty, The Crusader, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond along with back issues of Life and Reader's Digest. I accompanied Dick, Jane, Spot and Sally, and later Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, on their adventures, all while confortably ensconced in the old rattan lounger by the front window of our sala.

I might not have left my childhood home till late into my teens, but because of my books I had long ago traveled to Switzerland and Rome, London, Paris, New York and California. I might not have met other people outside of our small, tightly knit community, but I knew that the Dutch wore wooden shoes, that the Quakers were peaceable people, and that gypsies lived in wagons and traveled all over Europe. Those books may have been fiction, but they were an education in themselves.

My school used to enter me in those general info quiz bees, which I often won. That was the difference between someone who studied reviewers for the sake of winning a contest or acing an exam, and someone who read for the love of reading and learning.

Perhaps the weirdest victory I ever had was in the division quiz bee in the English language and literature category when I was in high school... my aunt got really mad at me the night before because I preferred to read Reader's Digest instead of going through the reviewers she had compiled for me. Among the articles in that issue of the Digest was one on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the Gulag Archipelago, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

And the deciding question that won me the division championship in English that year was, surprise, surprise: Who was the Russian writer who won a Nobel prize for his book on concentration camps? My closest competitor, of course, looked at me disbelievingly when I gave the correct answer, for we certainly weren't taught about Solzhenitsyn in high school.

The next year, I again won the championship for answering correctly that the story of El Cid Campeador (Rodrigo Diaz y Vivar) was the epic of Spain (everyone else answered Don Quixote, which is a novel, not an epic, but which is probably the only Spanish work mentioned in our high school lessons). Again, that was because at home we had copies of excerpts from both books.

Whenever I got the chance to be in a library, I read. I used to volunteer to accompany my aunt to district teachers' conferences, just so I could check out the venue's library. She would ask the school librarian to let me use the library, and I would stay there, contentedly reading till someone came to collect me for lunch or to go home. Sometimes those books were dusty but showed no signs of use; a lot of children didn't bother to use the library or worse, weren't allowed in for fear they would damage the books. I certainly recall that I knew the libraries of the municipal elementary and high schools better than that of my own barrio school, because the latter was opened only once or twice in the five years I was a pupil there.

Were it not for those books, I would still be there, content to live my life bounded by the four corners of our town. Without the windows into a different world that those books had given me, I would never have known that there is still so much out there to be seen, known, felt and experienced. Without those books, I would long ago have succumbed to people convincing me that I was not good enough to go out there. Yet here I am now, and here you are, reading this blog from wherever in the world you are. Here I am now, still writing. Because of those books.

And they now want to take that away from us.

If the book blockade had been enforced decades ago, I wonder if I'd be where I am today.

Nicole has gone abroad.

Leaving me with the growing suspicion that my first theory about the whole case was right. They are trying for another "inherit the wind."

Way, way back in high school, I came across a story. I forgot the title, I forgot the book, but the argument stayed with me: If you weren't there, how would you know how long Creation really took? The length of a day may not be the same for us now as it was with the Almighty when He created the earth. A day to him might be a month to us. Or a year. Or the billions of years of evolution.

It took ten years before I read "Inherit the Wind" and found out about the famous "Scopes monkey trial" on which it was based... and found out where the argument came from. I also found out there was more than that argument to interest me about that trial.

In 1925, in rural Tennessee, in the United States, a young teacher, John Scopes, dared to challenge a law that forbade the teaching of evolution in the schools. He taught his students about evolution and was arrested and charged under that law. The resulting trial was EPIC, a battle of legendary lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, who both traveled long distances just to be in on the case that would change a nation.

But, here's the rub: it was a case of someone creating a scenario in order to create a case. A law ordinarily cannot be challenged unless there is an actual controversy, so the American Civil Liberties Union created the controversy. They looked for someone who was willing to undergo the trial just to challenge the law, and found John Scopes. The rest is history.

The difference is that John Scopes was willing to see the case through to the end. If there was a noose, he willingly put his head in it. The law he challenged would be viewed in present times as unjust and narrow-minded, and his cause, justified. And it took only his case to effect a difference.

But now?

Nicole, in the "Subic Rape Case" in which we are told now that no rape really happened, was supposed to be a symbol of all the Filipinas who have been exploited by the foreigners. Nicole was held up to all of us as a symbol: This is what the Americans have done to us and will go on doing to us. She is all of our sisters who were exploited and abused by the foreigners. She is the reason why we must kick them out of our land.

Unfortunately, Nicole said, what abuse? What exploitation? I'm tired of all this guff. Let me out of here. I need cash. Or words to that effect.

And the people who were looking to her as a banner under which to rally a cause, were disappointed, their hopes collapsed. They wanted the Americans out of the country. They wanted the Visiting Forces Agreement nullified. So, it seems, they are trying again.

After Nicole, Vanessa.

The problem, people, is that Filipinas are often viewed as prostitutes, our efforts to the contrary notwithstanding. Women who would do anything for money. Another such "rape case" would be laughable if the "victim" would be another "Nicole". A woman who goes to bars, most often in the hopes of meeting a foreigner. Yes, I know. "She asked for it" is NOT sufficient justification for rape. I would not be worthy to be called a woman if I didn't know or believe that. But then, going to bars and hotels to meet strange men, sleeping with them, and then crying "rape" just to make a case isn't justifiable either, no matter how you look at it. Act responsibly and be responsible for your actions, for goodness' sake.

If they had to find another victim to make an example of, for crying out loud, can't they find the real thing?

I learned something at iBlog5 last Saturday, 9 May 2009.

I learned that no matter what our politicians do, even if they plaster their names and faces across the whole country right now, the COMELEC cannot do anything about it.

PHAIL.

Apparently, it's that little thing called jurisdiction.

A COMELEC rep was at iBlog5 talking about election automation and the COMELEC going online and stuff. So someone asked what the commission is doing about all those irritating TV and radio ads and the posters and signs featuring larger-than-life mugs of politikos plastered all over the land.

The answer: as long as the politiko has not yet filed a certificate of candidacy, the COMELEC has no jurisdiction over him/her. He is not yet considered a candidate, and no matter if he plugs his ugly phiz all over the airwaves and the motorways, it is, apparently, NOT considered campaigning.

Apparently, even if the politiko is using public funds... refer to rule number one: He is NOT a candidate. Presumably then he can spend on campaigning all he likes because as long as he has not filed that all-important certificate of candidacy, again: He is NOT a candidate.

Splitting hairs, are we. But then, bear in mind, who makes the laws anyway?

Need we wonder anymore why all our politikos declare their candidacy on the very last day of filing?

I bet that's one little loophole that isn't gonna be plugged anytime soon. Why put an end to all that unsanctionable campaigning?

For some reason I keep imagining those politikos telling us "Nye nye nye nye nye..." everytime they air their ads or put up their posters.

Hey wait... if they're not candidates yet, then pulling down those posters will not be considered defacement of election materials, right?

That's a thought.

I wonder if I can get them for "public nuisance" on those ads.