Fracking banned in Connecticut — the word, not the deed

They’re not the first to call fracking dirty, but they may be the most vulgar by our count.

Busted Tees

A producer at the Hearst Connecticut Media Group, which owns The Stamford Advocate, delivered the bad news that the company has been “forced to block” the word from comments to deter wily readers who might “exploit” it as a euphemism for “its more vulgar cousin.”

(Those nasty readers might be vintage Battlestar Galactica enthusiasts, as the show switched to the clearly more modern “frak” for the new series. No word on whether fans of the Hungarian animated series Frakk, a macskák réme may still express their less-than-vulgar feelings for that loveable orange dog who stumbled his way into all of our hearts in the late ’70s.)

For its part, The Stamford Advocate reported on a pro-fracking demo in New York this week, with fracking in scare quotes (to preserve its purity, obvs).

Texas anti-fracking activist Sharon Wilson railed against the fracking ban on her blog.

Fracking is a real word. It is used by real — often angry — people to describe impacts to their vital natural resources, health and long-term well-being. … Banning all comments using the word fracking effectively prevents a large segment of the populace from exercising their First Amendment right.

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Well, shale.