Back when the Retired Guy was much younger, the comedian George Carlin told us about seven words he could not say on TV. The seven words were considered “dirty” and too vulgar for broadcast over the airwaves of the United States. A few years earlier the comedian Lenny Bruce had been arrested for using these words (and 2 more) in a public performance. See Seven dirty words on Wikipedia for more detail.

A few days ago President Trump released his own list of seven words. The words that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot use are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

Did anyone think President Trump would ever be mentioned at the same time as George Carlin or Lenny Bruce? We do live in interesting times.

There are many questions. Here are 2 of them. We await clarification from th White House.

Can CDC say “scientfic evidence” or is this too similar to two words on the list, “science-based” and “evidence-based”?

Can they use the term “reality based” as “based” appears in 2 banned words?