#48646 - 01/15/12 12:07 PM
Re: How could anyone consider making porn illegal?!?!
[Re: Girlie1980]
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Sextified
enthusiast
Registered: 08/18/08
Posts: 371
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Porn is one of those questions that have no right political answers.
I doubt ANY candidate would ever come out in favor of the porn industry. Or proudly wave at a room full of reporters and say "I love porn! I'm one of it's biggest fans! Man! Have you seen that Jenna Jameson lately? Wow!"
The most you could find these day is one of them quoting free speech tights and asking for tighter controls identifying porn. The Adult content controls are a good idea for parents. Spam, spyware, malware, credit card fraud and identity theft are much better subjects.
With politicians actually texting pics of their own wee-wee's themselves?
I don't think we have a thing to worry about.
Pure political posturing.
But given the propensity to slip little laws inside of bigger popular ones? I'd say that we all have to keep an eye on our representatives. The only time we're usually safe is when congress is out of session!
But look at the guns laws in Australia and England, (as I understand them from over here in the states.) Bit by bit they lost most of their rights to defend themselves. Look at what happened during the last horrible round of riots.
Businesses were the targets. Owners camped out inside of their stores with no way of defending themselves against mobs intent on burning them out. Help, that is part of their social contract, was never going to reach them in time. Pubs, stores and historic building were burned down. Owners forced to choose between their ives, livelyhood and their family legacy.
The mobs kept track of police, texted where they were not, and prearranged targets most likely to be out of the authorities range of protection. Baseball bat sales among homeowners skyrocketed overnight in England? Against mobs, violence, burning cars and buildings?
In California, one of the stories I heard during one of their riots was totally different. A trucking company in the middle of ground zero took a radically different approach. With innocent truck drivers being surrounded, pulled from their cabs, and murdered or beaten to death, the threat was very real.
All for the political right for a few to "express themselves" by looting and pillaging?
Once the truckers made it to the safety of the yard, they were welcomed, made comfortable, and handed a spare firearm.
Seems a couple of the owners were ex-military. They brought their weaponery and families inside of the barb wire fence. Moved empty trailers into position as barriers. Posted the deer hunters in a central tower overlooking several blocks of the community turned upside down.
Needless to say . . . after a few warning shots . . . the mob left the millions of dollars of loot trapped in the inner city well alone.
Supposedly, one visiting cop said that he felt much safer there during the riots than at his own police station!
Back on topic.
I have no doubt that at sometime during the future, another run will be made at the porn industry, erotica, sex and nudity in general. Most attempts at legislating morality fail. But before they get repealed or fought off, a lot of people can get hurt.
Fanatics on either side of any equation need to be looked after.
Weather you like it or not, porn serves a function in society. So does alcohol. It's how a person uses them, or abuses them, that makes a difference. We would prefer that kids not get exposed to beer, wine and liquor until they are older.
The same should be said about porn.
You supply booze to a minor, there are consequences. Same should be said of porn.
However, most people's first stolen drink come from their parent's supply. Most teens first glimpse of true porn comes from someone's dad's not so carefully hidden stash.
Sextified
Edited by Sextified (01/15/12 12:19 PM)
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#48652 - 01/18/12 05:45 PM
Re: How could anyone consider making porn illegal?!?!
[Re: Anonymous]
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Sextified
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Registered: 08/18/08
Posts: 371
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Assuming this is about the last unfortunate round of burning and looting in England by certain religious/economic protesters?
Seems that you had very difference coverage of what happened. Perhaps sensationalism escalates with distance.
On our news? Lot's of pictures of burning cars in the darkness. Daylight shots of very scared and rattled people standing outside of their charred and fire gutted local pub/shop/historic buildings. Confused on why they had been targeted, not having taken sides in any way.
What I do know was there were very few attacks against people.
Seemed that way to me too. I was wondering if that was the truth, and how much under reporting was being done. If a gang is about to torch your car parked on the street, usually you let it burn, and hope they move on. If they break down the door of your 'castle' you have very little good choices left to you at that point, unless you have prepared well in advance.
There were no armed mobs of rioters fighting gun battles in public spaces.
The reporters were very keen to point out how cell phones, texting and the internet was used to make sure the protesters were always one step ahead of any well organized police help. I seem to remember a great debate about the possibility of "accidental" service outages? As far as I know, they never happened in England. In the recent Middle East hot spots, communication like that was turned off almost immediately. Leaving government forces as the only side with clear means of gathering information, planning, and then quickly responding.
Not sure where gun law came into this discussion.
Only included that line of thought on how "small common sense little good ideas" quickly become movements. Groups can form overnight and they always seem to find politicians to champion them. Then what we mistakenly assume are unassailable rights and freedoms are placed in danger of being curtailed in the irresponsible overreacting response to a crying "need".
Then whatever ill happens to be the flavor of the month gets taxed, legislated, codified and criminalized.
Over here we call whole groups of efforts to legislate morality as 'sin taxes'.
Booze, tobacco, gambling, gentlemen's clubs, porn shops ect.
In the 40s and 50s the movie industry was horribly curtailed. Some of the very first movies ever made were of an adult nature. Wonder why?
Even today in my particular state, local obscenity laws are very vague. Ten years ago, you couldn't rent the extreme porn we take for granted on the internet today. Undercover cops would pose as customers, rent certain titles, then later comeback and arrest the clerk and throw them in jail. Any one who worked at such shops was constantly getting bailed out by their owners.
To this day, all adult oriented businesses constantly have to work to keep from being zoned out of existence. The original premier men's club in our area was finally shut down recently. Local politicians kept expanding the 'number of feet' such places could be from certain locations. They kept adding to the list of 'sensitive places' that were being adversely affected.
It wasn't that particular club that was causing ANY problems, rather the illegal after-hours drinking and dancing clubs. The gang violence in the area skyrocketed after embarrassingly short sighted zoning let them multiply out of control.
The only real tax revenue being generated in the entire area was from this one club. The city council was more than happy to take their cut, as was the state government.
Finally the owners ran out of money, and hastily 'grandfathered' exemptions, and they had to close their doors forever.
Now the area truly has been abandoned and is a source of even more police activity. All the adult businesses in the strip are gone and things are even worse?
A so called 'dance club' is in the old location and the cops spend even more time busting people and raiding the place. SInce the parking lots no longer have 'bouncers' protecting the patrons, its not worth your life to walk thru by yourself or at the wrong time.
One regional chain of porn stores routinely goes out of business, changes its name, and reorganizes. A cross somewhere between a true porn outlet and a condom store, the main reason they get persecuted is that they try to sell adult toys. Labeling them as health massagers worked for a long while.
But anything that looked too much like a penis, or was of a true bondage/fetish nature, got the clerks harassed and arrested. Eventually the store was forcibly reclassified as a S.O.B. (sexually oriented business)
Then the zoning commission stepped in and fined them. Then the local citizens groups, city council and prosecutors worked with the courts, and after long expensive legal procedures, the owners had their business licenses revoked.
Yet, a few months later a 'new' company would appear down the street, and the process would start all over again.
Look at how lesbian's and homosexuals were treated in the 1940's and 1950's. How any group of people different than the mainstream is still treated today.
Porn WAS illegal for a long time in many, many places.
Porn is STILL illegal in cities not that far from me. Just like alcohol still is impossible to purchase in entire counties in my state.
Things have changed, and not always for the better. Balance is a very hard thing to achieve for most societies. Overreaction, in either direction, is so much easier to accomplish.
Politicians DO campaign on issues of restricting and regulating sex and violence. And they routinely use those very issues to garner the few votes needed to push them to a close win.
Just look at the music lyric debate from a few years ago. I have no problem with stamping an album with an "Explicit" tag. Nor forcing minors to ask their parents to buy it for them. Odd how the internet short circuited that entire issue?
Some things we do need help keeping out of minors hands . . . but is removing them from the hands of all responsible adults the best way to do that?
The alarmists that I have recently heard are worried that the 'freedom' of the internet will come under even more attacks soon.
Depending on who you listen to, and who you believe, all sorts of things could be on the way. All under the guise of protecting us, raising revenue, stopping illegal copying of copyrighted material, eliminating bullying, or even catching sexual predators.
A whole host of ideas . . . many that are good enough to raise real political support . . . but at what cost?
How long does it take to transition from something like registering hand guns . . . to restricting what kinds of firearms you can own . . . until honest original concern becomes the almost total loss of effective means to protect your home and your loved ones?
How hard is it to regain any freedom once it has been lost?
Look at the temperance movement and the liquor laws in the US . . . the great national social experiment was eventually repealed . . . but the crime syndicates illegal booze running instantly created lingered on horribly for decades.
I'm not sure where all the uproar over internet porn will lead . . . but I am certain that what we do now enjoy will have to change . . . and that if we aren't careful and watchful no one but the extremists on one side or the other will be happy.
I think that the restrictions that Art has voluntarily placed on his website are thoughtful and appropriate. An example of acknowledging that some line must be drawn, doing it, and having the courage to stick with your convictions. I'm sure it costs him many contributors and visitors.
But in the end, I think it also attracts more to him than are driven away by the lack of a few story categories.
Sextified
Edited by Sextified (01/18/12 09:07 PM)
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