Posted on 07/14/2004 7:46:19 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
According to this Reuters article, at the end of September, 2002, McDonald's had 30,783 restaurants in 121 countries. If only half of those are in the United States, that is over 15,000. Still looking for a specific US number.
McDonalds has around 30,000 restaurants as of 2004. I don't think there are 90,000 total book stores in the US. I don't think that there that many people who can read or even just look at the pictures.
Found it!
YOU: IF the pornographer is producing illegal porn.
All you've given is a circular definition. I will be happy to agree with you that illegal porn is illegal. Would you be so kind now to tell me what your definition of "illegal porn" is, and how closely this definition matches the actual statutes as passed by legislatures and interpreted by the judiciary?
I haven't read any of the responses, but I have one question for you, or anyone that proposes government enforcement of morals. (An assumed stance based on this one article you posted....)
If we use government force to ensure that all people are living morally good lives, what value is held in that morality? In other words, if you forced everyone to live by the rules of christianity, what good would it be? If God didn't want us to be forced to chose individualy to be moral and good, why did he give us a free will?
Without the sinners committing sin, your morality is of little to no value.
How does one determine that the rate has increased, since there is no way of telling how many have gone unreported?
Why prosecute anyone for any crime then?
You didn't answer my question. But I will answer yours.
We should be prosecuting all crimes that involve damage or harm to another person not consenting to the activity that caused that harm. In the case of pornography, we have consenting adults willing to sell pictures/movies of their own bodies and we have consenting adults willing to pay for those pictures.
If we get to decide to push all morals on people with the force of the government, who gets to decide the morals?
Now, take a shot at answering my question.
Whether or not you are right with God is your business, not the state's.
Whether or not you break the law is the state's business.
I disagree with you that pornography does not cause harm. The people it harms the most are those who reduce themselves into whores for the entertainment of sexual deviants.
- We have TJ, coming off his prior shredding last night back for another session of having his illogical, anti-freedom stances destroyed solidly;
- We have robertpaulsen, who has been caught in demonstrable falsehoods before and never met a restrictive law he didn't like;
- We have biblewonk, who on EVERY thread like this, posts his "all porn should be illegal" broken record without any supporting evidence;
- We have the same people striving to equate legal porn with kiddie porn, totally ignoring the fact that NONE of us supports that outrage, despite numerous corrections;
And we post once more our refutations to all this nonsense, only to have them totally ignored by the fanatics and theocrats. Now we even have them claiming some sort of relationship between legal porn and higher incidences of rape, in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary, and even posting articles with numerous lies of their own (more adult bookstores than McDonald's).
Terry McAuliffe would love these guy's tactics...they mirror his own.
It is indeed sad that some who call themselves "conservative" have apparently no idea what the word means, and feel that they must impose their will and beliefs on other, peaceable citizens who HARM NO ONE. They wish to create an entirely new class of criminals where none existed before, and where no unwilling person is harmed or deprived of rights or property; and to use already-overworked police and federal agents who have MUCH better things to worry about than "dirty pictures" to enforce their dictates.
I'll say it again: We are in a real, shooting war right now. Devoting resources to this foolishness is as stupid as the Left's constant calls for doing the same for their pet causes and complaints. It is not only incredibly shortsighted, but also selfish in the extreme. If enacted, their policies would have the effect of making our victory in a REAL war that much more difficult. Unforgivable.
So too is the constant refrain heard on these threads that if we do not do what they wish, then we do not deserve to win.
I've spent countless posts and large amounts of bandwidth destroying these so-called "arguments". So have all of you. It's like beating the same dead horse all over again. In many ways, it reminds me of the crevo threads...no amount of evidence, logic, facts, or reason seems to penetrate the calcification which infects the brains of those True Believers who cannot, for any reason, understand that freedom for them means freedom for others. They are like Leftists...FEEEEEELLLLLiinnngs and E-Mo-Tion rule them with iron fists, and will never let go.
Fortunately, the vast majority of decent, reasoned Americans reject their nonsense, including most FReepers.
What's the point, other than a complete waste of my time?
I'm supposed to define illegal porn for you (as though you'd accept it), then compare my definiton to the actual statutes of the legislatures of 50 states, then see how it stands up against the interpretation of thousands of judicial opinions in thousands of court cases.
Yeah. Keep looking for my response. It'll be up shortly.
"For generations, it's been illegal to engage in lewd behavior in the public square. Have such laws even come close to threatening people's right to pray or read the Bible in the public square?"
Where have you been the last 20 years? Public prayer banned in schools, the 10 commandments banned from courthouses, crosses removed from city seals, "In God We Trust" under attack, etc.
How many do I have to name before the connection hits a synapse?
And all of that done in the name of "not offending" someone.
Nothing to see here.
TJ, response to your source on this post proven a big ball of lies? Starting with their lie about adult bookstores outnumbering McDonalds 3-1.
Do you support the government passing laws regarding morality? If so, then your lame attempt to disconnect the two is noted.
The question is: If we force morality on everyone and their free will is no longer making moral choices, what is the value of that morality?
Some people will be immoral in God's eyes, and they will not be allowed into the kingdom. God wanted it that way or he would never have given man a free will. Yes, he desires us all to be moral, but even God didn't force us to be!
Your post about the legalization of alcohol and gang activity was a doozie. So was your subsequent attempt to back off from it.
Square that statement with your SOURCES contention that there are 15,000 adult bookstores. 20 times would be a number of 500,000 stores renting and selling porn.
And lets use that 25,000 number for the sake of simplicity. Again YOUR sources claim that they outnumber McDonalds by greater than 3-1 is shown to be a lie.
When you have to use lies to support your argument you have no argument.
You're the one who keeps throwing around the term "illegal porn". Now you concede that you have no real definition or meaning for your use of the term?
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