Posted on 12/09/2004 1:16:14 PM PST by Lindykim
Pornography is Anything But a 'Victimless Crime' 12/8/2004 By Cheri Pierson Yecke How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact?
Jud Fry -- one of the characters in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! lives in a shack that is papered with pornographic images. He is a loner, lacks social skills, and is feared by his neighbors. He is clearly capable of murder. This insight into the character of a porn addict hit the Broadway stage in 1943.
Fast forward to 2004. A sexual assault and several attempted abductions of girls in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area are allegedly the work of 19-year-old Ryan Mely, who has been charged (for starters) with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He apparently was a loner who was feared by his neighbors. Jud Fry is a fictitious character who bought his porn from an itinerant peddler. How did Ryan Mely get his start? Apparently, pornography was a family pastime. While some dads bond with their kids by fishing or playing hockey together, it appears that Mely and his father (a convicted sex offender) shared an interest in pornography. It was reported that sexually explicit material was found at the family home and on their computer.
Is anyone really surprised that pornography is involved here? It has been 60 years since a Broadway musical portrayed what social scientists and criminal analysis have now found to be true -- addiction to pornography can lead to violent sexual behavior. Dr. Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist and expert on sexual addictions, has identified four stages of progression among his patients.
The first stage is addiction, where the attraction to porn is overpowering and the viewer keeps craving more. The next stage is an escalation to more shocking and deviant images, as the earlier ones have lost their power to stimulate. Third is desensitization, where anything earlier seen as disturbing and repulsive becomes viewed as commonplace. Finally, satisfaction cannot be reached unless the perpetrator begins acting out the activities witnessed in the pornography. In effect, fantasy must become reality.
The events in which Mely was allegedly involved appear to follow this pattern. Perhaps the same is true for Alfonso Rodriguez, the man who allegedly abducted and murdered Dru Sjodin. Rodriguez apparently had an infatuation with Dru, who worked at Victoria's Secret, an upscale lingerie shop. On several occasions he allegedly called the store where she worked, asking for her by name.
Victoria's Secret is well known for its racy, soft-porn "fashion show" where voluptuous young models strut the runways in revealing lingerie. The liberal National Organization for Women called it "exploitative" and the conservative Concerned Women for America condemned it as a "high-tech striptease." Regularly protested by both sides of the political spectrum, the company announced in April that it will no longer air this event
The last Victoria's Secret "fashion show" aired on network television November 19, 2003. Dru was abducted three days later. Could it be that Alfonso Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, watched the show and was propelled into Dr. Cline's fourth stage of sexual deviance? This is a question his judge and jury may consider.
In an interview the night before his 1989 execution, serial killer Ted Bundy revealed the influence of pornography on his life.
A case study for Cline's four stages of addiction, Bundy started his descent into sexual deviance and murder with magazines he found in the neighbor's trash. His addiction escalated until he felt compelled to act out his desires in more than 30 murders that were accompanied with violent sexual acts.
He warned Americans: "There are those loose in [your] towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media, in its various forms -- particularly sexualized violence ... . There are lots of other kids playing in the streets around the country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, because other young people are reading and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today."
Abundant evidence has demonstrated the tragic impact of pornography. How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact? The elections of 2004 have sent politicians the message that morals matter, so now is the time to focus on the impact of pornography -- the so-called "victimless crime."
Cheri Pierson Yecke is a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy at the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis. She is a former Minnesota commissioner of education and is author of The War Against Excellence. This article first appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Used with permission.
Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 E-mail: mail@cwfa.org
www.pureintimacy.org Check it out. Again, I say, we all have the right, as adults, to porn, fatty foods and overabundance of alcohol and cigarettes. Some can kill your body, some can whittle away at your soul. It's just important to be informed and consider your influences, and how they may be desensitizing you.
Silly analogy. Playing in the street is not illegal just to protect foolish people from their own stupidity, it's illegal because playing in the street causes accidents and therefore damages other parties.
Libertarians......real "daydream-believers" LOL!
snip...I'm just taking yout logic to its natural conclusion: if looking at other people performing sex acts with their consent is the
No, what you're Really trying to do, is to devise a meaningless counter issue in an effort to absolve yourself from being guilty of commiting "legal" peeping tomism. Why? Because although you commit it, you don't want to be thought of as the sort of person who engages in that sort of depravity.
If something is legal, how can one be guilty of it? If a friend lets me borrow his car, am I guilty of "legal" grand theft auto?
If someone lets me observe them engaged in a sexual act, what am I guilty of?
I don't get that at all? What does playing in the street have to do with anything?
You belong over at DU, since you can't articulate an intelligent response, and resort emotional squawking without facts and to childish name calling.
Go away.
Let's assume that I am a porn addict and while I'm playing on the "Information Super Highway" I innocently view, with satisfaction, a voluptuous 17 year old daughter/sister of somebody who cares, in provocative poses, having lied about her age or whose pimp lied about her age. Is that an accident? Am I a party to child pornography? Is ignorance an excuse?
On your part? Sure, it's an accident. If you weren't looking for child porn, that is an accident.
Am I a party to child pornography?
No. One of my poker buddies prosecutes child porn cases for the DOJ. It is a crime to knowingly receive, produce or distribute child porn. The key word is knowing. If you look at a picture of a girl you think is of legal age, you have committed no crime.
Is ignorance an excuse?
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but igorance of fact generally is. If you don't know what you're looking at is child porn, you do not posses the requisite mental state to be in violation of child porn laws.
Pizza courier 'targeted' Amsterdam sex zone
From the article...
The emails warned that "terrorists in Amsterdam East" were plotting an attack on the Wallen area in Amsterdam, De Telegraaf reported. Muslim extremists, the paper said, were allegedly furious at the lack of morals in the prostitution zone.
Read this and let me know if you still think that porn producers have any incentive at all to use underage women.
Inside Operation Candyman, the FBI's crusade to sweep the Net clean of child abuse.
He was a stand-up Marine, a beloved cop, and a local hero until the government branded him part of the largest kid porn ring in history.
Under the federal sentencing guidelines, his crime will yield a maximum five-year sentence, with leeway for a downward departure by the sentencing judge. On the basis of Vaughn's excellent record in the military and as a police officer, the prosecutor agreed to request a downward departure. The judge will also make a recommendation to send Vaughn to either a federal prison or a psychiatric correctional facility. As part of the plea agreement, Vaughn waived his right to appeal the sentence. He also arranged to enroll in a group treatment program after his incarceration. Under Megan's law, he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.
I once read that Lynn Riggs who wrote the play, based all the characters on real people.
Christ told us that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). I think it's a safe bet that Satan is using pornography (among many other tools) as one method to destroy the Family - thereby weakening the Church from the outside.
It is no secret that pornography destroys lives. It divides couples, it devalues people, and it creates false expectations. It's these false expectations, that when people are inundated with it, have trouble gaining and maintaining relationships.
Churches don't crusade against obesity however, since that would drive away many of the members. I've heard my pastor mention in passing that we should take care of our bodies, but has never seriously attacked it or devoted a series of sermons to it."
Stop it bro. You're embarrassing yourself AND Free Republic with a degree of idiocy that rivals DU.
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