Battle Brews As Porn Moves Into Mainstream

Breitbrat ^ | 04/01/2006 | David Crary

[Panerai]

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans.

It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.

Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.

"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.

"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."

The activists' adversary is a sprawling industry that, by some counts, offers more than 4 million porn sites on the Internet, that in the United States alone is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year. A tracking firm, comScore Media Metrix, says about 40 percent of Internet users in the United States visit adult sites each month.

Porn products are featured at popular sex expositions and retail chains such as Hustler Hollywood. Major hotels provide in-room porn, and adult film stars are now mainstream celebrities. Mary Carey attended a VIP Republican fundraiser in Washington in mid-March; Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" hit the best-seller lists and she hosted a racy pre-Super Bowl party in Detroit in February.

[little jeremiah]

Did I mention any kind of assault?

Nope.

[Scotswife]

"It is not pornography that is so harmful, but it's alliance with Hollywood, television, rock and roll and the low arts in general"

It is the saturation that is so harmful.
And now it is going to be in passing automobiles, on the sidewalks, in restaurants - as more people begin downloading this crap onto their new ipods.

And if I fail to keep my kids from seeing someone's filth on a passing ipod, I'm sure I will be accused for being a bad mother for not "shielding" my children better.

[little jeremiah]

Your substition of words isn't applicable. Guns and porn have nothing in common whatsoever other than the fact that they are two classes of objects in the world.

Can you substitute "vegetables" or "snow tires"? No? Well, "guns" doesn't make sense either.

Your support of pornography is weakening your reasoning ability.

[Scotswife]

"And Bundy making an execution eve interview blaming his crims on porn don't count."

How convenient for you. So...when you see someone contradict your position you just dismiss it.
Hey - if it works for you!
I'm not buying it.

[al baby]

Thats one hairy pussy cat

[Kozak]

Oh man here we go again.

Victorian Prohibitions

Interest in sexual relationships is nothing new and therapeutic devices, sometimes quite bizarre, have always been available (94). Many athletes refrain from sexual activities prior to competition with the belief that strengths and abilities will otherwise be reduced. Masturbation, or onanism, has been associated with the development of weakness, mental illness, neurologic disorders, blindness, and so on for generations. Many ways to "cure" this habit were available in the 19th century (95-97).

A Victorian "cure" for excessive masturbation.../

[slimer]

Like sprained wrists?

and carnal tunnel syndrome.

[little jeremiah]

Excellent rebuttal.

And just remember, the pro-porn crowd are on the same team as the ACLU and Larry Flynt, their hero!

[MarkL]

"And Bundy making an execution eve interview blaming his crims on porn don't count."

How convenient for you. So...when you see someone contradict your position you just dismiss it.

Hey - if it works for you!

I'm not buying it.

So, let me get this straight. You're "buying" into Ted Bundy's statements that it was porn that turned him into a serial killer...

And I'm not buying Bundy's pre-execution revelations that it was porn that made him murder those women. Bundy was well known for his maniputlations of the press and legal system. I would be willing to bet that he got quite a good laugh at getting the people he despised to believe what he fed them, hook, line, and sinker.

Mark

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Let's not forget, that Porn, (perversion) was the beginning of the end for all great societies. From Babylon, Greek, Roman, right on down to our time period, the historical record does not make exceptions to this moral rule.

Anyone who tries to claim that we are any different in this day and age, are either naive or ignorant.

[MarkL]

Your substition of words isn't applicable. Guns and porn have nothing in common whatsoever other than the fact that they are two classes of objects in the world.

Can you substitute "vegetables" or "snow tires"? No? Well, "guns" doesn't make sense either.

Your support of pornography is weakening your reasoning ability.

Not at all. Propagandists will use the same sorts of statements, no matter what they are trying to demonize. You claim that porn hurts children. Sara Brady claims that handguns hurt children, and in fact, uses similar arguments to the ones you posted previously. As I said, your quote would fit right in with the gun banners crowd, if you just replaced the word porn with handguns.

Mark

[Scotswife]

I think it's possible for a person to reflect on their life and state where they think it went wrong.

I have seen too much damage to people's lives to buy into the notion that porn is harmless.

That you find it easy to dismiss it is not surprising to me.

[MarkL]

And just remember, the pro-porn crowd are on the same team as the ACLU and Larry Flynt, their hero!

Hey! That's a good one!!!! I'll bet we can find all sorts of unsavory groups and people that agree with ONE of the views of the people we should demonize... Let's see... Hey! I've got one! The KKK is for securing the borders of the US! "And just remember, the anti-illegal-immigration crowd are on the same side as the KKK, their heros!" Hey, that was easy! Should we try some more? We all know that the radical islamists as well as other religious crackpots are all for their own "forms of morality." How about this... "And just remember, the anti-porn crowd are on the same team as the Taliban, and Fred Phelps, their hero!"

Hey! This is easy!

Mark

[little jeremiah]

Or will assume any position in order to support their own vice.

[little jeremiah]

You're really stretching it. Your statements are 100% illogical. Some stuff does harm children, some doesn't, etc.

I'm a gun owner and have a concealed carry permit. I am a strong supporter of my Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and your rights too.

In essence, your feeble argument is that anyone who says that anything at all will harm children is a drooling liberal who wants to take guns away. That no one should give a s*** about children. So what if kids are damaged by either seeing porn or being around adults who "use" it and are damaged by the adults selfish and vicious attitudes towards sex. Who cares.

All that matters is that porn freaks get off.

[little jeremiah]

Stretching it again.

The ACLU and Larry Flynt are the actual reason porn is legal. They are the point men, the vanguard, the supporters and defenders. They aren't just some flakes on the fringes, they're your main men. They're the heroes who made E-Z porn what it is today.

Just to take apart one of your "arguments", I've never read of the KKK's position on borders - but I have read of the ACLU's and Flynt's position on porn - they're the big dogs. They are powerful, especially the ACLU, and the funny thing is, the ACLU is always wrong, all the time, and supports every manner of leftist causes.

The KKK and Taliban's philosophies have zero to do with any of the conservative positions I hold or the others who share similar conservative views.

My point is valid, since the ACLU and Flynt are central to the discussion; whereas your bringing in the Taliban and Phelps (a Democrat and FO AlGore) are red herrings.

Anyone who "needs" porn to have a sex life is a miserable human being.

[little jeremiah]

I was thinking among my acquaintances and thought of at least a couple more men whose lives are messed up due to porn. So I know at least 5, and I am a veritable hermit.

[Dumb_Ox]

When did America become the Wankers' Paradise?

One Pornmonger and one of his whores was invited to a Nat'l Republican Congressional Convention. Pandering to lust is bipartisan, alas.

[MarkL]

That you find it easy to dismiss it is not surprising to me.

I find it easy to dismiss people who claim that their lives have been destroyed by inanimate objects. It's the choices that they make that determine what direction their lives take. I've known people who have had all sorts of chances to change their lives, and have refused to make the effort to do so. I know a woman who I spent the last year coresponding with while she was in prison, and less than a week after she was released, she's disappeared. As far as I know, she's doing drugs again, and back into prostitution, to get money for her drugs. She was staying with a decent family who opened their home to her, in order to help her get back on her feet. I'm finished with her. I'll continue to try helping people who want to change their lives, but I will not listen to people who try to blame their lot in life on inanimate objects.

There are some people who claim that some people are "slaves" to their "addictions." BULL! Words mean something. Slavery is where people or a government oppress someone. People living under those conditions are people who deserve the sympathy of being considered a victim, and deserve to be helped by others. Claiming to be a slave to addictions is claiming that you have no control over your own life.

Mark

[Scotswife]

So you think there is no such thing as addiction to anything?