Posted on 03/18/2012 7:42:17 PM PDT by Fred
Last week Rick Santorum vowed to end America’s “pandemic of pornography,” insisting that if he were president he would limit the rights of adults to show and view images of consenting adults having sex. No doubt there is too much pornography in this country, and anyone thinking of watching it should go read their Bible instead. But what I want in a president is a pragmatist, not a panderer.
It would have been one thing for Santorum to say that his real crusade is against pedophilia or against child trafficking. Those are real evils that must be stopped. But that’s not what he said.
Here’s why Santorum should stop talking about porn.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Your Post #29 is spot-on.
From Rick Santorum’s website. I prefer Newt, but this sounds reasonable and rational to me; I think Rick is right. Only liberals/libertines/libertarians would find problems with this:
“Enforcing laws against illegal pornography”
America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography. A wealth of research is now available demonstrating that pornography causes profound brain changes in both children and adults, resulting in widespread negative consequences. Addiction to pornography is now common for adults and even for some children. The average age of first exposure to hard-core, Internet pornography is now 11. Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking.
Every family must now be concerned about the harm from pornography. As a parent, I am concerned about the widespread distribution of illegal obscene pornography and its profound effects on our culture.
For many decades, the American public has actively petitioned the United States Congress for laws prohibiting distribution of hard-core adult pornography.
Congress has responded. Current federal “obscenity” laws prohibit distribution of hardcore (obscene) pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops and through the mail or by common carrier. Rick Santorum believes that federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced. “If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.”
The Obama Administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws. While the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families, that will change under a Santorum Administration.
I proudly support the efforts of the War on Illegal Pornography Coalition that has tirelessly fought to get federal obscenity laws enforced. That coalition is composed of 120 national, state, and local groups, including Morality in Media, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, American Family Association, Cornerstone Family Council of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania Family Institute, Concerned Women for America, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a host of other groups. Together we will prevail.
Then you are part of the rotten, festering sore that has this once great country has become. As long as it doesn’t affect my pocketbook, then everything is A-OK. Pornography is a blight on this nation and God’s judgement is not far behind.
1 I know Santorum shouldn’t get sidetracked
2 I know this issue probably can’t work.
3 Isn’t it a sad commentary about our society?
FCC.
Pfft, how dare you suggest such a thing ;)
“Not what I want in a president”
Duh....then don’t vote for him. Of course that will leave you with Obama or Romney.
Santorum acts like an excited puppy leaping for a snack every time he is asked a question. He seems to have little discipline at all, and - although he best represents conservative views in general - he seem incapable of focusing as needed on the key issues required to destroy Obama. Contraception? Porn? Rick should just say “oh shut up and stop trying to change the subject...the issue is Obama’s tyranny, and I will END it!:
Santorum has become a “Johnny One Note” and a note that, while important, isn’t immediately of interest to folks who are unemployed or paying $4+ for gas or who have a family member fighting (or being restrained from fighting) in Afghanistan, or who paid $50 for groceries that would have been $35 a year or two ago.
If we are to get this country back on track we need far more than one politician who can smack down the media, we need a whole fleet of them.
Rick “Da Debbil Made Me Do It” Santorum is unelectable. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and perhaps the most conservative of the Republican field but the media will crucify him, pun intended, if he gets the nomination. Most Americans claim to be somewhat religious but someone with Santorum’s kind of faith scares them.
> Say, wasn’t Forbe’s dad a homosexual?
I don’t know, was he? Apparently you know a lot more about it than the rest of us.
“When asked about pornography, contraception, etc, Santorum should answer “Let’s talk about something more urgent, such as jobs, economy, gas prices, Afghanistan etc”. Getting tangled up on social issues is a loser.”
When you run for POTUS, then you can decide how to campaign. Rick and Newt have their priorities...they have to be who they are. IF you don’t like them...don’t vote for them. You can then enjoy 4 more years of Obama or possible 4 of the Magic Mormon flipfloper.
Since Rick Santorum has been on the scene, I have heard the words gay people, sex, gay porn, porn, porn that kids see, contraception pills.. more than the words JOBS and ECONOMY. Rick should Never had been elevated to take on Romney. Newt, may had some issues but he sure is a man who can get things done. Don’t tell me his wife stuff because the other man has a wife stuff past too. All of the stubborn folks who would not give Newt a chance, has got us in the mess. Why wouldnt you listen to common sense. Imo.
“We have a Supreme Court that has said that porn is a First Amendment right, but mentioning prayer or the Bible in school is forbidden. No wonder our country is going to the dogs.”
Amen to that!
True, and a man has to be a man on HIS own-.
He certainly does keep giving the media plenty to
hammer him with. Also, the silence regarding his book
from a few years ago ‘It Takes a Family’, is deafening.
I have not read it,nor do i plan to, but i have a feeling
that there is a lot of the preachy type stuff in it that
the media will have a field day with. They’re all holding
back,together, so it must be useful.
Me too. Nikki Hailey, Christine O"Donnell & Anne Coulter in for Romney & now Rick Santorum seemingly falling on his sword; Mitt really seems to have covered his bases here.
Why Rick Santorum Should Stop Talking About Porn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh Please.
Here we have the liberal enemedia telling us (for our own good) what issues we can and can not talk about.
Look. There is not a nickels worth of difference in the jobs programs, the economic solutions, the crony capitalism and other similar issues between RINO’s and democrats. The only thing that sets us apart?
SoCon issues.
So by God, if Santorum wants to get all “preachy”, LET HIM.
Is he wrong? We know for a fact that Obama is DEAD WRONG on social issues. And Bammie’s smug, arrogant, in your face attitude is sickening. So, if porn or contraception or a hundred other moral issues are what there is to decide over, then lets draw that line in the sand.
But for the media to tell us that we are naive fools for focusing on porn as a presidential issue to laughable. But what is worse is the number of LIBERAL FREEPERS who agree with Forbes.
“Pornography is a blight on this nation and God’s judgement is not far behind.”
Amen to that!
Judge Robert Bork wrote what follows in 1995:
The leader of the revolution in pornographic video, referred to admiringly by a competitor as the Ted Turner of the business, offers the usual defenses of decadence: “Adults have a right to see [pornography] if they want to. If it offends you, don’t buy it.” Modern liberalism employs the rhetoric of “rights” incessantly to delegitimize restraints on individuals by communities. It is a pernicious rhetoric because it asserts a right without giving reasons. If there is to be anything that can be called a community, the case for previously unrecognized individual freedoms must be thought through, and “rights” cannot win every time.
The second notion-”If it offends you, don’t buy it”-is both lulling and destructive. Whether you buy it or not, you will be greatly affected by those who do. The aesthetic and moral environment in which you and your family live will be coarsened and brutalized. There are economists who confuse the idea that markets should be free with the idea that everything should be on the market. The first idea rests on the efficiency of the free market in satisfying wants; the second raises the question of which wants it is moral to satisfy. The latter question brings up the topic of externalities: you are free not to make steel, but you will be affected by the air pollution of those who do make it. To complaints about pornography and violence on television, libertarians reply, “All you have to do is hit the remote control and change channels.” But, like the person who chooses not to make steel, you and your family will be affected by the people who do not change the channel. As Michael Medved puts it, “To say that if you don’t like the popular culture then turn it off, is like saying, if you don’t like the smog, stop breathing. . . . There are Amish kids in Pennsylvania who know about Madonna.” And their parents can do nothing about that.
Robert Bork 1995
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