[PianoMan]

Free Republic - the crack cocaine of conservatism.

[BJClinton]

Hmm...from the title I thought FR was looking into an alternate source of income.

[Pahuanui]

Hyperbolic cognitive dissonance alert!

Notice the lack of differentiation between this:

Dr. Stephen Brockway, is a psychiatrist who says he has patients who spend 10 hours at a time on the Internet viewing pornography, "they don't eat, don't sleep," he said. "We call the Internet the crack cocaine of sex addiction."

And this:

Will it be when our children and grandchildren are destroyed because due to years of viewing illegal smut?

Logical congruency is our friend.

[spodefly]

I see the internet as a giant virtual city. Just as most cities have a 'red light' district, or at least, an area where sex shops, peep shows, adult entertainment, etc. is located, so does the internet. And just like the analogous city, I can choose to go to that part of town, or not.

If you stay out of that part of town, you have nothing to worry about.

[weegee]

Sex addiction doesn't require a computer. Bill Clinton does just fine harrassing women who get within his grasp.

Some stake out the bars or college parties. Some frequent strip joints and prostitutes.

Those relationships are no more meaningful than the internet geek's.

Internet usage (even non-porn sites like FR) can be an addiction just like tv viewing can be an addiction.

[bayourod]

Is this organization one of those front groups for some competing special interest lobby? Maybe the strip club owners' association or porno magazine publishers or eBay?

[malakhi]

There's PORN on the internet?

[Paul Atreides]

Dr. Stephen Brockway, is a psychiatrist who says he has patients who spend 10 hours at a time on the Internet viewing pornography, "they don't eat, don't sleep," he said. "We call the Internet the crack cocaine of sex addiction."

[Maceman]

Although I am loathe to run to the government to solve our problems, I must say that these unsolicited graphic porno e-mails are really a problem that needs to be stopped.

The essence of a free market is a voluntary interaction between two entities. Such interactions ought not generally be subject to government control. Bu I am not a voluntary party to the graphical smut that fllods my mailbox every day.

I don't know if there is a technical way that the government can stop it, but if there is, I would support government involvement in this instance.

One thing I don't understand. I don't click on these e-mails, but I'm sure the people who send them accept credit card payments.

Even if it is impossible to track where these spammers are, certainly it is possible for the government to interfere with their status as credit card merchants.

Here is my suggestion:

1)The government sets up a national registry of people who don't want spam.

2) It sets up a second list of people who will volunteer to be spam watchers (all of whom would have to be on the first registry to qualify).

3) Once a spam watcher gets an unsolicited e-mail, he makes the credit card purchase. When the bill comes, he submits it to the feds, who can then order the card companies to trace the transaction and identify the account into which the proceeds are deposited. The account is immediately confiscated, with the spam watcher getting a reward, and the card company being reimbursed for the processing expense. The account holder would be subject to severe criminal sanctions.

4) If a card company continues to make any subsequent deposits to that account, it gets assessed a fine.

I'm sure that some type of system along these lines would be both workable and effective.

Whaddya'll think, fellow freepers?

[Luis Gonzalez]

[Mr. Mojo]

University of Pennsylvania psychologist Mary Ann Layden warns, that when introduced to the brain, pornography can become "an addictive substance...that's harder for the porn addict to go into remission than the cocaine addict."

BS. The "porn addict" has a psychological addiction and the cocaine addict's addiction is both psychological and physical.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"TAKE ACTION WITH US IN THE FIGHT TO END ILLEGAL INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY"

You don't have to fight to end illegal internet pornography, just turn it in. You want to make all porn on the internet illegal.

[DaGman]

Just can't keep some people out of someone else's bedroom no matter what.

BTW, since when is porn "illegal" on the net? Last I knew the only businesses making good money on the net were porn and gambling. Free enterprise... gotta love it.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Dr. Stephen Brockway is a psychiatrist who says he has patients who spend 10 hours at a time on the Internet viewing pornography, "they don't eat, don't sleep," he said.

Lightweights. (j/k)

[daviddennis]

The internet is not "literally exploding".

If it was, someone would have been killed by the force of the blast.

The real problem with Internet porn spam is that it's fraudulent.

Sadly, there are in reality no nubile young (but over 18) girls just waiting to get passionate about the recipient of one of their emails.

If there were, I think there would be a lot of men who would be perfectly happy to receive spam :-).

D

[beckett]

From the petition:

This campaign has four main goals:
1. Outlaw all unsolicited pornography e-mails (PORN-SPAM)
2. Uphold a current ban on computer-generated child pornograph
3. Uphold a ban on the use of public computers to view pornography and requiring schools and libraries to install pornography-filtering software.
4. Require all adult-oriented websites to migrate to a domain and establish the kid-friendly “.kids” section on the Internet

None of these measures would end pornography on the internet. But what they would do is establish a huge new government bureaucracy which would regulate, regulate, regulate, and slowly strangle the internet to death.

Another case of the cure being worse than the disease.

[adam_az]

What a bunch of idiots.

Who is going to police .kids sites as being "appropriate" for kids?

What's to stop someone from making a website like www.naked.kids?

Will "grassfire" buy up and sit on .adult sites to prevent adult web sites from getting good names? Would that be legal? Who will enforce it, and who will pay?

How do you define a "porn" site? What are the penalties if they keep their .com domain name?

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

This is outrageous and disgusting!

Uh, by the way, were there any pictures that went along with the article?

[kcar]

Dr. Stephen Brockway, a psychiatrist, thinks that watching porn over the net is a "disease". Not a moral choice: a "disease". Maybe the Surgeon General should issue a warning, and enlist the help of the WHO to stop this contagion? Maybe treatment should be covered by insurance and Medicare? Maybe there should be hefty sumptuary taxes on porn parlors, video rentals, and on the internet in general (you never where people will go so just tax the whole medium) to pay for all this treatment?
Maybe this is so serious that a whole department should be carved out to attend to this affliction? Maybe Dr. Stephen Brockway should be the new department head?
Or maybe it is just a moral choice and we should just let pinheads be pinheads?

[babygene]

If your on a smut list, you visited a sight that was so inclind and gave them your email address. It's not random...

Same thing happens with the U.S. mail and getting on a sucker list. My wife gets two or three solicitations from charities a day in the mail, I get none.