U.S. declares War on Porn

Baltimore Sun ^ | April 5, 2004 | Laura Sullivan

[Quick1]

WASHINGTON -- Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.

In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in rooms of major hotel chains.

Department officials say they will send "ripples" through an industry that has proliferated on the Internet and grown into an estimated $10 billion-a-year colossus profiting Fortune 500 corporations such as Comcast, which offers hard-core movies on a pay-per-view channel.

[antiRepublicrat]

Condoning whoring for your own kids is a very different thing than simply turning your back on everyone else out there and calling it their liberty.

A reporter was walking with Mother Theresa, and as they were walking in the slums she stepped over some poor, destitute beggar woman. The reporter asked why she didn't help that woman, since that was what Theresa was known to do. She replied that if she stopped to help everyone she saw all the time, she'd never get any work done towards the goal of helping everyone.

In other words, we all have causes, but we can't spread ourselves too thin or we won't be able to help anyone. If someone I know is considering that business I'll try to keep him/her out of it, but that's as far as I can go with everything else I do.

I do know that I wouldn't make matters worse for the girls by driving the industry underground, vastly increasing the chances of abuse and ensuring a complete takeover of the industry by organized crime.

[Robert_Paulson2]

This is actually the position of Christian Socialism, not Political Conservatism.

We have a lot of them who just don't get it.
They want government to enforce the rules that God himself has apparently left up to human free will.

substituting Government, for God... for others.
and it's clearly NOT conservatism.
They are blinded by religious socialism, and won't see the light until THEIR personal rights are violated by another group of socialists.

Christian, Liberal or Islamic Fundies, all are socialistic... only their edicts differ.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Jesus: "my Kingdom is NOT of this world."

[biblewonk]

I do know that I wouldn't make matters worse for the girls by driving the industry underground, vastly increasing the chances of abuse and ensuring a complete takeover of the industry by organized crime.

This argument ignores the reality of the numbers involved with and without laws. Look at abortion. There is no way that there were 1.5 million illegal coathanger abortions per year when it was illegal. Now it's legal which makes it moral for most peoples definion. The same is true with prostitution and porn.

I know that making it stop is impossible but condoning it only expands it by orders of magnitude. This is what we have done in the name of humanistic godless liberty and government financial expedience.

[Robert_Paulson2]

bsunday

billie sunday.
progenitor of billie graham.

billie sunday was a fire and brimstone evangelist who packed stadiums in evangelistic fervor.
was a symptom of our "no alcohol" and prohibition era.

of course the approach is a religious one.
I am waiting for the w_branham screen name to show up soon too.

[Sweet Land]

If you have kids you don't want them whoring or getting facials in front of cameras. Why is it ok for people you care less about.

When my kids become adults I won't be able to forbid them from whoring or getting facials in front of cameras, either.

[Zon]

I think we've had this discussion before- you define religion broadly to basically mean a viewpoint on the world.

Webster's Dictionary defines religion so that communication can have clarity. (It does that for all words.) Some people take it upon themselves to fabricate their own definitions... Usually to support a failing ability to deal with reality. Right up there with X42: "it depends on what the meaning of is, is."

Reality is, only in bw's puny, undeveloped mind am I religious -- a mind-spun reality that exits only in his mind.

[steve-b]

humanistic godless liberty

Somebody trace this IP and get GPS coordinates; I think we've found Osama!

[biblewonk]

The point is that you don't want them doing that. Learning that they are doing that is not like learning that they are hang gliding or not wearing a seatbelt.

[biblewonk]

Man should live his wife as Christ loves the Church.

[Sweet Land]

The point is that you don't want them doing that.

The point is that my not wanting my adult children, or my neighbors, doing something is not sufficient to justify a law against it.

[Modernman]

If you have kids you don't want them whoring or getting facials in front of cameras. Why is it ok for people you care less about.

It's not okay for them, either, but it's not my job, nor the job of society or government, to stop consenting adults from engaging in bad behavior that does not hurt anyone else. I am very hesitant to allow government the power to punish adults for engaging in activities that hurt only those adults.

[biblewonk]

The point is that my not wanting my adult children, or my neighbors, doing something is not sufficient to justify a law against it.

The point is that you don't want them doing it because it is intrinsically very very evil. We make laws against things that are intrinsically very very evil. Things that lead to self destruction. We even make laws against not wearing seatbelts.

[biblewonk]

It's not okay for them, either, but it's not my job, nor the job of society or government, to stop consenting adults from engaging in bad behavior that does not hurt anyone else. I am very hesitant to allow government the power to punish adults for engaging in activities that hurt only those adults.

I'll mention seatbelt laws again. The government already has all the power it needs to make porn and prostitution illegal.

[bvw]

We are a nation too fond of fads and too prone to addictions.

An occasional and temporary house-cleaning is necessary.

But you raise an good issue. The "War on Drugs" had proven itself the ruination of respect for the individual, and ripe for mis-use of police power, a booster club for rude and impolite intrusiveness, and a license for theft-under-official-cover when it comes to property seizures.

The battle on porn is best brought by the states. The Federal Role is best keep light and advisory.

[Smedley]

Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours ... and look at pornography ... which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5 ...

And to think that some people get fired for this same thing!

[Sweet Land]

The point is that you don't want them doing it because it is intrinsically very very evil. We make laws against things that are intrinsically very very evil. Things that lead to self destruction.

Blaspheming and regularly drinking oneself into a stupor are very very evil, and the latter at least leads to self destruction. But they are not proper matters for law.

We even make laws against not wearing seatbelts.

We shouldn't. I know of no scriptural justification for using government to protect people from themselves.

[Modernman]

The point is that my not wanting my adult children, or my neighbors, doing something is not sufficient to justify a law against it.

Bingo.

[Modernman]

I'll mention seatbelt laws again.

No first amendment issues are raised when it comes to seatbelt use. Porn, on the other hand, is a type of film-making (or photography, or writing, whatever). A legitimate argument can be made that it is a type of speech. It does put forth a message- i.e., that promiscuity is a good thing.

The government already has all the power it needs to make porn and prostitution illegal.

Prostitution, yes, since that isn't a type of speech. Porn falls under protected speech.

[biblewonk]

Porn is not speech and no argument can be made except for the kind that contains "what is your definition of alone". That kind of argument can be made about anything.