Posted on 11/19/2004 3:07:51 PM PST by Lindykim
Porn Like Heroin in the Brain by Stuart Shepard, correspondent
Senate committee discusses pornography and the First Amendment.
Experts on pornography's effects on brain chemistry testified at a Senate hearing this week where a key point of discussion was whether porn is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment or addictive material that should be unlawful.
Psychiatrist Jeffrey Satinover described how pornography is analogous to cigarettes, noting that "it is a very carefully designed delivery system for evoking a tremendous flood within the brain of endogenous opioids." It's time, he added, to stop regarding it as simply a form of expression. "Modern science," Satinover said, "allows us to understand that the underlying nature of an addiction to pornography is chemically nearly identical to a heroin addiction."
Dr. Mary Anne Layden with the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania explained how a pornographic image is burned into the brain's pathways.
"That image is in your brain forever," she explained. "If that was an addictive substance, you, at any point for the rest of your life, could in a nanosecond draw it up."
Dr. Judith Reisman, president of the Institute for Media Education, called on the Senate to take action against pornography, saying it's time to mandate that law enforcement begin to collect all data and pornographic materials found in the possession of anyone involved in criminal activity. Doing so, she added, would yield data showing whether pornography is being used as a how-to manual for sex crimes.
"The evidence the panelists presented showed an overwhelming harm from pornography," said Daniel Weiss, media and sexuality analyst with Focus on the Family. He hopes the Senate will turn the evidence into action.
TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION If you think Congress should be taking serious action against pornography, you can start by thanking Sen. Sam Brownback for calling the hearing, then contact your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think. For help in contacting your elected representatives, please see our CitizenLink Action Center.
Also, to learn more about one person's struggles with pornography, we suggest the resource "An Affair of the Mind: One Woman's Courageous Battle to Salvage Her Family From the Devastation of Pornography." Author Laurie Hall shares her courageous struggle to protect herself and two children from her husband's addiction to pornography.
Apparently your idea of freedom is a godless ACLU heaven like Holland or San Francisco. But as we see a pagan society cannot be a free one. It needs a strong state to protect itself from the consequences of its own dissolute conduct.
The Christians who created this country understood that only a moral people can be free. And to be moral, society cannot be "neutral" between good and evil. That is why America was historically far more puritanical in its sexual morality than authoritarian Europe, because it instinctively understood that democracy placed high demands on the moral character of a people. Caesars happen when a noble, virtuous free people turn into a depraved bread-and-circuses mob living for sex shows and sadistic mass entertainments.
Now pay attention because you obviously cannot comprehend this and it is important. THE CORE OF CIVILIZED BEHAVIOR IS IMPULSE CONTROL. Impulse control is not innate. It is not natural to human beings. It must be nurtered and taught. The habit of placing duty and responsibility ahead of gratification is something a civilized society can only build by controlling its moral content. It is a vital precondition to becoming a responsible moral adult. Pornography is about the exact opposite. It is about immediate gratification. It is about having the impulse control of a dog in heat. Pornography is destructive of the moral values that a civilized society must inculcate in its citizens if it wishes to remain free.
That is why communities throughout American history have fought obscenity, because only a moral people, only a people with impulse control and moral restraints, can be free.
You sure got your shorts in a knot over nothing.
More junk science like creationism. Make it up as you go along to make it look like you want.
Your argument is the same as the homosexual pushers - anyone who opposes their agenda must be fighting "gay" tendencies.
As I said, being born black is a neutral, unchangeable, physical characteristic. To compare that with the chosen activity of being a pornography consumer, which can be adopted or given up, and is not morally neutral, is offensive to black people. You are comparing them to pornography users.
Nope. Just commenting that leftists' love that analogy or phrase and use it often, especially in the realm of moral and ethical issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
So what is your view of morality?
And do you see a problem with people pushing their immorality on others?
Hold your fire.
I think JeffAtlanta has run and hid.
Keep your "nanny state" slogans and go get your porn, baby bottle and blankie.
Pornography was not considered an inalienable right until the ACLU forced it down our throats.
ACLU is the epitome of nanny statism.
Obscenity laws that were freely created by democratic consent of the governed to protect their families and communities were struck down by ACLU lawyers backed up by Hollywood and activist judges. THAT is what got us to this pass.
AMEN!
Well said Pisano! Somebody said exactly what I was thinking...so now I can skip the rest of this thread.
Thanks!
Even given all that is true, it still remains that what the people in this article are advocating and the author is encouraging people to support is not within the enumerated powers or Congress to give them.
Ever read the part of the Constitution which says that the powers not enumerated were left UP TO THE STATES?????
The ACLU and SCOTUS overruled states' rights here just a little bit. Talk about the ultimate nanny state.
"Thou shalt have pornography!!!"
Yeah, but I think he's still twitching.
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