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.
Bravo. This has been an interesting debate. Regardless of the politics of the matter, I think our founding fathers were cognizant that we were established as a nation by Heaven's graces. Think of all the times that we were preserved by the hand of Providence.
General Washington was blessed on a number of occasions, when battles weren't going his way, that inclement weather allowed his forces to break from the engagement and live to fight another day. There were instances in journals and letters where the writers told of rivers freezing just long enough for the Colonists to get on the other side and keep the Redcoats on the other. In the War of 1812, the British captured and burned Washington, only to be driven out of the city by a hurricane.
I think we would be wise if we enjoyed our liberty with sufficient gratitude to the Creator who endowed us with those rights. He expects us to keep his commandments. To celebrate liberty and deny the hand that gave it to us foolish.
We are currently engaged in another shooting war and we need to seek Heaven's help and not disparage it. Our force of arms is great, but Joshua took Jericho with only 200 men. The power of America is in goodness. Paraphrasing deTocqueville: "When America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.
Can anyone here imagine that pornography is something Deity would consider praiseworthy or of good report?
GW
One more thing...my wife just coincidentally emailed me this. I think it makes my point better than I tried to.
Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day
October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. Lincoln
"I thought we were talking about adult porn."
Okay. Execute a few ADULT porn buyers and the demand will disappear precipitously. (-:
MM - you haven't addressed the fact that up until in the 60s, the sale, dissemnination and production of pornography had strict limitations, subject to locality.
The ministrations of the LEFTIST ACLU, porn magnates, and a leftist SCOTUS forced everyone to accept the highly protected legality of porn, regardless of whether any communities in any state didn't want it.
Why are you siding with leftists and the use of federal force to reduce or eliminate states' rights?
The Founding Fathers of this country wrote the Constitution at a time when there were laws against obscenity and pornography. Ever heard of "blue laws"? Those wise men never considered that the right of free speech should extend to explicit pornography. It took pornography producers and pushers allied with the leftists SCOTUS and the ACLU to bring about the ubiquitous sea of porn we now find ourselves adrift in.
You refuse to address these points, and until you do, I consider your sloganeering and transparent promotion of pornography mere weasel words, meaning in essence "I want it, therefore I shall have it." Your support of pornography is nothing more than that.
Likewise, there are people like me who understand the necessity of bitch-slapping holier than thou busybodies who alway seem to think they're better qualified to run their neighbors lives, than their neighbors themselves are capable of running their own lives.
Make no mistake, I'm not surrendering to the likes of you either, and if I'm not better armed, I'm on equal footing if and when it comes to that.
Thanks for putting that quote up there.
Here for everyone's edification are a few of the Founder's words about morality and governance, just we can refer to the men who actually hammered out the original documents or fought for our freedom:
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a
nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right,
which Heaven itself has ordained." --George Washington
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams
"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will
secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are
universally corrupt." --Samuel Adams
"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin,
"Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts ... in which all religions agree." --Thomas Jefferson
I suppose you think the wise men quoted above needed bitch slapping, since they also were holier than thou busybodies?
Not at all. They recognized, as you do not, that just because something may be moral or immoral does not mean that it should be imposed or prohibited at gunpoint. Consider that the 1st Amendment specifically denies government the ability to punish violations of several Commandments.
I have no problem with you, or anyone else proclaiming the need to be a christiran, a jew, or a cyclon if that's what melts your butter. When you decide that you're going to make/force/compell/command me behave like a christian, a jew, or a cylon, that I'm going to fight back.
PeterFinn for jaywalking Czar.
"PeterFinn for jaywalking Czar."
Sounds good. My previous aspiration was to be the iron-handed, yet benevolent, dictator of a small, Latin American country.
But Jaywalking Czar sounds even better!
The Democrats, of course, will have to insist on calling me a 'Tsar'.
Consent of the governed is a concept that obviously needs a bit more air time in schools.
I guess slavish devotion to pornography lends a new meaning to "from my cold dead hands".
Picking and choosing which morality to abide by in terms of what should be legal and illegal is the most important choice to be made, not counting how to defeat Islamic Jihadis.
What do you think of Peter Singer? He's the poster boy of rejecting the moral absolutes which are essentially the same in every monotheist religion in the history of the world. You should like his proposals, since you and he are on the same wavelength of how to decide right and wrong.
That's really the irony. Porn is rather boring, and I don't watch it. Not that I'm bragging of my virtue, I'm just not overly voyueristic. Not my thing. I just don't want YOU and YOURS to make that decision for me. I resent the idea of big daddy approving my reading material. Imagine that, a grown man, wanting to be treated like a grown man.
Picking and choosing which morality to abide by in terms of what should be legal and illegal is the most important choice to be made, not counting how to defeat Islamic Jihadis.
Absolutely. I vote for freedom and liberty. I guess I'm just enamored by those obscure concepts like consent of the governed. Surely you've heard of it? Perhaps you've even heard of the great government debacle called prohibition, where the governed didn't consent and big daddy government had to back off and hand the keys to the liquor cabinet back. Countless political careers were ruined when the state legislatures ratified that Amendment against the will of the people, and in short order, those same legislatures with different bodies in the chairs repealed it.
What do you think of Peter Singer? He's the poster boy of rejecting the moral absolutes which are essentially the same in every monotheist religion in the history of the world. You should like his proposals, since you and he are on the same wavelength of how to decide right and wrong.
Ah, I see. I don't believe in your god, so you liken me to a nutbar like Singer. I've never seen that tactic before. For the record, Singer is an A1 nutboy. Singer lost me when his schtick was still animal rights, and I understand he's since moved on from there.
Actually, you're more like Singer than I my friend. You and Singer both share the ideology that big daddy government should make as many laws as possible to reign in all those nasty freedoms the people enjoy. After all, someone, somewhere, some how, just might be having fun, and we certainly have to put a stop to that.
nice!
That was a blind spot in our conception of freedom of speech. The same could be said of civil rights for minorities. Certainly, the tradition up until the 60's had been to not consider certain types of speech as being covered by the 1st Amendment. That was, in my opinion, a situation where the practice in this country did not live up to the ideal of the 1st Amendment.
The ministrations of the LEFTIST ACLU, porn magnates, and a leftist SCOTUS forced everyone to accept the highly protected legality of porn, regardless of whether any communities in any state didn't want it.
Despite their leftist agenda, these groups were right on this issue. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Why are you siding with leftists and the use of federal force to reduce or eliminate states' rights?
In this case, yes. States rights does not mean that a state can trample on 1st Amendment freedoms. These decisions did a good thing- they took power away from government, both state and federal.
The Founding Fathers of this country wrote the Constitution at a time when there were laws against obscenity and pornography. Ever heard of "blue laws"? Those wise men never considered that the right of free speech should extend to explicit pornography
Perhaps. But so what? The FF were not perfect. They did not always live up to the ideals that they wrote into the Constitution.
You refuse to address these points, and until you do, I consider your sloganeering and transparent promotion of pornography mere weasel words, meaning in essence "I want it, therefore I shall have it."
You use the same logic that liberals apply to guns. Nobody needs to justify their reasons behind using their rights.
Hmm..you didn't get any responses to your rather axiomatic statement. That's because the porn-patriots (mostly libertarian filth) KNOW you are right.
Your post is irrefutable and gleaming with Truth. George Washington would indeed be disgusted at some of the responses on this thread in support of porn.
Better the neighbors than GOVERNMENT. You Libbies cry foul at the war on drugs, yet you will have another war waged by the government if you do not police YOURSELVES. If you cannot be trusted to govern yourself, someone else will inevitably step in and do it for you, since what you do in private DOES IN FACT AFFECT THE REST OF US!
Your Choice: Christian neighbors, or the United States Government breathing down your necks at every turn (which includes busting down your door with some heavy duty artillery).
Your comments reveal the depth of denial and mental gymnastics porn-promoters have to go to in order to support their fetish:
"That was a blind spot in our conception of freedom of speech."
"Despite their leftist agenda, these groups were right on this issue."
And my favorite lie:
"These decisions did a good thing- they took power away from government, both state and federal."
So by forcing pornography on every state, city, community, county, town and unicorportated rural area by LEFTIST JUDICIAL MANDATE - at the behest of pornography producers, and removing any legal option for such communities to prohibit the sale, distribution, manufacture or dissemination of pornography - is removing the power of government? It is using the jack boot of government to limit the rights of individuals.
How you and other porn promoters can twist the meanings of words because of your addiction to your fetish is amazing to watch.
"Nobody needs to justify their reasons behind using their rights."
No, it's crystal clear why wankers like porn.
Regarding comparing guns to porn - the right to protect oneself against enemies to the right to masturbate over pictures of whores prostituting themselves? These are not in the same category whatsoever, and it is laughable that you can compare them.
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