DUH, DUH, DUH.
You said about child porn 'legal or not'.
Where, in the USA is child porn legal?
I never said it wasn't here. You, on the other hand, said it was >>legal<<.
Where, then, is it legal?
Hey let's not be abusive...you're stuck on the child porn issue as though that was the most egregious error in my thinking, but I'm questioning whether or not the 1st amendment was meant to be an amoral document? Don't dance away from the question.
Are we free to say anything we want where ever we want and in any context? Did our forefathers envision the first amendment as a hedge aroung the free expression of Porn?
That is what I hear you saying!
My definition of "child" is some what looser in this context. In my exploration of the broader question of the 1st amendment and its implied lack of moral restraints as envisioned (and celebrated) by the courts today, I made the mistake of throwing the child issue into the mix.
I should have better explained that I see children impacted by porn thru its dissemination in our society, in that access to it (after the magazine or movie leaves the book-store) is still distressingly easy. Surely "barely legal teens" are highly sought after in these industries, the more child like they look the more desirable! They are still "children" in the experiential and moral sense, though "legally" at 18, they are free to act in any way they wish...unless they want to drink...then they are "children" till age 21(but that is another issue all together)
I'm after the more meatier argument, this notion of pure unfettered speech, supported by an amoral interpretation of the 1st amendment. Is that what we really want? Is it what we really mean by "free speech?
I mean there are laws against my inciting a false panic in a movie house by yelling "fire!". I can't directly utter a verbal threat against the president's life despite my intrinsic unaliable rights to free expression. Public saftey concerns may allow cops to restrict where I burn flags or have anti-American protests.
Clearly we have made some judgments about certain types of speach as we do have ordinaces in place to restrict such speach as hazardous to the public good and order!
Even the attempts by Demoncraps to bring "hate speech laws" into fruition, shows that the first amendment may be in need of an infusion of moral vision and clarity!