[bvw]

What part of the Constitution grants the FEDERAL government any power to regulate speech this way? The post-FDR socialistic court's reinterpretation of the Commerce Clause to mean all powers to the Feds, and none left to the States and the People?

[anniegetyourgun]

Ann is so good with brutal truth. Like her, I'm still wondering just exactly what kind of statement kiddie porn is making, and if our founding fathers sacrificed all for it! Child pornography is not speech, it's simply designed to engage the prurient interest of sick adults.

[lelio]

Without this law, it will be impossible, in practice, to prosecute any child pornography cases
Nonsense. This case was about computer created images, not actual live children.
Child porn laws are here for one reason: to protect children from abuse. What children are being abused in drawings. It might make the user think about doing it, but you can't regulate what you think a picture makes someone think about.

[Lorianne]

I disagree with Ms. Coulter on this. Although I believe much pornography is a hateful and destructive influence in our society, I can't justify scraping the First Ammendment in exchange for (temporary) decency. Not a good trade.

The best way to counter disgusting hateful soul destroying "speech" is with speech of your own. I want the Constitution to be there to protect my free speech rights whenever I fight back against their speech. This is the true power and the ingenious checks and balances our Founders built into the Bill of Rights. We should utilize the power given to us in our Constitution.

I am free to find out who produces porn.. er, excuse me .... "speech" I don't like and to peacefully protest these specific individuals. I am free to protest openly on public right of ways in front of their home, their work, their wife's work, their grandmother's home, their kid's school, their kid's soccer game .... you name it. I am free to publicize which individuals and businesses support and bankroll "speech" I don't like and to inform others. I am free to organize boycotts of said businesses or individuals workplaces ...etc. All within my rights.

So, Ms. Coulter, when MY turn comes the Supreme Court better be prepared to defend MY right to speak. Underestimating the power of free speech is a grave miscalculation.

[Always Right]

What I don't understand is how hate-speech laws pass Constitutional mustard, and this pornography laws doesn't.

[mikenola]

"On American TV it's taboo to show touching a naked breast, but's it perfectly ok to show someone cutting it off with a hacksaw" (paraphrased from Frank Zappa) :-D

[weikel]

Sorry the majority was right the only grounds to outlaw child porn without running afoul of the 1st amendment is the fact that its a depiction and thus an incentive for an actual crime.

[StriperSniper]

You of all people should know! ;-)

[Dinsdale]

< Beavis > Ann Coulter is sexually harassing me < /Beavis >

[Steve Eisenberg]

Now this is one issue that really deserved the Ann Coulter treatment. I can't believe that people think realistic child pornography is "speech."

[Ann Archy]

If PORNO is covered by the Constituion"s 1st Amendent, then children should be able to participate, since the Constituton has no age limits except for elective office...right??

It's pure CRAP that Porno should be shielded by the Constitution.

Porno....Abortion....... HOMOSEXUALITY....Adultery....just SOME of the things KILLING our Country.

[jude24]

I disagree with the lovely and gracious Ann on this point.

The same amendment that protects the rights of pornographers to spew their filth is the same one that allows me to preach the Gospel openly, without fear of governmental reprecussions.

Thats why, whenever speech is involved, I am an unashamed libertarian.

[IronJack]

"Legitimate movie producers," Kennedy anxiously warns, might not "risk distributing images in or near the uncertain reach of this law."

OOoooooo! The world would come to a screeching halt if THAT happened, wouldn't it???

[fellowpatriot]

So, is it any wonder how they're going to vote on the CFR gag rule?

[ChadGore]

[Redcloak]

Ok... I like Ann and I'm looking forward to the gratuitous Ann pics that are bound to be posted to this thread; however, she is out to lunch on this! The Supreme Court's ruling on "virtual" kiddie porn is not about protecting smut. It's about defining what government may or may not proscribe. Government may regulate speech, such as real kiddie porn involving real kids because the production of that speech harms children. It may also regulate other types of porn as obscene, albeit under some rather byzantine rules. The theory behind such regulation is that direct harm results from the speech in question. "Virtual" kiddie porn does not have the same element of direct harm that real kiddie porn does. A "virtual" child cannot be harmed; it does not really exist. As Rush said this morning, these are cartoons.

Whether American is "awash" in pornography or not is irrelevant. What we don't need is for it to be awash in senseless government regulation. Laws regulating speech or other behaviors should be based upon a reasonable interest by the government. Protecting real children from pornographers is a legitimate insterest on the government's part; protecting "virtual" children is not.

[Pokey78]

Ping for the ACPL.

[dread78645]

...the actress who played a teen-age girl in the crucially important simulated sex scene in "Traffic" was not, in fact, a minor.

So the filming was lawfull, but under the "Child Protection Act", since the actress was depicted as under-aged, the film could have been prohibited.
Anyone possesing it could be tried in court (with very severe penalties).

I have mpegs of the BATF officers being shot at Waco, should I stand trial for their murders ?
If not, then what is the crime of having pics of a sexual nature that never happened ?

Ann, I love your opinions. But you are out to lunch on this one.

[Askel5]

Outstanding.

I think she misses the point, however. Just as the Courts must "sit in their Depends" to ensure Legal Abortion, they are bound to side with the Larry "Free Speech" Flynt pornographers every time.

Sexual liberation is a consummate form of political control. Why, without the Sexual Revolution, we'd probably never have had sufficient "crisis" to compel the need for Legal Abortion.

Eyeless on the Internet: Sexual Liberation as Political Control

[Lancey Howard]

You can just see Justice Kennedy raising his eyebrows and nodding at the profundity of Clinton's musing on what "is" is.

By the way, this "virtual kiddie porn" better be available to all on your local public library's computers or some people will get very mad and sue.

This country is shot to Hell, and like the proverbial fish, it is rotting from the head down.