Wednesday, July 27, 2005
porn! porn! porn!
Speaking of moderate Democrats, the one area in which they can definitely be said to be taking the lead is the area of restricting access to the Internet and video games. Well, their stated goal is to restrict minors' access to the Internet and video games, but as we all know, such efforts necessarily lead to the restriction of adults' access to the Internet and video games, and this is one key reason why these laws are invariably overturned.
Three recent cases:
1) Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and her "Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005." This one, spawn of "Third Way," the self-proclaimed centrist think tank/advocacy group, would force age verification on "pornographers," and tax transaction of "pornography" at 25% in order to create money to pay for child protection programs. Cosponsoring the bill are a bunch of other "centrist" dems.
2) Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and her Grand Theft Auto jihad. She says she wants a probe into why it got an M instead of an AO rating, and she is sponsoring some sort of legislation to prevent access to minors of certain video games.
3) Our own Gov. Rod Blagojevich is on his own warpath, with an Illinois version of the limiting-access-to-video-games bills that have already been struck down around the country.
They come from a long line of Democratic scolds, a line which includes Tipper Gore. It's odd to me. Is THIS the issue that the Democrats think is going to get them back into political power? I just ... I don't see elections being won or lost on how fervently a given politician can exploit a law that will almost certainly be overturned (and cost the government money to futily defend). Especially now during a critical turning point for the Democratic party, with the GOP abusing its power on a daily basis, the AFL-freaking-CIO splitting up, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a whole bunch of lies lying in its wake, an out-of-control deficit and terror bombings somewhere in the world every day, and this is going to make people stop and say "wow! I'm gonna give the Democrats another chance!"
Because if they're not going for popular support with this one, why risk turning off us free speech/civil liberties types? Is it because we have nowhere to go, thanks to the 1984 promises of the other side?? Is it because they've read the polls, and realize the First Amendment just ain't as popular as it used to was, so why not just go hog wild?? Is it because they truly think the state can and should be involved in determining how much of a boobie has to be showing in order for that boobie to harm a kid? And how on earth are they going to regulate random foreign Web sites, not to mention email porn, p2p porn, free porn, etc.? (Heck, I'd argue that parents have the least to fear from pay-for-porn sites, since kids aren't gonna spend their Wendy's wages on that for long.)
Here's another article on Lincoln's bill. Really, why is it that it's all Dems seeming to take the lead on this? My god, how many Americans don't have health care?!?
As a colleague said, With friends like these...
UPDATE 7/28: I hate to send you to this site, but it looks like G-Rod is at it again, saying he supports the state mandating filters for kids in libraries. One minor problem, Kathy Valente manages to slip "and violence" into her statement about problematic things that kids can view on library computers. I assume that includes stopping 17 year olds from going to the Army recruiting site, right?
Of course, a Democrat is the lead sponsor of Illinois' failed library filtering bill.
Three recent cases:
1) Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and her "Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005." This one, spawn of "Third Way," the self-proclaimed centrist think tank/advocacy group, would force age verification on "pornographers," and tax transaction of "pornography" at 25% in order to create money to pay for child protection programs. Cosponsoring the bill are a bunch of other "centrist" dems.
2) Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and her Grand Theft Auto jihad. She says she wants a probe into why it got an M instead of an AO rating, and she is sponsoring some sort of legislation to prevent access to minors of certain video games.
3) Our own Gov. Rod Blagojevich is on his own warpath, with an Illinois version of the limiting-access-to-video-games bills that have already been struck down around the country.
They come from a long line of Democratic scolds, a line which includes Tipper Gore. It's odd to me. Is THIS the issue that the Democrats think is going to get them back into political power? I just ... I don't see elections being won or lost on how fervently a given politician can exploit a law that will almost certainly be overturned (and cost the government money to futily defend). Especially now during a critical turning point for the Democratic party, with the GOP abusing its power on a daily basis, the AFL-freaking-CIO splitting up, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a whole bunch of lies lying in its wake, an out-of-control deficit and terror bombings somewhere in the world every day, and this is going to make people stop and say "wow! I'm gonna give the Democrats another chance!"
Because if they're not going for popular support with this one, why risk turning off us free speech/civil liberties types? Is it because we have nowhere to go, thanks to the 1984 promises of the other side?? Is it because they've read the polls, and realize the First Amendment just ain't as popular as it used to was, so why not just go hog wild?? Is it because they truly think the state can and should be involved in determining how much of a boobie has to be showing in order for that boobie to harm a kid? And how on earth are they going to regulate random foreign Web sites, not to mention email porn, p2p porn, free porn, etc.? (Heck, I'd argue that parents have the least to fear from pay-for-porn sites, since kids aren't gonna spend their Wendy's wages on that for long.)
Here's another article on Lincoln's bill. Really, why is it that it's all Dems seeming to take the lead on this? My god, how many Americans don't have health care?!?
As a colleague said, With friends like these...
UPDATE 7/28: I hate to send you to this site, but it looks like G-Rod is at it again, saying he supports the state mandating filters for kids in libraries. One minor problem, Kathy Valente manages to slip "and violence" into her statement about problematic things that kids can view on library computers. I assume that includes stopping 17 year olds from going to the Army recruiting site, right?
Of course, a Democrat is the lead sponsor of Illinois' failed library filtering bill.
