Re: The case for policing pornography

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:11:41 -0400, "GWhyte" <gwhyte3003@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>The case for policing pornography
>Ben Shapiro
>
>September 21, 2005 |
>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/bs20050921.shtml
>
>On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the FBI was seeking agents to
>constitute a new "anti-obscenity" squad. "The new squad will divert eight
>agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against
>'manufacturers and purveyors' of pornography -- not the kind exploiting
>children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults,"
>the Post stated. The FBI announced to prospective recruits that the mission
>was "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, as
>well as FBI Director Robert Mueller.
>
> The "objective" reporter for the Washington Post, Barton Gellman, promptly
>sought out FBI agents to critique the new program. "I guess this means we've
>won the war on terror," said one FBI agent. "We must not need any more
>resources for espionage." "Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse
>themselves," guffawed another. "It's a running joke among us," chuckled a
>national security analyst.
>
> The jocularity of these agents is rather disturbing. Back in 1986, Attorney
>General Edwin Meese III declared that "it is still the case that the
>production of pornographic materials is a practice and a business that
>remains substantially 'underground.'" Today, FBI agents joke about even
>bothering to police production and distribution of pornography.
>
> Of course, it is pure malarkey for FBI agents to complain that policing
>porn takes valuable resources from the war on terrorism. In the FBI context,
>every agent who polices public corruption or civil rights violation is an
>agent not working on terrorism. In a broader governmental context, the same
>could be said of welfare, health care and federal aid to the Katrina
>victims, to take some random examples. Every dollar spent by the federal
>government on causes other than terrorism takes a dollar away from fighting
>terrorism. Before we discuss cutting police power with regard to
>pornography, perhaps we should re-evaluate dedicating millions of federal
>dollars to building new bridges named after Robert Byrd.
>
> Plainly it is not governmental inefficiency these agents are worried about.
>They find the anti-pornography crowd disturbing because they believe that
>policing pornography violates fundamental rights. This has become the
>dominant view in our society: As long as what I do doesn't harm you
>personally, I have a right to do it. It's a silly view and a view rejected
>by law enforcement policies all over the country. Were we to truly recognize
>such a philosophy, we would have to legalize prostitution, drugs and
>suicide -- as well as the murder of homeless drifters with no family or
>friends. After all, if someone kills a homeless drifter, how does that
>affect anyone else? Consent should make no difference here -- that's an
>imposition of your values. Just because a murderer offends your moral
>sensibilities doesn't give you an excuse to impose your subjective values on
>a society.
>
What a ridiculous argument! Does this idiot not notice that the
'drifter' he says doesn't matter DOES matter to the drifter himself?

von
---
There is no conversation that I can have that threatens my reality and I
don't see how anyone can live with such a precarious state of mind.
---
God isn't the problem, religion is. Something that doesn't exist
can't really be a problem. Worshiping something that doesn't exist
is an entirely different subect.
.

Relevant Pages

  • The case for policing pornography
    ... The case for policing pornography ... the Washington Post reported that the FBI was seeking agents to ... Tolerance for evil means nourishment of evil. ...
    (soc.culture.african.american)
  • Re: Liberal 9th Circuit Court ruling could kill boating
    ... the civil rights of some terrorists, ... MSNBC had a piece from the Washington post on this evening about more revelations from the FBI regarding the substantial scope of its illegal spying on Americans activities. ... The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. ... The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. ...
    (rec.boats)
  • Re: One Strike and Youre Out
    ... 2002 I was surrounded by 25 federal agents from the FBI ... accused of authoring a web site that was created by somebody else. ... web site that contained a page on how to build home-made explosives. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: One Strike and Youre Out
    ... 2002 I was surrounded by 25 federal agents from the FBI ... accused of authoring a web site that was created by somebody else. ... web site that contained a page on how to build home-made explosives. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: WTC steel and dust analyzed for explosives...
    ... mid-way between the Bush cabinet/FBI leadership and the FBI agents on ... Radical Fundamentalist Unit in Washington D.C., received the memo. ... Kenneth Williams was the most senior member of a joint terrorist task ...
    (rec.motorcycles)