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Commentary: Pornography and The Problem with History

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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 11:51 AM
Original message
Commentary: Pornography and The Problem with History
Edited on Sat Apr-01-06 12:10 PM by benburch
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=Print_Article&Content_ID=263799 <--- Link to the text only "Print" version of this article. The rest of the site, however is not child safe or workplace safe. (I'm told there might be a popup ad here... I don't see it so it is either not able to force itself on a mac, or it came from some other spyware on the computer which saw it.)

Commentary: Pornography and The Problem with History

By: Mark Kernes


CHATSWORTH, Calif. -

The problem with United States history – you know, one of those subjects that's currently being cut back in public schools in favor of more hours on reading and math so the students can pass the "No Child Left Behind" mandated tests – is that there's so much of it around, and that so much of that is so well documented.

History is certainly one of the interests of the Heritage Foundation, the religio-reactionary think tank heavily bankrolled by Richard Mellon Scaife, who's been on the foundation's board of directors since 1973, and who's given millions to the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution as well. Scaife also reportedly paid for Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against President Clinton. In any case, there's no question as to which side the Heritage Foundation comes down in the War on Pornography.

And since the Heritage Foundation, whose averred mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense," is so interested in America's heritage, and since the primary U.S. document is its Constitution, the Foundation decided to "bring[] together more than one hundred of the nation's best experts to provide the first ever line-by-line examination of the complete Constitution and its contemporary meaning." Better still, they brought on board Edwin Meese III, the Reagan-era attorney general responsible for the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, more popularly known as the Meese Commission, to chair the project's editorial advisory board.

The result was The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a 475-page volume that indeed attempts to dissect the meaning of every phrase in that document and its amendments, with various legal scholars having been assigned to deal with specific sections of the document. The one assigned to the First Amendment's freedom of speech and press clauses was Eugene Volokh, a well-respected libertarian-leaning scholar who once clerked for recently retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and who's now a professor at the UCLA School of Law.

<SNIP - Much more at the link, and you should read it.>
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drm604 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
1. You might want to warn people
that that link includes a pornographic popup. Not a problem for me but some people might be bothered by it or might be surfing from work. I'm guessing that you were using a popup blocker and were not aware of it. I thought I was using a blocker and got it anyway. I'm not posting this to detract from your post, I just thought that it was important to mention.
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:09 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Oh! I didn't get a popup.
I guess because I am on a mac and immune from such malarky.
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mongo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's always amazing to me
what a thin, thin line our right to sexual speech, and (private) sexual expression itself hangs on.

A couple of more Scalia's on the court, and our country could be turned into a theocracy.

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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:20 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Pornography is the mine canary for the rest of our freedoms.
I am continually amazed that people cannot see that!
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AndyTiedye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 01:26 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. They Already Have 4! It Would Only take ONE More
Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts will do anything the regime asks.
Theocracy? No problem. pResident-for-Life? Fine with them.

They only need one more appointment to the USSC.

It is widely assumed that they don't want a theocracy,
because the elites wouldn't want to live under a theocracy.

They wouldn't live under a theocracy, they'd live above it,
like the sheiks in Saudi Arabia.

They want a theocracy because no other form of government is
so completely impervious to the will of the people.

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mongo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 02:54 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Honestly, I don't know how Roberts would come down on the issue
In the end, he may suprise us. He may be a conservative, but I do think he places the law above his own personal, religious beliefs.



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AndyTiedye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. I Wouldn't Bet My Religious (or Any Other) Freedom On That, Would You?
but then, nobody asked us.
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mongo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Hell, I bet my freedom every day of the week.
I can be arrested for the heinous crime of selling a movie. I commit multiple *potential* felonies every day.

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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Yes you do.
And I, for one, commend you for it.
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drm604 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:18 PM
Response to Original message
4. No Spyware
Edited on Sat Apr-01-06 12:21 PM by drm604
I don't get such popups anywhere else and if you look at the source of that page you'll find the script that opens the popup. So it's not spyware on my part. I'm not sure why Firefox failed to prevent it. I'm sure you're not to blame here I just thought that a warning was needed. By the way, interesting article, thanks!
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:22 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. I see it.
The code that is. Thanks.

I know Mark (the author) but I he is at a convention so I knew it was useless to ask for permission to post the whole article just now. Thought I was being clever by posting the link to the Print page....
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Uncle Joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 12:53 PM
Response to Original message
7. Regarding the first paragraph in this column,
the last thing the Bush maladministration wants current and future Americans to know is history.
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FiveGoodMen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-03-06 02:49 PM
Response to Reply #7
13. That's for sure.
If people read the history of, say the Reichstag Fire, and then went back to consider 9/11...
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