I don't want to lose my rights to allow parents to avoid doing their job

[Armstead]

Once again the bluenoses are kicking their Censorship Machine into high gear. From sanctimonious Senators proposing more restrictive censorship to the Bush Justice Dept. wanting to violate their own "hands off" policies towrds business by trying to make Google turn over their search records.

And it's all in the name of "protecting our children."

Sorry but we really shouldn't live in a society where standards are governed by what lazy parents and pandering politicians believe is appropriate for children.

I'm all for things like warning labels, voluntary "clean" Internet filters for individul computers, etc....But don't try to impose it on the rest of us.

You want to protect your children? Here's a real simple answer. Do your damn job as a parent. And also curb your own bad taste with your own entertainment choices.

As to the first point, parents are shirking their responsibilities if they don't supervise their kids. If I were a kid and my father were alive, I know what he'd do in the age of the Internet and raunchy television. He'd set up a lot of restrictions on my use of the Internet and my TV wtching. He'd also make it real clear that if I got caught surfing porn or watching MTV, there would be hell to pay. He did his own version of that when I was growing up. And it worked.

As to the second point, anyone who finds contemporary pop culture to be too raunchy, then don't watch the crap. Why is it that the media plays up sex and violence? Because people buy it. And judging from the numbers, it is not just perves or "relativistic liberals" who are warching it.

And conservatives -- regarding the "free market," either put up or shut up. You want the "markets" to decide everything? Then let it decide what people will watch. Hey all you right wingers -- If you want to be on the "clean side" of the culture wars, then boycott Fox News, whose parent company has its fingers in a number of venues that profit from raunch and why you would consider smut.

We all have our own lines regarding taste. But let's not have a Dept. of the Church Lady, and sic the power of government on what can be said or shown legally.