Just when you thought nothing dumber could possibly emanate from the Administration, Alberto Gonzales has directed the FBI to start a Porn Task Force. And they need your help - since the agents themselves seem reluctant to join. I wonder why.
Apparently, this is part of the Bush Administration's War on Porn. War on Porn? Kinda cheapens the rhetoric a bit, don't you think? You declare war on terrorism, on poverty - you know, serious problems. You don't declare "war" on something that mildly annoys you. What'll be the next "war"? The War on Plastic Lawn Flamingoes?
Of course, pornography featuring consenting adults is one of the great threats to America. In fact, it's just like terrorism, except instead of people dying, people have unauthorized orgasms. We can't have that. If you're not with us, you're with the pornographers, right?
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Wars should be winnable. You go to war against Germany or England or Iraq, and when the people in charge of the war on their side surrender, we've won. There may be some pockets of resistence, but the head has been cut off and victory is inevitable.
But there's no one "in charge" of drugs, porn, terrorism.
It bothered me a few weeks ago when this administration did some shameless wordmongering, changing the "war on terror" to the "global struggle against extremism" essentially overnight. But at least the latter was a more accurate name. Terrorism is something that we'll always have to just struggle against, we'll never win but winning's not the point. It's the struggle that's important.
But at least we can mostly agree that terrorism is bad. We can even say that for drugs; few people suggest that drug use is a good thing, even among those who use them.
But a war on porn is really the minority voices in power against the practical reality of what people like... based on the usual irrational "think of the children"/"the traditional family under attack" pandering from the religious right that makes me so sick.
I can definitely see why they'd have trouble finding people for this though... porn is a pretty binary thing, either you like what you're seeing or you find it fairly revolting. Given that any particular image you see would be in one of those two categories, you'd either be a hypocrite for labeling it obscene, or you'd feel revolted from seeing it. Not a nice choice.
Of course everyone knows I have to weigh in when the issue of banning porn is being discussed. Wait, that didn't sound right. Allow me to rephrase: I have to weigh in when the issue of banning ANYTHING is being discussed.
I expected censorship from this administration, and they haven't let me down. As this War on Porn wasn't wholly unanticipated, I'd rather focus on something more troubling: money. Let me guess this straight: we're planning on pouring 100 billion dollars into Katrina recovery, while keeping our tax cuts, and now we're going to devote additional government funds to banning consensual sex on film. Brilliant!
As a slightly amusing corollary, porn is a multi-billion dollar industry. That's a hell of a contribution to the national economy. I never thought I'd say it, but sometimes I wish Republicans would go back to thinking with their wallets and stop thinking with the three passages they've apparently underlined in the Bible.
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