First they came for Howard Stern. Now they're coming for Cable TV.

No bill has been introduced yet, but Senator Stevens has promised one, and when it arrives it is likely to come straight out of the Commerce Committee he chairs and move directly to a vote with little time for public comment. The time to act is now.

This bill would deny you the right to watch mature programming on cable TV for the sake of parents who are too lazy and irresponsible to bear the burden of doing their jobs as parents. Those parents who object to cable TV programming already have several ways to deal with this problem:

They can buy a reduced set of cable programming (this is the approach used by DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka who has three children under 10).

They can no have cable at all, but rely on broadcast TV only (which is now heavily censored).

They can restrict cable to only one part of their house and not allow their children to watch TV there.

They can block cable channels they consider inappropriate for their children. But some parents, rather than take any of these responsible steps, want Congress to do their parenting for them, at the expense of everyone else who wants to be able to watch mature programming.

And, we might add, Congress has no constitutional authority for such censorship, something that should concern every American who still cares about constitutional legality.

Many Americans have excused broadcast censorship because the government supposedly owns the broadcast spectrum, but no such excuse exists here. Congress can make no claim to own cable networks, local cable providers, or even the TV sets in your home. They simply don't have the authority.

Please help us stop the Congressional urge to turn the entire country into Disneyland.

Please help us preserve the benefits of adulthood. Please help us preserve the First Amendment.

Please don't reward the busy-bodies who think they know what's best for you and your family.

Please stop the political habit of using children as an excuse for extinguishing American freedom.

Please don't let Congress reward the whining of irresponsible parents who want others to do their job for them. To send your message to Congress opposing this censorship click here.

Well, my pro-libertarian comments were most recently removed by the moderator... I have no idea why...

Wow! So you made a pro-libertarian comment on a thread that can not be read because it was removed by the moderator. Now that really sounds like you "commonly defend libertarians," and there by proves that you "defend them in most threads" as you stated in reply #12. Hmmm... with that kind of proof, its no wonder that our country has been loosing its morality at an expedited rate. Without honesty, there can be no real morality.

And my posting history is pretty consistent with wanting to get back to a pre-FDR size Federal Government.

That's nice, but it has nothing to do in the slightest with libertarianism, or defending libertarians.

You ought to go back an reread replies #42, 81, 89, 97, 104. Not one of them was addressing the topic of "out-of-wedlock first birth rate" as you claim.

But again, we have to face the choice to either isolate our children socially, or to give in to the corrupting influences of society.

Actually good parents have always had to do both and a good deal more. It sounds to me like you don't want the challenge of parenting, preferring instead that government do your parenting responsibilities for you. If that is the case, then you probably shouldn't be a parent. But I know, you are now stuck with the responsibility. Well then do it, and stop trying to get government to do it for you.

This comes from what libertarian economists such as the Austrians often refer to as "What is seen, and what is not seen."

The concept you speak of here is from "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen," written by Frederic Bastiat, a Frenchman, and one of the most entertaining of the fathers of modern libertarian theory. The concept pre- dates the Austrian school. I think it would be worth your time to read it. At least before attempting to use it. Likewise, you might want to use a dictionary before spouting off about "liberal" trends.

There are daughters that today are being socially isolated from their peers because they don't dress like the girls in a booty video.

There are always going to be daughters isolated from their peers for a wide range of reasons. I hope you really do not believe that government should step in and prevent such isolations.

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