Um, the SCOTUS already ruled that computer images can not be considered child pornography. Why are they trying this goofy crap again. What a waste of time and money. I guess they want to set a precedent for thought-crimes with a non-issue that people can easily be emotionally manipulated into supporting.
One reason and one reason only - and it's not all that moral, good-intention bologna that they're laying out ...
They're "trying this crap again" because they are DEATHLY AFRAID that if they DON'T, then their opponents this fall will paint them as "soft on child porn." It's a political stop-loss bill, nothing more, nothing less.
I, too, am absolutely APPALLED that our party is proposing thought-crime legislation. This is exactly what the Left wants us to do - kill off freedoms ourselves so they don't have to do it.
Face it. As long as there is humanity on this good green Earth, people will think bad, even evil thoughts. Our rule of law is predicated upon the premise that the consequences of violating the law are sufficient to maintain a civil society. There will always be those people who are so morally bankrupt that the consequences won't matter - and their ACTIONS should be punished. But it is against the nature of God to prohibit thought - no matter how abhorent it might be to one or another segment of society.
I'm totally against child porn, but if some geek wants to sit around with his computer and manipulate electrons and pixels to his taste, he can do so as long as he takes no actions infringing upon the rights of others. The method - i.e., computer or crayola - doesn't matter. They're all just methods of moving electrons around.
And I also refuse to believe that committing an idea to celluloid, paper, or an electronic stream of data is, by itself, enough to incite persons of otherwise rational behavior to emulate those ideas. It is the job of society not to punish the thought, but to remove from the rest of society those who would react irrationally and to the harm of others from exposure to such material.
Michael