Posted on 05/24/2005 1:42:28 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions that may be difficult for some readers.
A crowd of people gathered on Capitol Hill last Thursday to hear experts* in obscenity law and sexual crimes speak in recognition of Victims of Pornography Month.
What they said in that room should be heard by every American. (It just so happens that you can download and listen to the presentations, including one by CWA’s chief counsel, Jan LaRue, on our Web site by clicking here.)
First, if you aren’t convinced yet that we, as a society, should crack down on pornography, consider some of the facts presented at the summit.
Where should we start? Maybe with this statement from Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati, Ohio: “I’ve never met a police officer yet who investigated a pedophile that did not find pornography. Every one of them said pornography is always on the scene.”
Or perhaps that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMC’s) Cyber Tip Line (http://www.cybertipline.com/) collected about 1,500 reports of possible child pornography being transmitted online in a seven-day period earlier this month (and 293,000 reports since 1998), according to Marsha Gilmer-Tullis, Director of the Family Advocacy Division at NCMC. They received 35 reports of adults trying to meet and greet children in chat rooms that same week.
Or, we could also consider facts presented by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist, professor at Princeton University and researcher at the University of Nice, that the sexual slavery trade is the third-largest source of funds for organized crime, right behind drugs and arms, and that pornography drives that trade.
Plus, Satinover mentioned studies showing that brain activity associated with craving pornography is “identical to any other behavioral or chemical addictions.” In fact, some have pointed out that pornography is as addictive as cocaine, but even harder to overcome due to the images burned into the user’s mind. “It is not an art form,” he said. “No one gets addicted to The Washington Post. No one gets addicted to James Joyce [author of Ulysses, a book with some erotic scenes].”
Satinover also had the courage to point out the motivation behind the porn industry: “Its purpose is not to entertain.” Its purpose, he said, is to lead the viewer to “achieve arousal and orgasm” as quickly and frequently as possible. There’s a financial interest – the more the buyer gets aroused by pornography and achieves orgasm, the more he will purchase. Comparing the purchasing frequency of mainstream movies and pornographic ones makes that clear.
When the movies, magazines and Web sites just aren’t cutting it anymore, the user moves to the final stage: acting out. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Florida) read the following quote from serial rapist Ted Bundy, made one day before his 1989 execution:
“The purveyors of pornography repeatedly challenge us to prove that pornography causes violent crime,” said Rep. Harris. “I challenge them to prove that it does not.”
Likewise, John Richter, the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division, said, “Because obscene material is so accessible, many may fail to realize that availability does not equate to legality.”
Concerned Women for America (CWA) Chief Counsel Jan LaRue wrote an excellent, full-scale paper on this topic, Hard-Core Harm.
So, what can you, as a citizen, do with the information these knowledgeable presenters gave? Here are several ideas:
Start with your own home. Supervise your children on the Internet, and teach them how to safely use it. Read CWA’s brochure, 14 Ways You Can Protect Your Children Online, for help. Watch out for peer-to-peer file-sharing sites like Kazaa and Morpheus, as they are virtually unregulated – children can easily access pornographic files and even give away your household’s personal information. If you or your spouse is struggling with addiction, there is help (see http://www.victimsofpornography.org/ for a start).
Be aware of what – or who – is in your neighborhood. Check with local law enforcement to see if it maintains a sex offenders’ registry. Use the registry to find out if any convicted sex offenders live in your neighborhood. If your state doesn’t have one, lobby your officials to make this information public.
Encourage your local officials to prosecute obscenity. If juries never get the opportunity to set community standards, then pornographers will set them. In cities where prosecutors have gone after pornographic shops and other sexually oriented businesses, all types of crimes have dropped. Local law enforcement should be enthusiastic about cleaning up communities in this way.
Encourage your local and national representatives to make laws to protect Americans from obscenity.
Sign up for e-mail alerts from groups like CWA that are fighting pornography. We’ll keep you informed as to how you can act on the issue. Sign up at www.cwfa.org.
Vote! Watch how your officials and representatives are voting, acting and responding to your requests regarding obscenity. Register to vote, and encourage your friends and family to register as well!
Educate others. One voice can start a movement! Join an organized grassroots organization like CWA – we’ll be happy to tell you how you can become active at the state level (phone: 800-964-2203). Encourage your friends to join e-mail lists, or form one of your own to pass around vital information. Organize events in your community and bring in experts like the ones at this presentation.
Contribute to hard-working groups like CWA, CCV and others. We are dependent upon generous giving from people like you.
John Richter ended his remarks by asking for continuing support of American citizens:
We aren’t backing down to the purveyors of obscenity… we do not fight these battles alone. We know that folks like you here today – decent, honest Americans – support us. And it is my last privilege today to ask for your continued support as we continue to move forward. I want you to think of our team as I think of them: As those men and women, at Justice, who seek justice, by doing justice, for those who deserve justice.
*Among the presenters were Concerned Women for America (CWA) Chief Counsel Jan LaRue; Citizens for Community Values President Phil Burress; Reps. Katherine Harris (R-Florida), Mike Pence (R-Indiana) and Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania); Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas); Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, John Richter; Marsha Gilmer-Tullis, Director of the Family Advocacy Division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Focus on the Family Media and Sexuality Analyst Daniel Weiss; Florida Deputy Attorney General George LeMieux; and Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist, professor at Princeton University and researcher at the University of Nice.
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What Melas rarely admits is that, even knowing what he knows now, if he had to go back he would pretty much make the same decisions.
You have made some of the most illogical, irrational statements towards me I have ever heard. Using your logic, you would set yourself up as the standard for right and wrong when that is not your place, role, or providence.
You don't me, or my motivations. Many people who set themselves up as the paragon of virtue are hypocrites in the worst sense who have no problem going to church every week, thumping the bible, yet screwing people in business every other day of the week.
Very well, at least we can disagree :)
Such bizarre delusions fester only is disturbed minds.
It's interesting that a porn thread would have almost no graphics posted.
Yup, because Blood of Tyrants tried to pull this fight onto another thread and I responded quite rudely. So?
The plague of pornography addiction really needs to be discussed. It is best just to ignore the porn defenders. They are in rigid denial.
I imagine that the multi-billion-dollar porn industry has paid off academia, politicians everywhere in the world, maybe judges.
It probably has adept financiers and money-men who further profits by investing in child porn, drugs, etc.
But nobody dares touch it. So far.
Probably.
You abviously hadn't read my posts on what I believe. I am not setting myself up a a paragon of virtue, nor have I eluded to that "holier than thou" attitude. I am so far from that. However from lifes experiences and personal contacts, I can pretty sure bet that I am correct and that in the future you will remember this thread. If you valued your wife as a golden treasure, and I am sure you do...You wouldn't need porn in your relationship.
What I find particularly vile is how everyone knows how to run everyone else's life until it impacts on their own little pet thing.
Those attacking me probably would have a fit about people who want to regulate guns and weapons etc because they think gunds are evil. Liberals make the same arguments about guns that these people do about porn.
It's an industry of evil. Just look at the participants:
The girls are mostly damaged, drug addicted and poor. They're failed actresses stuck in LA with no family and no means of survival. Whether or not we have any sympathy for them (and who really has sympathy for failed actresses in LA?), the fact remains, they're weak, alone and broke, and that's why they get into porn.
The men are largely fresh out of prison biker/Aryan Brotherhood types. Career criminals, that's what they use for these videos (next time you're watching a porn video, look for the blue prison ink. It's a dead giveaway). They get cons because they'll bascially work for the sex and the drugs.
The distributors? Mobbed to the gills, always have been.
So we have a multi-billion dollar industry in which mob thugs pay desperate, lost, drug-addled girls to have sexual intercourse with up to 15 different ex-cons a day in front of a camera. And if she gets the jitters or has any doubts about what she's about to do, there's always plenty of coke and meth on-set to get your head fixed up right. Always.
I love sex, but this ain't sex. This is the devil (or whatever you want to call him), playing on our love of sex. With bad, broken people carrying it out on every level.
And in spite of all that, it's still tempting as hell. That's how I know it's evil.
Just one man's opinion... Free of charge.
We don't need it, we sometimes enjoy it. What it wrong with that if it is mutual?
We have a WINNER!
Yeah it's paranoia alright. So tell me, oh great one, how is wishing for the conversion of all of one faith not wishing for the extermination of the faith?
This psycho-babble has the flip side logic of a LIBERAL press conference. And judging by the responses, half of all FREEPERS must be RAPIST MASS MURDERS like Ted Bundy.
Look at Bundy's logic more carefully: If he hadn't had access to the REALLY HARD CORE PORN, he'd have run out of harder stuff to turn to and become a mass murderer SOONER! If you can't get the porn, you need live bodies.
We better lock them up, before they lock up all the rest of
America for crimes people could commit, but just havent' done so yet.
Keep both hands on the keyboard where we can see them! :)LOL
Everybody is a potential murderer, thus we must execute them all.
The smaller ones probably are. The more mainstream producers, such as Vivid, are traded on the NYSE. Mobbed up companies simply cannot make it through the NYSE's vetting process.
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