Battle Brews As Porn Moves Into Mainstream

Breitbrat ^ | 04/01/2006 | David Crary

[Panerai]

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans.

It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.

Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.

"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.

"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."

The activists' adversary is a sprawling industry that, by some counts, offers more than 4 million porn sites on the Internet, that in the United States alone is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year. A tracking firm, comScore Media Metrix, says about 40 percent of Internet users in the United States visit adult sites each month.

Porn products are featured at popular sex expositions and retail chains such as Hustler Hollywood. Major hotels provide in-room porn, and adult film stars are now mainstream celebrities. Mary Carey attended a VIP Republican fundraiser in Washington in mid-March; Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" hit the best-seller lists and she hosted a racy pre-Super Bowl party in Detroit in February.

[Panerai]

"John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain" - I wonder how much "research" John Harmer has done on this.

[Always Right]

Ho kan purn damige ur brane?

[JennysCool]

Pictures?

[Lurker]

But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable.

That'll happen right after a large number of Howler Monkeys come flying out of Mr. Harmers rectum.

L

[rbg81]

Is this another variation on: masturbation turns you idiot minded? [Personally, I think NOT doing a core dump every now and then can have the same effect]

[Energy Alley]

and I am sure cameras will be rolling, accompained by bad MIDI on that day, I am sure there is a market for that.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."

Why should the left have all the fun suing fast foot chains for "making" people fat?

[martin_fierro]

ping!

[Panerai]

"fast foot chains" - if they were "fast foot" they would not be making people fat.

[EagleUSA]

...the actual physical harm that pornography causes...
----
It is like every other attack from the left on profitable businesses. They hate them, even though they are too stupid to realize that these businesses pay the taxes that support the losers of the left...just take a look around Congress --- (barf bucket please).

[al_again]

John Harmer is a great man! I've spent countless hours researching the same subject and John and I are convinced that pornography is harmful to the American way of life. Please let me know if you have any good links that need to be researched and I'll share my views on their harmful content in the near future (only free sites, my credit cards have taken a beating due to the high-cost of my previous research).

[little jeremiah]

Here's one if you want it.

Pornography is not benign, and is only supposedly covered by the First Amendment because of the team ACLU/Larry Flynt. Otherwise, states and localities could be making their own local laws. But no, big gov/Nine Nazgul (our betters) decided to rule in favor of ACLU and porn purveyors.

So states and local gov't have no power to make any local laws about porn.

Thanks, ACLU and Larry Flynt!

[ROTB]

Here you go...

http://www.moralityinmedia.org/index.htm?pornsEffects.htm
http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0388_Effects_of_Pornograp.html
http://www.moralityinmedia.org/index.htm?pornsEffects/raypierce.htm

It's a society shredder. Like illegal immigration, abortion, gun-control, drugs, murder, lying, ...

[middie]

Stupidty knows no boundries and this guy leads the fraternity of morons. Booze, the NFL, NBA, sports generally, ESPN, NASCAR, the internet, political blogs and hundred other activities that, to some, become obsessive injure fragile relationships, interfere with spousal feelings and otherwise cause the same problems this jerk tries to attribute to porn. Relationships do not shatter because of porn or any of the many quasi-addictions of people. The cited relationships are those which will fail on their own given the passage of time. The person feeling victimized tries to compartmentalize the cause and effect by relating it to the other person's purported addiction when, in reality, if any fault really exists, it is more properly to be shared by the self-appointed victim who, in refusing to look at his/her failings, considers herself blameless. It's easy to acquit one's self if there is a convenient activity to blame. After all, NASCAR or porn can't answer back in its defense. It's simply another example of equating correlation with causation.

[RHINO369]

"ummm that trash has been in mainstream for about 40 years unforntunately"

The internet has made it available for free. 40% of internet surfers, that means its about 80% of male internet surfers! But I don't see why government has any business in restricting it. I could make a case for gun control much easier than I could make a case for porn control.

[Panerai]

WOW look at all those web sites, thanks to porn all those people have something to do with their time.

[Huck]

All things in moderation, including moderation.

[rebelyell7]

Because only the gummint can save us from ourselves! Stop me before I hurt myself, Uncle Sam, I know not what I do.

[RHINO369]

God forbit an adult touch himself! Nevermind the fact that one way or another semen is going to come out of a man every couple of weeks wether its voluntary or not.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Guys like this always seem to have a great personal interest in this subject for "Research purposes..."

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Guys like this always seem to have a great personal interest in this subject for "Research purposes..."

If they make it their job to lobby against porn, they can always write off their purchases as "business expenses."

[SlowBoat407]

"North America's getting soft, and the rest of the world is getting tough, very tough"

- Videodrome

[NJ_gent]

"It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain."

John Harmer professor of neurology at the University of.... oh wait, John Harmer the auto executive and former politician. I gotcha. *wink* *wink* *nod* *nod*

[al baby]

Rectum damm near killed him

[al baby]

KittyPorn

[JAWs]

It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.

I should hope so. Not much point if I weren't!

[JAWs]

But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes

Like sprained wrists?

[Scotswife]

"Pornography is not benign"

I think victims of rape, kidnapping, and murder would agree with you. Those who were brutalized by people who warped their minds with porn, and then went out to act out their fantasies.
With that thought let's remember Danielle VanDamme - kidnapped, raped, and murdered by her seemingly "normal" neighbor, David Westerfield -whose mind was twisted by his fascination with porn.

[goldstategop]

No one is forced to buy or look at porn. As for the effects, its like anything else in life: some people can handle them and some can't.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Windsong]

Tailgunner Joe flies in via a cape in 3..2..1...

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Was it porn that twisted the mind? Or was it porn that the person used to try to divert an already twisted mind?

[Question_Assumptions]

Do you think it's OK for a woman to be paid to be sexually tortured with needles, nails, fire, electricity, suffocation, and whips to the point of getting welts and bleeding? How about being paid to have sex with animals? If you don't, then you don't support the pornography that's already out there and isn't being prosecuted thanks to the Clinton Administration. If you do, then I'm curious where you would draw your line, if you have any. If someone paid someone a million dollars to be murdered for the sexual gratification of others, and the person consented to being murdered, would that be OK? And even if you do think it's all OK, how do you tell when such a "performance" is consentual or coerced, or do you think that's not an issue?

For more detail on porn and the effect its widespread availability has on children, even if their parents don't consume it, check out the web sites for Frontline's American Porn (you can watch this show on the web site or read a transcript) and The Lost Children of Rockdale County (transcript and other material). It used to be that the public space was child friendly and pornography was something consumed in private. Now parents need to hide their children indoors with the TV and radio off if they want to avoid porn. I'm sorry if I think it's backwards when nice people have to be prisoners of their own home and sleazy people get to run free.

What I'd also really like to know is how many of the porn advocates in these discussions have children and, if you do, how do you keep them away from porn (or do you at all)?

[Junior]

The only physical harm I can think porn might cause is carpal-tunnel syndrome.

[Question_Assumptions]

The only physical harm I can think porn might cause is carpal-tunnel syndrome.

Tell that to Bob Crane's two wives. See the movie Auto Focus for a dramatization of his life and the effect that porn had on it.

(Bob Crane was "Hogan" in "Hogan's Heroes", if you don't already know that.)

[RHINO369]

The women who do porn are adults and they chose to do it.

Yes I know how easy it is for children to get porn, I'm part of the Internet generation. I'm only 20, and when I was 13 most guys I knew had computers and downloaded porn. It probably isn't the best thing for a kid but nobody I know turned out to be a sexual deviant.

You can't change the biological fact that young men are driven to have sex, even when people told them they'd go blind if they masturbated, they still did it. Your never going to keep young men from porn.

We live in a free society, unless my actions directly infringe on your rights you have no business telling me what I can do. So do a good job at parenting and your kids won't be exposed.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

What I'd also really like to know is how many of the porn advocates in these discussions have children and, if you do, how do you keep them away from porn (or do you at all)?

Well, considering my 10 year-old son, once came across the word "porn," asked what it was, and then made it clear he wasn't interested in it, I'm not particularly concerned. No doubt, when he's a teenager, he'll stumble across his parents' stash, just like both his parents did.

My step-daughter turned 18 last year and a similar attitude toward her hasn't turned her into some sort of sex maniac or victim.

My basic parenting style is to explain to my children that there is an essential difference between what is appropriate behavior and interests for children, adolescents, and adults. Anything he is unsure about he is to ask one of his parents about and he knows that he will never get in trouble for asking us.

It's basically how my parents raised me on that topic and, if anything, I was too restrained in my teen and early adult years.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Yes I know how easy it is for children to get porn, I'm part of the Internet generation. I'm only 20, and when I was 13 most guys I knew had computers and downloaded porn. It probably isn't the best thing for a kid but nobody I know turned out to be a sexual deviant.

You kids have it so easy. When I was a teenager, I had to go skulking through my parents' night tables and closets to find porn. 8>)

[Scotswife]

"Was it porn that twisted the mind? Or was it porn that the person used to try to divert an already twisted mind?"

It's probably a little of both.
A person who makes the decision, first of all, to view porn has made a decision to look at something twisted.
It is not real - it is a distorted and twisted image.
The image reinforces the desire - and maybe to "graduate" to a greater degree of depravity.

A man may stop here (viewing adult women) - or he may decide to view teenage girls. He may stop there or go on to view children.

It doesn't matter to the victims who are raped, kidnapped, or killed though.
They don't get the luxury of considering the first amendment right of their attacker or of the porn industry.

And as long as their are people out there who think this stuff is harmless - there will continue to be a steady flow of innocent victims.

[Scotswife]

"The women who do porn are adults and they chose to do it."

So do prostitutes. Do you think prostitution should be legal?

[Panerai]

"Do you think it's OK for a woman to be paid to be sexually tortured with needles, nails, fire, electricity, suffocation, and whips to the point of getting welts and bleeding?" - Many or all of those things have already been done on NBC's Fear Factor.

[RHINO369]

"So do prostitutes. Do you think prostitution should be legal?"

Yes, and so should drugs. If drugs were legal and cheap most prostitution would disappear.

[NYCynic]

It is like every other attack from the left on profitable businesses.

This attack is bipartisan.

[Scotswife]

"Yes, and so should drugs. If drugs were legal and cheap most prostitution would disappear."

Why would men stop paying women for sex if drugs were made legal?

[operation clinton cleanup]

[RHINO369]

"Why would men stop paying women for sex if drugs were made legal?"

1) Most prostitutes are drug addicts and sell themselves to support their very expensive habit.

2) Most drugs supress a mans sex drive. Some make it impossible to have sex.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Because someone is inspired to commit crime by an object doesn't mean we can ban it. Mark David Chapman said he was inspired to murder John Lennon, by A Catcher in the Rye. Should we ban that?

They don't get the luxury of considering the first amendment right of their attacker or of the porn industry.

This is the equivalent of a gun-control advocate saying that shooting victims don't have the luxury of considering the second amendment rights of gun owners and manufacturers.

There is no right that does not have potential negative consequences. But the effect of blocking the right, because of those consequence would be far worse.

[narses]

I usually just 'ping'. Tonight I'd like to ask you to post your thoughts and defenses of the Catholic position on pornography. Stand up for our faith and against this scourge.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

"So do prostitutes. Do you think prostitution should be legal?"

Yes, and so should drugs. If drugs were legal and cheap most prostitution would disappear.

I don't know if cheap and legal drugs would make prostitution disappear -- personally I find sex to be much more tempting than getting high and I doubt I'm alone in that -- but otherwise, I agree with RHINO here.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

It is like every other attack from the left on profitable businesses.

This attack is bipartisan.

Of course. They go where the money is.