Posted on 04/01/2006 5:37:42 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I used to look at porn about 20 years ago and noticed that it definetly activates our deviant darkside. It's never satisfying and causes people to act out of the darkside to feed it's promise of good feelings that just leave more emptiness.
Do you believe this sort of pornography should be restricted, banned, or prosecuted or not. Please answer that question. If you do, then we are talking about where to draw a line. If you don't, then you don't have a line or have one way further out than most Americans. As for how mainstream it is, try Kazaa or the Usenet. Anyone with an ISP that provides uncensored newsgroups and a newsreader can get to it. Sounds pretty mainstream to me.
Perhaps you figure that some of us are not smart enough to see through this.
I want to see if you really believe that all pornography should be unrestricted on free speech grounds or whether you think some pornography should be banned or not. What I expect is for you to be honest enough to tell me how you really feel rather than avoiding the point because it makes you uncomfortable. If people really want to frame the pornography debate in terms of anything that's consentual is good, then let's talk about where that leads.
"I used to look at porn about 20 years ago and noticed that it definetly activates our deviant darkside. It's never satisfying and causes people to act out of the darkside to feed it's promise of good feelings that just leave more emptiness."
Thank you for you honesty.
I grieve for this friend of ours. We only have one chance at life and his obsession with porn has ruined his life.
He has good in him, but the darkness is taking over.
Molestation is not a free speech right. A person is responsible for how they act. They can claim that they were "inspired" by something else, but that neither makes them less responsible or the creator of what inspired them more responsible.
No - but tragedies like hers do cause people to look at steps that can be taken to prevent criminals or mentally ill people from purchasing guns.
But is shouldn't have us looking at steps to prevent sane, law-abiding people from purchasing guns.
On the other hand, whenever we read another story of a child abduction/rape/murder we will inevitably see a common theme we have seen over and over, year after year....drugs and porn.
And here we have people here suggesting we legalize the drugs and keep the porn.
And alcohol. Don't forget alcohol... oh, yeah... that's legal. And when a person commits a crime while under the influence of alcohol, we punish them for the crime. However, when a person has a drink or three at home, we don't punish them.
I'm saying porn and drugs should be treated the same.
Well, rather than getting myself banned if I said what I would do to these pornographers if given a chance, I will just say I agree with the traditional Catholic position.
Careful there Little Jeremiah.
"Pride" is one of those pesky deadly sins. Your statement above exhibits it to tee.
You are now even with the guy cruising some xxx site at this moment!
Now we do have laws with regard to animals, based on the fact that they cannot show consent -- we can't be cruel to them, even if we do eat them. I think a case can be made that actual bestiality should be against the law. OTOH -- to take a relatively benign example -- some cartoon joke playing off the urban myth that Catherine the Great did it with a horse... Well, no animals were harmed in the making of the picture.
Torture is a touchier subject.... If someone is actually being tortured I could question their sanity... OTOH, there are other people who do physically grueling things that involve a lot of pain -- and some of them enjoy that. Think of the "Runner's high" some athletes get.
I think though that if you hit a level of mutilation that is permanently and seriously disfiguring or maiming, the victim has crossed a line where their sanity can be questions. And if insane, again, they are not capable of consent.
But again illustrated depictions have to be allowed -- heck much religious art is based on the depiction of people undergoing severe torture.
Would you feel better if she did this for free?
"To the former agreed. So, in other words drug-addicted women, instead of getting money for drugs through prostitution, would get it through money the government took from taxpayers. I love how every solution, means more money from taxpayers. I agree that legalizing drugs would cost the taxpayers big time, but I'm not sure it would end prostitution."
Yea because ending the billion dollar war on drugs, and then taxing drug sales would cost you money.
"Molestation is not a free speech right."
So...let's keep the status quo and pretend there is no link between porn and violence and everytime we read another horrifying story of torture committed against an innocent child we'll just shake our heads and say "what a shame."
""But is shouldn't have us looking at steps to prevent sane, law-abiding people from purchasing guns."
A gun, in itself, does not encourage fantasies to shoot.
Should we really be surprised when a person who views child porn eventually molests a child? No.
"And alcohol. Don't forget alcohol... oh, yeah... that's legal. And when a person commits a crime while under the influence of alcohol, we punish them for the crime. However, when a person has a drink or three at home, we don't punish them."
As a person who lives in meth country I can tell you the comparison to alchohol doesn't fly.
It isn't just that certain drugs quickly turn people into addicted zombies - it's also the affect of these addictions on children and even on neighbors who have to worry about their well water becoming toxic or being robbed by the addicts next door.
"I'm saying porn and drugs should be treated the same."
Oh - I'll agree with that...I think they both should be illegal :)
"That's the dream "free society" that libertarians want to live in. It bears little resemblance, as libertarians will freely point out when pressed, to the society we actually live in. Try telling the police officer, the next time he pulls you over doing 100 in a 55 zone that your actions don't directly infringe on anyone's rights and that he has no business telling you what you can do.
So do a good job at parenting and your kids won't be exposed.
Yes, I should restrict my liberty so you can excercise yours. That's a good deal for me how, exactly?"
1) The roads were built and are owned by teh government, I have to follow their rules to use their roads, i accept that.
2) Uh, your trying to take away our freedoms so you have the freedom to not raise your kid? Nice try.
We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer.
"It's the most profitable industry in the world."
Who exactly has brain damage???
Good luck trying to regulate supply and demand. Many have tried. All have failed.
Um.... yes, it does.... Not that I ever lived them out... but there were times that I just wished someone would try to break into my house, so I could do it legally.
As a person who lives in meth country I can tell you the comparison to alchohol doesn't fly.
As a person who spent all his life on college campuses (including 3 years at Michigan, when marijuana posession with a scoff law), I'm convinced alcohol is a more dangerous and damaging drug than marijuana. Which leads me to be suspicious of the whole WOD.
By the way, if you want to see where widespread use of pornography by males lead, you should take a good look at the marriage and birth rates in Japan. I get a real kick out of people telling me that Japanese have a healthy attitude toward sex because they allow nudity on television and such but relations between the sexes are highly dysfunctional in Japan. Real women aren't the sex toys depicted in Japanese pornography and have no interested in being treated that way.
Perhaps... But their tragedy does not give them the privilege to take away my rights.
Sure it does. You'll notice that we arrest people for drunk driving because of the harm that drunk drivers often do, even if the drunk driver hasn't actually caused an accident or hurt anyone. Libertarians like to talk about the right of a person to swing their fist ending with another person's nose. It doesn't take a genius to realize that recklessly swung fists are a hit nose waiting to happen and that it makes a lot of sense to stop the swinging fists before someone gets a bloody nose (or a parent loses a child to a drunk driver).
Carolyn McCarthy has based her congressional career on opposition to the second amendment, due to her husband having been killed and son wounded by gunman on their train. Her tragedy does not make the 2nd Amendment go away.
What makes a gun different from alcohol, drugs, or sex is that unlike those activities, the gun does not directly affect the chemistry of the brain of the user. Shooting a gun doesn't cause an orgasm, a high, or mentail impariment the way alcohol, drugs, and sex do. It wasn't the gun that enabled those murders or encouraged them. Guns don't rob people of their ability to make sound and responsible judgements. Alcohol, drugs, and sometimes even sex can.
That's also why we ban child pornography and adult-child sex across the board rather than wondering whether a particular child is mature enough to make those choices for themselves (after all, Tracy Lords turned out OK, right?). We know that adults can't be trusted to no coerce children into sex and that sex can mess children up.
then taxing drug sales would cost you money.
I knew it "taxing." Taxes, taxes, taxes. At least you admit you are a socialist. Because if anyone who earns their money gets to keep it, you just couldn't sleep at night.
Do you think payment clouds the issue of consent because some people may be coerced to do things they wouldnt' normally do out of desperation? Do you think that the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, that prohibits slavery, should be repealed for those who consent to being slaves or indentured servants in exchange for money?
Torture is a touchier subject.... If someone is actually being tortured I could question their sanity... OTOH, there are other people who do physically grueling things that involve a lot of pain -- and some of them enjoy that. Think of the "Runner's high" some athletes get.
Watch the episode of Frontline that I posted the link to. They have a description of a porn shoot that involves a woman actually getting smacked around that was so disturbing that the Frontline crew left the shoot. They also talk about how the producer convinced the woman to go along with it. Very enlightening.
I think though that if you hit a level of mutilation that is permanently and seriously disfiguring or maiming, the victim has crossed a line where their sanity can be questions. And if insane, again, they are not capable of consent.
Would you support a blanket ban of such pornography?
But again illustrated depictions have to be allowed -- heck much religious art is based on the depiction of people undergoing severe torture.
I'm not talking about illustrations nor simulations or special effects. The beating in The Passion, done as acting, as very different from actually beating an actor with a whip until they bleed.
"Um.... yes, it does.... Not that I ever lived them out... but there were times that I just wished someone would try to break into my house, so I could do it legally.
"
Wow. Thanks for that insight.
"As a person who spent all his life on college campuses (including 3 years at Michigan, when marijuana posession with a scoff law), I'm convinced alcohol is a more dangerous and damaging drug than marijuana. Which leads me to be suspicious of the whole WOD."
Doctors have found that alcohol in moderation is actually healthy.
There definitely is a problem with people who do not use it in moderation. These people cause havoc and they harm the rights of others.
Because they do this now - I don't think the answer is to provide MORE harmful/damaging substances to society so that there can be MORE harm done.
You are suggesting we damage our society even more because some people are already damaging it.
My eyelids are heavy.A good evening to you, and if you get the chance if you're interested - read up on the damage met is doing to many communities.
to keep it out of the hands of children.
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