Posted on 09/16/2004 1:08:49 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
This is an interesting take on the situation. It seems to me that the real core difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives believe that THINGS are amoral, and that most people are intelligent enough to handle their own affairs. Liberals, on the other hand, believe that things can be positively EVIL and that people aren't smart enough to avoid dumb behavior in and of themselves.
Now, if I understand you aright, you are saying that pornography, which is a THING, "devastates families, corrupts youth, and degrades humans." I respectfully disagree. PEOPLE MAKING STUPID CHOICES are what devastates families, corrupts youth, and degrades human beings.
Personally, I could give a rip about porn one way or the other. However, one has to admit that pornography has existed pretty much throughout recorded human history. It doesn't seem to have stopped the flow of civilization.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
-Thomas Jefferson
I don't see anywhere that the Founding Fathers promised us happiness, just that we had the right to pursue it. Therefore, if you want to look at pictures for your jollies, knock yourself out. Porn isn't the cause of bad behavior, it's a correlary behavior. Remember, association isn't causation.
Obscene materials are not constitutionally protected "speech." If the police have reason to suspect you possess such contraband, then they can bust your door down.
I'm talking about "Pool"......
[Orchestra plays intro]
Well, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
By the presence of a pool table in your community.
Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say, trouble right here in River City.
Why sure I'm a billiard player,
Certainly mighty proud I say
I'm always mighty proud to say it.
I consider that the hours I spend
With a cue in my hand are golden.
Help you cultivate horse sense
And a cool head and a keen eye.
Never take and try to give
An iron-clad leave to yourself
From a three-rail billiard shot?
But just as I say,
It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score
In a balkline game,
I say that any boob kin take
And shove a ball in a pocket.
And they call that sloth.
The first big step on the road
To the depths of deg-ra-Day--
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
Then beer from a bottle.
An' the next thing ya know,
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit.
And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'.
Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!
But a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck-up jockey'boy
Sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil?
Well, I should say.
Friends, lemme tell you what I mean.
Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the diff'rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum,
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
And all week long your River City
Youth'll be frittern away,
I say your young men'll be frittern!
Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
Get the ball in the pocket,
Never mind gittin' Dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded.
Never mind pumpin' any water
'Til your parents are caught with the Cistern empty
On a Saturday night and that's trouble,
Oh, yes we got lots and lots a' trouble.
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers,
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool
Hall window after school, look, folks!
Right here in River City.
Trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents.
I'm gonna be perfectly frank.
Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes
On while they're loafin' around that Hall?
They're tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs,
Tryin' out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Feends!
And braggin' all about
How they're gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen.
One fine night, they leave the pool hall,
Headin' for the dance at the Arm'ry!
Libertine men and Scarlet women!
And Rag-time, shameless music
That'll grab your son and your daughter
With the arms of a jungle animal instink!
Mass-staria!
Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground!
People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool,
That stands for pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City,
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...
Harold:
Mothers of River City!
Heed the warning before it's too late!
Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption!
The moment your son leaves the house,
Does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee?
Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger?
A dime novel hidden in the corn crib?
Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt.
Billy's Whiz Bang?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation?
Words like 'swell?"
And 'so's your old man'?"
Well, if so my friends,
Ya got trouble,
Right here in River city!
With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City!
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule!
Oh, we've got trouble.
We're in terrible, terrible trouble.
That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool!
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble!
With a "T"! Gotta rhyme it with "P"!
And that stands for Pool!!!
Quite the non sequitor. I possess no "contraband". I haven't stated pronography is "free speech". Your apparent enthusiasm for having the police bust my door down is disturbing. How do you reconcile that with your self-proclaimed conservativism?
Tell it to the judge.
This thread proves ID.
And you then are screeching at the judge: "Hey, the cops planted that memory stick on me! That's THEIR porn, not mine!"
Tell what to the judge?
Ooooh, that sounds almost like pornography! Give it a rest Tailgunner.
Long...on anecdotes.
Unfortunately, the plural form of "anecdote" is NOT "data."
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Dude, perhaps it's time to break out the super DUPER link. You know what I am talking about.
That being said, I am not calling for censorship. I wish that men would stop looking at porn because they want to be moral. Then the industry would collapse on its own.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed--and hence clamorous to be led to safety--by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - Mencken
"The threat of terrorism has been exaggerated" - "Hanoi" John Kerry
"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." - Mencken
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