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Thread: Ashcroft at it again...

  1. #1
    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Ashcroft at it again...

    Once again Pryce and I need to watch our asses... and not the good kind of ass.



    Administration wages war on pornography

    Obscenity: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. government is spending millions to file charges across the country.

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    Veteran Member Tia_q's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    God this pisses me off on so many levels-I can't even get into it now.

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    Veteran Member bloodydewdrop's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    I agree Tia....it's hard to put into words how infuriating this is.

    I feel like ranting at the moment, in an unorganized way as a diversion from schoolwork.

    What a waste of tax dollars!!!!! There are hungry and impoverished people in America, decaying schools, people struggling to make the rent, not to mention a healthcare crisis. And what is money being spent on? Policing the internet for legit entertainment.

    I'm worried this will escalate into something we cannot control. If porn is attacked, will strip clubs be next? Will movies and TV be further censored? Music?

    It's not sex that needs to be controlled, it's corruption in the government that is partially responsible for social ills. Sex is the scapegoat because people like to appear "above" it to others. they are likely ashamed of their desires, and therefore they attack it with aggression. Or they feel they have a moral obligation to educate and fix others. indoctrinate them.

    Personally porn does nothing for me. But everyone has the right to watch it. And express themselves in a sexual manner if they desire. The only time I agree with contolling it is in regards to children. It's monsterous and cruel, as they are not able to consent nor understand the situation they're in. That is physical and psychological abuse. But consenting adults who take responsibility for their actions should be able do do as they see fit.

    Ok..enough ranting. I just want Mr. Ashcroft to leave me, my g-string, and my diet mountain dew addiction alone.

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    God/dess Pryce's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    We pay people to surf the internet and look at porn?
    We all imagine ourselves the agents of our destiny, capable of determining our own fate. But have we truly any choice in when we rise, or when we fall, or does a force larger than ourselves bid us our direction. Is it evolution that takes us by the hand, does Science point our way, or is it God who intervenes keeping us safe.

    So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic. And the mundane. The simple human need to find a kindred, to connect. And to know in our hearts... that we are not alone.
    Heroes

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    Featured Member tragic-beauty's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    heaven forbid theyd actualy do somthing worth while.

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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Aside from the kiddie porn, which I'm sure we all agree that those people deserve nothing more than very painful deaths. I am so sick of "Big Brother" trying to control our lives because of "their" issues. If they can't handle certain things, does that mean they should pass it off to everyone else? If they want to make a difference why don't they first try and fix our economy and create some jobs. Then, being they are so high on God & Church, why don't they find a way to keep "Men of the cloth" from touching children. If you are looking for obscenities Mr. Big Brother, why don't you first look in your own backyard and stay out of mine. The only thing back there is a junkyard dog waiting to clamp his teeth around your balls and not let go until you understand the word freedom.

    I am so pissed right now I don't even know that I'm making sense, so I will stop for now to regroup.

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    Veteran Member NVJosh's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Not that I'm defending the Justice Department, I was just wondering how many people read to the end of the article, specifically the paragraphs that say...

    "The department's most closely watched case involves "extreme" porn producer Rob Zicari and his North Hollywood company Extreme Associates. The prolific Zicari is charged with selling five allegedly obscene videotapes, which he now markets as the "Federal Five," that depict simulated rapes and murder."

    and

    "Either way, Nguyen, father of a 2-year-old girl, and his co-workers spend their days scouring the Internet for the most obscene material, following leads sent in by citizens and tracking pornographers operating under different names. The job wears on them all, day after day, so much so that the obscenity division has recently set up in-house counseling for them to talk about what they're seeing and how it is affecting them."

    These people are looking for kiddie porn and the like. Probably not only the 'simulated rape and murder' types, they are probably looking for snuff films, too. Frankly, I don't mind them spending money on that. The people who produce (and watch, IMO) that sort of stuff are very sick.

    If you want to look at wastes of money, check on the $87 billion we gave to Iraq (remember, it ended up that none is a loan) that could have been better used at home. Yeah, I think the invasion was a good thing, a ruthless evil dictator was toppled, however like is dad, Dubya ignores the home front and poverty rates are up and literacy rates are down in the U.S.

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    Veteran Member NVJosh's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Oh...and just to clarify...I think Ashcroft would have made a great fascist.

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    God/dess Lexi's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Josh, its crazy. 87 billion to Iraq and we have starving people here, people like me who have to PAY for school cause the "government" wont help, bums everywhere...
    Its so frustrating because I dont have health insurance and I am 100% sure that many others do not either.

    They need to do something about things like rapes and murders and stop bitching about porn.

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    Featured Member polecat's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    I'll get upset once something I consider deplorable occurs... and no sooner.

    I read a similar Hellfire news blurb last year about that one guy being appointed in office and declaring a "war" on pornography and spending on curbing internet porn. The article similarly used broken quotes like this one because it wanted to change the context of sentences. I'm always leary of broken quotes like "We're on a full scale war against pornography.." in the public sector and ".. we will do whatever is necessary to curb this scourge." The part they left out might have been "..within access of children.." which totally changes the meaning.

    So far, the individual in question's spending and projects have revolved around advocating and strategizing a new ".kids" domain while referring child-safe sites to them, allowing schools and libraries to be locked to exclusive use- while leaving ALL the internet sex/porn sites completely free to operate with no restrictions. It's a totally opposite from the spirit of all the hyped propaganda hitting the news sites 3-4 months prior, which basically read like all internet adult content would be banned inside a year. lol.

    I stopped getting huffy on news reports as they are never fairly balanced, usually designed to inact some sort of reaction, and rarely accurate depictions of reality. I'm no fan of Ashcroft, but until there are reports of pressure on actual adult industry curbing, I refuse to become upset. It's a little disconcerting to read tax payer dollars going to people sitting around surfing porn, but there was no organization portrayal of it's actual purpose and return-on-investment given, which also leaves me leary. It's all implication, which keeps it very, very grey.
    It doesn't matter if you're somebody in this world, it rather matters you mean the whole world to somebody.

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    God/dess Lexi's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Pan Dah I agree....that is "their" argument.

    I am not going to say that I am 100% accurate when I mention this, but if I am correct there was a study done in some country (not the U.S. but there are facts on the U.S as well).... They took down stripclubs and porn and noticed that the rape (child rape and women rape) statistics JUMPED up. Then when they legalized the clubs and porn again, the rape statistics jumped down again.
    The study was suggesting that porn and clubs were letting men "alleivate" any kind of sexual urge, be it through sexual thoughts while watching porn, or watching naked women...

    I am going to do a search on this and see if I can post a link to the study. I am not sure where it was done, but I will find out.

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    God/dess Lexi's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Here is one link about it... It did mention the rise in internet porn in the U.S. and descrease of rapes...
    It also mentions other countries.

    FROM THE SITE:

    A study by Joseph Scott checked to see if there was a relationship between rape rates of states in the US and the number of XXX sex bookstores and theaters in each state. No significant relationship was found. Between 1995-2001, the Internet drastically increased the availability and ease of access to porn. However, during this same time period their was an overall decrease in the US national rape rate (as measured per 100,000 residents).[1] In West Germany from 1959-1989, rape rates did not rise after laws against porn were repealed in 1973. Rates of child molestation in West Germany also did not rise from 1960-1982. Japan has a low rape rate, yet porn in Japan depicts a significant amount of violence.

    This is the link:

    http://www.omaha-neb.com/experts.html

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    God/dess Lexi's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    http://www.kylewood.com/firstamendment/examiner.htm

    here is another to just look at though I didnt get through the whole thing.

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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    The problem with all of these studies on both sides of the proposition is that they are ALL statistical cr*p. They are done by people on a cheap budget with absolutely no controls over logically connected differences and an axe to grind for their position. They are not worth the paper they are printed on, or the electrons to disseminate them on the web.

    Take the study comparing the US and Germany--there are absolutely no demograhic or income controls and Germany and the US were radically different in age distributions at the times studied. Take the Hawaii study, no controls for the fact that the non-resident population can play a major role.

    If there is an impact one way or the other it would be small and hard to measure. This is compounded by the items left out which would logically swamp any small effect. NO study which shows that there is "no conclusive evidence" would ever get any attention.

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    Veteran Member Santos's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    I don't mean to lecture, but this is a good example of why it's important to vote. Remember that the last Presidential election was in doubt because of a very close number of votes for either side, so your vote does count.

    I know it’s easy to become apathetic and think that your vote doesn’t matter; I often feel that way myself. But doing nothing is taking the position that the status quo is ok. Obviously many of you feel the status quo isn’t ok. You have the ability to make changes—it just happens slowly—so if you’re not registered to vote, go register and be sure to cast your ballot on Election Day.

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    Senior Member Pixie's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Quote Originally Posted by NVJosh link=board=1;threadid=8115;start=msg94555#msg94555 date=1081562704
    Not that I'm defending the Justice Department, I was just wondering how many people read to the end of the article, specifically the paragraphs that say...

    "The department's most closely watched case involves "extreme" porn producer Rob Zicari and his North Hollywood company Extreme Associates. The prolific Zicari is charged with selling five allegedly obscene videotapes, which he now markets as the "Federal Five," that depict simulated rapes and murder."

    and

    These people are looking for kiddie porn and the like. Probably not only the 'simulated rape and murder' types, they are probably looking for snuff films, too. Frankly, I don't mind them spending money on that. The people who produce (and watch, IMO) that sort of stuff are very sick.
    This is a test case. If his stuff gets banned, it creates precedent to which prosecutors in cases against less extreme pornography can refer.

    This makes me sick. We're throwing away money in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's people have already waged war against gay marriage--can't we let porn alone? I'm so tired of Bush's wars! Can we please please please not reelect him in November? Please? Pretty please?

    I'm terrifically worried about what will happen to this country if Bush stays in office.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    Quote Originally Posted by miss george link=board=1;threadid=8115;start=msg94879#msg94879 date=1081636662
    I'm also terrifically worried about what heppens if Bush wins the reelection; and I'm terrifically horrified that Nader is running again. He's still getting 5% in the latest polls, enough to swing it over to Bush if people actually vote that way in November. Sheer narcissism.
    The good thing is that he reportedly is getting 5% of Bush's voters too!

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    Senior Member MissJADEN's Avatar
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    Default Re:Ashcroft at it again...

    This is what we will all look like if Ashcroft has his way !

    Hmmmmmmmmmm all of a sudden I feel a Tax Audit coming on!?
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