It's either fest or famine in the free-lance biz: Today and Friday? No stories scheduled. Tomorrow and maybe Saturday? Four apiece. It almost makes me hope that nothing comes up Friday so I can get caught up on stuff. Plus, I'm sure I'll be hearing from Perry's publicist again within the next couple of days, so I want to have plenty of time to devote to him.
So anyway, while I'm putting off typing in my notes from the interview I just finished (as well as trying to get out of heavy duty work over at Greta's ... oops, I wasn't supposed to say that out loud, was I?), let's talk about porn, or the apparent lack thereof our esteemed Attorney General John Asscroft would like to see. (Discussion courtesy of
According to this article in the
Baltimore Sun, Asscroft has put a whole bunch of computer forensics wonks in rooms to go smut-hunting. I guess worrying about Homeland Security isn't enough for the guy, unless these computer wonks are working doubletime and looking for terrorist propoganda within the voluptuous caverns of Belladonna while they're at it. But anyway, yeah, millions are being spent so that anti-obscenity cases can waste taxpayers' mo ... um, be brought to trial.
I'm not even going to go into the whole Freedom of Speech issue, and I'm not going to argue whether it should or shouldn't be done, because it IS being done as we speak. What
I want to know is, what are the penalties going to be for smut peddlers? Is it going to be jail time? If so, I really want to know where were going to put them all, and is it a good idea to put people who weren't criminal masterminds prior to conviction in a place where they'll inevitably learn a new way to make money upon getting released? Or are the peddlers going to be slapped with fines up the ying-yang? That might be more effective in the short run, sure -- at least, until the peddlers figure out the wonders of encryption and yank it all underground, anyway. Then what? Besides, as the article points out, there's lots of BIG money in the RNP who make a lot more BIG money off peddling porn. If you really want to stay in power -- and there's no doubt in my mind that anyone crazy enough to want to be in the Presidential realm is NOT going to want to give up their power gladly -- I'm not so sure it's a good idea to blow money on an endeavor that's not going to go anywhere without a huge fight.
Hunting kiddie porn, of course, is a completely different critter, and I'm all about that. Sniffing out snuff porn? Have at it. I'll even go so far as to say no broad needs to be fucking a horse, no matter HOW big its weiner is, so get rid of that, too. (Hell-OOO, that's what cucumbers or really big dildos are for. And no, horses can NOT give consent, no matter how smart you think they are.) But if some dude likes getting shat upon, and someone else likes looking at it, what can you do? No, seriously, what can you do? And if YOU'RE not the one getting shat on, why would you WANT do anything, anyway?
Oh, whatEVER.