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achilleselbow

Published Letters: 345
Editor's Choice: 17

Sunday, June 22, 2008 10:59 AM

@Chingarra

What the citizens in this country, who support the constitution can do, is IMPEACH the crooked Bush administration! The second thing to do would be to prosecute the entire Democratic leadership in both the House, and the Senate, for violating their oath of office!

Oh, really? I didn't know that citizens could carry out impeachment proceedings on their own. Silly me, I thought you need a Congress to initiate impeachment, and courts to carry out the prosecution. But maybe if we all just sit on a lawn and hold hands, we can make this happen.

This is exactly the kind of reality-ignoring rhetoric that I'm getting tired of. If you're just venting your understandable rage built up over the past 8 years, fine, go ahead. What worries me is the idea that people will actually make real political decisions like casting a symbolic vote (or not voting) based on this kind of empty-headed sentiment.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 03:02 PM

@Little Brother

Once again with the rousing speeches and fiery rhetoric that are completely devoid of any practical idea whatsoever. Pardon me if thinking in terms of the actual consequences of your vote/non-vote instead of the noble symbolism that it has in your head makes me some kind of boring pragmatist. Better than continuing to act like my vote takes place in a vacuum.

Once again you fail to answer the simple question of what your symbolic third party vote/non-vote actually accomplishes short of making a personal statement that neither anyone in power nor society at large will hear or understand. Do you think the media will interpret low voter turnout as a protest? Rather the assumption will be that everything is just fine. Once again you also fail to understand that swallowing your goddamn pride and voting for the less repugnant candidate does not in any way prevent you from carrying on your activities of dissent, outside pressure, or even revolution. Unless of course you think that not voting counts as any of these things, which it doesn't.

Oh, boo hoo, did I hurt your feelings by 'commanding' you to make the 'right choice'? Isn't this what pretty much all political commentary is? Should I have maybe been more tender in my suggestion? Once again, your vote doesn't take place in a vacuum - it affects me as much as it does you. So you're damn right I'm gonna do everything I can to shatter your solipsism. Of course you have the 'right' to throw away your vote. I also have the right to think you're an idiot for it, and I have the right to thank you for contributing to a McCain presidency should such occur.

Once again your mockery of the "we're at war" attitude only shows your own arrogant elitism. In fact, we are at war, both literally and figuratively. Just because you're personally well-off enough to survive a McCain presidency doesn't mean it's going to be fine for everyone. If electing Obama over McCain prevents just ONE unnecessary death in Iraq, whether it be a soldier or a civilian, I consider that worth the effort to "hold your nose". I don't know how to make it any clearer.

Monday, June 23, 2008 02:30 PM

In United Kingdom...

...girls catcall YOU!

No, but seriously, I actually applaud this development. Perhaps if women continue to assert themselves in the same overtly aggressive way that the stereotypical male does (rather than the more common form of 'sexual empowerment' in the form of more easily submitting to male advances), it will change gender dynamics to the point that men won't have to feel the responsibility of having to be in pursuit all the time, women won't feel the constant 'male gaze', and maybe we can all just stop talking about sex so much.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:47 AM

Dude, NSFW!

...good thing I don't have a job, or I'd be in trouble. Then again, what do you expect clicking on Cumonherface.com?

Anyway, this is actually pretty interesting, especially considering that it comes as a surprise to most people that the continued existence of porn relies on government and prosecutors turning a blind eye rather than its being legally protected. In fact, throughout most of the US, porn is subject not only to the obscenity charge (with its completely worthless Miller Test), but is also illegal because it technically constitutes prostitution. The reason most of it is made in California is precisely because it's one of the only states that provides a legal distinction between porn and prostitution and protection for the former.

Of course, to reasonable people like me and anyone who is not in hopeless religiously-induced denial, the fact that the only difference between porn and prostitution is a camera shows that we might as well legalize the latter, because I firmly believe that modern society would collapse if we got rid of the former.

P.S. Isn't an orgy site a pretty risky venture? I always wondered how those sites like PartyHardcore make enough money to have relatively high production and to pay like 20 models as opposed to just 2 or 3.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 01:03 PM

@sockpuppet

Actually, there are plenty of porn sites who do just that. Granted, the bigger ones like Bangbus are staged and get girls through 'modeling' ads and such, at least some are real, trolling nightclubs and beaches and offering girls money. I'd like to think that most turn it down, but obviously some don't. And I don't think I even need to mention Girls Gone Wild. Furthermore, in this Internet age, prostitution doesn't necessarily involve trolling the streets either.

Regardless, my point was that while people might think there's an obvious difference, the legal distinction doesn't actually exist in most states. The legality of porn overall is a huge gray area that is rarely addressed because, aside from porn producers, neither politicians nor average citizens would ever be willing to take a public pro-porn stance, despite the fact that the majority of Americans consume it in private.

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