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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
@ ondelette:
I live in Taiwan, and every year we get the State Department here to pass judgment on Taiwan in its human trafficking report -- and each year I post on my own blog on the hypocrisy of the State Department, which never reports on the illegal human trafficking that has put thousands of people into illegal and secret US prisons around world. And given that much of the torture involves sexual humiliation and abuse of the private parts, it is hard to argue that this is not trafficking for sexual purposes...
Thanks, Glenn, for another hard hitting piece.
I mourn for my nation. May Bush and his cronies be speedily tried and imprisoned after he steps down.
Michael
Porn offends your moral sensibilities. The answer to that is obvious: you don't have to consume it. But the poorly reasoned diatribes are really rather ridiculous, and just a thinly veiled attempt to try to assert the superiority of your own moral sense over that of others by force of law. It's authoritarianism, whether you admit it or not.
What a cliche. Where did I say that porn offends my moral sensibilities? Try reading what I write instead of what you want to read into it that isn't there.
I am more discriminating than that. There are different types of porn.
I have a short story where the older female character seduces a young fella like you.
You are about 18, aren't you?
Obama campaign to roll out web video tomorrow starring John Sidney McCain III in 'Keating Five'.
Its a period film.
my last post to you was a SNARK.
The age of consent to choose to have sex need not be the same thing as the age of consent to appear in porn and need not determine what aged people porn producers should be allowed to employ. For instance, we have various ages of consent for different things. In some states, people cannot drive until they are 16 and in others 18. In most states -- as far as I know -- one cannot drink until being 21.
Voluntary sexual activity with a peer is not the same thing as appearing in porn or stripping or being a prostitute. These are all different activities. It is simplistic to say that just because they involve sex they are the same.
Masturbation involves sex. Mostly we are allowed to do that at whatever age the mood strikes us.
Female genital mutilation in other nations is really about controlling sex. But it is legal in many nations. It is about both a procedure and about sex.
Some torture -- maybe more than we might like to admit -- is about sex.
CNN reportObama campaign to roll out web video tomorrow starring John Sidney McCain III in 'Keating Five'.
Its a period film.
Earlier this evening, I dialed to Faux News and watched a few minutes of Sean Hannity narrating some special about Obama and Radicals. It was in the same style as a badly produced expose.
At some of it, we started to laugh so hard we missed parts of the narration, but it was pure-t high-larryous.
My take is that Faux is preaching to the choir - nobody watching that show who doesn't laugh out loud at the ridiculous assertations made is already a McCain supporter. Any independents or undecided voters would probably cringe at the amateur tabloidesque absurdity of it all, if not find it utterly offensive and stupid.
I hope that like Josh Marshall suggests, that one of the 527s in Obama's court will bring up Todd Palin's very real association with the AIP and its interesting philosophy... not that I care if Alaska secedes (seeya!), but rather what's sauce for the goose and all that.
I've been trying to follow this, and I confess, I don't have a clue what point you are trying to get across, if any.
The best guess I have is that sexual abuse is not resticted by age? OK, sure, I don't think you are going to get much disagreement, though I'm not sure what that point has to do with anything else. It certainly casts no light on how you feel about censorship prosecutions in general or this one in particular. And in the case at hand, very little has been said to indicate that any of the performers were coerced and abused in the films under consideration; as far as I know the only evidence presented at trial was the opposite.
And I know you aren't particularly interested, or haven't been in the past, in much to do with Bush human rights violations and torture. Though that was more in the direction that most of the reasonable posters, and Glenn himself, seemed to be going.
Why do you think I wasn't interested?
AKA Smith sniffs (a little too silly to be a snark, as he claims it is in a later post): "I am more discriminating than that. There are different types of porn.
I have a short story where the older female character seduces a young fella like you.
You are about 18, aren't you?"
Ah, the old "I-am-the-adult-in-the-room" gambit.
I think our friend Canuckistan Bob puts it into proper perspective: "I've been trying to follow this, and I confess, I don't have a clue what point you are trying to get across, if any."
SNIP
"And I know you aren't particularly interested, or haven't been in the past, in much to do with Bush human rights violations and torture. Though that was more in the direction that most of the reasonable posters, and Glenn himself, seemed to be going."
Now THAT'S a snark . . .
If you are referring to me regarding my equivalence of torture and 18 year old girls in porn, then don't. 18 year old girls (and boys) are often stupid, unsophisticated, ignorant, and clueless and get taken advantage of. Do I think that's a shame? Yes, of course. Do I think it's worse than torture? Of course not.
I realized we had lost America when there was no outcry over the very IDEA of the existence of Guantanamo. I couldn't believe there was no outcry. Incredulous. I wrote to everyone I knew, expecting cries of horror and outrage and got back...nothing. Ho hum. It was stunning to me. No one give two shits that our government was torturing. Stunning.
So, yup, torture is one of the worst things I can imagine a government doing out in the open.
I pretty much assumed everyone here (except Shooter, of course) agrees that torture is unforgivable. So I was discussing that theory being bruited by some, including Glenn, that 18-year-olds are mature enough to decide to go into business selling their bodies. Legally, yes. Emotionally and spiritually, absolutely not. Should government be involved? I don't think so, but I do think that selling your body should be frowned upon, especially with young people -- I don't think they understand what price they may be paying.
That's all. Am I a Victorian spinster?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
