Targetting a generally despised group as a means of enacting laws that would never be tolerated under normal circumstances is a tactic that's been around since the dawn of time, unfortunately.

Nowadays, of course, there's a multi-pronged attack on immigrants, gays, and liberals in general. It worked in Germany during the 1930's, so why not here and now? I firmly believe that one of the main reasons American education has been systematically gutted is so that an entire generation will be unable to detect specious reasoning or formulate an historical analogy.

I think one of the most terrifying things about modern America is that some of the people in power shouting loudest about God and Country care least about Christian virtues and the Constitution. Far too many of them are openly hostile to the Bill of Rights. In my opinion, anyone guilty of supporting or signing blatantly unconstitutional garbage like the Communications Decency Act is in plain violation of his/her oath to protect the Constitution, and is therefore guilty of treason.

And, at the risk of being politically incorrect, I would like to point out that no one has demonstrated that the mere sight of a pornographic photograph leads to complete moral degeneracy.

Have you noticed the unexamined propositions that underlie the censor's arguments? My favorite is the assumption that pornography is so vile that it corrupts all who are exposed to it, except, of course, for the censors themselves, who are of such unshakable moral virtue they are immune to its corrosive effects. (They get to look at lots of porn in the process, by the way.)

This same sort of thing (the "we must save the children" strategy) was tried back in the fifties against comic books. Perhaps you can correct me on this, but I don't recall that the removal of Vault of Horror from the newsstands resulted in the total elimination of juvenile delinquency.

Ah, well, it never ends. As long as there are idiots, there will be demagogic politicians to rake in the votes. The historic view gives comfort and despair in equal measure.

- David

p.s. Remember a couple of years ago, when Oliver Stone's film "Nixon" was being universally condemned as a work of mean-spirited partisan fiction? Funny how there're no retractions now that Nixon's own voice is corroborating Stone's film on the tapes being released...