Today’s Freedom News

So now Frothy vows to end internet and other porn (Note to commenters — remember to misspell “porn” so that your comment isn’t caught in the spam filter. Or just call it “santorum.”).

Santorum says in a statement posted to his website, “The Obama Administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws.”

If elected, he promises to “vigorously” enforce laws that “prohibit distribution of hardcore (obscene) pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops and through the mail or by common carrier.”

According to the Daily Caller article linked above, the way to “stop” internet porn would be to prosecute people who are receiving it. So if the Gubmint determines you are browsing in naughty places, the prosecutors might knock on your door, seize your computer and indict you for what you were doing with it.

Ain’t freedom grand? But one catch with this (hat tip Digby) — internet porn consumers disproportionally live in red states.

In 2009, Benjamin G. Edelman of the Harvard Business School published the results of a state-by-state study on the number of people who were subscribing to adult membership Web sites; Edelman found that eight of the 10 states that had the highest per capita consumption of online porn were states that Republican John McCain won in 2008’s presidential election. Utah topped the list, and other red states in Edelman’s top 10 included Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alaska, North Dakota and West Virginia. The only states in Edelman’s top 10 that Obama won in 2008 were Florida and Hawaii.

To be fair, this may be because other outlets for porn are less available in, say, Salt Lake City than in, say, San Francisco. But my impression was that porn is not the hot-button issue it was in the 1970s or so. See also Annie Laurie and Doghouse Riley.

The state of Texas, which tirelessly protects women’s freedom to not get abortions, has now gone a step further and liberated poor women from access to family planning services.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it will cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program. …

… The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas’ $40 billion Women’s Health Program, and nearly half of the program’s providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions.

I’m sure the women of Texas are grateful.

20 thoughts on “Today’s Freedom News

  1. Logical result: less pron + more fertility = more reproduction. The only way R’s can replace their dying-off demographic?

  2. “John Winthrop for governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony” – if the seventeenth century was good enough for them…

  3. Sanctimonium’s mistake is in treating Americans like dogs; but really Americans are more like cats. Fido will do whatever you tell Fido to do, because Fido loves you; but Kitty is just a friend, and Kitty will do only what Kitty wants to do.

    The secret of governing cats and/or Americans is to trick Kitty into wanting what you want Kitty to want. I suspect that Obama and Romney understand this; Sanctimonium does not.

  4. Maybe Santorum’s trying to take peoples minds off the Conservative “KKK” Women’s Platform:
    “Kinder, Kuchen, Kirche!”

    As for Santorum’s latest CRUSADE against ‘rick’ on the internet, it isn’t just that the states that order the most of it are “Red States” – what’s even more interesting is the state that orders the most ‘free GAY rick’ on the internet – Mississippi!

    Here’s an interesting state-by-state graph on searches for “God,” and for ‘free gay rick:”

    http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=550

    Sounds like MS’s got only a lot of stars-and-bars flag-flying red-neck Bubba’s, drivin’ them there pick-ups, but a lot of closeted gay men, searching the internet for relief from their sexual tension.
    Or, there’s an awful lot of “researching” on the subject going on down there… 😉

    Uhm, dear Republicans (or, at least, Santorum), do you really want to go down THIS road as well?
    It’s not bad enough you’ve alienated over half of the voters – women; but now you want to attack probably your biggest base – white men who search for ‘rick?’
    Keep on this road, and you’ll not only lose women, Independents, and Moderates, but even Conservative bloggers and their flying-monkeys who troll on Liberal websites.
    Then who’ll be left to vote for you?
    If you keep on this path, not even those Catholic Priests, who, if they ain’t actually schtupping little boys, are at least yanking their meat-mitres over the thought of it.
    Nah! Who am I kidding. Those holier-than-thou hypocrites have been two-faced about far, far, worse things than that.

  5. Interesting, the Republican Party must think it will be beyond “election politics” long before all those poor babies grow up to vote against their candidates.

    Talk about short term thinking!

  6. Swami,
    I bet Ol’ Clarence’s still got some of his old magazines stashed behind the piles of lumber in his work-room, or in an ancient golf-bag.
    That way, after popping a V*agra, no matter which stash he chooses, when he tells his old-ball-and-chain that he’s going to his room to work on his “wood,” he won’t be lying.

    Besides, Clarence is clearly a frugal Conservative man. And they don’t just throw away great investments like, “Big Butted/Busted Babes: Volumes 38C – 50DDDD.”

  7. Hmmm, I just saw a photo on the Interwebs of George Clooney in handcuffs at the Sudanese embassy this morning. Does that count?

  8. gulag…I’m one of those old timers…If it’s not in black and white and the guy is adorned with only Argyle socks…. then it’s not real nrop.

  9. joanr16…I just “got” you comment. Being a self absorbed male like I am — that wasn’t easy to do.

  10. Swami – yeah, sorry, I was being super-obscure to avoid the naughtiness filter.

    I’m sure if The Great Santorum-ini could call it “pr0n,” he’d use that photo of George to ban liberal celebrities protesting stuff.

  11. This could be the year the GOP “glue” comes unstuck. The more hate they spew, the more ludicrous they look in the social media. The GOP never planned on social media. Neither did Khadaffi.

  12. To be fair, I’ve seen officials at the Texas departments protesting the funding cuts, but feeling they must do what they’re told because the state attorney general says it’s constitutional (and, of course, it is the current law). Not everyone in Texas is crazy.

    Of course, I do remember phrasing often used in dramatic scenes where someone finally decides they can’t stand idly by:

    “I’m not doing this!”
    “But you’re letting it happen.”

    I hope people start having dramatic scenes soon.

  13. I thought Republicans were the party of less government. What’s with Ricky banning everything?

  14. Our local “leftie” radio host (Orlando} made an observation that hotels make lots of money renting adult movies, and their “people” will be rather upset.
    Corporate profits, don’t cha know.

    Santorum will have tom pry my copy of “Back Door Hotties #16” outta my COLD DEAD HANDS!!!

    I suppose Santorum is making this a “Religious freedom” issue?

    Religion is like a penis; it’s ok to have one. so long as you don’t wave in peoples faces or try to jam it down their throats.
    I think Bill Mahr said that.

  15. erinyes .. Wow! It’s a small world. I got a copy of #16 BDH in my collection that’s in pretty good condition, almost pristine, with hardly any pages stuck together.

  16. So, the government that can’t do s h i t will now somehow figure out how to filter and control probably one of the most uncontrollable entities ever invented by Al Gore. RRRIIIIIGGGGGHHHHTTTT. This will never happen, mainly because it’s screwing (sorry) with men. Screw with the ladies (oops, sorrysorry) and their contraception all you want, but when you go after da dudes pron you’ve gone too far.

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