Thursday Reads

There is very little controversy outside the male left bubble these days regarding the harms of pornography, which have only increased since the existence of easy, online access to it.  It very literally is poison, and  "free speech" arguments are utterly bogus.  Porn is not "speech."  Masturbation is not speech.  Other people are being used, often trafficked, into this horrendous "industry," and, because financial pressures cause those to "work" in it, there is no "consent" involved.  It is exploitation to facilitate male masturbation.  It all stems from the crackpot notion men "need" sex.  It stems from the notion of "sex right."  They don't need sex; they won't die not having it.

In the build-up to tout the freedoms of speech that the Internet offers, the porn block set to begin on 1 April, will absolutely restrict online pornographic material to those under 18. To call this censorship seems oblique given the increase of sexual violence and harassment of girls has been linked to the consumption of online pornography. Also, to pretend that pornography can be quickly explained away to children on a drive to school is a naïve response to a situation that marks large tracts of cityscapes, publications and media and which pits mostly females as perpetual objects of "pornification" throughout their lives. Ultimately, having a discussion about online pornography must inevitably involve discussing the dicey issues of human trafficking, enslavement, rape and various sorts of sexual abuses that twelve-year-olds will simply not be able to take in. Similarly, hiding behind free-speech arguments does zilch to lessen the human rights burden that we all must carry in refusing to participate in the subjugation of other humans, even if dressed up as "empowerment sexuality" which liberal feminism has worked hard to cover up since the 1980s.

The deeper ethical problems associated with online pornography is directly linked to human trafficking and prostitution and speaks volumes to the societal and political control exerted over mostly females by males. Lecturer Ran Gavrieli calls porn, “filmed prostitution” that is all about “male domination of women,” a fact that is not insignificant in this era of #MeToo. And in order to understand the links between who consumes porn and the human slavery most often exercised on the other side of the camera, we must react to pornography through legal measures in very much the same way that slavery was ended by fiat. It is now well-known that pornography fuels sex trafficking, yet, most consumers of pornography are not aware of how much of what they are watching is merely filmed rape of women and children.

Feminists--real ones--have always argued against it from a human rights perspective. And they are right. No cries of "prudery" or "censorship" work anymore. The facts are in, and pornography is a very real social problem.
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There won't be any cutting federal funding for the Special Olympics.
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From 2017 is this interview with Jessica Hahn, turning 60 in July, who says she is still angry about what happened to her in the Jim Bakker scandal of 1987.

She is believable.  There is also most of the interview she did on Phil Donahue's program back in 1987, right after the PTL scandal broke.  There are three parts to this.
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No sooner than both Bushes have died than an author comes out with a new book about Barbara rehashing the old rumors about her husband and one-time aide Jennifer Fitzgerald, the latter who denies there was ever an affair with George I.
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