The value of free speech...

> "Philip A. Mongelluzzo" <phimon@ix.netcom.com> writes:
> 
> > How do we deal with child pornography and free speech in such a way
> > as to allow both to exist and insure our children are not exposed to
> > pornographic material until they are at a maturity level where they
> > can deal with it?
> 
> > A battle that must be won without killing the enemy to
> > insure continued free speech.  Quite a challenge I think.  Now, do
> > you have any idea how to do that?

  When I was twelve years old a man stepped out of the proverbial
dark alley in my small hometown and offered me twenty dollars to
give him a blow-job. I said no.
  In retrospect, if he had offered me a thousand dollars, I might
have recognized the value of free speech at a much earlier age
than I eventually did.

  Also, my parents used to let me go to out-of-town hockey games
with other kids and Father Flanigan, admonishing me, "Don't let
him stick his hand in your pants." I didn't.
  Today's world may seem more dangerous, with a greater chance
of children's contact with unknown entities/weirdos, but I find
it hard to believe that there is greater saftey to be had by
keeping children ignorant of information that goes beyond this
or that boundary of morality/integrity/world-view/lifestyle.
  If your children see a picture of a young child with a dick
in his or her mouth and don't see anything wrong with it, then
I don't think the problem is with the picture.

TruthMonger
TruthMonger

>   When I was twelve years old a man stepped out of the proverbial
> dark alley in my small hometown and offered me twenty dollars to
> give him a blow-job. I said no.

Had you kept that 20 dollars in a high interest long term access account 
or invested it in stocks it may now have been worth enough to convice you 
to give him the said blow-job. ;-)....

>   If your children see a picture of a young child with a dick
> in his or her mouth and don't see anything wrong with it, then
> I don't think the problem is with the picture.

Very well put, I often use a variant of this as a counter argument to the 
child protection censorship brigade. If parents bring up kids such that a 
picture of a cow being sucked off is going to turn them into a 
bestialist, or a picture of a dead guy is going to turn them into a hard 
as nails killing machine praying for death, the child is pretty fucked up 
in the first place.

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