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August 22, 2006
Conservatism 101: Their Morals Must Be Yours
I've always thought that one had to be quite "challenged" brain-wise -- you know, just a smidge slow in the head -- to be a social conservative. And now, once again, they've gone and proved it. Apparently, being a social conservative makes you unable to operate a remote control in a hotel room.
A coalition of 13 conservative groups — including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America — took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws. The coalition also is trying to draw attention to CleanHotels.com, a directory of hotels and motels nationwide that pledge to exclude adult offerings from their in-room entertainment service.
You know, I don't order those movies when I'm in hotels (most every time I am in a hotel, it's for work and I'm on my best behavior)... but I am familiar with how the system works. With a couple of clicks on a remote control, any guest can block this content from reaching their room. And since the adult channels are usually part of the 'tv services' menu, it usually takes at least a handful of deliberate clicks and conscious choices for one of these movies to be beamed to your room, even if you haven't blocked them. You've got to bypass the channel guide, then click on the "movies" feature, then click on "adult," then click your selected title, then click on a confirmation that you want to buy it for your room. That's four deliberate clicks before an adult movie will be delivered to your room.
(Wow... for someone who doesn't order these features when he's on work travel, I sure seem to know how the system works. Stupid vacations.)
But despite the fact that it is entirely possible to surf through all the TV channels your hotel provides without ever even becoming aware that adult features are an option... despite the fact that it is impossible to have these movies playing in your room without you consciously choosing to order them... despite the fact that blocking those channels is more easily achieved than ordering them... and despite the fact that we all as human beings are supposed to have free will and the intellectual capacity to CHANGE THE CHANNEL or to CHOOSE NOT TO WATCH, that's apparently not good enough for the Christian Taliban. No, it's not enough for them that they can choose not to even have the option of seeing them. They want to make that choice for you, since their true agenda is to impose their version of morality on you.
“These are places that you take your family — these are respectable institutions,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “Anything that brings p0rn into the mainstream is a concern. It just desensitizes people.”
That's your choice, Psycho -- and your opinion. How dare you presume to be able to make that kind of a decision or engage in that kind of thought for me?
The leader of the campaign against in-room p0rn is Phil Burress, a self-described former p0rn addict who heads the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values. Though unable to cite specific cases, Burress contended that the availability of in-room p0rn is making hotels more dangerous. “As more and more of these (hardcore) titles become available, we’re going to have sexual abuse cases coming out of the hotels,” he said. “Hotels are just as dangerous as environments around strip joints and p0rn stores.”
That's one of the most spurious leaps of logic and flat out irresponsible statements since Pat Robertson started calling for the assassination of third world leaders. He can't cite a single case, but he presents as fact that we'e "going" to see cases. You know, because someone could obviously go through that whole four conscious clicks thing against their will. And the cause and effect that this joker tries to draw is facetious at best; I'd counter-argue that if there's someone intent on committing sexual abuse in a hotel room, whatever's on TV just isn't going to matter in their plan.
There are only two possible conclusions about social conservatives' true agenda and thinking. Either they truly believe that you and I are incapable of making decisions about our own morality, and they must do so for us -- which reveals a stunning disrespect for the intelligence of their fellow Americans and reveals a superiority complex that rivals anything they've ever angrily accused of the liberal elite. Or, they simply don't care about your rights, mine, or the principles of democracy and a free society; their aim is a theocratic iron handed state in which the beliefs of a fanatic few adherents to a sect of a religion are forcibly imposed on the rest of the population.
That's been done elsewhere in the world. In Iran, for example. In Afghanistan. They were called the Taliban. And there is NO difference between the Afghani Taliban and the social conservatives of the United States, other than the religion they're using as their excuse for fascism, and the deity they invoke while trying to strangle the freedoms of anyone who doesn't share their beliefs. It's the same devil, just hiding behind different colored robes.
Comments
Up next ... campaign against in-house internet service. These are places where families live, we can't have them pumping anything into people's houses that is not religious-right approved. If fact we do not approve of any pumping at all in our homes unless pure thoughts of producing more hordes of christian children soldiers are going through our minds. Next thing you know, we will have violence and s_x abuse scandals coming out of every house with access to the internet. Also, those digital cable and satellite providers have got to be influenced (censored) also. After all, HBO and those s_x channels like Discovery Health (have you seen those baby delivery shows!? Pure p0rnography!). We can't have people like me, who can't control themselves against the evils of p0rn, have any temptation (free will) or we will slip off the precipice of eden and fall into the fiery pits of hell.
Posted by: Seadogs at August 23, 2006 08:55 AM
“These are places that you take your family — these are respectable institutions.."
OK, dear sir, then please explain to me the existence of Motel 6 and all of the no-tell-motels dotting the American highways. Aren't these "respectable institutions" designed specifically to serve the carnal lustings of the American public?
I mean, c'mon, you know you're staying in a "respectable institution" when the movie you watch costs more than the hourly rate you're paying for the room. And, let's face it, it's not like those movie charges are going toward anything like laundry detergent.
Posted by: The SpinMD at August 23, 2006 09:22 AM
