According to ABC News, Ashcroft and the Justice Dept. are prosecuting obscenity for the first time in a decade. The target? Rob Zicari and Janet Romano, who run “The Hardest Hard Core on the Web.”
Granted, the site features films most people-even those lovers of regular porn-would gladly shy away from: depictions of rape and murder, adult women pretending to be small children, etc.
But, again, this IS all acting. No actual rapes and murders. No actual child pornography.
“The material depicted in the videotapes produced by Extreme Associates is extremely vile, degrading and extremely offensive to women,” stated Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania, in the ABC report. (Buchanan is in charge of prosecuting this case.)
She also stated that “obscenities have always been a priority of the attorney general. [A]nd, he has asked each U.S. attorney to make that our priority as well.”
Look, I don’t care if these movies are “vile” and “extremely offensive to women,” if you’re not going to prosecute the makers of “Freddy vs. Jason” or Rob Zombie for “House of 1,000 Horrors,” then you cannot legitimately tell me you’re prosecuting these people for the level of violence in their movies.
You’re prosecuting them for the sex, and that’s all there is to it. And, that’s a restriction of liberties. I cannot agree with that act.
I’m not saying I personally wish to watch these flicks, but I’d gladly give cash to their defense fund—-that’s how strongly I disagree with this action taken by Ashcroft and the Justice Dept. Good God, they’ve conquered the nudity of the scales of justice. Now, they have even bigger naked fish to fry.
It’s a sad day for American liberties.
I’m a woman and I find John Ashcroft extremely offensive. Can I ban him? How long until the USA-Patriot Act covers porn too? “Hi, I’m with the FBI, and I need the names and addresses of everyone who has bought Playboy here in your bookstore, Ms./Mr. Manager. You can’t tell anyone I’ve been here either.”