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Porn has been “the” training ground for great actors. no?
FBI forms anti-porn squad / ‘I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,’ one agent says — How do you say “big Government?”
Last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director,” Robert Mueller.
The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography — not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.
“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. “We must not need any more resources for espionage.”
The biggest waste of time ever.
Yet another “industry” that will move off-shore. 🙂
Getting paid to gather and review “evidence” should make this a popular job, except for the agents who have to explain what they’ve been doing all day – to their spouses.
This is ironic, because his father also put together a task force of this nature — they originally resorted to watching movies to validate if they were obscene (cushy job for a cop I’d imagine), though the task was so daunting, they started to label them by title alone. This led to the infamous George Snr. letter blasting a publication for their adult film, which ended up being a workout video.
Same old, same old — who gets to choose what is porn and what is not? Certainly not most of my politicians, or any of the people on this blog — my choice is my own, as the same is for my family; and it’s not yours to make.
Old stories of Art commissions (Guiliani tried it, and failed) banning Robert Mapplethorpe, Sheriffs roughing up local porn stores — no one is questioning wether it’s right or wrong, but in the end, it’s not their decision to make. It is my own.
Welcome to the world of victimless crimes and hypocrisy.
A new kind of prohibition coming your way? SInce the porn industry seems to be in a bit of a crisis, this is the best that could happen to them! Just imagine the price that Penthouse and Hustler magazines will reach in the black market! And DVDs!!! Man!!!
You talk of Giuliani trying and failing, but he was going after taxpayer money being spent on anti-Catholic ‘art’.
With everything that is wrong with the world, I find it hard to imagine that porn is the new great devil that needs to be slain. Sex is natural, no one would be here without it. Anyone who claims that it is bad and unnatural is fighting natural human sexuallity. But what else is new.
AB CD
If Rudy went after all art being funded by tax money, cool. If he went after only those that dis’d a religion – thats a bit partisan, don’t you think?
How nice that we are literally killing ourselves to give Iraqi’s freedom and having our own freedoms being reduced and restricted every day by this “FREEDOM HATING” hypocritical religious extremist administration. Who’s going to come to our rescue and free us from our dictatorial extremist government? We can put Bush on trial with Sadam.
As I understand, Congress mandated the new focus against porn. The above comments also seem to be mostly concerned with male / female consenting sex.
The task force will be investigating the more wild and offbeat forms. Included would be child sex, bestiality, snuff films, torture, and the like. I don’t know if psychiatry considers these deviations abnormal or worthy of treatment, but they don’t do anything for me.
A last word, porn is only acceptable until you see your sister or daughter in a production.
I was going to blast the Xtians but several thoughts are spinning in my head:
1.- Will that be an excuse for the increase in consumption of paper towels and hand lotion by the FBI?
2.-If I ever get caught in the office watching porn, again; will it works if I tell them that I was helping a buddy from the FBI with some “research”?
3.- Is Ron Jeremy going to be jailed for carrying a large concealed weapon?
By the way… does any body know? Have we won the “war on drugs”?
You never hear about that war any more. Was it a win, lose or draw? We spent enough BILLIONS on it, we taxpayers have the right to know how that war ended-up.
If I was a senator, I’d introduce a bill banning the use of “The war on…” by any governmental official. This misused metaphore invariably leads us down very expensive and deadly paths of folly.
What’s ironic is that we OVER USE “A war on…” but when we have REAL wars like Korea and Vietnam, we don’t officially call them wars!
I think Rudy was justified in his take, and the court was off base. Taxpayers have no business funding offensive art, and let the museums that think it’s important and valuable stop asking the government for money. Sure, it’d be OK to defund all art, but I don’t think that’s the only acceptable defunding.
From the stroy:
Congress began funding the obscenity initiative in fiscal 2005 and specified that the FBI must devote 10 agents to adult pornography. The bureau decided to create a dedicated squad only in the Washington Field Office. “All other field offices may investigate obscenity cases pursuant to this initiative if resources are available,” the directive from headquarters said. “Field offices should not, however, divert resources from higher priority matters, such as public corruption.”
The political “smell” test:
1. Congress recently starts funding a “high priority” task.
2. Congress only requires 10 agents to handle this “high priority” task.
To the FBI’s credit:
1. Realizes it is political BS, and only staffs agents in Washington – BS Central.
2. Sends the internal message: “don’t work on this unless you have nothing better to do”.
Note that even though the Politicos are saying this is a high priority, the FBI is telling its people not to let this distract them from “higher priority matters”.
#9 Pat you say:
“The task force will be investigating the more wild and offbeat forms. Included would be child sex, bestiality, snuff films, torture, and the like. I don’t know if psychiatry considers these deviations abnormal or worthy of treatment, but they don’t do anything for me.”
No they won’t. It says right in that story that they are investigating legal porn.
I’m just wondering what the motive is to divert energy from national security, across state line kidnappings, bank robbery (all FBI jurisdiction) to rating porn. What is the deal with our Attorney General? Who is he pandering to?
I can’t help but wonder what the hidden agenda is in this picture.
And, Uhhh, Pat…..explain your “porn is only acceptable until you see your sister or daughter in a production” comment. The last study I read about the women who chose careers in porn — a HIGH percentage of them had been abused as children. So, chances are if you SEE you sister or daughter in a production, you’ve already SEEN them, and also helped to break into porn. Think about it Pat. The industry doesn’t seek out the undamaged women, it doesn’t have to. There are more than enough women victimized by their father/brother/uncle.
This porn chase is just a good way for the administration to not take care of the business of protecting us from the REAL things we need protection from: corporate greed (gas prices, the new bankruptcy laws, corporate monoply, price setting/fixing), illegal aliens, bird flu, lack of national guard and impodent FEMA, poverty and it’s children, lack of health care, and crime.
#12 GregAllen – I bet the war on drugs is still in full force. The police make too much by “asset forfeiture” and confiscation to ever give it up.
Major conflict of interest – those seizing the property are the direct beneficiaries of the property seized.
#15 Milo
The article specifically states the following:
“Applicants for the porn squad should therefore have a stomach for the kind of material that tends to be most offensive to local juries. Community standards — along with a prurient purpose and absence of artistic merit — define criminal obscenity under current Supreme Court doctrine.
“Based on a review of past successful cases,” the memo said, the best odds of conviction come with pornography that “includes bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior.” No word on the universe of other kinks that helps make porn a multibillion-dollar industry. “
Sounds to me like they are going after true deviants, to use a badly defined word.
#18 Pat. What happened to the child porn and snuff films between your 2 posts?
urination, defecation are “normal” body functions, just like breast feeding (also a deviant act?) As for sadistic and masochistic behavior — if it’s consenting, play acting, dressing odd and role playing — is somehow bad, but if it’s just some dude beating on his woman…well, that’s just American? Or spanking and terrorizing the daylight out of a child, is just…well, a parenting style. What about outlawing the fundies who advocate beating children, write books about it, and even market a beating instrument (the Rod!). How is this not considered offensive and/or illegal. I’m talking about people — like Michael and Debi Pearl http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/index.php?id=24
Or what about boxing, or “ultimate sports” or viewing America’s Funniest Videos showing people mutilating themselves for everyone to LAUGH?
I’m sorry…but, I fail to see the line between “deviant” and “normal”.
The thing that makes this new antiporn crusade all the more ridiculous is that the Dept. of Justice’s own statistics (based on the FBI’s detailed data in their UCR) provide no linkage between violent crime and the exponential rise in porn availability.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Violence
The link between the greater availability of porn and violence against women (rape) is inverse where the rise in porn has decreased rape crimes at a faster rate than other violent crimes. If the FBI and DOJ succeed in reigning in porn significantly, it will be interesting to see if it corresponds with a rise in rapes.