• Ascroft's War On Pleasure

    From Free Speech@Free_member@newsguy.com to alt.society.civil-liberty on Sunday, November 02, 2003 17:43:12
    From Newsgroup: alt.society.civil-liberty

    Democrats
    This message was posted in the "rec.arts.movies.erotica" newsgroup earlier. It is
    quite disturbing as it shows the direction of massive censorship that the Bush administration now want's to move into the field of movies and maybe even
    cable TV. If Bush is re-elected there will be no erotica or nudity in American by 2008. Read the essay:


    From: Name@address.net
    Reply-To: Name@address.net
    Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.erotica

    Articles like these must be embarrassing for the loathsome Ashcroft and
    his ilk. The fact that women--and educated feminists at that--like Dr.
    Susan Block love porn hardly supports Ashcroft's lie that porn
    "victimizes" the supposedly "weaker" sex. Indeed, the anti-pornography
    movement is inherently anti-feminist and anti-woman, since it seeks to
    DENY essential rights to women. Never forget that millions of women
    consume pornography--including hardcore porn--enjoy casual sex, and/or
    live non-monogamous lifestyles. The central lie of the
    porn-haters--that pornography involves men oppressing women--is merely
    an act of projection on their part. Every oppressive government in the
    history of the world has opposed pornography. The more oppressive the
    regime, the less tolerant it is toward pornography and (especially
    female) promiscuity. Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Taliban
    all stand out as prominent examples of what happens when sex-hating
    bigots are allowed to grab and keep the reins of power.
    --Cockatrice

    The War on Pleasure
    Exxxtreme Ashcroft
    By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK

    As US President G.W. Bush's Christian Petroleum Crusade slaughters an
    average of one to two American troops per day and over 3,000 Iraqi
    civilians since the war began, back in the Homeland, Dubya's anointed
    Attorney General is leading another crusade to slaughter our civil
    liberties. Now America's erotic freedoms are squarely in the
    crosshairs.

    Welcome to Ayatollah Asscraft's Anti-Sexual Freedom Crusade, coming
    soon to a pornographer near you. It's already come to a pornographer
    near me in the form of 10 federal obscenity indictments filed by the
    US Justice Department against the North Hollywood porn video company,
    Extreme Associates Inc., and it's owners, Robert Zicari, alias Rob
    Black, the producer of the alleged obscenities, and his wife, Janet
    Romano, alias Lizzie Borden, director of said obscenities. Penalties
    upon conviction include up to 50 years imprisonment and a $2.5 million
    fine for each, with a further $5 million fine levied against the
    company.

    Now before we go any deeper into this drama of lust and retribution,
    let's take a look at what Extreme Associates does: They make movies.
    That's it. Movies. They don't murder people, they don't rob banks, and
    they aren't being accused of murder or robbery. They stand accused of
    making movies deemed "obscene" in the exalted eyes of our American
    Ayatollah, John Ashcroft, whom I nicknamed Asscraft, when just after
    the 9/11 attacks, he craftily took advantage of America's state of
    terror to fuck us all in the ass with his USA Patriot Act. I call him
    the American Ayatollah because only the leaders of frankly religious
    states like Iran or Taliban Afghanistan match the degree to which he
    mixes his extreme religiosity with government duties.

    Our Evangelical Ayatollah isn't ashamed to admit that he had his
    father anoint him when he took office as U.S. Attorney General, as
    well as on other civic occasions. That's right, he anointeth his head
    with oil (hmmwhich head?), just like the Prophet Samuel did with King
    Saul (Samuel I 10:1). I hear Asscraft used Crisco, a good
    old-fashioned Yankee lubricant. None of that infidel olive oil or
    heathen K-Y jelly for an American Ayatollah.

    Of course, George II himself was virtually anointed as President,
    though the oil of his anointment was more ChevronTexaco than Crisco.
    The point is that neither was elected to their current office. No
    wonder Boy George empathized with Asscraft when he lost the U.S.
    Senate race in Missouri to a dead man, and elevated this pompous Jesus
    freak loser to the position of Most Powerful Lawyer in America.

    After shoving the USA Patriot Act up America's post-9/11-traumatized
    heinie (using the Crisco of Terror to facilitate the shoving),
    Ayatollah Asscraft's first official anti-sex act was to cover up the
    Spirit of Justice. Affectionately named Minnie Lou, the Spirit of
    Justice is a tall, graciously half-topless female statue that presided
    over the Hall of Justice with dignity and style for almost a century.
    Asscraft put Minnie Lou in an American-style burqa, requiring the
    erection of a new set of drapes at a cost of $8000 to US taxpayers.

    Not satisfied with draping innocent statues, Asscraft has now set his
    Messianic sights on what he seems to think everyone will agree is
    truly evil: American erotic entertainment.

    X marks the evil-doer. The last time the federal government put on big anti-obscenity offensive, when Bush I was in the White House, was
    against a company that also began with "Ex" or "X": Xcitement Video
    (U.S. vs. Xcitement Video). Defense counsel Stanley Fleishman and
    Barry Fisher got the obscenity and RICO charges tossed out of court
    before the case even went to trial. "Basically it was a combination of
    falling into a trap we set and their ineptness," recalls Fisher.

    America's Sex President Bill Clinton never went after the porn
    industry; he wasn't that much of a hypocrite. But the administration
    of Bush II, following in the footsteps of Bush I, feels compelled to
    throw the Religious Right wing of the Republican Party some red meat.
    Red and dripping with body fluids. They don't even have to throw the
    meat very far. After all, a prime member of the ravenous Religious
    Right is leading the pack of judicial wolves.

    And if this carnivorous pack has their way, they will chew right
    through Rob and Lizzie and then tear apart the rest of the heathen
    porn industry, even the soft stuff, and then the raunchier R movies,
    certainly cable television and as much of the Internet as they can
    demolish. And if that's semi-successful, well, what about all of
    Minnie Lou's sister statues baring their brazen boobies in government
    buildings across the land? And what about inappropriate art or books
    that children might see? Censorship is a slippery slope, anointed with
    Crisco and arrogance.

    But surely, they won't have their way. They can't have their way.
    Surely, we Americans won't allow our precious First Amendment Rights
    to be devoured by fanatical wolves in "concerned" sheep's clothing.
    Pornography is now a multi-billion dollar industry. The pussycat is
    out of the bag, and even the righteous, wrathful Asscraft can't shove
    it back in. It's mainstream. More folks know about Jenna Jameson than
    Jenna Bush. Most people are probably still too shy to go public with
    their porn preferences. But the numbers don't lie; it takes more than
    a few bad eggs, perverts or even "remnants" of the Clinton years to
    make a multi-billion dollar industry. America--and most of the
    world--loves porn.

    But will Americans defend porn? Well, we damn well should. That's
    right, Brothers & Sisters, Lovers & Sinners: This can't be put off
    just because you don't find the victims appealing. Word is that some
    people in the porn industry don't like Rob and Lizzie because they may
    have bounced some checks, and they make disgusting movies-what I call
    erotic horror. First off, the bounced checks, well, that's Hollywood;
    we've all been there (at least those of us not born with a "silver
    foot" in our mouths, like the Bush men), and that deserves a trip to
    small claims court or maybe a civil lawsuit, not a federal obscenity indictment.

    Others say Rob and Lizzie broke "the rules," that they show stuff
    other pornographers won't show, including everything on the Cambria
    List. The so-called Cambria List, said to have been drawn up in
    January, 2001, just after Bush II took office, by First Amendment
    Attorney Paul Cambria, is supposedly a guide to what pornographers
    should not portray if they want to avoid obscenity prosecutions. This do-it-yourself censorship list (no government agency required)
    includes many "taboos" that most Americans would find pretty tame,
    like "No blindfolds" and " No food used as sex objects" (so much for
    the old whipped cream routine, let alone a nice cucumber), or even discriminatory like "No bi-sex."

    Obviously, most pornographers (who now, thanks to the Internet,
    produce and distribute their products not just from the San Fernando
    Valley, but from any bedroom with a webcam in the world,) don't take
    the Cambria List seriously. But more and more of the bigger players
    are now attempting to abide by it. Such is the chilling effect of
    Asscraft's Anti-Sex Crusade, even if the Anointed One never wins a
    case. Keep in mind that one of their primary tactics is to bleed their
    victims of cash. Mounting an effective defense is always expensive,
    even when you're really innocent. Trial by bankruptcy. No wonder so
    many nervous pornographers are passing the Cambria List around these
    days.

    Leaping like spider monkeys on speed far beyond the straitlaced List,
    the films of Extreme Associates feature graphic gang rape and lust
    murder (all simulated, of course; these aren't snuff films!), real
    beatings (always with the performer's explicit consent) and
    consumption of every kind of body fluid known to humanity (they do
    draw the line at bestiality, as well as anything involving children).

    I must admit I've never actually seen an Extreme Associates film.
    Although I'm somewhat intrigued by the fact they incorporate
    occasional political and religious themes, I don't think I'd like to
    see them because, quite frankly, Rob and Lizzie's graphically violent
    erotica does not sound like my cup of love juice. Unlike Dubya, I
    don't like to watch blood and guts, whether they're fake or real,
    accompanied by sex or not. I don't like watching horror movies, so I
    don't watch them. I also didn't look at the snuff photos of Saddam's
    murdered sons that the Bushies paraded around the world. I didn't
    watch Arnold Schwarzenegger pushing a woman's head into a toilet in
    "Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines." And (as of this writing) I
    don't watch Extreme Associates movies.
    The point is nobody makes me watch them. Nobody makes anybody watch
    them. As the late great First Amendment attorney Stanley Fleishman (or
    maybe it was his partner Barry Fisher, or maybe it was his client Max Lobkowicz) once said: The only people being forced to watch these
    movies are the judge and the jury in this case.

    And please remember who is doing the forcing, Brothers & Sisters:
    Ayatollah Asscraft and his Pittsburgh Pussy US Attorney Mary Beth
    Buchanan, the Anthony Comstock and Carrie Nation of our day. "Sneak
    and peek," indeed.

    Now that's what I call nonconsensual sex. I mean, Rob and Lizzie may
    have really twisted imaginations, but they don't force the performers
    in their notorious "Cocktails" videos to eat sperm mixed with spit,
    piss and puke (ugh, I'm retching just writing about it), and they
    don't force me or you to watch it. They are simply exercising their
    First Amendment rights to make disgusting movies. Just like other pornographers, just like horror moviemakers, just like slasher and
    adventure movie producers, just like a lot of music video producers,
    just like a lot of tabloid photojournalists and TV news producers,
    just like a lot of artists, just like any of us in the Free
    Speech-dependent communications game.

    And all of these games, the porn industry, the mainstream movie
    industry, the music industry, television news, the art world, the
    legal profession, Internet webmasters and cruisers, all American
    freedom-lovers ought to put aside our differences in taste, and just
    say no to Ayatollah Asscraft. He may have buggered America with the
    Patriot Act. But he's only just so crafty.

    We might not agree on what makes good porn or a good movie or even
    what's good. And for the most part, we won't admit we personally get
    turned on by any of it. But we can stand up to blatant Puritanical
    government censorship perpetrated by this oily Assfucker.

    Nothing against anal sex, mind you, or other forms of sodomy, which
    are now perfectly legal between consenting adults all across this
    great horny land of ours, according to the recent US Supreme Court
    ruling Lawrence vs. Texas.

    Unlike Lawrence and his lover, Ayatollah Asscraft is greasing his way
    up our collective American behinds without consent. But then, a
    crusade is a war, and this is an essential part of the War on Freedom
    in the Homeland. Because if Rob and Lizzie go to jail for making and
    selling their movies, then possession of their movies becomes illegal,
    and that's just one more thing in your bedroom (well, maybe not your
    bedroom) that the government can bust you for

    If you'd like to join my campaign to maintain our civil liberties,
    including our sexual liberties, call my office at 213.749.1330 or
    email me at liberties@blockbooks.com.

    Don't wait for the knock on your door.

    Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, host of The Dr. Susan Block Show
    and author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure. Visit her website at http://www.drsusanblock.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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    Disturbing?
    Freedom Lover

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