Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03415.html --- Subject: RE: Sen. Mary Landrieu wants to force ICANN to create ".p0rn" Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 13:32:51 -0700 From: "Clinton D. Fein" <clinton.feinat_private> To: <declanat_private> Hi Declan: Not sure whether this will amuse or depress you. It is a rather graphic assessment of the Landrieu legislation. I have attached a somewhat savory excerpt. Harmful to Minors .politicians by Clinton Fein http://annoy.com/editorials/doc.html?DocumentID=100332 [Exerpt] Reading the language of a new bill carefully, some things remain predictably the same. Politicians with no clue about technology and a penchant for publicity at the expense of children, will keep American children about as safe as hiring Osama bin Laden as a babysitter or confiscating toenail clippers from grandmothers in Oklahoma. Does Landrieu's legislation mean news organization web sites that streamed a video file of, say, Yasser Arafat's wife suggesting the sacrifice of children in the guise of suicide bombers would turn the children into martyrs (and inspiring thoughts that might be considered harmful to minors -- in some communities) will now have to register as a .prn site? Or are "legitimate" media organizations exempt, so our kids can happily access "Temptation Island" online (or Page Three of The Sun) or if blocked, simply satellite surf between Al Jazeera and freeway shootings live on MSNBC? Or are minors only harmed by images of what their parents might have done to 'create' them with to begin with, not what they might be suggesting to 'destroy' them? And further, if this brilliantly crafted legislation only applies to a 'commercial' online service, would subscription-based sites that included such items as this very legislation (which would be harmful to not only minors, but pretty much everyone else) be forced to register as .prn sites? Of course, Landrieu forgets to address who decides what is harmful to minors. Could a vegan parent decide that a commercial site like McDonald's that encourages the unhealthy eating of genetically engineered meat is harmful to their children in their world view? Or will Representative Bob Barr take time between marriages and the disbursing of money to battered women (and their kids who are too bruised to even use a mouse if they could afford the electricity) that are being encouraged to stay married for a few extra government bucks, to decide what's harmful to minors or not? What about sites selling condoms? Harmful to minors if their lives are nothing more than a mistaken result of their parents having missed the site to begin with. Harmful if they're HIV positive because some idiot decided that safe sex information is harmful to minors (who happen to be the child's parents), and were blocked from access to .prn sites offering safe sex information. According to Landrieu's own web site, more than 20 percent of teen-age girls in Louisiana give birth before their 18th birthday. Is she aiming for 30 percent? Luckily very wealthy, albeit non-commercial, organizations like the Boston Archdiocese need not worry about what they promote online since they would be exempt. A child alone in a confessional with a pedophile in a habit with a habit, shielded and protected at great expense, cannot be as harmful to kids as seeing what goes on in the Oval Office when Presidents are bored with government shutdowns. And all of this because Ms. Landrieu arrogantly and neurotically fantasizes that someone sitting across the table from her at dinner has a mini-cam attached to their shoe! Clearly, she's never dined with Richard Reid, or she would be focusing on more important issues. [/Exerpt] Clinton _____________________________________ Clinton Fein Editor & Publisher Annoy.com 370 7th Street, Suite 6 San Francisco, CA 94103 Phone: 415-552-7655 Fax: 415-552-7656 http://apollomedia.com/ _____________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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