Currently viewing the tag: "Puritanism"

40% Of Louisiana Sex Offenders Branded As Such for Consensual Sodomy

by Metavirus on 22 February 2011
This is really fucked up:
Louisiana, like most states, bars prostitution. But the state also has a 206-year-old law that carries special penalties for those charged with soliciting oral or anal sex — the so-called Crime Against Nature statute. Those convicted under the C.A.N. law can be required to register as sex offenders. Yesterday, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in New Orleans, claiming the law unconstitutionally discriminates against gays and others who engage in the targeted acts. (Here’s a report on the suit from the New Orleans Times-Picayune and here’s a copy of the complaint.) [...] At a news conference in New Orleans, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the registration requirement erects “insurmountable barriers” to people who are trying to restart their lives, the Times-Picayune reports. In New Orleans, according to the paper, nearly 40 percent of the people registered as sex offenders are on the registry because of a crime against nature conviction. Louisiana is the only state where people convicted of selling their bodies can be required to register as a sex offender, the Times-Picayune reports, citing the lawsuit.
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FCC Still Wasting Taxpayer Money on Nipplegate

by Metavirus on 19 September 2009

It’s bullshit like this that helps people develop a hatred for government (and puritanism qua government) (via):

The FCC has reasserted its power to regulate fleeting nudity and says it wants to further investigate “whether CBS’ indecency violation [in the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl reveal] was willful.”

“The evidence in this case strongly suggests that CBS had access to video delay technology at the time of the 2004 Super Bowl,” the commission said Tuesday in a brief to the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl reveal case. The FCC asked the court to remand the decision back to the FCC so it could investigate further its assertion that the violation was “willful.”

Can someone please wake me up when we exit the 19th century?

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Florida Governor Crist To Be Outed in New Documentary

by Metavirus on 8 May 2009

For people like me with a slight anarchist streak that loves to see smarmy, self-righteous politicians squirm, this is going to be divine:

The Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, who is strongly considering a run for Senate, will be outed in a independent film being released today.

The film, Outrage, tracks the outings of prominent gay political figures, such as Crist and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. It’s being produced by Magnolia Pictures and will appear in Landmark Theaters across the country.

“Using some firsthand accounts of former sexual partners, old campaign footage (to occasionally humorous effect) and commentary from gay political media watchdogs, the film makes the case for each man’s homosexuality, and presents his lifetime gay rights voting record,” according to one reviewer. “In each instance, the disconnect is staggering.

“The usual suspects are all there: Craig, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, former New York mayor Ed Koch, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, former Rep. Ed Schrock, even dusty McCarthy relic Roy Cohn.”

Someone buy some popcorn and Junior Mints. Wonkette dishes:

Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, is known for precisely two things: being orange, and having a dreadful porn mustache in the 1970s, which was the style at the time. Everybody likes to make jokes about how (allegedly!) gay he is, jokes that were only made more hilarious by his engagement to a lady right around the time last year that John McCain was supposed to pick him as his running “mate.”

But Crist got passed over and he still had to marry that woman. And people shook their heads sadly over what a mess he’d made of things, having to marry some broad and put his suspiciously long bachelor days behind him.

It’s that last part that’s actually kinda sad. In order to groom himself to be seen as a potential heavy hitter in the national GOP, Governor Crist felt like he had to marry a beard in order to hide his sexuality. Although it’s a bit tragic, what’s really sad is that the GOP has become a party filled with ignorant homophobes.

Update: To dispel any confusion, my main reason for posting this was to point to the hypocrisy of Republican leaders who embrace anti-gay policies as a way to achieve political power while secretly hiding their own gayness from the world and their constituents.

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Highly Religious States Consume Most Porn

by Metavirus on 28 February 2009

Funny how it turns out that the people who consume the most porn come from the most Christianist states in the Union:

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” Edelman says.

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Congress Still Pushing Failed Abstinence-Only Program

by Metavirus on 26 February 2009

This image from Feministe pretty much sums up the proven stupidity of Congress’ new push to fund abstinence-only education:
Take action now and add your voice to the chorus of Americans calling for this wasteful, religiously-motivated stupidity to end.

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NYT Sports Writer Condemns Phelps for Pot Smoking

by Metavirus on 7 February 2009

As I noted a few days ago, Michael Phelps was caught by a tabloid smoking pot and has since been subjected to all the rampant stupidity inherent in our nation’s misguided crusade against marijuana.

Now, a Very Serious New York Times sports writer gets into the act with this finger-wagging drivel:

Phelps has not denied or confirmed anything. He has instead apologized for setting a bad example, which it most certainly was. No matter how many people defend marijuana and extol decriminalizing it, there are studies that say the stuff is bad for important functions like reasoning, and can lead to worse abuses.

The swimming federation and Kellogg have every right — in fact, a responsibility — to punish Phelps.

Here is my reply to the writer, George Vecsey (his email is geovec@nytimes.com if you want to drop him a note):
Your article on Phelp’s pot smoking was so insightful. God knows you can’t become the #1 world record holder of gold medals or, say, the President of the United States and have yet been a pot smoker. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were obviously lying when they admitted to smoking weed — it would obviously be impossible for them to rise to such a high status and yet have been polluted by the demon drug.

Now that Phelps has tried the deadly life-destroyer, he is obviously incapable of ever achieving the heights of athletic success he previously enjoyed. It’s too bad that Phelps is now destined to a life of penury, addiction and despair. Kids, take note!!

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Michael Phelps Smoked Weed – The Sky Is Falling!

by Metavirus on 2 February 2009

It never ceases to amaze me how public figures have to bow and grovel to the P.R. machine and the media every time they’re caught smoking a bit of weed. Apparently, photos surfaced on a British tabloid site of U.S. Olympian Michael Phelps toking on a bong at a party recently. In response, Phelps issued this highly unfortunate statement:

“I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment,” Phelps said in a statement released by his management agency yesterday. “I’m 23 years old, and despite the successes I have had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner that people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public — it will not happen again.”
If anyone can look on this statement with anything but shame at the feigned Puritanism we force upon celebrities then, well, shame on you.

As Andrew Sullivan put it:

He also threw back a great deal of alcohol, maybe made a few passes at a few girls and bonded with a few dudes. This is news?

And yet this absurd ritual takes place in which Phelps has to pretend he did something dreadful and we all have to tut-tut and frown and furrow our brows, and the sponsors cluck and the press preens – while the only conceivable news is that a 23 year-old had a good time at a party, breaking no professional rules since he was not competing when he was goofing off.

And, seriously, does anyone think that smoking pot would give him an unfair advantage in the pool? Please. When on earth are we going to grow up as a culture?

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