See this number?

 4073

That's the number of troops killed in Iraq so far. Here's another number.

29,978

That's the number of wounded. Yet somehow, Georgia Congressman Paul Broun thinks an important issue is pornography. Yep, that's the #1 ruiner of soldiers' lives.

A captain I know respectfully disagrees on First Amendment grounds and writes to Congressman Broun:

 Banning magazines sold on Post or Base because in Representative Broun's words, "Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad," is an utterly ridiculous statement.

     By that rationale, we should immediately stop qualifying with our individual weapons because that condones violence and increases the number of gun-related crimes in the United States.  Maybe we should stop our Driver Training Program, so that the number of DUI's will decrease worldwide.  Or maybe we should stop the effort to require Soldiers to become physically fit because that increases the sales and use of anabolic steroids in the United States.

     If you make the magazines off-limits to the Soldiers, or ban their sale on Post or on Base, then you create a market outside that will cater to the same impulses you're trying to deny.  Prohibition is an example of another well-intentioned failure by the government trying to deny human nature.  That effort only resulted in empowering the Mafia and left the country in a worse state than it was prior to Prohibition.  And I can guarantee the vendors outside will take advantage of a ban like this, and possibly do worse to the same people you're trying to "protect".  The magazines are something that millions of people buy and look at anyway.

     Yes, the magazines have movie reviews, pigskin previews and predictions, games, fashion, jokes, and the newest gadgets.  Yes, the magazines have good stories and articles.  And, yes, the magazines have naked people in them.  So what?

     Soldiers will look at the magazines.  Stop trying to deny human nature, stop trying to ban sales to the same people who are fighting for your right to free speech, and stop trying to hamstring the Soldiers who have answered the call.  Leave them alone, and please stop trying to dictate morality.

Who said soldiers can't think? Well, granted, he is an officer, some of them actually have functioning grey matter. Banning something only creates demand. Jesus Christ, no one even reads Playboy anymore. They have the Internet in their barracks room, and what's on there is a helluva lot worse than the models in Playboy. Moreover, as Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys said once, censorship is not so much an act of moral piety than it is an attempt to censor our access to information itself. I've read interviews with playwright Saul Bellows in Playboy. Even John Fucking McCain has done interviews there. Where will we get our jokes from? Point is, that these magazines that sell on military bases are not all pornography. Our culture is in those pages, for good or bad.

 If it were up to me, I'd ban Soldier Of Fortune. If soldiers want to take mercenary jobs, let 'em apply for Blackwater like the rest of us.

HR5821 is here. All the sponsors are listed, go holler.

tags: first  amendment  pornography  broun  military  bases  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit