Next thing I want everyone to do is go read the lyrics of Pete Townshend's 'Rough Boys' on the Internet. Google it. You know you can find it. Disturbing? Yes. Convictable offense? No, not yet.

I don't want to see this issue become a new kind of McCarthyism for Ashcroft and that weird gleam in his eye. I think there is something really fucking disturbing about kiddie porn, really fucked up. By if we turn into wide sweeps and name-trashing (the Paul Reubens thing is starting to look really odd, at least the parts that were leaking out), then Ashcroft would be successful in building the thing he wants more, his own J Edgar Hooverville complete with a powerful culture of fear and accusation centered around it.

On the other hand, there is something really odd in this intense, addictive, something-or-other that some people get from kiddie porn. What the hell is it? Are you automatically "addicted" to this visual stimulus or worse if it happens to you as a kid? Why would that be? If the experience were BAD when you were a kid, why as an adult would one want to relive it? Some would say power, but a powerfuck is not that addictive. OK, so maybe some abused kids end up conflicted, emotionally manipulated. Those are some complicated conflictions. I'll buy that. And recidivism with child abusers has led to laws that violate some of our cherished civil liberties.The horror of what these people do makes us react worse than we do to drug addicts. Clearly we are saying this addiction is more intoxicating than DRUGS. Chemical stimulation. Think about that a second. KIDS ARE ADDICTIVE? Why? Their beauty? Their innocence? There are a lot of other beautiful and innocent things that are not addictive. Pheremones? Are they the chemical? I refuse to believe the power trip is the chemical, and I know feminists would argue with me on that, with a lot of excellent research on battered women's syndrome and hate crimes. I was once a victim of such a beating and attempted rape. I do understand the power element in the equation. But I cannot cite that as THE addictive element that COMPELLS recidivism.

And it hints of this below in kuro5in. This is one of two things: the tip of the iceberg with well known people being pulled in, or our next witchhunt on the borderline of the absurdity of the incident at Wee Care Day Care Center in 1989 (I think) and the "believe the children" movement, backed by highly questionable hypnotic regression of adults. (the Nat Hentoff article in the Village Voice from Wee Care story is what I consider the definitive take on this issue, altho there was an excellent Atlantic Monthly article as well).

In all, it requires we all watch carefully. More importantly, if the curtain of taboo descendes and prevents anyone asking the "why" and "how" question, all that will be left are people to be destroyed by accusations, and when it is all over, kiddie porn will go deep underground, to deep to ever give us the opportunity to ask these questions ever again, at least in our generation. We will simply pass it on to the next generation and whatever horrors it can dream up to do to its children.

Miasma

Celebrity Caught Paying to Access Child Porn; Pleads "Research". Former The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has admitted giving his credit card details to a child pornography website in order to gain access and view illegal pictures, after being caught in a massive international child porn investigation. However, he claims that this was purely innocent research for his autobiography, which will deal in part with child abuse. These claims will be viewed skeptically by some; however, he was publically supported by celebrity friends such as Jerry Hall, who said Townshend was about as different from "the profile" of a child abuser as it was possible to be. More than 1,300 people have already been arrested as part of the police investigation, based on data passed on by the US FBI - including judges, teachers, doctors, care workers, soldiers and more than 50 police officers. Incidentally, amongst the subscribers of the US-based "child porn portal" in question, it has emerged, were two Labour Members of Parliament, reported to be former ministers (high-ranking government officials). The two MPs have not yet been named. [kuro5hin.org]

11:05:25 PM