FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand

[FACT comments: Old enough to kill, old enough to be maimed and die, far from home and loved ones, but  private reading material somehow violates military "honor and decency"?!? Give us a break--does anyone doubt politicians are capable of irony?]

Proposed Ban on “Porn” Angers Soldiers
by Richard Blair
The All Spin Zone: May 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/84733/

Should congress ban the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at U.S. military installations? Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga) thinks this is a big enough problem that he needed to introduce legislation to promote a ban on such men’s magazines as “porn”. Soldiers aren’t too happy about it…Legislation that would restrict the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases around the world would be bad for morale, according to soldiers at Grafenwöhr, Germany…The politician has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.”…A Department of Defense committee that reviews materials sold on bases ruled last year that magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are not pornographic. But Broun’s Military Honor and Decency Act includes language that could make those magazines eligible for the ban.

[FACT comments: This case is sure to whip up public hysteria and government may well take up the cause for more Internet censorship. It is certainly an example of pornography skewing gender expectations. But the Internet didn't rape this child, nor did pornographers. This happened as a direct result of inadequate adult supervision both by parents and 'net shop employees. Children can view 'net pornography at home and elsewhere. No conceivable purpose would be served by charging these children.]

Boys watched porn on Net before assaulting girl
Daily Xpress: April 26, 2008

http://www.dailyxpress.net/2008/04/26/city/city_1783.php

Three boys aged between eight and 12 have sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl after watching pornography at an Internet cafe…The victim’s parents complain their daughter was assaulted on April 17. They assert she was raped, and an examination confirms she has had sexual intercourse. Police are considering charges ranging from gang rape to taking a minor for a lewd act…The eight-year-old says he asked the girl to come and “play” with him at a wooded area behind the housing estate. He says they did this “two or three times”. On the day of the alleged assault, the boy invited other friends. He showed them what he and the girl had been doing. One refused to participate and told the girl’s mother…The Bangkok Deputy Governor says there are 10,000 computer “shops” open during the holidays, some temporary establishments taking advantage of the school-break business…Six months ago there were just 4,000 such shops, and just 1,000 were registered, he says. The city must approach police to close unregistered cafes.

Feds Valiantly Fighting to Protect You from Porn
by Susie Bright
AlterNet: May 2, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/sex/84289/

Somewhere in Washington a U.S. Attorney is hard at work watching porn. Pun intended…The screening room hasn’t shut down. The feds are watching more porn than ever. The ones that freak them out the most aren’t the hard cocks, the interracial sex, the homosexual taboos that so often frequented past federal investigations. That’s so 80s…No, the movies they’re going after this time, are a milestone in obscenity trials. No one ever used to pay attention to female orgasm in porn tapes before … it was like Queen Victoria dismissing lesbianism. It just didn’t count for them. Dick was all that mattered…In Milk Nymphos, Storm Squirters, and Fetish Fanatic 5 , the one common element is women simulating orgasm, and demonstrating such by squirting up a storm. The scenes are surreal, they’re so inauthentic, but what’s remarkable, in legal history, is that the ostensible pleasure on screen is depicting the thrill of female orgasm…The feds want to make visible female excitement an obscenity.

[FACT comments: Can't sue!]

Supposed Hendrix Sex Tape Is Offered
By MIREYA NAVARRO and JEFF LEEDS
The New York Times: April 29, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/arts/music/29vide.html?ref=todayspaper
In a twist on the recent string of sex tapes of Hollywood’s young stars, Vivid Entertainment plans to release what it says is a film from the vaults of classic rock: a sex film supposedly of Jimi Hendrix…The film shows a naked man who resembles Hendrix, the guitar legend who died in 1970, wearing a bandanna in his Afro, having sex with two brunettes in a dimly lighted bedroom. His full face appears on screen for only a few seconds, with his eyes closed. In other portions there are flashes of his profile…The DVD includes commentary from two women who met Hendrix and say they believe the tape is real: Pamela Des Barres, the author of “I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie” (1987), and Cynthia Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster. Ms. Albritton is known for doing plaster casts of the genitals of rock stars, including Hendrix in 1968. (Mr. Hirsch said both women were paid for their contributions to the video but declined to be more specific.)