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Taxing porn, an ever-popular Statist hobby...

... exercised by both Republicans and Democrats.

From Libertarian Republican:

Democrat lawmakers in Washington State are considering an 18.5% tax on the Adult Entertainment industry, including adult magazines. And they have a dual objective: Raise more revenues, while at the same time, stamping out Porn.


Here's the insidious hook: tell everybody you're going to use the revenue raised from those perverts who have sexual fantasy lives to help the developmentally disabled in workshops.

What's porn? Pretty much anything that includes nekkid people:

Democratic Rep. Mark Miloscia said an 18 ½ percent sales tax should be levied against Playboy and other adult magazines, as well as pornographic photographs, movies, videos, cable-television services, telephone services, audiotapes, computer programs and paraphernalia. With everyone in the Legislature struggling to find ways to solve the budget crisis, he said, he's surprised nobody else has made a similar proposal.


Now, it's important to note that Eric Dondero and I give each other a lot of shit. To my mind he's a far-right nutcase masqurading as a libertarian, and he thinks I'm pretty much a far-left nutcase doing the same thing.

That said, there's common ground on a lot of civil liberties issues.

And one of the comments on his posts suggests what libertarians of any stripe are up against:

Eric, you and I have a different view here. I don't see pornography as protected free speech. So, I don't have a free speech issue here. I don't see this as a liberty protected under free speech. In years past, we didn't even have still photo cameras let alone all the media we have now to make pornography so prevalent and appealing to the baser instincts of man. This is all a "new industry" in the multi-media level of it. I say it's not protected free speech. If it cannot be banned due to challenges - tax it to death.


This idea--that freedom of expression is determined entirely by the media available at the time the Constitution was written [which shares an eerie similarity to jason's idea that the 2nd Amendment protects only hand-made muzzle loaders)--is advanced by yet another nutcase under the moniker of Grace Explosion, who apparently has never heard of the Marquis de Sade, erotic Greek iconography, or even the content of Shakespeare's plays....

Proof that enforcing your own morality with the coercive power of the State is hardly a GOP monopoly....

Since it's Democrats at the bottom of this one.

By the way, Eric... you're still a right-wing nutcase. :)

Comments

Eric Dondero said…
Yes, and I wear that "Rightwing nutcase" label proudly. But note, I'm a Rightwing nutcase that likes legalized prostitution, adult entertainment, the right for my marijuana smoking buddies to toke up if they want to fry their brains, and my sports friends rights to gamble all their savings away in Vegas, if that's what gets their rocks off.

My vice?

ROCK 'N FUCKING ROLL!!! Blast it every night, much to my wife's discontent.

AC/DC, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Police, Van Halen, you name it. And of course, my fellow "Rightwing nutcase" Ted Nugent!!
Jim Fryar said…
This looks like the start of a beautiful friendship. LOL
Tyler Nixon said…
Just remember that every hero was once and every villain was once just a boy with a bad attitude.
Jim Fryar said…
Actually Steve, I'll join you for some 'Bat out of Hell.'
Bowly said…
who apparently has never heard of the Marquis de Sade, erotic Greek iconography, or even the content of Shakespeare's plays....

Or the Bible!

I'd wager dollars to doughnuts that once some caveman figured out that some rocks make marks on cave walls, something pornographic was drawn pretty damned quickly.
as well as pornographic photographs, movies, videos, cable-television services, telephone services, audiotapes, computer programs and paraphernalia..

What the heck are pornographic audiotapes? Is that why I see people driving so erratically on my morning commute?

It gives Paradise by the Dashboard Light a whole new meaning...

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