- Marquis de Sade
"Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear. "
- Marquis de Sade
"Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization."
-Marquis de Sade
"Religions are the cradles of despotism."
-Marquis de Sade
"Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain."
-Marquis de Sade
"To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell."
-Marquis de Sade
"Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced."
-Marquis de Sade
Michele Bachmann, and apparently our former governor Tim Pawlenty, have signed a pledge in order to seduce Iowa voters into giving them their primary support. In addition to truly hateful statements about homosexuals, slavery, and Islamophobic sections wailing against the non-existent threat of Sharia law, there is a section against 'Pornography'.
I oppose the exploitation, including the sexual exploitation, of women. I oppose the exploitation of men, too, including sexually. I oppose the exchange of sex for money, as demeaning to the participants, and demeaning to what sex can be at its best, when it is about connecting to another person in the most intimate way as an expression of love.
But this pledge isn't about that; this pledge is about prudery, it is about ignorance, it is about intolerance, it about censorship, and it is about forcing right wing religion on others instead of respecting the individual right to make religious decisions for oneself. It is anti-business; in the U.S. alone, it is upwards of $10 billion industry, just in video.
There are plenty of instances of right wing politicians who are involved in the sex industry. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana had a long history of scandals associated with prostitution, where apparently he sought sexual gratification through the fetish of wearing a diaper. Yet the Republican establishment, including the tea partiers, including members of Congress, have no problem with supporting him through all kinds of fund raising.
Below are the three latest fundraising events for David Vitter.Now personally, I think there is a certain amount of pay to play 'prostitution' going on, looking at the campaign contributions to holier than thou right wing hypocrites like Vitter (from the same site) the first figure is from individuals, the second from PACs, the third is the total:
When: July 19, 2011
What: Fundraising Dinner
Where: Finemondo Restaurant
Host(s): Mark Valente III, Chris Jones, Harmony Allen
Beneficiaries: David Vitter
Contributions: $2,500 Host; $1,000 Person/PAC
When: June 30, 2011
What: Fundraising Dinner
Where: Finemondo Restaurant
Host(s): Mark Valente III, Chris Jones, Harmony Allen
Beneficiaries: David Vitter
Contributions: $2,500 Host; $1,000 Person/PAC
When: June 08, 2011
What: Dinner
Where: Rupli Townhouse
Host(s): Tim Rupli, Doyle Bartlett, Camden Fine
Beneficiaries: David Vitter
Contributions: $5,000 PAC; $2,500 Individual
Make Checks Payable To: David Vitter for Senate
Campaign Contributions
This is a list of the top 10 industries giving campaign contributions to David Vitter in 2009-2010, the most recent fundraising cycle for which we have campaign contribution data.*
Industry Individual PAC Total
Employer Listed/Category Unknown $824,100 $0 $824,100
Oil & Gas $154,100 $96,000 $250,100
Health Professionals $198,651 $49,000 $247,651
Retired $196,615 $0 $196,615
Lawyers/Law Firms $130,350 $30,749 $161,099
Leadership PACs $0 $157,872 $157,872
No Employer Listed or Found $137,401 $0 $137,401
Real Estate $113,700 $14,500 $128,200
Sea Transport $72,450 $39,000 $111,450
Securities & Investment $69,890 $35,500 $105,390
This is a list of the top 10 interest groups giving campaign contributions to David Vitter in 2009-2010.*
Interest Group Individual PAC Total
Employer listed but category unknown
(Employer Listed/Category Unknown) $824,100 $0 $824,100
Retired
(Retired) $196,615 $0 $196,615
Attorneys & law firms
(Lawyers/Law Firms) $128,850 $30,749 $159,599
No employer listed or discovered
(No Employer Listed or Found) $137,401 $0 $137,401
Republican leadership PAC
(Leadership PACs) $0 $133,500 $133,500
Physicians
(Health Professionals) $114,001 $2,000 $116,001
Republican/Conservative
(Republican/Conservative) $98,319 $1,000 $99,319
Homemakers, students & other non-income earners
(Homemakers/Non-income earners) $97,400 $0 $97,400
Other physician specialists
(Health Professionals) $59,950 $34,000 $93,950
Lobbyists & Public Relations
(Lobbyists) $75,050 $6,000 $81,050
Pro-Israel
(Pro-Israel) $40,369 $40,500 $80,869
Oilfield service, equipment & exploration
(Oil & Gas) $66,250 $13,000 $79,250
Construction, unclassified
(General Contractors) $67,000 $0 $67,000
Sea freight & passenger services
(Sea Transport) $25,200 $34,000 $59,200
Major (multinational) oil & gas producers
(Oil & Gas) $26,450 $32,500 $58,950
General commerce
(Misc Business) $58,000 $0 $58,000
Investors
(Misc Finance) $55,700 $0 $55,700
Accountants
(Accountants) $16,350 $33,000 $49,350
Security brokers & investment companies
(Securities & Investment) $25,200 $18,500 $43,700
Insurance companies, brokers & agents
(Insurance) $26,000 $17,000 $43,000
Liquor wholesalers
(Beer, Wine & Liquor) $25,900 $17,000 $42,900
Republican Party Committees
(Party Committees) $0 $42,600 $42,600
Banks & lending institutions
(Commercial Banks) $35,150 $6,000 $41,150
Real estate agents
(Real Estate) $35,650 $2,000 $37,650
Independent oil & gas producers
(Oil & Gas) $22,600 $14,000 $36,600
In the tradition of Rush Limbaugh, caught with someone else's boner pills after a trip to a Caribbean country famous for its sex tourism (much of it with underaged girls), we have married 'family values' Ohio state Representative Micklenborg, arrested for a DUI in Indiana, with Viagra and a stripper in his car. Just speculation, but I'd bet Micklenborg has perused his share of porn.
So, perhaps I might be excused for thinking this is great political theater for seducing the right wing religious base, while believing that the right is neither sexually more respectable or pure than anyone else. In that light it should be understandable why I oppose ill educated lying bimbo theocrats presuming to tell me what is moral, given that Bachmann has such a bad record with the truth, and that she has been exploiting the foster children that were placed, apparently too briefly for any accuracy in the claim she 'raised' them, in her care. I can think of few things as disgusting and offensive as trying to exploit children who were in a position of desperation and/or extreme in order for them to be placed in foster care. This is not a person who has a right to claim any moral high ground.
 |
| Classical mosaic Venus with Eros |
These are not the people I want to allow to be in charge of censoring
what I can see or read. They are not sufficiently culturally literate to address topics such as what is erotic, and what is pornographic. The depiction of human beings, including as sexual beings, goes back to the earliest known figural art, the prehistoric 'venus' figures like those found in the Neanderthal valley of Germany. It includes some extremely graphic depictions of sex from the classic period, not only of the goddess Venus, but of ordinary people engaging in sex.
I don't want the Republicans dictating to me whether or not I can read any of the works of the Marquis de Sade (which I have, in the original french). De Sade, while definitely a libertine was also an avowed libertarian by modern standards, and much of his writing dealt with other subjects than repellent and painful sex, including extensive sections on religion, philosophy and politics. The late 20th century was an era reviving interest in de Sade among artists, philosophers and scholars.
The point is, I don't want narrow minded bigots like Bachmann, or Gingrich, or Pawlenty, or any of the other potential Republican candidates spending government money to prosecute it, censor it, or to prevent me from making up my own mind about it. That is an overreach of government, it is intrusive, it is 'big brother' (or big sister, in Bachmann's case) trying to legislate morality from a smug, self-congratulatory position that presumes a superiority which they lack.
Porn is a better alternative than their prudery, ignorance, corrupt politicking, intolerance or repression. For all the lip service the right gives to Freedom(s), they embrace FreeDUMB, they embrace repression, intolerance, and ignorance. If it means praising porn, in response to the polarization by the right, the division of America, then that is the better alternative to the right wing's oppression and hypocrisy.
I want to especially dedicated this post to my very roman catholic high school french teacher, for having made me aware that there was more to the writing of the Marquis de Sade than just sex. Merci, Monsieur, encore. And a special thank you for my inspiration to a fellow blogger - you know who you are - for having introduced me to Koon's "Made in America" collection.
Somehow, Pornography and the sex trade tie into the republican agenda of cutting jobs and pay. Workers find that the sex industry is the only way that they can find well paying jobs at the cost of their dignity.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the republicans couldn't come out and openly say they support, or receive support, from the sex industry. That would turn off one of their important constituencies--the religious right. But I am well aware of religious hypocrisy when it comes to sex and love.
let's toss in the First Amendment for some good fun as well. The Jeff Koons piece could be taken as porn. Especially since his former wife, the Member of Parliament and Italian porn star, Ciccolina, features rather explicitly in some of the images!
Alas, she wasn't a republican.
To me, the subject of Pornography as suggested in the "The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family" is not as much a concern as Slavery.
ReplyDeleteIn case you haven’t heard, Bob Vander Plaats, the leader of Family Leader, an Iowa Christian organization that is requesting candidates to comply to their vision, is attempting to clarify what point #9 in the pledge states … Vander Plaats explained that the language was meant to imply opposition to women being forced into pornography or prostitution … stating “We are not calling for a nationwide ban on pornography. The bullet point doesn’t even come close to calling for that.”
In the relevant portion of the pledge, a signer commits to support:
“Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy — our next generation of American children — from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence. ”
It may be poorly written, but at face value, it could be accepted that what they were promoting was that women and children not be forced into pornography.
There is some other – IMO – bizarre points … like Point 5 "Recognition of the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy better health, better sex..." … (side comment : Could somebody get Senator Vitter to confirm that … oh, I guess it just says “better sex” but does not say that the sex is with his spouse.)
No, what should be more alarming is the in the opening statement : "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President".
WOW … not only does it imply that maybe Slavery was good because the Slave-owner would assign a “Father” to the “Mother” … and then reminds everyone (without naming names) that President Obama has failed in addressing this issue.
Gosh, isn’t it good that Senator Strom Thurmond family has acknowled that Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a black American woman, was Senator Thurmond's daughter. Could this also be an attempt to remind everyone that President Obama parents were divorced.
Although, the “slavery” section has now been removed from the current pledge, when potential Presidentress Bachmann and potential President Santorum signed the pledge, it was there … I don’t know about “SoonToBePresident” Pawlenty.
Now, let’s ask some other questions … why would potential Presidentress Bachmann sign the pledge ?
#1. Good Business.
Bachmann signing this is "good business" ... after all Bachmann Counseling has a number of counselors that specialize in treating pornography addiction ... featuring the following Mission Statement: To help individuals and couples experience wholeness and healing through the application of biblical principles and the Love of Christ.
#2. Good Politics.
First, it’s divide and conquer. It helps her with the social conservatives and points out the differences with the Ron Paul-ites would say “Government does not belong in our bedrooms”. Second, it becomes part of the RNC platform.
#3. It’s the real Michele.
If Ms. Bachmann was concerned about showing Disney’s Aladdin to school children because it may promote false gods, witchcraft or magic … then who better to stop porn ? (If you don’t know the Aladdin story … because of space limitations in your comment section, I will include segments from a City Pages story.
From City Pages ...
ReplyDeleteThe Chosen One
Michele Bachmann's recipe for success: Christian piety and not-so-Christian opportunism
By G.R. Anderson Jr. Wednesday, Oct 4 2006
Bachmann had become one of the founders of the New Heights Charter School, one of the first charter schools in the country. By law, charter schools have to be overseen by a public school district because they are funded, at least in part, by public money as tax-exempt nonprofits. In the fall of 1993, Denise Stephens had one daughter teaching at the school, and one daughter enrolled in the ninth grade. It was the first year that school at New Heights was in session as part of the Stillwater school district.
According to Stephens, it became clear that the charter school's board of directors was populated with right-wing Christians, all of them seeming acolytes of Bachmann. "I started raising questions about whether we were using public money to fund a religious school," Stephens recalls. Among the proposals coming from Bachmann and company was to expand the curriculum to teach creationism. The directors of the charter school, she recalls, were also advocating that "something called '12 Christian principles' be taught, very much like the 10 Commandments." One of the final straws for Stephens, who notes that she's been "a Republican since 1978," was that school officials would not allow the Disney movie Aladdin to be shown because it involved magic and supposedly taught paganism.
Stephens and other parents soon had confrontational meetings with Bachmann and the rest of the charter school group. "One member of Michele's entourage talked about how he had visions, and that God spoke to him directly," Stephens says. "He told us that as Christians we had to lay our lives down for it. I remember getting in the car with my husband afterward and telling him, 'This is a cult.'"
“Eventually, the Bachmann and Stephens forces met in front of the Stillwater School Board. When confronted, according to Stephens, Bachmann grew angry: Are you going to question my integrity? she demanded. According to Stephens and others, Bachmann and four others resigned on the spot that night, offering what could be described as religious trash-talk on the way out. Bachmann still cites the charter school as a major accomplishment, but makes no mention of her leaving.”
The slavery component of the pledge has been removed. I don't find their protests that they were simply misunderstood when they included that racist statement. It is too consistent with other positions on the right relating to race and blacks. It is more like the apology where someone is simply regretting being caught, or in this case, receiving bad press and more public attention than is comfortable.
ReplyDeleteAs to the pledge in fact being intended to attack ALL pornography, not just porn where inncoent women and children are somehow coerced. It is about ALL porn, if you pay attention to their other statements, like this one when the pledge was first debuted:
ReplyDelete"Certainly the U.S. Supreme Court has delineated what is prosecutable and even with the Ashcroft Department of Justice, and certainly then more so with Holder Department of Justice we have not had illegal pornography prosecuted. So we expect the executive to appoint an Attorney General who will vigorously prosecute all illegal pornography."
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/631808/michele_bachmann's_porn_pledge%3A_new_statement_by_conservative_group_suggests_pledge_requires_her_to_prosecute_all_porn
The Bachmann anti-porn crowd felt the Ashcroft DoJ didn't go far ENOUGH in prosecuting porn (and they believe all porn and erotica is illegal) and that they need to go FURTHER in prosecution of it:
from the same, cited above:
"The Baltimore Sun detailed these efforts in an April 6, 2004 article entitled: “Administration wages war on pornography: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. government is spending millions to file charges across the country.” From the intro:
Lam Nguyen’s job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other “computer forensic specialists” like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department’s operation to rid the world of porn.
In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs…or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains."
and
"The Justice Department recently hired Bruce Taylor, who was instrumental in a handful of convictions obtained over the past year and unsuccessfully represented the state in a 1981 case, Larry Flynt vs. Ohio…
“Just about everything on the Internet and almost everything in the video stores and everything in the adult bookstores is still prosecutable illegal obscenity,” [Taylor] said.
“…Once it becomes obvious that this really is a federal felony instead of just a form of entertainment or investment, then legitimate companies, to stay legitimate, are going to have to distance themselves from it.”
THE FAMiLY LEADER believes that this interpretation of obscenity law — which deems essentially all pornography found online or in adult book and video stores illegal — is insufficiently expansive and aggressive. Vander Plaats also emphasizes that every instance of obscenity under their interpretation needs to be vigorously prosecuted. According to Vander Plaats those who sign the pledge, like Michele Bachmann, agree to appoint an Attorney General who will make sure these prosecutions happen."
Like removing the slavery part of the pledge when the attention got to hot, I don't believe the protestations of these Christian Right Wing nuts is sincere or honest. Certainly nothing that comes out of Bachmann's mouth is reliable.
Ditto backpedaling publicly NOW when confronted about the extensiveness of their extreme anti-porn position, while I believe they fully intend what they originally stated. To genuinely retract the initial statements would be completely inconsistent with everything else they suport. When in doubt, with this bunch, you're safer in believing they mean the more extreme, pretty much every time, but especially when they appear only to be caving in temporarily to public scrutiny and pressure.
Agree : I believe they fully intend what they originally stated.
ReplyDeleteNo one should doubt that organizations like Family Leader would push to have an Attorney General that would prosecute "social" crimes ... but did you read David Kuo's book (it made my Best Book list for 2006) Tempting Faith – An Inside Story of Political Seduction. Kuo was Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He was drawn to Governor Bush as a Christian who cared about the issue of poverty and his fellow man, but after serving in the White House, he came to realize that many issues were just window dressing to entice religious groups of voters to support him. Kuo left the Bush Administration realizing that he had been used.
Ashcroft's War was real ... remember the "clothing" of Lady Justice statue ... yet did it lead to any significant prosecutions and was it cost-effective ? As the Baltimore Sun article indicated, the the FBI's Innocent Images Initiative was started during the Clinton Administration ... but this year AttyGen. Holder shut down the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force reasoning that prosecutions could be better handled by U.S. Attorneys' offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section ... Amy Klobuchar and 41 other Senators expressed concern that DOJ wasn't enforcing existing federal laws sufficiently. That may have created an opening to exploit the issue ... feeding the anti-Obama crowd and social conservatives allowing Ms. Bachmann and other Republicans to charge forward ... yep, Political Seduction at its best.
Ms. Bachmann has zero chance of being elected ... but the question is : how will she influence the Republican Platform and force the eventual nominee into embracing her issues. Ms. Bachmann should be helpful to President Obama's reelection ... unless they get discouraged by all the negative ads that will surely dominate the media or be faced with obsticales to voting.
Ma Jolie Rousse,
ReplyDeleteIt’s fun to read your trenchant distillation of politics and thoughtful commentary on history. I could become one of your enthusiasts.
I especially liked your recent link, intended or not, between demagogues and pornography. Bachmann likes to quicken her followers to intense emotional reactions. The process works best without discursive thought – just like pornography. Her listeners lack the education and mental ability to evaluate how her ideas could affect them and their children. Maybe she should begin each of her speeches with the following warning (it’s from a book I think you once gave to me) . . . “for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall lap upon his soul as water on cube of sugar..” Lautreamont - The Songs of Maldoror
Most of us are just hoping for a wardrobe malfunction.
Happy Bastille Day.