Folks, I am not a card carrying member of the Republican Party because of people like this:
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., 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. (…)
Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems.
“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,” Broun says on his Web site. [Seth Robson - Stars & Stripes]
I would like the good Congressman to point to one sexual assault that was committed by someone reading a Playboy? Just one. I’m sure he can’t because if he could he would already be pointing it out. What primarily causes sexual assaults is alcohol. So is that what the Congressman is going to prevent servicemembers from buying next? Make sure to read the rest because Congressman Broun plans on not only banning Playboy, but even Maxim and FHM style magazines.
This ban isn’t a big deal for soldiers stationed in the states because they can just go off post and buy the magazines. However, in places like Korea, Afghanistan, or Iraq you cannot find these magazines off post to buy thus making the PX the only place to buy them. This ban would effectively prevent these soldiers from being able to buy these magazines in deployed and overseas locations. When I was deployed to Iraq soldiers loved reading Maxim and FHM style magazines. Ironically the people who loved looking at the magazines more then them were the Iraqis. You could actually trade your old FHM style magazines to buy things from Iraqis.
The Congressman’s reasoning for the ban even gets sillier if you can believe it:
Exchange officials noted that tax dollars are not used to procure magazines in the system’s largely self-funded operations.
But Broun’s spokesman John Kennedy contended that taxpayer dollars are involved — “used to pay military salaries, so taxpayer money is, in effect, being used to buy these materials,” he said. [Army Times]
So why isn’t the Congressman and his 16 co-sponsors trying to pass a bill to stop all government employees including Congress from buying certain magazines since they to are paid with tax payers dollars? It is incredible that with all the issues are nation is facing a bunch of Congressmen figure deciding what magazines are military should be able to buy with their own hard earned money is of importance right now.
Banning these magazines would be a huge hit to morale in the military. A soldier cannot buy a beer until 21 but can fight and die for their country. If these Congressmen have their way, no soldier can buy a men’s magazine but can still fight and die for their country. At some point soldiers are going to start to wonder if this a country worth fighting for if you can’t even read a Maxim. By the way Congressman Broun’s district has no military bases. Anyone surprised?
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8:12 am on May 6th, 2008 1
Hate to be the first one to point this out, but it seems to me that the dear Congressman should realize that pornography sold through AAFES is in no way troops’ only access. That whole Internet thing is just full of it.
So, remove the somewhat tasteful porn in AAFES, and I’m sure the Internet Porn business will have a whole rash of new subscriptions.
8:23 am on May 6th, 2008 2
Man, the only thing that kept me sane in Korea and Iraq were magazines like Maxim and FHM. Nothing could kill a 12-hour patrol like a Maxim. If this raving lunatic wants to actually see rapes and sexual assaults in both theaters go up, then he should ban these magazines. I think this guy ate pain chips when he was a kid.
And this guy is an ex-Marine living in a state with two large Army posts on them. He should know better.
9:07 am on May 6th, 2008 3
Take away Constitutional rights. No problem. Take away the porn. Loss of faith in America. Makes you wonder what our military boys are really fighting for.
10:33 am on May 6th, 2008 4
anon,
Subscriptions? You have to PAY for pr0n on the Internet?
Don’t worry, once the career-boosting rhetoric against mens’ magazines being sold on post/base has all played out, it will go something like, “Pr0nography has no place on a military installation, be it in printed form or in a digital image soiling our corner of Cyberspace.”
Alfred,
Yep. “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” is a great sound bite… but you will get nothing but emotional personal attacks if you criticize the Bush administration’s blatant and unapologetic erosion of the constitution.
I guess they DO need pr0n and TV… true opiates of the masses.
10:51 am on May 6th, 2008 5
This may sound crude, but I am willing to bet this person screaming how bad porn is has a nice collection somewhere.
Let’s be honest here. These good people are fighting the good fight and will get lonely. Jesus H. Jumping Jehosaphat, let them have the magazines. As for the Internet, they are allowed Internet?
11:37 am on May 6th, 2008 6
This is a subject that came up during the Vietnam era, where some congressman was inscenced over the selling of the same two magazines at the BX,PX, or NX. I wonder if he has sniffed a way to a few extra dollars for his campaign contributions
12:57 pm on May 6th, 2008 7
I remember in the early 90s when the REAL porn mags were removed from AFFES
2:59 pm on May 6th, 2008 8
Me too. In fact, I remember it was at AAFES in 1989 that I discovered just how many different kinds of porn magazines there were. Prior to joining the service I had thought there were only three or four, but the top shelf of the magazine rack at the PX was a real revelation.
2:59 pm on May 6th, 2008 9
I think the Internet has killed more of those magazines than the bluenoses.
3:58 am on May 7th, 2008 10
I hate it when politicians pick the military as their venue for half-baked social engineering stunts.
7:38 am on May 7th, 2008 11
“Take away Constitutional rights. No problem. Take away the porn. Loss of faith in America. Makes you wonder what our military boys are really fighting for.”
“This may sound crude, but I am willing to bet this person screaming how bad porn is has a nice collection somewhere.”
I was wondering myself if any of the 16 co-sponsors were clients of the late Madam Palfrey or her competitors.
7:45 am on May 7th, 2008 12
I’m probably way out of date on this issue, but I thought Larry Flynt (publisher of Hustler) had pretty much killed this issue with his suit back in the late or 70s (or was it the early 80s). As I recall, the crux of the issue was that government could not censor publications, which banning the sales of effectively does. Especially in the case of magazines that are readily available in the US.
8:59 am on May 7th, 2008 13
I cringe when I see a woman with her daughter in the “intellectual” section of the PX, trying to convey to the child that reading is fun.
“…my friend showed me this thing last summer…”
9:04 am on May 7th, 2008 14
The loss of porn I could personally care less about it is the banning of FHM and Maxim style magazines that is really pissing people off because so many servicmembers read these magazines. Then the reasoning for the ban is totally dishonest; it has nothing to do with sexual assaults. These Congressmen are trying to impose their Christian conservative agenda on US servicemembers and it makes you wonder what they are going to attempt to ban next? If Maxim is banned because of sexual assaults then how in the world is AAFES allowed to sell alcohol then?
Steve the military plays by different rules because as Brendon Carr already stated a number of porn magazines have already been banned from PXs for some time with no legal challenges.
10:08 am on May 7th, 2008 15
Here are the details of what went down with the last ban in ‘96. I remember Penthouse had challenged and lost so I dug this up for the details.
http://www.robsworld.org/dishonor.html
10:23 am on May 7th, 2008 16
I personally find porn magazines to be boring but I also believe strongly in personal freedoms. As long as a person is of legal age what they do or buy for use in the privacy of their own home is their business. This ‘peeking’ into everyones bedroom is just stupid. Spider Robinson said it best in Lady Slings the Booze…
“Lady Sally doesn’t mind anything human beings can do that doesn’t involve former food or former people…”
Time and again the supreme court has refused to define obsenity what makes this gentleman think he knows what it means and how can he dictate to our servicepeople what they are allowed to buy. Men and women in all branches of our service are dying for their country trying to “protect” them from the possible evils of chaffing or developing a forearm like a mountain gorilla seems a poor way to say thank you.
2:04 pm on May 7th, 2008 17
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
Thomas Jefferson