Wed, 09 Mar 2005

Don't talk about sex toys - Sen. Ted Stevens(R)

This Senator from Alaska believes it is in the public interest to regulate free speech, even in the privacy of our own homes. Sen. Stevens is particularly interested in regulating cable television:

"Cable is a much greater violator in the indecency area," Stevens, from Alaska, told the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents hundreds of local television and radio affiliates. "I think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air" broadcasters.

Stevens cited the discussion of masturbation and sex toys as one example of content that bothered him. He told reporters he would extend the restrictions to premium channels like HBO as well.

"There has to be some standard of decency," he said, but noted that "no one wants censorship."

Ms Vibes feels we already have some of the most stringent broadcast regulations anywhere in the so called "free world", the uptight and narrow minded Sen. Stevens would do well to heed the words of some of our greatest presidents:

Thomas Jefferson, 1786
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938
If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance, we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
Don't join the burners. Don't be afraid to go to your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend your own ideas of decency; that should be your only censorship.

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