Poll: Support grows to legalize marijuana in New York

[Yeti]

I think for an encore we should have a war on pornography. I will volunteer to fight that one as well.

Ron

There wouldn't be much of a war. If the government was keen on eliminating probably 90% of the tube and torrent sites that are currently thriving on the Internet (at least the ones based or hosted in the U.S.), they could do so by next week - all they would have to do is require every website that hosts pornography to produce the required production and performer records. Have you ever noticed that statement at the beginning of every porn tape that includes an address for a record keeper, usually somewhere in L.A. or the Valley? In essence, every website that is illegally hosting pornography can't legally prove that the performers are 18 or over - only the original production company has those records on file, and they sure as shit wouldn't be helpful in providing them to the tube and torrent sites. The sites that host amateur porn are even more screwed because those records don't exist at all - when Jack was violating his wife Jill and recording it with his iPhone, neither one of them signed paperwork and produced identification beforehand.

Yes, the government has been ineffective in cracking down on the music and mainstream movie torrent sites, but how effective would the threat of a child porn prosecution be? Oh, it isn't child porn? Well then, show us the records. Maybe the granny porn sites would be okay, but who knows.

The government just isn't interested in doing this because it would result in a renaissance for the established porn producers, while the status quo is quickly and effectively driving most of them out of business. Now, will there be a crackdown in the future? Again, who knows. Maybe if the country elects another bible-thumping republican and he doesn't have a middle eastern country to invade...

[jdurand]

There's also a problem with porn on the Internet.  In some counties seeing a woman's ankle might be considered porn, in other areas nude sunbathing is common.  Child pornography?  As there isn't a worldwide consensus on what age is no longer a child, there's a problem there.  Also, what about family photos/videos at a nude area (where it's considered perfectly normal)?

The oddest examples I've seen is a nude beach set up in Israel facing across a river to an Arab country...just to piss them off.

Also, my wife and I were eating in a beach-side restaurant in another country.  You could be nude on the beaches, but NOT on the streets which passed right by the beaches.  They served snacks to people on the beach on a low wall between the restaurant and the beach so the people didn't have to get dressed.

[meekon5]

...Child pornography?  As there isn't a worldwide consensus on what age is no longer a child, there's a problem there.  Also, what about family photos/videos at a nude area (where it's considered perfectly normal)?...

As for the age of consent in Bahrain, it is set at 21 for women who want to marry without their father's consent.

[jgiffin]

Believe this: If the major porn producers had significant lobbying efforts, web-based porn purveyors would be required to verify the ages of their performers, too.

[Ron]

  The War on Porn was a joke. I was trying to evoke images of me in my MOPP 4 gear carrying porn stars off the ship's brow and stacking them like bales of drugs on the pier. I guess you had to be there (in my head).

Ron

[BikerDude]

The best documentary I've seen about the "war on drugs" is this...
It's from the guy who did "The Wire". A sobering and unsensationalized look at the drug war.
http://www.thehouseilivein.org/

It's on netflix if you have an account
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_House_I_Live_In/70229263?trkid=13630398
or rent here
http://www.amazon.com/The-House-I-Live-In/dp/B00B19HFMK

[BikerDude]

Also, my wife and I were eating in a beach-side restaurant in another country.  You could be nude on the beaches, but NOT on the streets which passed right by the beaches.  They served snacks to people on the beach on a low wall between the restaurant and the beach so the people didn't have to get dressed.

That's actually true in New York. Some time ago women's right groups got up in arms that men could be topless on public beaches but not women. They won in court and it is totally legal to go topless on public beaches.
I had no idea till I was on a beach at a state park and there where topless women there.
On occasion the courts do something good. Now if I could smoke a fattie on a beach while sipping some Jack on ice and looking at boobies I'd say we are making progress.

[jgiffin]

Also, my wife and I were eating in a beach-side restaurant in another country.  You could be nude on the beaches, but NOT on the streets which passed right by the beaches.  They served snacks to people on the beach on a low wall between the restaurant and the beach so the people didn't have to get dressed.

That's actually true in New York. Some time ago women's right groups got up in arms that men could be topless on public beaches but not women. They won in court and it is totally legal to go topless on public beaches.
I had no idea till I was on a beach at a state park and there where topless women there.
On occasion the courts do something good. Now if I could smoke a fattie on a beach while sipping some Jack on ice and looking at boobies I'd say we are making progress.

I absolutely, positively know that someone, somewhere, would throw a fit over this. I just can't wrap my head around why.

[Ron]

Also, my wife and I were eating in a beach-side restaurant in another country.  You could be nude on the beaches, but NOT on the streets which passed right by the beaches.  They served snacks to people on the beach on a low wall between the restaurant and the beach so the people didn't have to get dressed.

That's actually true in New York. Some time ago women's right groups got up in arms that men could be topless on public beaches but not women. They won in court and it is totally legal to go topless on public beaches.
I had no idea till I was on a beach at a state park and there where topless women there.
On occasion the courts do something good. Now if I could smoke a fattie on a beach while sipping some Jack on ice and looking at boobies I'd say we are making progress.

I absolutely, positively know that someone, somewhere, would throw a fit over this. I just can't wrap my head around why.

Until just a few months ago you could sit around the Castro (in San Francisco) in restaurants and on park benches stark naked. After the city banned it we got treated to protests from the "Body Freedom" movement. I had a good laugh one day when a not unattractive 40ish lady standing naked in front of the Federal court house told me that "...body freedom is a global issue man" in response to me asking why she was protesting a local ordinance in from of the U.S. Court House (it is really all just courts and mission support offices for various govt. agencies, but because we are closer to the Civic Center than the real Federal Building where Pelosi et. al. have offices we get all the protests) rather than City Hall? Despite her response, the next protest they had was down at City Hall.

And you don't even have to smoke a fatty here. Just walking to lunch from the court house to Hayes valley you get to see naked protesters as you navigate between clouds of medicinal marijuana. =P

[BikerDude]

And you don't even have to smoke a fatty here. Just walking to lunch from the court house to Hayes valley you get to see naked protesters as you navigate between clouds of medicinal marijuana. =P

If I'm forced to choose an extremes I'll take that one every time over some uptight suit wearing waste of oxygen feeling he has the right to tell other's how to live. Freedom. What a concept.

[Yeti]

Until just a few months ago you could sit around the Castro (in San Francisco) in restaurants and on park benches stark naked. After the city banned it we got treated to protests from the "Body Freedom" movement. I had a good laugh one day when a not unattractive 40ish lady standing naked in front of the Federal court house told me that "...body freedom is a global issue man" in response to me asking why she was protesting a local ordinance in from of the U.S. Court House (it is really all just courts and mission support offices for various govt. agencies, but because we are closer to the Civic Center than the real Federal Building where Pelosi et. al. have offices we get all the protests) rather than City Hall? Despite her response, the next protest they had was down at City Hall.

And you don't even have to smoke a fatty here. Just walking to lunch from the court house to Hayes valley you get to see naked protesters as you navigate between clouds of medicinal marijuana. =P

I really need to visit San Fran, man. It sounds fascinating.

[Yeti]

The War on Porn was a joke. I was trying to evoke images of me in my MOPP 4 gear carrying porn stars off the ship's brow and stacking them like bales of drugs on the pier. I guess you had to be there (in my head).

Ron

I enjoy sperging about the Industry whenever I'm provided even the slightest opening. Not that there are many slight openings in porn...

[Ron]

The War on Porn was a joke. I was trying to evoke images of me in my MOPP 4 gear carrying porn stars off the ship's brow and stacking them like bales of drugs on the pier. I guess you had to be there (in my head).

Ron

I enjoy sperging about the Industry whenever I'm provided even the slightest opening. Not that there are many slight openings in porn...

Those were the funniest 22 words I have read all year. I have ASNR'd a lot of things and mostly it burns, but curiously Tito's, Kahlua and Half & Half spraying from my nose wasn't too uncomfortable.

[Ron]

Until just a few months ago you could sit around the Castro (in San Francisco) in restaurants and on park benches stark naked. After the city banned it we got treated to protests from the "Body Freedom" movement. I had a good laugh one day when a not unattractive 40ish lady standing naked in front of the Federal court house told me that "...body freedom is a global issue man" in response to me asking why she was protesting a local ordinance in from of the U.S. Court House (it is really all just courts and mission support offices for various govt. agencies, but because we are closer to the Civic Center than the real Federal Building where Pelosi et. al. have offices we get all the protests) rather than City Hall? Despite her response, the next protest they had was down at City Hall.

And you don't even have to smoke a fatty here. Just walking to lunch from the court house to Hayes valley you get to see naked protesters as you navigate between clouds of medicinal marijuana. =P

I really need to visit San Fran, man. It sounds fascinating.

It is a fun city to live in. I have lived here twice. Lived here for a few years in the late 80s, early 90s, and came back in 2012. Unfortunately I am now moving from the city of manly loving, to the city of brotherly love =). I hope Philly is half as cool as the bay.