I know that the Christian religion has been on a push for forcing the US to be a theocracy run by their personal church doctrines. Why I don’t understand? Do they think that will earn them favor with their god? Is it simply a way for the leaders of the movement to gain more power / wealth? Is it simply they are terrified of after they die and are convinced that their forcing others to follow their church doctrines will get their god to give them more benefits in heaven. The religious strictures on sex and sexual stuff is rooted in an ancient not correct misunderstand of life and sexuality. I still do not understand why others watching porn upsets Christian republicans. I really don’t get it. Is it because they are afraid the people watching will masturbate? Is it because sexual arousal is fearful to them? I really wish someone could explain it to me. Even in the church boarding school I went to my senior year of high school they did not push that no sex stuff very hard, instead they occasionally reminded us not to touch ourselves. They need not have worried, in the boy’s dorm we were touching each other which in our kid brains got around the entire sin of jerking off thing. Hugs.
https://www.xbiz.com/news/292258/updated-michigan-legislators-propose-online-porn-ban
Michigan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to distribute pornography via the internet in the state.
HB 4938, introduced last week by six Republican members of the state House of Representatives, would “prohibit the distribution of certain material on the internet that corrupts the public morals.”
Pornography is the principal target, though the bill also seeks to criminalize depictions of transgender people.
The bill defines “pornographic material” broadly, to include “any content, digital, streamed, or otherwise distributed on the internet, the primary purpose of which is to sexually arouse or gratify, including videos, erotica, magazines, stories, manga, material generated by artificial intelligence, live feeds, or sound clips.”
The bill appears to exempt from the ban material protected by the First Amendment. Since pornography is constitutionally protected speech, this makes it unclear how the legislation could actually work.
According to the law, “prohibited material” means “material that at common law was not protected by adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting laws abridging freedom of speech or of the press.”
XBIZ spoke with adult industry attorney and First Amendment expert Corey D. Silverstein to attempt to explain what this meant.
“I think they are trying to say that it would not be applicable to content not deemed as obscene under the Miller test,” he said. “But it is written so poorly that there is some uncertainty as to their angle, which also makes the proposal both vague and ambiguous.
“At the same time, it could be another attempt to undercut and soften the Miller test, which we have been seeing in various other states throughout the country,” he added.
The proposed penalties in the bill are severe, including up to 20 years in prison or a fine of up to $100,000, or both. It also allows for civil fines of up to $500,000 per violation.
The bill would require internet service providers to implement “mandatory filtering technology” to prevent Michigan residents from accessing “prohibited material” as defined in the bill, to “actively monitor and block known circumvention tools,” and to block access to specific websites on receipt of a court order.
The bill calls for the state attorney general to establish “a special internet content enforcement division” staffed with “digital forensics analysts, legal experts, cybersecurity specialists, and investigators” to enforce the proposed law.
Silverstein added that he doesn’t believe the bill has much of a chance at being adopted.
“This bill has virtually no chance of going anywhere, given the current makeup of the Michigan legislature and its far-left Democrat governor,” he said. “The bill is unconstitutional at every turn. Regardless, it is alarming that this type of thinking and government waste continues to occur.”
The bill was referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Talk of porn bans has increased in recent months. Earlier this year, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced federal legislation that would redefine almost all visual depictions of sex as obscene and therefore illegal, a goal that was also laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy blueprint, which has heavily guided the Trump administration’s agenda.
Update, Sept. 19: The bill’s reference to “known circumvention tools” includes VPNs, proxy servers and encrypted tunneling methods, which would make it nearly impossible to access adult content online within the state.
Scottie's Playtime 
this falls under the auspices of book banning, the way schools get their knickers in a knot over “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and probably Mickey Spillane… Ban a Book Save a Child. It is no one’s business what goes on in private whether it’s a computer, a cell phone, or a book. Just keep the volume down and the shades pulled, no one will notice and they really shouldn’t care anyway. And one person’s vision of what is obscene could be someone else’s vision of lunch. (Have you ever really LOOKED at a carrot? Or a banana? The mind reels.
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Hi Judy. I have never understood the wanting everyone act the same, like only the same things, believe the same way, think the same thoughts. What a boring and uninspiring society. As far as trying to regulate what people can see, read, or think I think it is driven by fear. Afraid of differences, and scared to accept it. Hugs
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Their top impulse is puritanical sadism.
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Hi Ali. I remember reading about the Puritans and how they often pretended to be one way in public and acted different in private. How they acted in public was the most important to them, how others seen them act. I guess that what gets me is the claim that LGBTQ+ community is forcing others to act and live certain ways but it really is the fanatical religious people who are doing that. Hugs
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Don’t forget their sadistic tendencies. It’d be one thing if all they are is puritan. But they’re cruel and they enjoy it.
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Hi Ali. Yes I understand and agree. The right wing often bragged “Fuck Your Feelings”until it became their feelings that were important. The right wing and other abusers often use and brag about their abuse to others. My abusers came off so pure and upstanding in public only to hurt me once the doors were closed.
On here, I wrote about one of the worst beatings I took as a 15-year-old (it all blurs so I may have been 14 to 16 but I think it was 15) was when someone step up to defend me in public. The man was big enough to defeat my adoptive father from beating the shit out of me in his shop. I so wish the marine who felt proud of himself for doing that had come home to stop what happened next. I was nearly two weeks out of school and had to claim I had an accident on my snowmobile. I never saw a doctor but I can tell you parts of me felt I needed to. I will say I walked into the door and turned to shut it behind me. When I turned back my face was impacted and my head slammed into the closed door.
I was talking to Kamyk about that. Yes in my years of abuse something the cruelty was the point, other times it was a means to an end. A newly teen hell sibling who did not want to give her boyfriend sexual favors for any reason could offer me at the time between 3 and 9 to fill the job / position. The situation for me was much worse if I did not agree / simply comply than what would happen to me if I did not as I was told. Repeatedly. Who was I going to complain to? Plus if I complied I would get booze. I was shocked at watch other kids my age went through to get booze, I had my own spots in the liquor cabinet.
One of the plus of my abuse I became a distinguished drinker by the time I was in 6th grade. I did have to dry out a bit the summer of my abuse in Canada which added to the sexual abuse there.
Don’t worry it was not alcohol free place, I just had to earn the drinks I got. I was told it would make a man of me. Side note after spending the summer being abuse, beaten, given booze to then have the situation repeat, and it was horrible booze at that, I was walking through the room in my adoptive parent’s house when the step grandfather lunged out and grabbed me pinning me to the wall. I thought I was about to be abused right there in the kitchen when my adopting father grabbed him, told him that if any abuse was to be done he would do it, and then turned to a relieved me and backhanded me across the kitchen. He then tossed the man into a chair and told him this is my house and my rules. I slinked off to the attic over the garage, where I had been allotted for my sleeping area. Going to bed. Hugs
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Ali. I am so sorry for writing all that. Not that I needed to express it, please do not misunderstand. But when I looked back at the post, what it was about, and where I did this. I was totally wrong.
I feel I abused you for doing that and damn it I have been doing that too much lately. Your forgiveness can only go so far. I understand and I apologize. I will try to do better, to put such comments in a better place, to not blind side you with them. To not hit you with such shit in my past, my life, my constant memories. It was just a bad day, and a hard day. No excuse. Thank you in advance, if you do excuse me. If not, I was wrong and I hope you can some day forgive me. Best wishes always and hugs. Scottie
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Dude, stop. Get off my friend Scottie’s back.
This is your blog. You’ve established a safe free speech zone. I’m sorry that what I wrote triggered that memory, but now you can let it go since you’ve written it. You didn’t hurt me; you did nothing except interact with my comments.
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Ali. Oh Ali thank you so much. You did the correct thing! This is a free speech zone, come hell or high water. No, your first sentence is perfect.
But, sorry so sorry, It is the burden I feel I always carry. It is one I am struggling now to break, and it is so very hard. To never inflict the damage, the abuse I had on others. It is the cone of silence I suffered under in childhood that even when well meaning adults tried to get me to tell them, I knew what would happen if I told them, or at least in my mind I did.
I saw beloved pets given to me to then be killed if I stepped out of line. Lucky for me I only had two such pets and one was elderly. The other I couldn’t risk, so I did as I was told. I saw others who knew of my abuse turn way when my adopting father was there. Ignoring where I was being led to … because they were afraid of my adopting father and after all it was not their problem, not their kid, not their family.
Dude, stop. Get off my friend Scottie’s back.
Oh how it was so easy and I wish you could speak the magic words. Ron has gone to bed and asked me to go also. I have so hated that monkey on my back. I talked to one of my doctors this last couple weeks about it, how I pretended all the issues were OK when they upset me so. She was not concerned over the decades of hiding, she really wanted to know about today and how I was dealing. That was when it all feel a part.
Then that lead to talking to other doctors. I wish I could say I did not want the outcome, but in truth, I did. I need to face what I hate, what makes me fare more vulnerable than on the blog. I have to deal with these emotions and issues that are keeping me from functioning no matter how hard I try.
By Ali, I have to say what stopped me from going to bed and ignoring this reply. Was the way and emphasis that you said it in. You rock! Always. I am going to bed now. Hugs
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It’s all about control, Scottie. People who may be inclined to defy the law will nonetheless obey the word of their “god”. Just one more way of stifling independent thought. Sigh.
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Hi Jill. Thank you. You are so correct as have been each of your snarky posts. Before I continue I need to give thanks to Ali and Randy for keeping the blog going. I am no longer able to do it without them. I am sorry I am so of my lack of getting back your posts. If you had not noticed I am struggling very bad. I know you have been also ill lately and needed to be taken to the hospital. I have never seen the part where you got home but I hope it was not serious.
I am struggling during the day with doing the stuff I need to do to help 70 year old Ron rebuild our bathrooms and later with the memories of my 23 years of childhood abuse that I still wake up screaming about. I have had to stop going to the abuse site because I break down in tears with each visit. Sadly my wonderful friend Kamyk who is in the hospital recovering from reconstructive surgery has been trying to lead me through this time. The people who abused me emotionally, physically, and sexually would have been full on maga supporters.
Jill I have missed you. I think about you every day this last week I have not felt up to doing the cartoon round up. You do them so well and find ones I never do. I have always admired you that as I do all your posts. I love your snarky ones. Best wishes for you, your family, and hugs for those that want them.
By the way one of my friends recently came out to me as furry, and he is a sliver fox. I sent him a blanket as thanks for letting me know. Your emblem / avatar reminded me of the one he styles himself as. He is a grand guy and I know you are a grand lady. I guess great foxes run in the same upper pack. Hugs
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