ABORTION BOX TRUCKS & Adult Store Billboards

solid_dave · Post by **solid_dave** » September 1, 2004, 1:56 pm

Obscenity .--Although public discussion of political affairs is at the core of the First Amendment, the guarantees of speech and press, it should have been noticed from the previous subsections, are broader. ''We do not accede to appellee's suggestion that the constitutional protection for a free press applies only to the exposition of ideas. The line between the informing and the entertaining is too elusive for the protection of that basic right.'' 1 The right to impart and to receive ''information and ideas, regardless of their social worth . . . is fundamental to our free society.'' 2 Indeed, it is primarily with regard to the entertaining function of expression that the law of obscenity is concerned, inasmuch as the Court has rejected any concept of ''ideological'' obscenity. 3 However, this function is not the reason why obscenity is outside the protection of the First Amendment, although the Court has never really been clear about what that reason is.

that's taken from findlaw.com

Here's my problem, the MO state legislature has just inacted a bill that prohibits advertisment of Adult Stores (no matter what the "content" of the advertisement is) in a one mile corridor along state highways.

At the same time, in Springfield, I see two huge box trucks with an explcit picture of an ABORTED FETUS (bloody, nasty, disgusting, wanna make you chuck yer lunch) and yet that's ok, and no one seems to care?

I don't care who you are, a picture of an aborted fetus is going to sicken you, and if your pregnant, it might just cause emotional scarring.

Double standard?

the_red_chimp · Post by **the_red_chimp** » September 1, 2004, 2:17 pm

It's all moral. The moral front wants you to see the evil that is an abortion, while protecting the kids you let live by not exposing them to the word "Adult."

Fried Squirrel · Post by **Fried Squirrel** » September 1, 2004, 2:20 pm

I agree with the_red_chimp.

alien8ed · Post by **alien8ed** » September 1, 2004, 3:09 pm

Personally I think Missouri sucks in this manner. As much as religion can not be mandated into law (and I am a christain just in case you were curious) is seems as if morals can. If I were to see a difference between the fetus truck and the titty sign then I it would be that the adult sign is attempting to get you to do something immoral (which is of chourse, an objective term) go to a titty bar, and the fetus truck is trying to keep you FROM doing something immoral, having an aborting.

I am personally a big fan of the "don't protect us from ourselves" philosophy. This transcends the topic at hand. I mean we live in a state that won't let us gamble because its not good for us (regardless of what they say about crime rates) and bans the recognition of gay marriages because they are of course...immoral.

The argument regarding the titty bar signs would hold up if all titty bar signs had titties on them...or something else "obscene". But what's wrong with a very professional sign that simply says "Come to Centerfolds". I'll tell you what's wrong with it! We live in the Bible belt, and the "morality" of the people in this state (or percieve morality) won't let people who are not like them exist.

There are a lot of double standards and hypocracies around here. Oh well, such is life I suppose.

=8=

BeerMePRN · Post by **BeerMePRN** » September 1, 2004, 10:23 pm

alien8ed wrote:
There are a lot of double standards and hypocracies around here. Oh well, such is life I suppose.

damn straight. too many of them if you ask me.

i find myself agreeing a lot with what dave-o said up top.

i also see one fat-ass line that was crossed as that truck rolled by. i'd say it's a wee bit easier to be a competent adult and ignore a "come to our establishment" sign than it is a carnage-saturated billboard of a human fetus. in the same respect, i think i'd rather explain the concept of sex to my [future] children sooner than i would the controversy of abortion as well as why a picture of a butchered fetus would be plastered to the side of the truck they saw as it rolled down the street adjacent to them.

that kind of pissed me off.

Celtic Samurai · Post by **Celtic Samurai** » September 2, 2004, 10:22 am

I want to see more pictures of aborted fetuses . . . . es. I also want to see porn billboards with actual porn on them. Then everybody's happy.

the_red_chimp · Post by **the_red_chimp** » September 2, 2004, 10:55 am

Check the News-Leader today in the Op-Ed section. Quite a few opinions.