From Jan 2005. One of my favorites.
ALL WORKED UP ABOUT EROTOTOXINS
By J.T. Benjamin, coyotehowl@yahoo.com
Copr. 2005
It's hard work being a porn pundit, taking it upon oneself to be an authority on the subject of pornography and the erotic arts.
Dangerous, too. In the interests of full disclosure and public safety, I cannot endorse the pursuit of this discipline for just anybody. There are risks involved.
Those risks were brought into focus by Dr. Judith Reisman, when she testified in front of a Congressional subcommittee on science, technology, and space in November, 2004. Dr. Reisman, of the California Protective Parents Association, said that exposure to pornography triggers long-lasting alterations in the brain’s biochemistry which affect behavior. To quote Dr. Reisman, “Pornography triggers myriad kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the ‘high’ from a street drug. Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I call erototoxins—mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain.”
Obviously, the average person could not study pornography without risk of harm from long-term exposure to these “erototoxins.” You’d need somebody who’s already built up a tolerance to safely handle dirty movies, pictures, and literature without fear of their devastating side-effects. Someone like me. In fact, the stuff’s practically dribbling out my ears.
Unfortunately, there’s been no real analysis of their effects. In her testimony, Dr. Resiman called for Congressional funding and support for the study of erototoxins and the brain and body. Ultimately, Dr. Reisman’s goal is the removal of pornography from society through lawsuits akin to those against the tobacco industry, and through criminally prosecuting pornographers as if they were drug dealers.
You see, right now pornography is theoretically protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause. Of course, drug use has no such protection. A heroin addict has no Constitutional right to shoot up, and the State has a valid public health and safety interest in prosecuting heroin users and dealers. If pornography could be established as having the same bio-chemical effect as alcohol or drugs, the State would have a valid interest in making porn a controlled substance and correspondingly prosecuting pornographers, overriding their First Amendment
protections.
Part of the problem with erototoxins is the fact that not only has there been no real study of their effects, there’s likewise been no study of their very EXISTENCE. No chemical has been identified as being an erototoxin. There is no list of characteristics or of the molecular breakdown of any erototoxin, nor has there been any identification of where, inside the human body, such a toxin is produced. As near as I can tell, Dr. Reisman’s testimony was the first time the word was even used.
Nevertheless, you have to consider Judith Reisman’s credentials when you question whether erototoxins can be considered controlled substances. I mean, she is a doctor. Right?
A quick look at her website, www.drjudithreisman.org verifies that fact. Judith A. Resiman, PhD. Say again? Not a medical doctor? A PhD in what? Biology? Chemistry? Nope. According to her website, Judith Resiman’s PhD is in communications, obtained from Case Western Reserve University. Hmm. Okay.
While Dr. Reisman has an impressively long list of publications and articles and expert testimonies, her main claim to fame as a scholar is an extensive study she conducted for the Justice Department in the early 1980’s. Dr. Resiman analyzed magazines such as Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler, seeking images of children in mainstream pornography and how they related to child sexual abuse. After spending nearly $750,000 of the taxpayers’ money, Dr. Resiman’s study was determined to be a “scientific disaster,” according to Avedon Carol, author of “Nudes, Prudes and Attitudes: Pornography and Censorship,” published by New Clarion Press, 1994. Neither the Justice Department nor American University, where the study was based, would publish the report. Dr. Loretta Haroian, an expert on childhood sexuality, said of the report, “This is not science, it’s vigilantism: paranoid, pseudoscientific hyperbole with a thinly veiled hidden agenda…Her (Dr. Reisman’s) study demonstrates gross negligence and…her conclusions, based on the data, are completely unwarranted.” (Ibid). Another hmm.
Dr. Reisman cited this same report in her Congressional testimony last month, immediately before she called for Federal funds with which to study erototoxins. Hmm. And again, hmm.
Now, I’m no authority on biology, bio-chemistry, neurology, or science in general. Although, come to think of it, I’m EXACTLY as qualified to speak on those subjects as is Dr. Reisman. Anyway, there’s something I don’t understand. Dr. Reisman says that erototoxins are “mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain.” (Her words). So these toxins aren’t injected like heroin, or drunk like alcohol or eaten like chocolate bars. They’re swimming around in our heads already. They have no effect on our thought processes until we look at pornography, and then they go into action.
I can’t help wondering how our brains evolved the ability to produce erototoxins. Did it happen over the course of tens of thousands of years of human existence? What have the toxins been doing in our heads all this time? Have they been lurking dormant for millennia, waiting for us to invent pornography so their lives would then have meaning? Or did they somehow serve some legitimate neurological purpose before being corrupted right at about the time the first issue of “Playboy” hit the stands? Maybe they didn’t even exist until after World War II. That’s it. Addiction to pornography is caused by radioactive fallout from all those post-war atomic bomb tests. First Godzilla, now erototoxins.
I’d like to volunteer to join Dr. Reisman in the war against porn addiction, but I’m going to take a different tack. I believe that it’s possible for erototoxins to have some positive benefits for humanity; that they could somehow be transformed to fight for the forces of good instead of evil. Like when Mothra attacked Tokyo.
It’s my theory that exposure to self-righteous, pseudo-scientific quackery produces in the brain insidious substances I’ve dubbed “bullshitoxins.” Bullshitoxins can, if unchecked, turn people into anal-retentive, moralistic assholes who can’t mind
their own business when it comes to human sexual behaviors. I believe that under the right conditions, erototoxins can be produced in sufficient quantities to transform them into an anti-virus to combat those nasty bullshitoxins and save humanity. My theory has the same basis in fact as does Dr. Reisman’s theory of erototoxins; that is, none at all. However, like Dr. Reisman, I’m not letting that little detail stop me.
Now, my goal of being a porn pundit has taken on a new meaning. I’m willing to act as a guinea pig to study the effects of massive exposure to pornography and the generation of erototoxins. My goal is to see if they can be brought over from the Dark Side. All in the name of science, of course.
Dr. Reisman, please contact me at the above e-mail address so we can discuss how I can get Federal funding to conduct my study. Thank you.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Coretta Scott King
This part of Mrs. Scott King's work tends to be forgotten.
From the article:
Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it, she said. "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said. "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages." King made her comments during a speech at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
***
In 1998, King said, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people.... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
And more here:
Speaking before nearly 600 people at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel,
Coretta Scott King, the wife of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Tuesday called on the civil rights community to join in the struggle against homophobia and anti-gay bias. "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood," King stated. "This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." - Chicago Defender, April 1, 1998, front page.
Quoting a passage from her late husband's writing, Coretta Scott King
reaffirmed her stance on gay and lesbian rights Tuesday at a luncheon
celebrating the 25 anniversary of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national gay rights organization. "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be," she said, quoting her husband. "I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy," King told 600 people at the Palmer House Hilton, days before the 30th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. She said the civil rights movement "thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion." Her husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement, she said. - Chicago Sun Times, April 1, 1998, p.18.
I've got homosexual friends, but I'm not gay myself. Because of this fact, I've had a lot of people wondering why I spend so much time ranting about gay rights. Dr. and Mrs. King said it best. "I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be."
Amen.
Must I be black to be outraged by the word, "Nigger?"
Must I be a woman to be disgusted with sexual harassment and discrimination, and horrified by rape?
Must I be religious to be furious at the way the Holy Terrors have turned God into a homophobic warmonger?
I think not.
From the article:
Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it, she said. "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said. "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages." King made her comments during a speech at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
***
In 1998, King said, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people.... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
And more here:
Speaking before nearly 600 people at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel,
Coretta Scott King, the wife of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Tuesday called on the civil rights community to join in the struggle against homophobia and anti-gay bias. "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood," King stated. "This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." - Chicago Defender, April 1, 1998, front page.
Quoting a passage from her late husband's writing, Coretta Scott King
reaffirmed her stance on gay and lesbian rights Tuesday at a luncheon
celebrating the 25 anniversary of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national gay rights organization. "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be," she said, quoting her husband. "I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy," King told 600 people at the Palmer House Hilton, days before the 30th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. She said the civil rights movement "thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion." Her husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement, she said. - Chicago Sun Times, April 1, 1998, p.18.
I've got homosexual friends, but I'm not gay myself. Because of this fact, I've had a lot of people wondering why I spend so much time ranting about gay rights. Dr. and Mrs. King said it best. "I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be."
Amen.
Must I be black to be outraged by the word, "Nigger?"
Must I be a woman to be disgusted with sexual harassment and discrimination, and horrified by rape?
Must I be religious to be furious at the way the Holy Terrors have turned God into a homophobic warmonger?
I think not.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
From the Dec-Jan edition of ERWA
ALL WORKED UP ABOUT THE THEME FOR 2006
By J.T. Benjamin
Copr. 2005
It’s a common practice this time of year for reflection and resolve. Giving thanks for our homes, lives, and loved ones evolves into getting into that “Peace On Earth, Good Will Toward Men” idea, and then into this year, THIS year, losing a few pounds and, more importantly, finding out who’s on the list for “Entertainment Tonight’s Top Ten Celebrity Scandals of 2005.”
2005 was a banner year if you happen to be a free-lance porn pundit and philosopher such as myself, for which I am grateful. And 2006 looks even more promising.
That’s because 2006 is an election year. I know, I know, it seems like we’ve finally gotten the stench from the 2004 campaign out of the carpets, clothes,
and upholstery. But most of Congress will be up for grabs this year, and even more importantly, the big candidates for the ’08 race for the White House are
already planning twenty to thirty moves in advance, like chess grandmasters. Get a whiff of the air. Can’t you already detect the odor of moldy socks, intermingled with human excrement and the burped-up residue of deviled eggs gone bad? It is indeed an election year.
In case you didn’t know, or knew but had simply forgotten, the Powers that Be have been engaged in a campaign, a War On Whoopie, if you will, to wipe out all things fun about sex. Contraceptives, homosexuality, sex toys, pornography, obscenity and
sex education are all enemies of the State according to the government and its puppet masters on the Religious Right, those whom I’ve dubbed the Holy Terrors.
Now that hundreds of politicians have their jobs on the line, we can anticipate some major offensives from the Holy Terrors as they try to ram through our bedroom doors and shove their anti-fun agenda down our throats.
As for me, I have a theme for 2006. A central message, a core concept that is easily understood and impregnable. A perfect soundbite, if you will. Every
attack the Holy Terrors make must be met and a counter-offensive launched, and every such counter-offensive I make will be have this theme at its heart.
And what is this theme? How must we respond to the Holy Terrors’ War On Whoopie? Four words.
Mind Your Own Business.
It’s firm. It’s assertive. It’s simple. It’s “Get The Government Out Of Our Private Lives.” It’s Freedom. It’s Liberty. It’s All-American.
It’s Ann Landers saying, “Dear Concerned: M.Y.O.B.” It’s Hank Williams singing, “Why don’t you mind your own business, so you won’t be minding mine.” You
can’t get more All-American than Ann and Hank.
Of course, regarding child pornography and sexual assault, we all need to crack down, but when it comes to monitoring the sex lives of consenting adults, we
have to say just four simple words.
Mind Your Own Business.
A guy down the street hangs a “Gay Pride” flag in his window where everybody can see it.
Mind Your Own Business.
The newsstand on the corner sells books and magazines with all kinds of filth and dirty pictures.
Mind Your Own Business.
That couple in church looks nice, but I hear they throw late-night private parties once a month, and some of the people in those parties wear lots and lots
of leather.
Mind Your Own Business.
Mr. Edwards, the math teacher, has a roommate named Jim, and there’s only one bed in their apartment.
Mind Your Own Business.
I was watching cable last night, and you wouldn’t believe the curse words and naked bodies on the screen.
Change the damn channel. And Mind Your Own Business.
By now, you must be wondering, where do we draw the line? At what point does my neighbor’s sex life become my business? The simple answer is, when my loved ones and I are harmed. Not offended, harmed.
Frankly, if you aren’t offended by someone somewhere at least three times a day, you need to get out more. But if you can show you’ve been harmed by someone else’s sex life, then and only then do you have the right to raise a stink.
If we let those queers tie the knot, the entire institution of marriage will be destroyed.
How will letting gays marriage hurt YOUR marriage? Not the institution, YOUR marriage.
Uh, well, my marriage is just fine, thanks.
Until you can show me the scars or the divorce papers then, to quote Ann Landers again, M.Y.O.B.
I got the idea from a conversation I had with two friends, whom I’ll call Ginger and Mary Ann. They’re getting married soon, but unfortunately they’re going to have to travel halfway across the country to make it legal. Literally. Our conversation moved away from gowns and a ring ceremony and into a discussion of the broader scope of gay marriage and gay rights in general and how, in the eyes of the Holy Terrors, gay rights are a promotion of the so-called “Gay Agenda.”
“You know what the gay agenda is,” asked Mary Ann. “It means that we want people to leave us the fuck alone!”
I have to admit that “Mind Your Own FUCKING Business” has a better ring to it, but it’s definitely too R-rated for polite dialogue. In any case, it’s time to lace up the gloves. Election Day is less than eleven short months away, you can already download porn onto those new video I-pods, and the Super Bowl is right around the corner.
I'd have felt better about Sam Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court if they'd had this sort of dialogue at the confirmation hearing.
Sen. Righteous: Judge Alito, these receipts indicate that last year you spent two thousand dollars at Kitty’s XXX Video Store And Arcade. Do you have anything to say, Judge?”
Judge Alito: “Yes Senator, I do. Mind Your Own Business.”
Music to my ears.
By J.T. Benjamin
Copr. 2005
It’s a common practice this time of year for reflection and resolve. Giving thanks for our homes, lives, and loved ones evolves into getting into that “Peace On Earth, Good Will Toward Men” idea, and then into this year, THIS year, losing a few pounds and, more importantly, finding out who’s on the list for “Entertainment Tonight’s Top Ten Celebrity Scandals of 2005.”
2005 was a banner year if you happen to be a free-lance porn pundit and philosopher such as myself, for which I am grateful. And 2006 looks even more promising.
That’s because 2006 is an election year. I know, I know, it seems like we’ve finally gotten the stench from the 2004 campaign out of the carpets, clothes,
and upholstery. But most of Congress will be up for grabs this year, and even more importantly, the big candidates for the ’08 race for the White House are
already planning twenty to thirty moves in advance, like chess grandmasters. Get a whiff of the air. Can’t you already detect the odor of moldy socks, intermingled with human excrement and the burped-up residue of deviled eggs gone bad? It is indeed an election year.
In case you didn’t know, or knew but had simply forgotten, the Powers that Be have been engaged in a campaign, a War On Whoopie, if you will, to wipe out all things fun about sex. Contraceptives, homosexuality, sex toys, pornography, obscenity and
sex education are all enemies of the State according to the government and its puppet masters on the Religious Right, those whom I’ve dubbed the Holy Terrors.
Now that hundreds of politicians have their jobs on the line, we can anticipate some major offensives from the Holy Terrors as they try to ram through our bedroom doors and shove their anti-fun agenda down our throats.
As for me, I have a theme for 2006. A central message, a core concept that is easily understood and impregnable. A perfect soundbite, if you will. Every
attack the Holy Terrors make must be met and a counter-offensive launched, and every such counter-offensive I make will be have this theme at its heart.
And what is this theme? How must we respond to the Holy Terrors’ War On Whoopie? Four words.
Mind Your Own Business.
It’s firm. It’s assertive. It’s simple. It’s “Get The Government Out Of Our Private Lives.” It’s Freedom. It’s Liberty. It’s All-American.
It’s Ann Landers saying, “Dear Concerned: M.Y.O.B.” It’s Hank Williams singing, “Why don’t you mind your own business, so you won’t be minding mine.” You
can’t get more All-American than Ann and Hank.
Of course, regarding child pornography and sexual assault, we all need to crack down, but when it comes to monitoring the sex lives of consenting adults, we
have to say just four simple words.
Mind Your Own Business.
A guy down the street hangs a “Gay Pride” flag in his window where everybody can see it.
Mind Your Own Business.
The newsstand on the corner sells books and magazines with all kinds of filth and dirty pictures.
Mind Your Own Business.
That couple in church looks nice, but I hear they throw late-night private parties once a month, and some of the people in those parties wear lots and lots
of leather.
Mind Your Own Business.
Mr. Edwards, the math teacher, has a roommate named Jim, and there’s only one bed in their apartment.
Mind Your Own Business.
I was watching cable last night, and you wouldn’t believe the curse words and naked bodies on the screen.
Change the damn channel. And Mind Your Own Business.
By now, you must be wondering, where do we draw the line? At what point does my neighbor’s sex life become my business? The simple answer is, when my loved ones and I are harmed. Not offended, harmed.
Frankly, if you aren’t offended by someone somewhere at least three times a day, you need to get out more. But if you can show you’ve been harmed by someone else’s sex life, then and only then do you have the right to raise a stink.
If we let those queers tie the knot, the entire institution of marriage will be destroyed.
How will letting gays marriage hurt YOUR marriage? Not the institution, YOUR marriage.
Uh, well, my marriage is just fine, thanks.
Until you can show me the scars or the divorce papers then, to quote Ann Landers again, M.Y.O.B.
I got the idea from a conversation I had with two friends, whom I’ll call Ginger and Mary Ann. They’re getting married soon, but unfortunately they’re going to have to travel halfway across the country to make it legal. Literally. Our conversation moved away from gowns and a ring ceremony and into a discussion of the broader scope of gay marriage and gay rights in general and how, in the eyes of the Holy Terrors, gay rights are a promotion of the so-called “Gay Agenda.”
“You know what the gay agenda is,” asked Mary Ann. “It means that we want people to leave us the fuck alone!”
I have to admit that “Mind Your Own FUCKING Business” has a better ring to it, but it’s definitely too R-rated for polite dialogue. In any case, it’s time to lace up the gloves. Election Day is less than eleven short months away, you can already download porn onto those new video I-pods, and the Super Bowl is right around the corner.
I'd have felt better about Sam Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court if they'd had this sort of dialogue at the confirmation hearing.
Sen. Righteous: Judge Alito, these receipts indicate that last year you spent two thousand dollars at Kitty’s XXX Video Store And Arcade. Do you have anything to say, Judge?”
Judge Alito: “Yes Senator, I do. Mind Your Own Business.”
Music to my ears.
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