The recent vote in the Senate should chill all of us who believe that the First Amendment protects forms of speech that some or most may find offensive. Because the ignorance shown in this latest move of Congress is appalling. Unfortunately, given the very nature of the net, the only way to achieve what they are asking would be to control the speech of everybody on the Internet, adults and children alike.
And to control the content of every site on the net. Not only is this undesirable not to mention unconstitutional , it is simply not possible. The Internet is international. You could remove every dirty word, every questionable picture, every scary topic from every site in the continental U.
I could not agree more! My own theater attendance has fallen sharply the past couple of years. I must admit I find few films that good anymore. If a story is good, it does not need shocking sex or violence to sell it. The runaway box office receipts would indicate that at least some of those agreeing with the senator are going to see this kind of fare again and again. It goes on the front page of The Times, and fills the media for weeks. Maybe you should have put them both on the editorial page.
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