Once
upon a time (2001), in a land close by (Utah) the legislature passed a bill
creating a “Porn Czar” (officially called the obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman), with an annual budget of $150,000. When it was created, it
made for some good late-night comic routines. Two years later, tired of being
the laughingstock of the nation, budget cuts in the AG’s office forced the porn
czar out of business. The Utah Legislature, however, did not officially remove
the position until 2018.
That
crowded bastion of self-righteous, hypocritical male Republican Mormons just could
not let a good thing die. This year (2020), for your amusement and waste of
taxpayer dollars, Rep Brady Brimmer, R-Highland, introduced a bill that will
require all print and hard-copy porn to carry a warning label, and require online
purveyors of naughtiness to have a 15 second warning flash on the screen of
porn viewers. Failure to have a label on printed material, or a warning flash
on the screen, will result in a $25,00 fine per violation-to be shared with the
citizen enforcers who turn the material over to the state AG’s office for
prosecution. The bill has cleared the
House Judiciary Committee 9-2 and is now headed to the Utah House floor, for
discussion.
So,
if you want to make a problem for a magazine publisher,
movie distributor, or
book author, you can report them to the Utah State AG’s office for prosecution.
The bill does not set any standards for what is, or isn’t, porn. Shakespeare, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Chaucer-the list is endless.
I
can hardly wait to see what the total cost to the taxpayers is for
all the
court fights that will come from this bill. Utah will lose the court battles,
just as it did when the legislature went after pay-per-view adult movies in
hotel rooms, but it will be an expensive fight.
And
we are still dead last in education funding. Go figure.
As
always, your thoughts and comments are welcome, just click on
the pencil in the white box below! Thanks for reading my blog.
R.M.
“Bob” Hartman
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