Are you kidding me??!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Mississippi outlaws sex toys (from MSNBC.com)
There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week, another court refused to recognize Mississippians' right to find companionship for $29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys will stand.
"A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs or offers to do so or possesses such devices with the intent to do so."
Well, I am glad to see that the local legislators are focusing on the most pressing issues of the day. I've long believed that a three-dimensional, possibly battery-operated device is far more menacing than a handgun. In Mississippi, people can buy guns at a gun show with no background check and certain weapons can be carried almost anywhere. Sure, guns and toys can bring joy and a sense of comfort to the user, but apparently the legislators concluded that a genital replica is a far greater threat to society.
This, from a state that levies only an 18-cent tax on cigarettes, 55 cents below the national average and where 62 percent of residents are overweight, making it the fattest state in the country. Yet still the public schools don't make gym class compulsory. Mississippi's laws would make you believe sex is the single greatest threat to public safety and well-being. After all, it's illegal in Mississippi to have sex with someone you're not married to or to live with someone other than your spouse.
Both can result in a $500 fine and six months in jail. And men are not permitted to be aroused in public. But at least good people are protected from the disfigurement that could result from an accidental electrical overload from a defective toy.
Georgia and Texas have passed similar bans and courts have repeatedly ruled the legislators have the power to do it. I guess the Second Amendment doesn't say anything about the right to bear a stimulation device.
But the sex activists are not closing up shop in the South Pole just yet. They formed a lobbying group based in Florida called the National Alliance of Adult Trade Organizations or NAATO. Not, of course, to be confused with the other NATO, which is based in Brussels.
I don't mean to pick on Mississippi. I love the state and the people, but I just don't get why the legislators are fighting so hard for this law. We're talking about adults here. It's not that I really care about ensuring that these toys are ready accessible. Really. It's just that you have to wonder, is one of these toys really a greater threat to the community than what real live people do to each other every day?
Well, I am glad to see that the local legislators are focusing on the most pressing issues of the day. I've long believed that a three-dimensional, possibly battery-operated device is far more menacing than a handgun. In Mississippi, people can buy guns at a gun show with no background check and certain weapons can be carried almost anywhere. Sure, guns and toys can bring joy and a sense of comfort to the user, but apparently the legislators concluded that a genital replica is a far greater threat to society.
This, from a state that levies only an 18-cent tax on cigarettes, 55 cents below the national average and where 62 percent of residents are overweight, making it the fattest state in the country. Yet still the public schools don't make gym class compulsory. Mississippi's laws would make you believe sex is the single greatest threat to public safety and well-being. After all, it's illegal in Mississippi to have sex with someone you're not married to or to live with someone other than your spouse.
Both can result in a $500 fine and six months in jail. And men are not permitted to be aroused in public. But at least good people are protected from the disfigurement that could result from an accidental electrical overload from a defective toy.
Georgia and Texas have passed similar bans and courts have repeatedly ruled the legislators have the power to do it. I guess the Second Amendment doesn't say anything about the right to bear a stimulation device.
But the sex activists are not closing up shop in the South Pole just yet. They formed a lobbying group based in Florida called the National Alliance of Adult Trade Organizations or NAATO. Not, of course, to be confused with the other NATO, which is based in Brussels.
I don't mean to pick on Mississippi. I love the state and the people, but I just don't get why the legislators are fighting so hard for this law. We're talking about adults here. It's not that I really care about ensuring that these toys are ready accessible. Really. It's just that you have to wonder, is one of these toys really a greater threat to the community than what real live people do to each other every day?
This has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I didn't even realize having sex with someone you aren't married to or living with somone other than your spouse was illegal there too. I really don't have anything else to say, other than: What. The. Fuck.
7 comments:
you have got to be fricken kiddin me....that is about THE most insane thing I have heard lately..leave it to my state to fight it, tho...hahahahah..gotta love it....wonder what happens in Mississippi if your MARRIED and buy toys...is that okay, or still no?.,...ahhhh...like I said, gotta love it...or better yet, like YOU said it...What. The. Fuck...
Talk to ya later
:)Just me
I've always thought folks were a little bit backward in Mississippi. I guess now they'll be uptight and backward.
the scary thing is that these are the same self-destructive small minds running the world these days because they play the political game better... and they want to restrict your life just as much...
thanks for the information, while I laugh at the stupidity of such such uptight control freaks, I still get chills to think they do have so much power...
Kirsten- That was my first thought too. With all of the other things in the world to worry about, they are trying to keep the women in their state from getting off. I'm surprised they let women go to school.
B@L- not to mention extremely unsatisfied. Imagine how irritable are the women there are- my battery-operated bf is one of the few things keeping me sane.
candoor- very well stated. I guess we know why we have someone in power who thinks that we need to be concerned about "nucular" weapons.
This is such a daft law isn't it? You've got to wonder what they are protecting here. I can't fathom it. How much harm is really being done by selling sex toys?
I got to that first, pink sentence and my brain froze. This kind of nonsense is what disgusts me. Why the hell are we putting money, time and attention into what people are doing in their own homes when there are ZILLIONS of more pressing issues that have yet to be addressed???
GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
wangler- that was my question, too. What could they possibly be protecting by not letting people get off?
Nicole- same reaction. That first sentence just boggled my mind. And the other more pressing issues? Well, I guess that education and health aren't quite as important as people's sex lives.
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