We don't need no stinkin' Checks and Balances!

[yendi]

Today's slouch towards Bethlehem (which was so underreported in the press that news.google.com doesn't even acknowledge it):

The Supreme Crock Court has refused to hear the Jesus Castillo Texas Obscenity case. This is the case where a man was convicted of selling an adult comic to adults, purely on the basis of the argument that comics must be for kids. Yes, that was the "logic" used in TX, and upheld by a jury of twelve of the stupidest people alive. And anyone sitting there and thinking that this isn't setting a nasty precedent is out of their gourd. The same standard that allows a medium like comics to be declared "kids-only" will just as easily allow animation to be declared kids-only (welcome to prison, Stan "Stripperella" Lee). And it won't just affect fringe comics. If MiracleMan ever gets back into print, I don't doubt they'll put out an APB on Alan Moore and forbid him from returning to the US for his depictions of (*gasp*) a woman giving birth, in explicit detail. Not to mention every creator for the Vertigo line (wonder if Neil and Garth are regretting emigrating).

Beware of anyone who says that a law is being passed "for the children." That's a code that signals that they actually want to fuck you up the ass with a garden rake. Which, come to think of it, is what the Texas prosecutor and his pet jury deserve.