echo5delta

First of all, this guy is a total douchebag. I imagine I'll go look at his service record, but I bet $100 that he's not infantry, and can guarantee you he never deployed to a forward area.

CENTCOM General Order #1, which has been in effect since 2002 (IIRC), strictly and specifically forbids military personnel deployed in the Iraq/Kuwait or Afghanistan AOR from sexual contact of any kind with anyone, and posession or use of alcohol or porn (among other things).

If we threw everyone in jail who is currently violating that porn ban while deployed, there would be, like, fifteen US military guys left in Iraq or The 'Stan. The rule is only there because of cultural issues, but good porn is so hard to come by, it's not like we're SHARING it with the locals! Fuck THAT.

No, see, Congressman Broun is missing the point: it's not a matter of moral decay so much as it is MORALE decay for troops deployed or crews of ships underway.

I'd really like him (and the AFA/TVC) to back it up with numbers. MILITARY numbers, i.e. prove to us that active-duty military personnel who read porn are more prone to rape or sexually assault someone. I'd imagine our numbers are the same at worst, and probably less per capita than the population around our bases.

But wait! This Whole Harebrained Scheme, Mark I, Mod II, is centered on the issue of selling porn mags on base, in garrison. A ha! Well, sir, that's a different horse of colored fish!

Now, I do completely understand that when Lance Corporal Smucatelli or Lieutenant Babyface are perusing - or even just selecting and buying - their nekkid books, Little Johnny and the family of six standing in line behind them might have no way to avoid seing the pretty, half-nekkid woman on the cover of the plastic-wrapped magazine.

But what re--- hey, wait. IGNORE that US Weekly and SHAPE magazine on the rack. I'm making a point here.

So yeah, I can understand that families might want to push this. Not that they are, it's actually being done for them by another right-wingnut group getting all crazy imposing their values and getting a couple of Members of Congress to buy in. If I slung my cock around like those groups do their agendas, I'd be in jail for a long time. With two black eyes. And no friends.

Anyway, I digress.

Let me tell you what's going to happen: those wacky Family Values folks and Congress, backed by some very miniscule, token support from military families and officers, will pass this fucker, while the single males (and, well, females too, I reckon) will be completely ignored and unheard from because - oh, wait a minute!: they're too busy deployed worldwide conducting the Global War on Terrorism to catch more than an hour or two of C-SPAN every day, and they haven't seen the bill mentioned yet, since only a dozen members of each house show up to sit on their ass each day. So through ignorance of the issue, they'll get no say in this, and their fuck books will be yanked off base without them even knowing it. AAFES, NEX, and MCX don't make any money on sales of periodicals, so you know they don't care.

Which personally - and this comes from a guy who enjoys his porn, and is FIERCELY dedicated to making sure his guys are taken care of - doesn't bother me much at all. Since '97 all they sell on base is goddamn Playboy and Penthouse, which sucks nowadays, anyway - no penetration or even "flying squirrel" shots anymore.

There's a cleverly-hidden store about one mile from the main gate that sells anything US-legal you might ever want as far as porn mags go. I honestly don't think this will make a damn bit of difference in their profits, either - except maybe the week before units deploy.

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"Peace" is when nobody's shooting. A "Just Peace" is when we get what we want. - Bill Mauldin