I think you’ve heard me complain/comment before about how since Google and everyone else is afraid of the government and/or the Church and/or personally has a problem with sexuality, it’s virtually impossible to get non-porn advertising for ModBlog. Now, while I think that it’s important to recognize that this type of financial censorship is still censorship, I’m more concerned about simply being permitted to document the activities that are recorded here and on BME in more detail. These activities are a huge part of modern and historical human behavior and I think it’s as important to understand and record them as the rest of the art and culture we produce as a species.
You may remember that quite a while back BME did an emergency move out of the United States (we were hosting out of California at the time, but are now back in Toronto where I live right now). If you’d like to know why, ask the recently sentenced folks who got three years in prison (down from over five) for shipping a nipple piercing video across state lines. This case also defined nipple piercing as “violence” and not protected under “free speech”. I can’t even begin to say how relieved I am that Canada has protection of “free expression” (including sexual expression), and that obscenity is defined by harm caused, not by moralism. So yeah, this picture goes out to all my friends at the FBI.
That said, with adult sites being “inspected” (if they’re searching your whole house, I think a better word would be “raided”) across the United States, I still am a little nervous that some of that censorship and oppression will flow North across the border. Well, at least now you know the real reason Christina Aguilera got rid of her nipple piercing, ha… Last thing she needs is to pay a $550,000 fine for letting anyone see it in public. Man, here in Toronto you can walk down the street topless with your nipple rings showing (male or female, thanks to equality laws), and there’s not a damn thing the cops can do about it… and CityTV can even broadcast it if they want to up their ratings!