More on (Moron) Censorship...

I just wanted to continue my post from the other day in censorship before moving on to other topics.
A couple of points, for historical perspective, brought to you by the Political Party that opposes Net Neutrality and the Fairness act on the absurd grounds that allowing people to speak somehow constitutes censorship.

From 1930 to 1968, the motion picture industry was subject to the Motion Picture Production Code.  This was a series of guidelines that clearly outlined what could, and what could not be put in a movie.  And unlike todaysrating system - which merely that audiences be of a certain age and that they be advised as to the overall content, this system was absolute and could not deviated from.  It WAS cencorship, textbook censorship, and no serious argument can be made otherwise.

Now why is this relevant?  Simple: It was created and written by REPUBLICAN William Harrison Hays.  So don't think for a minute that the Right's penchant for manipulating the media is anything NEW.

There another example that I'd like to offer: The Comics Code Authority.  This triumpgh of decency pandering over artistic freedom came into effect in 1954 - smack in the middle of the good ol' days, according to today's conservatives.  Now... the Comics Code, which still exists, is a voluntary regulatory board formed by the industry.  Now... WHY would an industry voluntarily adopt standard that would made their stories REALLY SUCK?  (And for anyone who disputes that I offer the first guidline: Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal [or] to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice.  Great. So I can't have a sympathetic villain or a conflicted hero. NO WONDER comic books were always seen as purile and juvenile: They HAD TO BE, under regulations!)  Again: WHY would an industry voluntarily adopt such constraining standards?  Simple: the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was focusing on, and threatening to censor, COMIC BOOKS of all things.  What a time that must have been - COMIC BOOKS, rather than guns and drugs were the cause of all the world's ills!

And who called this absurd circus into existance?  Why REPUBLICAN Senator Robert Hendrickson of New York.  Apparently Werewolves and Vampires and veiled references to masturbation were the biggest issues the Senator felt needed tackling in the country.  No wonder the Russians beat us to space.

And while it has nothing to do with CENSORSHIP - the Volstead Act (better know as Prohibition) was also a Republican meausre, vetoed by DEMOCRATIC President Wilson, who was then overruled by the REPUBLICAN Congress. 

The Republicans have been censoring and suppressing freedom for almost a hundred years now. 

Add Joe McCarthy to the mix? 

Why are we still LISTENING to these fools?!