Susie Bright, in the course of a takedown of Bush-era terror-mongering and evidence-falsifying “all in a good cause” has a chilling reminder for all

There’s two phrases, that for me, will always describe the Bush Years: “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” and “Child Porn.” Our fears of annihilation and our children’s future being crushed were both hinged on these two… hoaxes.
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People fret over what monster will abduct their kid on MySpace, when statistically, the web site is safer than their church.

Read the quote in context here.

Again the issue isn’t that there’s no child porn, it’s that lying about it, or, worse, ginning up stories, or legislation as in Mark Foley’s case, or, as Bright points out, in way, way too many churches (of multiple denominations) as a cover for one’s own sordid involvement is worse than counterproductive. !$!@$#~@$

Update: In comments Sharon says

I know what you are saying, but I think the timing is a bit unfortunate. Many of us are still getting over the shock of seeing that ubiquitous image of the 4 year old girl in Nevada— the one being raped every which way in a video allegedly found in the desert.

While I agree it’s embarrassing to me I don’t agree that it’s bad timing. I hadn’t heard about the case of the rather frantic search for a child identified in a video tape in Nevada. The very good news is that they’ve found the girl and there’s a manhunt for the perpetrator. The tape was evidently made several years ago and the girl has been with her family since the event. And thank goodness!

What’s cool to me about this particular case, in the context of this particular post, is that the case was revealed, investigated, and successfully concluded based on ordinary police procedures. Furthermore the disgusting sons of bitches involved have been arrested and will be prosecuted for thoroughly appropriate on-the-books felonies and, if convicted, will serve appropriately long sentences.

It’s further worth noting, however, that at no point does it appear that the nominally “anti-child-pornography” policies instigated against legal adult porn had anything to do with the arrest. Yet I suspect the case Sharon mention will be used to promote other anti-porn (as opposed to anti-child-porn) measures instead of, um, tracking down and prosecuting actual child-pornographers.

And because I want to be very clear about this: I’d really like to see more actual law enforcement of any form of sexual assault or abuse of anybody of any age, race, gender, or persuasion. And less diverting resources away from such efforts in order to harass otherwise legal adult pornography.