Bordering State Dildo Sales to Skyrocket
Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:21 pm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6308419/
March 21, 2006 | 9:20 a.m. ET
Mississippi outlaws sex toys (Dan Abrams)
There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being
fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected
by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of
certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week,
another court refused to recognize Mississippians' right to find
companionship for 29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys
will stand.
"A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices
when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any
person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful
primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs or offers to do
so or possesses such devices with the intent to do so."
Well, I am glad to see that the local legislators are focusing on the
most pressing issues of the day. I've long believed that a
three-dimensional, possibly battery-operated device is far more
menacing than a handgun. In Mississippi, people can buy guns at a gun
show with no background check and certain weapons can be carried
almost anywhere. Sure, guns and toys can bring joy and a sense of
comfort to the user, but apparently the legislators concluded that a
genital replica is a far greater threat to society.
This, from a state that levies only an 18-cent tax on cigarettes, 55
cents below the national average and where 62 percent of residents are
overweight, making it the fattest state in the country. Yet still the
public schools don't make gym class compulsory. Mississippi's laws
would make you believe sex is the single greatest threat to public
safety and well-being. After all, it's illegal in Mississippi to have
sex with someone you're not married to or to live with someone other
than your spouse.
Both can result in a $500 fine and six months in jail. And men are
not permitted to be aroused in public. But at least good people are
protected from the disfigurement that could result from an accidental
electrical overload from a defective toy.
Georgia and Texas have passed similar bans and courts have repeatedly
ruled the legislators have the power to do it. I guess the Second
Amendment doesn't say anything about the right to bear a stimulation
device.
But the sex activists are not closing up shop in the South Pole just
yet. They formed a lobbying group based in Florida called the
National Alliance of Adult Trade Organizations or NAATO. Not, of
course, to be confused with the other NATO, which is based in Brussels.
I don't mean to pick on Mississippi. I love the state and the people,
but I just don't get why the legislators are fighting so hard for this
law. We're talking about adults here. It's not that I really care
about ensuring that these toys are ready accessible. Really. It's
just that you have to wonder, is one of these toys really a greater
threat to the community than what real live people do to each other
every day?
March 21, 2006 | 9:20 a.m. ET
Mississippi outlaws sex toys (Dan Abrams)
There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being
fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected
by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of
certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week,
another court refused to recognize Mississippians' right to find
companionship for 29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys
will stand.
"A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices
when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any
person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful
primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs or offers to do
so or possesses such devices with the intent to do so."
Well, I am glad to see that the local legislators are focusing on the
most pressing issues of the day. I've long believed that a
three-dimensional, possibly battery-operated device is far more
menacing than a handgun. In Mississippi, people can buy guns at a gun
show with no background check and certain weapons can be carried
almost anywhere. Sure, guns and toys can bring joy and a sense of
comfort to the user, but apparently the legislators concluded that a
genital replica is a far greater threat to society.
This, from a state that levies only an 18-cent tax on cigarettes, 55
cents below the national average and where 62 percent of residents are
overweight, making it the fattest state in the country. Yet still the
public schools don't make gym class compulsory. Mississippi's laws
would make you believe sex is the single greatest threat to public
safety and well-being. After all, it's illegal in Mississippi to have
sex with someone you're not married to or to live with someone other
than your spouse.
Both can result in a $500 fine and six months in jail. And men are
not permitted to be aroused in public. But at least good people are
protected from the disfigurement that could result from an accidental
electrical overload from a defective toy.
Georgia and Texas have passed similar bans and courts have repeatedly
ruled the legislators have the power to do it. I guess the Second
Amendment doesn't say anything about the right to bear a stimulation
device.
But the sex activists are not closing up shop in the South Pole just
yet. They formed a lobbying group based in Florida called the
National Alliance of Adult Trade Organizations or NAATO. Not, of
course, to be confused with the other NATO, which is based in Brussels.
I don't mean to pick on Mississippi. I love the state and the people,
but I just don't get why the legislators are fighting so hard for this
law. We're talking about adults here. It's not that I really care
about ensuring that these toys are ready accessible. Really. It's
just that you have to wonder, is one of these toys really a greater
threat to the community than what real live people do to each other
every day?