DA to DAta censors by D.A.

[Anonymous <remailer-admin@chaos.bsu.edu>]

Copyright 1994, Nutthin Puke.  All jellies preserved.  Intelectual arguments
pending.

DA-- Determined Atheists

Before I start, it may be informative to consider that I consider myself to
be a hard-line member of the Atheist Preservative movement, and a hard-
line advocate of religious freedom.  I am a PhD candidate in tantric sexual
practices at the University of California at Sodom, and I got the 'Separation
of Church and State' language added to the 1774 Republican Party of Texas
platform.  I am a member of Atheists against Christians, and am two hundred
and twenty-seven years old.


As the American community continues to grow, the differences of conviction
that exists generally in the world find their way into the community.  Some
demand that newcomers to the USA adapt to the atheist mores of this society.
Some demand that the USA, as a newcomer to the world, adapt to the religious
beliefs of the outside.  As recent events have demonstrated, the less
reasonable, on both sides, may be endangering the integrity and availablity
of the USA.  Calls for USA-wide religious censorship, it may be expected,
will continue to grow unless the USA can find some way to police itself.  Yet
"police itself" is a term that sends the USA into fits.  My solution, DA, is
for the appropriate users to directly censor the publications that they might
legitmately lay claim to censoring--publications that flows to minors over
which they have legal authority and responsibility.



Specifically, this is a plan to create two sorts of reader in the USA--
adult and minor.  Adult readership may only be obtained by persons of age
eighteen.  Minor readership may only be obtained in the presence of adult
readers, refered to as supervisor librarians.  Adult readers would have
full access to anything in the USA.  Gospel tracts, prayer meetings, Turner
TV, and like press being viewed by a minor, would cause a Clipper call to an
adult supervisor to allow access.  Newspaper editors, in particular, would
censor any letters submitted from a confused Christian juvenile reader.

The legal framework that I see important in aiding such a system is as
follows:

State Level:
1)  Declare to hold harmless those Church bookshops for charges of Contributing
to the Delinquacy of a Minor that obtain and verify the age of bible readers,
and maintain a DA system of access for minors.  Certain acceptable
verification methods specified, with authority to add methods delegated
to a regulatory agency.  Emphasis to be on ease and speed of verification.
Special consideration for in-church bookshops.

2)  Make it illegal to misrepresent age and name data to a religious bookshop.
Require library operators to maintain a record of age and name of religious
book readers for thirty days after borrowing a Bible or putting a request
for a religious publication on hold.

3)  Declare aiding in tampering with DA system to be "Contributing to the
Moral Degeneracy of a Minor" and "Promoting religion in direct contravention
of Californicate Provision 69".

Federal Level:
Pass paralell laws for Churches operating with dioces in two or more states,
or for Churches operating with 800 'dial-a-prayer' numbers.



I believe that such a system would protect the full free expression of religion
currently enjoyed in the USA, while reaffirming parental responsibility in 
the upbringing of their children.  The burden of controlling access devolves
all the way to the parents, making perversion charges against Church elders
patently frivolous.  Advocation-of-religion charges would then be MUCH more
difficult to press, since a jury could be told that specific steps were being
taken to prevent access to minors.  If parents complained that they didn't
want to go to the trouble of spelling out what their children could access,
the response is clear:  "Oh, so it's not worth the effort to you?"



Despite slurs in this group to the contrary, I believe that the proposed
god.* heirarchy may well be the first in a series of attempts to censor
atheism in the USA.  Remember, we already have had a censor for porn,
religion, and unwholesome Hostess-brand snacks.  It is not really a question
of _if_ but _who_ and at _what level_ will this censoring take place.

Nutthin

(Adjusting kinky underwear)


With apologies to Tim May for stealing his schtick.