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Sex Toys Banned By Federal Court.

Another Bush Victory?

by James Boyne

Readers Note: Below is an article that appeared today 7/29/04 through the Associated Press. The question I ask is, come November Election Day, will the Presidential race and possibly the Presidential debates, come down to Congress, the Senate, the two Presidential contenders and both political parties, all be wrangling over whether Americans should be allowed to use sex toys?

Also, a NY Times articles yesterday reported that another Federal Court (with the Bush Administration winning another victory) declared that consumers and patients could no longer bring litigation or lawsuits against any pharmaceutical company nor any medical device manufacturer for defective or harmful drugs or products. The theory used to win this victory for President Bush and his large corporate contributors was this: since the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approves and regulates drugs and medical devices, the drugs and medical devices cannot be harmful because the FDA would not have approved them (remember Thalidomide in the 1950’s). The FDA has been declared infallible (like the Pope); incapable of making a mistake and endowed with divine powers of self righteousness (otherwise known as the drug industry profit motive).

I trust and pray that there are no conservative Republicans that are injured by mis-prescribed or harmful prescription drugs. I trust and pray that no conservative, Bush Republicans are ever harmed by defective or poorly manufactured medical devices. I trust and pray that there are no conservative, right-wing, Bush supporters who would dare fantasize the use of sex toys. Also, take note that Viagra will still be permitted, as will condoms----the rationale being that Viagra is a billion dollar blockbuster selling drug for the pharmaceutical industry and condoms, well, Bush (under pressure) is approving $15 billion for zillions of condoms to be distributed to the Continent of Africa, East Asia and Indonesia---American condoms that is, made by American pharmaceutical companies.

If I remember right we do have about 18 million unemployed Americans; 50 million working Americans with no health insurance; 1.6 million annual personal bankruptcies; college tuition that is becoming unaffordable for most people; health care insurance and retirement plans that will soon be unaffordable to all businesses and individuals; half trillion dollar Federal deficits and half trillion dollar defense budgets; 195,000 people that die every year in the hospital due to errors, mistakes or neglect (as reported just yesterday on CNN); and 140,000 American troops in a dusty, dirty, decrepit, terrorist infested 7^th century country located half way around the world. I thought these were the issues. I didn’t know the plight and the future of America hinged on Federal Judges making Federal decisions in Federal Court on whether people in Alabama needed to be protected from the sale of sex toys.

Undoubtedly sex toys will destroy the sanctity of marriage and family values, the very foundation of our civilization. Next they will be screening our Christmas toys, our birthday cards, and our selection of magazines from Publishers Clearinghouse.

We have found the terrorists and they are us!

This is exactly why I have switched from being a lifelong conservative Republican to the Democratic Party. Conservative Republicanism is like a flesh eating disease that is devouring itself----flesh, bones, body and soul. It is not a place that any conservative, patriotic American nor church going compassionate Christian (nor any other religious/spiritual person) should be identifying with. Its like a nightmarish six headed, fire breathing dragon lashing out at the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I wonder who will win?

If Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight Eisenhower were alive today I think they would be marching straight into the White House to suggest to President Bush that he should just quietly resign for the good of the Party and the good of the nation. 

J. Boyne

Here’s the AP article, which appeared in the press today, written by correspondent Jay Reeves.

Sex Toys Banned By Federal Court

By Jay Reeves, AP

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (July 29) - A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a 1998 Alabama law banning the sale of sex toys in the state, ruling the Constitution doesn't include a right to sexual privacy.

In a 2-1 decision overturning a lower court, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state has a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented merchants and users who sued to overturn the law, asked the appeals court to rule that the Constitution included a right to sexual privacy that the ban on sex toy sales would violate. The court declined, indicating such a decision could lead down other paths.