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Not quite porn and not quite a prosecution, but you get the idea.

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In 1999, the city-funded Brooklyn Museum of Art came under fire when it exhibited a Chris Ofili painting of the Virgin Mary that featured sexually explicit cutouts covered with elephant dung. The Catholic Church, as well as New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, were outraged. Giuliani denounced the exhibit as morally offensive and threatened to cut off funding to the museum and terminate its lease if it did not cancel the exhibit that included Ofili’s painting. The city followed through and withheld the museum’s rent payment for October and filed a state lawsuit to get the lease revoked.

As a countermeasure, the museum filed a suit in federal court against the city claiming violations of the first ammendment, and seeking a permanent injunction against the city to keep it from withholding funds. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon, sided with the museum, and granted them a preliminary injunction. The city was also ordered to resume the museum's funding, and to stop any eviction proceedings.








The Brooklyn museum is a perfect example of what Rudy would do to the adult industry. Good Catholic that he is (despite his three marriages --one to his cousin-- his support for Gays, Abortion Rights and the Death Penalty) He always manages to get his ire up when his good buddy Bill Donohough tells him that something is obscene or violates the teachings of the church.

Still it's the bit about Freedom being about ceedeing rights unto Authority that really scares me. Because it won't stop with Porn or other lawful activity that resides on the outskirts of polite society. There are those who believe that America has become a Police State under Bush. I personally wouldn't go that far, although it has become more authoritarian. But if they think it's bad now, wait until Rudy takes over. Then you'll see the Fourth Reich in action.

The irony is that Rudy is probably the most sincere of all the candidates. He truly believes in thes Freedom/Authority nonsense. He truly believes he can be a Good Catholic while believing in abortion rights. And he truly believes he's never, never, never done one wrong thing. It's always the True Believers that are the most dangerous.