Gene sez: Remember that hot, sexy chunk of change Paula Houston? The babe who was named to the porn czar's post in Utah? Houston got an awful lot of press when she first got put on the state dole back in 2001. But little, if nothing, has been heard of her since. I found the following interview with Houston posted on Penthouse's website and would like to pass it along to you before Penthouse themselves go out of business judging by the fact that even their own auditors don't want to deal with them. [Scroll down the page for that story.]
Penthouse interview: I've got nothing against religious people, as long as they don't want to run my government. Unfortunately they do. Case in point is the appointment of former prosecutor Paula Houston to the newly created position of obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman for the state of Utah. Dubbed the "porn czar," Ms. Houston says her new role will involve advising local governments in regulating "any kind of pornography or decency area," toughening state-wide obscenity laws, and assisting "in prosecutions or investigations... requested and approved by the Attorney General."
While I commend Ms. Houston for granting PENTHOUSE.COM an interview, I must also admit to finding her woefully uninformed on key issues. The danger with most public moralizers isn't evil intent, but a willingness to implement policies without a realistic examination of their results. Ms. Houston begins her new job with two completely untested assumptions -- that porn is inherently bad, and that society will benefit by having government strictly regulate it. History shows us how difficult it is to stop this kind of unholy alliance between religion and politics -- whether it's the Salem Witch trials of 1692, or the current brutal rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
At one point in our interview, Ms. Houston claimed that for government to get involved in an obscenity case it would have to depict something, "extreme... not just your everyday kind of sexual things." But later she announced that if there were sufficient complaints, banning a novel like Catcher in the Rye is something government "should be able to look at and decide."
Ms. Houston was quick to cite studies linking pornography to domestic violence, but five seconds later she agreed that studies of this kind are, "definitely biased one way or the other." When asked about the Movie Buffs case from 1996, arguably the highest profile obscenity case in Utah in the last ten years -- in which a local video store manager spent three years on trial before being acquited of a misdemeanor -- Ms. Houston claimed to know only "what was on the news." Just as the illegal drug trade will flourish as long as there is demand for the product, the religious right understands that they can never stop pornography. What they are truly seeking is political influence and government money -- and as long as well-meaning, but basically uninformed public officials like Ms. Houston are along for the ride, the personal liberties guaranteed to every American will continue to be at grave risk.
For the entire Q&A check out David Bienenstock's interview at penthouse.com/exclusives/pornczar/ but hurry.
