This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1457562
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1457562
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The Executive Branch is aware of the Comstock Act. It will continue enforcement of that law at the current level of zero. Wingnuts presume the Democratic Party’s super weakness is the obligation to follow rules.
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And if 1850s doesn’t work, they’re gonna follow Alito’s trail back to the early Middle Ages for justification.
Am I the only one who feels like I’m caught in a house of mirrors? This shit never goes away.
If only these assholes would spend as much energy trying to make life better for those who are already living.
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The Comstock (Pant) Load
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If we’re going to enforce the Comstock Act, let’s go whole hog. Nothing that can be used for lewd or lascivious purposes is allow to be shipped in interstate commerce. Goodbye condoms, goodbye cialis and viagra, goodbye Victoria’s Secret…
In fact, goodbye everything.
(In practice, of course, this means that lunatic right-wing judges will control interstate commerces based on their own personal kinks of the moment and how much they like or dislike the parties in front of them.)
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I don’t think they wanna go back to Popes housing their mistresses on ecclesiastical property; so, I’m guessing they’ll be content with the Counter-Reformation, where they’ll get the bonuses of really intrusive religious organizations and genocidal wars over differences of rite and dogma.
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Candles, cucumbers, Japanese eggplants, pickles, flashlights, Mr. Potatohead, lotions, rubber gloves, novelty miniature baseball bats, lingerie stores … all banned forever because some prudes in robes have an imagination.
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Let’s not forget emojis: 
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I’m scandalized!!!
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@ralph_vonholst will still be able to buy his wine in a box, but more traditional packaging ist verboten.
On a more serious note (heh), doesn’t this trample on the sincerely held religious beliefs of people who don’t subscribe to the evangelical church of forced birth? Does anybody know what has happened with the suit by a Florida Jewish congregation arguing that the state’s 15-week abortion ban violated their religious beliefs?
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I’m pretty sure that’s against their religion, and if you give me time I’m sure I can find or cobble together a passage to support that.
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My impression is that we have a majority of the SCOTUS that wants to pack up the Establishment Clause and send it back to the Enlightenment.
That said, I am interested in the outcome of that suit, as well, but have not heard of it.
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Never Viagra! Gotta keep that filly barefoot and pregnant!
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People who believe the Earth is flat always want to take the moral high ground.
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Apparently there are similar suits in Ohio and Texas.
These cases back the Supreme Court into a corner. In his majority opinion in Hobby Lobby, Alito said the plaintiffs’ “sincerely believe that providing the insurance coverage demanded by the HHS regulations lies on the forbidden side of the line, and it is not for us to say that their religious beliefs are mistaken or insubstantial. Instead, our “narrow function . . . in this context is to determine” whether the line drawn reflects “an honest conviction, and there is no dispute that it does.”
The notorious RBG correctly warned that “approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be “perceived as favoring one religion over another,” the very “risk the Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.” The Court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield, by its immoderate reading of RFRA.”
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And the feds had better enforce the Comstock laws’ ban on porn being broadcast and cabled to those bastions of Evangelical and Mormon morality like Mississippi, Alabama, and Utah.
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Sure, women’s health should be governed by laws passed 50 years before they were allowed to vote. That makes perfect sense. And also the 2024 Democratic primary should determine the GOP nominee, who will be former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern.
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In Michigan, we’re busily repealing all these horrible 19th and 20th century laws.
I would say repeal Comstock, but of course that’s not happening unless and until the Democrats control both the house and the Senate again - and then will we have to worry about Manchin and Sinema?
Do you ever like just sit back and wonder how in hell we got here?
Of course you do, you read TPM. 
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If we’re gonna go down that road, I can see restricting the GOP to medical practices common to the time when the Comstock Act was passed.
Would they still have enjoyed the benefits of bleeding and humoral theory?
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You are just making way too much sense here. And I 
it!
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