Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V10 #12

[Alan McKendree <amck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 08:33:13 -0500
> From: Joe Lewinski <lewinski@icanon.com>
>
> When the detective dips his wet pinky in the bag of white powder to check
> the purity of the coke, what taste is he looking for, and how does he come
> to know this without breaking a law himself?
Excellent point...although I suppose the technical answer is that he 
as a law-enforcement official has an exemption from the law if he 
opens/tastes the certified registered approved envelope of coke for 
training purposes or in the conduct of his official duties.

Along the same lines, my question is how come law-enforcement 
officials and possibly certain lawyers and judges are the only humans 
deemed by the law permitted to even legally *view* certain images? 
That, to me, is ludicrous.  (And as you've probably noticed, 50 of 
Britain's finest have fallen under suspicion and 8 charged, so even 
their "moral superiority" collapsed under the "strain".)  Ban selling 
and distributing if you like, but making it technically illegal to 
even view a site (due to the downloading aspect of Web browsing) is 
silly.

And besides, like it or not there is a legitimate curiosity factor. 
There are plenty of very nasty things in the world that it IS legal 
to view images of, and I really don't see why images of child 
molestation should be the sole (as far as I know) exception.

On other topics:

Jon:  Congratulations! on getting your DJs to read and pay attention 
to A Different Bomb!  That's great.

It kind of gives me chills to think of what we'd have to point 
strangers to if Pete HADN'T written that...not much.

Scott:

> Daltrey could shoot the Pope & I wouldn't give a
> fuck.  They're still the best goddamned rock & roll band that's
> ever graced this planet.
Glad you see it that way.  While I would be very saddened (and 
curious why) were Roger to do such a thing, no one and no thing -- 
not even the musicians -- can take from me the value I put on the 
music.  Even if they didn't mean what they wrote and sang for the 
last 35+ years -- which I don't for a minute believe -- the music 
invokes in me ideas and emotions that I do believe in and will 
continue to.

Cheers,
--
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true."
   --Howard Stern, 5/25/00