Now see what you've done

[stencil at bcn.net]

Several recent threads and the overarching interest of all, are
subsumed under this:

>U.S. SAYS INDECENT MATERIAL WILL RUIN EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF NET
>A U.S. Justice Department legal brief filed with the Supreme Court last week cites the educational value of the >Internet in its argument for banning "indecent" material:  "Much of the Internet's potential as an educational and >informational resource will be wasted," says the statement, "if people are unwilling to avail themselves of its >benefits because they do not want their children harmed by exposure to patently offensive sexually explicit >material."  Therefore, it concluded the government has a "compelling interest in furthering the First Amendment >interest of all Americans to use what has become an unparalleled educational resource...  It is better to place some >burdens and costs on those who disseminate patently offensive material through use of a new and rapidly changing >technology than it is to leave children unprotected."  A lawyer for the ACLU, which has challenged the law, called >the government's argument "outrageous" and "oxymoronic." (Chronicle of Higher
Education 31 Jan 97) 

This was exerpted from the current Edupage, qv.  

A-and how exquisite the segue from "patently offensive sexually
explicit" to "patently offensive material."