--Except in the US, they are Christian puritanical fascists. Either way, they deserve to be shot.

If anyone doubts that the US has been taken over by fundamentalist assholes, just take a look at this.

This woman, Julie Amero, 40, has been convicted of having porn on her classroom computer in a middle school, which some students saw. There is a geek angle of outrage to this whole story as well, which you should read here. Basically, the images may have been adware that had nothing to do with her. But that's not even the kicker for me. This is:

She is looking at a possible 40-year jail term.

40 years. For porn. 40 years because some sexually mature (or close to it) kids saw some porn. 40 years because some kids who had probably already seen porn, saw some more. 40 years because the country is in the hands of sick puritanical assholes who think that a human being's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can and should be revoked if they accidentally allow adolescents to see naughty pictures.

Where do these laws come from???

I saw my first porn in grade school. There was a pinup in the janitor's "office," which was actually a disgusting little hovel under our dilapidated school building. Students weren't supposed to be in there, but kids will take all sorts of risks and employ all sorts of cunning to see something they're not supposed to see.

Later, there was word of a porn dumpster. Someone had thrown out an entire collection of Playboy, and a kid had found it. An expedition was planned for the bike ride home from school. It required navigating far off our normal homebound course (2 whole blocks!), and even then, no one knew if it would still be there, or even if it was really true and not just some playground legend. When we finally arrived, there was nothing there. But not because the trashmen had taken it. Unbeknownst to us, another friend had spirited it away, and stashed it in the labyrinthine bushes at Columbine Park. For the next few weeks (until rain and raiders had had their way), the park was a regular stop on the way home from school, as we sat in the bushes, hidden from the world outside, intrigued and amazed by what we saw.

And you know what? It didn't hurt me one bit. In fact, I'll go a step further. That is normal. Ask any adult about their "first porn" story, and they will have one. If it's a guy, it's probably very similar to mine.

I'm not saying that porn is appropriate for kids. Hell, I'm not even sure it's appropriate for adults (not for puritanical reasons, but because it funnels money to people who take advantage of troubled people who aren't doing porn because they like it--there are exceptions, I know, but let's stop pretending this is a normal vocational option for people). But 40 years??? A life lost because some kids saw genitalia. Unconscionable.

Even IF Ms. Amero is guilty of deliberately showing porn to the kids in her charge, the worst she deserves is termination (easy to do, since she was a substitute teacher). The idea that this is even illegal stuns me. The fact that taxpayer money is spent on punishing people with bad taste stuns me. The fact that in the United States of America a citizen was arrested, tried, convicted, and is looking at losing the rest of her life in lockup because some 13-year-olds saw boobies... This is not America. This is one step down from Talibani Afghanistan. Why don't we just stone her to death and make it complete?

Adolescents are not fragile little doe-eyed angels who must be protected from the world; they are often more worldly and common-sensical than their parents.

Sex is not dirty. Sex is not a secret. Sex is normal. Hell, sex is banal. It is not aberrant. It is nothing special. Fucking is natural. As long as everything is consensual, any sex is none of anyone else's business or concern.

And yes, I am extending that to adolescents as well.

And why? Because although seeing porn at a young age didn't fuck me up, something else did. And you know what that was? Being told that sex was bad. Being told that I was a sinner if I didn't wait until marriage. Being made to feel so guilty for my natural urges that I avoided girls altogether. Being made to feel so guilty when I actually did start having sex (at age 20) that I broke up with a girl I should have married and whom I have never stopped thinking about. Not having sex when I wanted to did far more damage to me psychologically and developmentally than virtually any amount of porn could have done. And, in fact, the preponderance of porn is the direct result of this crippling, evil puritanism. When you force nature down, it has a tendency to come bubbling up elsewhere--and that place is usually not as pretty. If people are told they cannot act out their biological drives as nature intended, then they will begin to do so in ways it didn't.

This all-pervading fundamentalist fantasy of sex being anything more than people reaping the benefits of the reproductive system is destroying our lives, killing our liberty, and wasting our money.

40 years. 40 fucking years.

If you disagree with me, then you deserve the hell you've created here on Earth. But I don't. Julie Amero doesn't. Keep your hell to yourselves, and get the fuck out of my government.