Wow. Wasn't it just a year ago we were wringing our collective hands over school shootings in Littleton CO? Now we're saying that the American culture isn't degraded? Some folks want to put filters on the Internet access a public libraries (not remove violent and obscene sites from the Internet altogether, mind you, just make it more difficult for kids to get to them when possibly outside direct parental supervision) and the cry goes up "Censorship, Censorship!" as if that were the ultimate evil. Pornography, besides being extremely degrading to women, is IMHO, a very potent destroyer of marriage (or equivalent relationships) so yes, I think it ought to be fought with any energy we can use, and on all fronts. I'm not saying the government ought to do it - society as a whole ought to. I do not confuse government with society. That is an attitude I find more in keeping with the liberal philosophy than the conservative. So don't go maligning conservatives by including among them Prof. Lowenthal, if his statement quoted above is any indication of his views in general. No, the state should not be our nanny but inasmuch as it is monopolizing the educational system (though forced taxation) as well as the libraries of the land, it ought to at least be sensitive to community standards. Or does the voice of the people no longer count in America?

Jon W.