MD Senate Quickly Moves To Stop UMD From Showing Movie

So the University of Maryland was set to show a porn film on campus (Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge) utilizing no funding of the university. The movie itself was donated and the ticket fees would go to covering the expense of the building. And at last tally, over half the seats had been pre-sold.

Then, with evidently not enough on their plates these days, The Maryland State Senate, lead this time by outraged conservative Republican Andy Harris, came along...

During a lively Senate debate on pornography and the First Amendment, it became clear that politicians were prepared to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid unless the public university backed down from a plan to show Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge in the College Park student union.
...
That was before Sen. Andrew P. Harris, a conservative Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, proposed writing into the state budget a denial of funding to any institution of higher education that allows a public screening of a film marketed as XXX-rated, unless it is part of an academic course.

[Senate President Mike] Miller, a Democrat and vocal UM backer, indicated that he would vote for the budget amendment, giving credence to the threat of choking off the university's financial lifeblood.

And despite the University of Maryland having a history of showing porn on its campus (in 2005 it showed the 1972 classic Deep Throat), and this film being shown on several other college campuses without incidnet, progress to the Maryland State Senate and the University of MD means yielding to ill-placed conservative fears (well, maybe not ill-placed for conservatives, as we now know they have certain addiction issues when it comes to porn).

Illustrating these fears is this quote from Mr. Harris who sees porn as something akin to meth, evidently:

"Pornography is not fun; it's poison," he said. "They want to get our kids hooked on pornography."

Also, he seems to see college students as children in need of paternalistic protection instead of adults in the environment of higher education capable of making decisions for themselves. Why else would he use language to suggest the drug dealer in the schoolyard cliche?

One would hope that the state legislature's intended interference in college campus activities would send enough of a chill down the spines of educators and students that a clear and distinct pushback on campuses will start immediately. This is a very, VERY dangerous precedent to allow to be set. And silence from the academic community sets precedent.

Adam Kissel, director of the Individual Rights Defense Program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said the legislature was "far out of line" for threatening to withhold funding and called the university's reaction "distressing."

"I think because of the autonomy that a public university ought to have versus the legislature, the [administration] should not have canceled the film," Kissel said, though he added that it was not immediately clear whether the film would have constituted protected speech under the First Amendment.

And a side note to Maryland State Democrats (who have a majority in the legislature) - you know, the ones who told us we had to legalize slots to save Pimlico (and now a developer is looking at razing the racetrack), perhaps you ought to wake up and see the country has moved to a left-of-center paradigm and quit acting like conservatives - until, that is, it comes to passing nuisance laws (unfortunately you're still very good at passing those).

Given the state of the state these days, we'd like to think our elected officials know how to prioritize.

For example, there's the BG&E fleecing citizens created years ago by you allowing deregulation (maybe you could take time away from monitoring college extra-curricular activities and fix that), our crumbling infrastructure, our rising unemployment, growing home foreclosures... and this recent debate you allowed to be orchestrated by Republican Harris angers many of your constituents - not because some college kids wanted to show porn, but because you felt the need to involve yourselves in something so non-central to the lives of most of the folks who voted for you. This is called "over-reaching", and if you want to see how citizens respond to it, look at what's become of the national Republicans.

If you can't act like Democrats, let's hope you start encountering primary challenges by people who can.

Source.

Comments

[stevo]

Andy Harris conservative douchebag. This is the typical "cultural war" smokescreen.
The GOP can't run anything, can't answer a question honestly, pretty much can't do anything, so what to do? Porn! Attack, be scared, be very scared! I think they're running out of mileage with the gay issue. I'm sure they'll attempt to beat that dying horse some more in '10. The "Sharia law" thing they tried recently just isn't going to hold up, plus, at some point people may realize that right wing USA and militant muslims really aren't that far apart.
As far as the Dems, yeah, they should stand up, but much like the BGE privatization boondoggle, they figure, and probably rightly so that the media would beat them up and make it an election issue.

[fordprefectajt]

While we're on the subject of things that are poison and "not fun," can we ban religious movie showings on public campuses? You know, no snuff films like Passion of the Christ?

[Amboy Dukes]

I can't wait for Guadalupe to sound off on this one.

[Guadalupe]

Sorry. The ammendment Andy Harris introduced threatening to withhold funds is another example of why I am for limited government. He was out of line.

[Guadalupe]

Stevo- You should apply for a job writing for Obama's teleprompter. You out did yourself on the post above. Bravo!! I see a pulitzer prize in your future.

[stevo]

Newsflash Guad, you genius you. The teleprompter "mishap" was a humorous response that Obama made as a result of the Irish leader gaffing earlier w/ the teleprompter. Fox news didn't inform you? Gasp. I'm shocked. Go do some research to find out the facts about that Guad. or, better yet, just fume, and type "you're all full of hate, unlike me, who is full of love, and you will burn in hell and be tormented forever and ever ha ha"

[redmder]

unlike guadalupe i think the state is well within its rights and should pull funding from institutions that are encouraging sexual promiscuty amongst teenagers by showing explicit pornographic movies that are demeaning to women.

showing pornos at the school can only lead to the murder of more unborn children by stimulating these kids to have premarital sex.

if people like guadalupe and the rest of you are okay with that, lord help you.

[stevo]

I give Guad some credit for wanting to maintain some seperation of govt. from our lives, even if it goes against the preferences of some of his bedfellows.
Red, you do no one, including yourself, any favors by spouting dogma. The idea of things being a catharsis or bringing about bad ideas is timeless and as far I know, will never be proven. I'm sure you and some of your idiot pals have some uh, ahem, "research" that says otherwise, probably along with taped footage of lil' Timmy the Zygote waving and in a tiny tiny voice pleading, "don't kill me!". I'll stack that right up there with Der Pope's claim that condoms cause AIDS and STDs.
Following your "logic" red, we should ban "the Passion of the Christ" as well, since that will make people want to crucify and torture people.

[Guadalupe]

Redmer, just out of curiosity, how would you feel if a politician threatened to withold funding to a state college because the college would NOT allow it's student body to show this pornographic film?

[stevo]

for the record, I'm not crazy about the porn event, but you know what I'd do? I wouldn't attend. ya know? I mean, I'm not crazy about the Ice-capades and all of that but you don't see me designing a Zamboni machine with secret flame throwers...hmm, come to think of it, where'd I put that welding mask?

[Guadalupe]

Stevo- We've gone back and forth on a lot of things, but don't go there with the Ice Capades!!

[stevo]

fair enough, protestants and catholics in northern ireland can agree to peace, muslims and jews in palestine can extend the olive branch, I hereby agree to take IceCapades off the table