Judith Reisman, pornography and the gay moth myth

Pornography really seems to attract the quacks. I’ve heard people blaming it for all sorts of social ills, but Judith Reisman and Donald L Hilton Jr between them have taken the usual pearl-clutching terror in a direction I’d never have imagined anyone would consider – they say pornography causes homosexuality.

Honestly, it’s hard to know how to respond to anything so totally bizarre, and I find myself caught between serious and flippant responses. The snarky part of my brain wants to say that this explains why there’s so much demand for lesbian porn (or, you know, so I’ve heard *ahem*), but anyone who views the argument as having any basis in fact might be so cognitively challenged that they’d take my sarcastic putdown as a statement of genuine agreement.

I want to deliver a firm factual rebuttal, but I fear that any hint of taking the claim seriously would be giving it too much credit. Nevertheless, I’ve been giggling about this since I heard it, so I’m going to try to have a bit of an each way bet and cover both angles as best I can.

Death to rebellious children: What the Fuqua?

Every so often, you come across a story that just blows your mind. There are plenty of people who have extreme right-wing views or a peculiarly warped fondness for Old Testament notions of justice, but to find someone who combines the two in spades while running for political office is new to me.

Charlie Fuqua is a Republican candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives, and he believes in the death penalty for “rebellious children”, because the Bible says it’s OK. Still, don’t worry – he’s not a nutter or anything. He explains:

This passage does not give parents blanket authority to kill their children. They must follow the proper procedure in order to have the death penalty executed against their children. I cannot think of one instance in the Scripture where parents had their child put to death.