To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (80116 ) 4/25/2000 5:10:00 PM From: Tommaso Read Replies (1) | Respond to
My unregistered firearms would not be much of a defense against a soldier armed with a light machine gun and several hand grenades, none of which I am allowed to buy. Happily, US soldiers know that their duty is to uphold the constitution and some of them even know what's in it. I find my freedom more effectively threatened when I can't reply to some arrogant and insulting lout because of the real possibility that he has a gun in his pocket or glove compartment. I had a great uncle who got killed that way. Ulysses was suppressed for a while. As far as I know, the damage done by that was very small. It now turns out that most of the passionate defenders of the book never managed to read it. I have read it, thoroughly, carefully, and with great difficulty, and find that it is a great book, which I would go to great lengths to defend as not being pornographic. I would not defend it by saying that pornography should not be suppressed. The ACLU thinks every peep show with group oral sex is morally on the same level with Ulysses . I am also old enough to have had a copy of Miller's Tropic of Capricorn (not a great book) seized by US Customs. I did not suffer greatly when this happened or feel my other liberties threatened. In fact, it was fun. And I got the book back after a while. I don't exactly favor the suppression of pornography but I don't much object to its being suppressed. Sort of the same way I feel about kudzu or telephone salespeople.
