The Great Ohio Porn Wars, 30 Years In

In 2006, America took a fresh stand against porn, while we were not busy consuming it. We did it for the children! Now there's lots of good stuff in the "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006." For instance, it is illegal to sell date rape drugs over the Internet and, fine, people who have abusive sexual contact with children now get 30 years to life in prison. (That'll fix 'em!) But after the (quite reasonable!) section about "prevention of distribution of child pornography" comes one called "prohibiting the production of obscenity." And it is illegal for anyone to not only transport but "produce" "any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, film, paper, letter, writing, print, silhouette, drawing, figure, image, cast, phonograph recording, electrical transcription or other article"—and, in at least Ohio's version of the law, you must also register as a sex offender if you pander obscenity. This does not sit well with the mother of two who runs the Cincinnati Hustler store!