Just in case you thought you were caught up in the patriotic fervor around July 4th and thought you lived in a free country, this will bring you back to reality: Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, have been each sentenced to one year and one day in prison on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute "obscene" material through the mail and over the Internet.
Yes, the government of the land of the free and the home of the brave is so scared that somebody might look at dirty pictures, that they are forcing people into cages at gunpoint over the issue. As U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said, "These prison sentences affirm the need to continue to protect the public from obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy material, the production of which degrades all of us." I was quite worried that next time I went to the Royal Farms store the porn was going to jump off the shelf and attack me and leave me "degraded", but I feel safer now knowing that the federal government is going to protect me from filthy material.
Juxtaposing the fact that you can get locked up for selling naughty pictures with the fact that no one has been brought up on charges for the torture of detainees in Gitmo, is left as an exercise for the depressed reader.