If you live in Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas,  Virginia, or Utah, you can’t visit Pornhub — one of the most popular “adult content” sites on the Internet.

In response to state laws requiring “adult content” sites to verify the ages of its users and prevent minors from seeing videos of naked people doing you know what, Pornhub told its servers to simply refuse connections originating in those states.

That’s the fantasy.

Here’s the reality:

Getting around the restriction is so easy that most minors can figure out how to do it in a few minutes.

They don’t need to buy fake IDs, or steal their parents’ drivers’ licenses, or anything like that.

All those minors — and adults just not wanting to divulge their personal information  — have to do is pick a free or cheap Virtual Private Network (VPN) service.

Voila! They’re no longer accessing the site from Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas,  Virginia, or Utah, they’re accessing it from the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Japan.

So, why are these laws getting passed? There’s no way they’re going to “work” in the sense of stopping your 12-year-old from watching porn if he or she wants to watch porn.

These laws are just a form of government “virtue signaling” by politicians.

Those politicians induce moral panic among parents — “what if my 12-year-old sees porn? OMG!” — then cater to that moral panic with legislation that changes nothing but conveys a political message to those parents. The message is “I want to protect your children … vote for ME.”

If you’re a parent, I’m going to assume you’re not a lazy or careless parent.

If that’s the case you SHOULD be insulted by the claim that you’re not competent to effectively supervise your child’s Internet use, and you SHOULD tell those politicians to mind their own business and let you run your household as you see fit.

But for any issue, there’s a voter demographic that’s predisposed to fall for moral panic rhetoric and gratefully vote for any politician who makes them feel “safer” with silly and ineffectual legislation.

If you’re a voter (I won’t judge you if you aren’t), I urge you to resist the temptation to join any of those voter demographics.

With respect to this particular issue, supervising your children’s Internet use is your job, not the government’s. And you’re still going to have to do that job, because these laws can’t.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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Former president Donald Trump disappointed many pro-life voters when, on April 8, he posted a video to  Truth Social discussing his position on abortion. “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” he said. “The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.”

I don’t understand the disappointment, for three reasons.

The first reason is that he made a promise in 2016, then kept that promise. He promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade if he was elected. He was elected, he nominated those justices, and they overturned Roe.

That’s really a miracle in itself, if you think about it. While descending the escalator to announce his presidential campaign, he magically transformed himself from a life-long pro-choice “progressive Democrat” into a newly minted pro-life “conservative Republican” … and then, on that issue, actually acted like one and delivered the goods.  Mission accomplished.

The second reason is the result: Until Roe was overturned, pro-life activists had zero chance of getting their way via state legislatures. Now they do have that chance and in many cases have been able to make their dearest dreams come true on the issue of abortion.

What do you want, egg in your beer? He promised. He delivered. He owes you nothing.

And the third reason is one that’s been obvious for decades and goes back to the fable of the scorpion and the frog:

A scorpion asks a frog to transport him across a river. He promises the frog he won’t sting, as that would result in them both dying. But halfway across, he stings the frog. As they both drown, the frog asks the scorpion why. The answer: “It’s in my nature.”

In another version, a cobra bites the woman who rescued him from injury and nursed him back to health: “You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”

In 2016, pro-life voters — including evangelical Christians — knew that Donald Trump was untrustworthy.

He couldn’t be trusted not to cheat on his wives.

He couldn’t be trusted not to screw over business partners who fell for and financed his scams.

He was — and remains — someone no sensible person would leave alone in a room with their wallet or teenage daughter.

Yet pro-life voters — including evangelical Christians — voted for him.

In large numbers.

Twice.

If you think he’s biting you by going “states’ rights” on the issue of abortion rather than supporting a federal ban, well … you knew he was a snake/scorpion when you chose him.

And you’ll probably do it again anyway.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

Legalizing the cultivation, possession, and sale of marijuana seems like buying a goose that lays golden eggs — just pass the law, sit back, and enjoy increased tax revenues and reduced law enforcement costs. Easy peasy, right?

Unfortunately, politicians never do something the easy way when they can instead turn the whole process into an expensive regulatory maze that rewards well-connected lobbyists and campaign contributors while denying the public maximum benefit.

The latest case in point is New York, where governor Kathy Hochul whines that legalization is a “disaster” because New Yorkers decline to navigate that regulatory maze and are instead just growing, selling, buying, and consuming cannabis without her permission.

“It’s not every street corner,” she complained to the Buffalo News. “It is every other storefront. It’s insane.”

Would she consider it “insane” if “every other storefront” sold milk, or bottled water, or trail mix? I kind of doubt it, but given her obvious predilection toward controlling literally everything, it wouldn’t surprise me either.

New York’s “legalization” law didn’t legalize growing your own cannabis. It didn’t allow existing “medical marijuana” dispensaries to sell to regular customers. And so far, the state has only licensed about 50 stores to sell the stuff — in a state with a population of 20 million people.

Here’s a quick primer on how to successfully legalize marijuana:

Step One: Repeal all laws pertaining to  the cultivation, possession, sale, or purchase of marijuana.

Step Two: Enjoy the increased sales tax revenues and reduced law enforcement costs.

Step Three: There is no step three. You’re done.

Trying to impose burdensome “licensing” schemes and taxes (or, at least, taxes above the usual sales tax rate on everything else) creates a “worst of both worlds” scenario.

When it’s hard to buy — and still illegal to grow — the newly “legal” substance,  and when the “legal” version is heavily taxed, people will still want the stuff as much or more than they did when it was “illegal.”

People who want to grow their own already WERE growing their own and will continue to do so. People who prefer to purchase it will purchase it, and they won’t care whether their dealer, or their nearest convenience store, has a Very Special, Important, and Expensive Permission slip hanging on the wall.

If Hochul is serious about solving the “problems” of marijuana legalization, she’ll stop trying to enforce the state’s idiotic licensing schemes and tell the legislature to ACTUALLY legalize the stuff already.

The marijuana genie was never really in the bottle — in the war on marijuana, marijuana was always the winner — and now it’s coming fully out and granting people their consumption wishes.

The politicians can get out of the way, or they can get run over.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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