random crap

I always:
1. Underestimate how long it takes to print out 403 pages.
2. Want chocolate.
3. Waste time on trying to find the quote. No, can't do an approximation. I want the real thing.




* * * * *


I was over at the General's trying to recall the two 19th century Save Our Souls gents who remind me of Wildmon. Big Daddies who make sure our beautiful minds aren't besmirched.

Ahhhh. Of course! Comstock and Parkhurst. I spent an hour messing around with book and web searches on those dudes. Apparently public ridicule helped to bring those guys down.

See why history's worth studying?

Parkhurst seemed more sincere and less self-aggrandizing (an earnest twit. really, the wiki thing on them both is more polite than the other sources I've found). Comstock? Hoooeeee. That power-hungry dude loved his fun, legislating morality.

Here. I'll copy my own dull notes from the general's comment section:

Wildmon discusses going into gay bathhouses to do his own investigations and exposes** and preaching. He's taken a page from the Rev. Parkhurst! In 1892, Dr. Parkhurst hired a detective to go check out dens of ill repute. Details of their undercover operation were made public.

Here're the lines of immortal poetry composed soon after his noble adventures were printed in the newspaper:

Doctor Parkhurst on the floor
Playing leapfrog with a whore
Tarara Boomde-ay!
Tarara Boomde-ay!





. . . Oops, printer ran out of paper. . . only 200 pages to go. . .

I'm back again and ready for Comstock. He could have taught Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh a thing or two. (The below is copied from myself which was copied from Luc Sante and Wikipedia):


Mr. C's career began when he was 18 and he opened all the spigots on the kegs in a CT liquor store. [no word about whether or not any vessels were placed under the spigots]

Anthony "I Know What's Good for You" Comstock


In 1873 Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice [the very name sends shivers through any right-thinking decent being] a Republican institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public.

Comstock successfully influenced the United States Congress to pass the Comstock Law, which made illegal the delivery or transportation of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material.

During his time of greatest power, even some anatomy textbooks were prohibited from being sent to medical students by the United States Postal Service.

The guy had some run! He successfully banned Margaret Sanger's work from NYC. More than 3,000 people were arrested for obscenity during his reign--and more than 160 tons of "literature" destroyed. He had that lowlife, Walt Whitman, fired from his job at the Dept of the Interior.

He initiated prosecution to get store window dressers arrested for clothing nude mannequins in full view of the public.

Here's the wiki part that made me sit up and take notice: Before his death, Comstock attracted the interest of a young law student, J. Edgar Hoover, interested in his causes and methods. Scary, innit?

Hmm. No fun poems about him. But the term comstockery (which has only gone out of style in the last couple of generations) has some pretty negative connotations. It's worth noting that George Bernard Shaw--one of the many artists and writers Comstock went after-- coined the term.

See?

Mockery works.

__
**that's supposed to be expose with a little accent thingy. Gawd, maybe he'll expose too? Ya think? Bleargh

I'm playing with font a la Megan. So? Does it make you read it?

Comments

  1. Ooh, I love the font-playing! Of course, I would. Yes, it makes me want to read it more. And thanks for the homage.

    ReplyDelete

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