Have you seen today's Boston Globe?...

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 15 Nov 2008 Richard Chonak wrote:

> A good point.  If I may say so, your views and Dan's on the matter are
> libertarian, rather than conservative _per se_.

Again, labels.
 
> Conservatism as such aims to _conserve_ Western culture and the good
> things about it, and seeks to be guided by history and experience,
> rather than by a rigorous application of ideological principles (with
> the chips falling where they may).

If that were so, conservatives would be more interested in regulating 
business behavior.
 
> So conservatives, due to experience, are skeptical about what
> government can do to remake man (as in the Communist ideal) or heal
> the planet (whatever), but they are willing to use modest,
> non-draconian sanctions to accomplish modest goods, such as to keep
> what is obscene ob-scene: that is, "off-stage" (as the Greek
> dramatists put it).

And to have the federal government intrude into personal and medical 
decisions on when to pull the plug on a person on life support.
 
> It's amazing that public opposition to obscenity in public speech,
> broadcasting, film, novels, and periodicals has evaporated in 50 years
> -- but maybe I shouldn't assume that public opposition is altogether
> gone.  After all, who studies public opinion on such questions as
> censorship these days?

I don't know that it has.  What's changed is what is considered 
obscene.  

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                   617.367.0468
92 State Street, Suite 700            Fax: 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           http://www.attorneyross.com