Results tagged “unclesam”

The weeks starts out right when a sucker punch on the field lands Chicagoist in the middle of a Sox/Cubs throwdown and the fists continue to fly in the comments. Despite suburban resident Ms. Pinney's best little try no books will be banned anytime soon and the El is really really gross.

We try, we try hard, but sometimes, we just can't come up with a headline. And so we'll save the commentary for later and just leave you with the other -ists.

Lord of War is a movie divided against itself. At its most uncompromising, Andrew Niccol’s tale of an amoral arms dealer has an undeniable power. At its most acerbic, the same film provides fleeting moments of bleak and cynical laughter. But the center does not hold, and as this merchant of death traces his rise and fall, he carries the story’s fortunes with him.

Unless you live under a rock and/or have never clicked on a real-live-nude-girl website, thumbed through an issue of Playboy, or sashayed through your local sex shop, you've probably heard of Wednesday's passage of a new porn law by the Department of Justice. The legislation, known as Section 2257, could shut down a majority of the porn that you peruse. By invoking a noble purpose, the government has effectively found a way to circumvent that pesky concept of "free speech" and replace it with old-fashioned good intentions. Yet as a panhandler in front of 30th Street Station whispered to me the other day, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Requests for quarters aside, I'm starting to think he was right. With the ostensible goal of thwarting off teenage would-be starlets, the law requires that every depiction of real-life sexual activity in photographic or video form must be accompanied by a statement that indicates where age records are kept, and where to contact the record keeper. In addition, said record keeper must be available at a physical address 20 hours a week, lest Uncle Sam comes knocking at your door. The penalty for non-compliance? Up to 5 years in prison, and up to a $5000 dollar fine. As a result, thousands of sex workers – and no doubt countless Philadelphia vendors - may lose their livelihood as porn purveyors as they scramble to meet up with the Draconian regulations. And in a medium as tenuous as the Internet, it's hard to believe that the physical statistics of full name, stage name, age, location, and contact info can be filled-in with any promise of regularity. South Street may never look the same again.