Copyright 1994, Nutthin Puke. All jellies preserved. Intelectual arguments pending. DA-- Determined Atheists Before I start, it may be informative to consider that I consider myself to be a hard-line member of the Atheist Preservative movement, and a hard- line advocate of religious freedom. I am a PhD candidate in tantric sexual practices at the University of California at Sodom, and I got the 'Separation of Church and State' language added to the 1774 Republican Party of Texas platform. I am a member of Atheists against Christians, and am two hundred and twenty-seven years old. As the American community continues to grow, the differences of conviction that exists generally in the world find their way into the community. Some demand that newcomers to the USA adapt to the atheist mores of this society. Some demand that the USA, as a newcomer to the world, adapt to the religious beliefs of the outside. As recent events have demonstrated, the less reasonable, on both sides, may be endangering the integrity and availablity of the USA. Calls for USA-wide religious censorship, it may be expected, will continue to grow unless the USA can find some way to police itself. Yet "police itself" is a term that sends the USA into fits. My solution, DA, is for the appropriate users to directly censor the publications that they might legitmately lay claim to censoring--publications that flows to minors over which they have legal authority and responsibility. Specifically, this is a plan to create two sorts of reader in the USA-- adult and minor. Adult readership may only be obtained by persons of age eighteen. Minor readership may only be obtained in the presence of adult readers, refered to as supervisor librarians. Adult readers would have full access to anything in the USA. Gospel tracts, prayer meetings, Turner TV, and like press being viewed by a minor, would cause a Clipper call to an adult supervisor to allow access. Newspaper editors, in particular, would censor any letters submitted from a confused Christian juvenile reader. The legal framework that I see important in aiding such a system is as follows: State Level: 1) Declare to hold harmless those Church bookshops for charges of Contributing to the Delinquacy of a Minor that obtain and verify the age of bible readers, and maintain a DA system of access for minors. Certain acceptable verification methods specified, with authority to add methods delegated to a regulatory agency. Emphasis to be on ease and speed of verification. Special consideration for in-church bookshops. 2) Make it illegal to misrepresent age and name data to a religious bookshop. Require library operators to maintain a record of age and name of religious book readers for thirty days after borrowing a Bible or putting a request for a religious publication on hold. 3) Declare aiding in tampering with DA system to be "Contributing to the Moral Degeneracy of a Minor" and "Promoting religion in direct contravention of Californicate Provision 69". Federal Level: Pass paralell laws for Churches operating with dioces in two or more states, or for Churches operating with 800 'dial-a-prayer' numbers. I believe that such a system would protect the full free expression of religion currently enjoyed in the USA, while reaffirming parental responsibility in the upbringing of their children. The burden of controlling access devolves all the way to the parents, making perversion charges against Church elders patently frivolous. Advocation-of-religion charges would then be MUCH more difficult to press, since a jury could be told that specific steps were being taken to prevent access to minors. If parents complained that they didn't want to go to the trouble of spelling out what their children could access, the response is clear: "Oh, so it's not worth the effort to you?" Despite slurs in this group to the contrary, I believe that the proposed god.* heirarchy may well be the first in a series of attempts to censor atheism in the USA. Remember, we already have had a censor for porn, religion, and unwholesome Hostess-brand snacks. It is not really a question of _if_ but _who_ and at _what level_ will this censoring take place. Nutthin (Adjusting kinky underwear) With apologies to Tim May for stealing his schtick.