Happy Anniversary To The Miller Test, Which May Not Be Long For This World
It is also the anniversary of the Broadway premiere of 'Evita,' which feels awkward given recent events.
Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller vs. California, which did not, as I assumed at one time, have anything to do with Henry Miller (that was another obscenity case), but rather with Marvin Miller, a guy who was going around mailing porn to people who did not consent to that.
The majority opinion in the case, written by Justice Warren E. Burger, who was joined by Justices Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, resulted in a three pronged test for determining whether or not material was obscene and therefore not protected under the First Amendment:
Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
Whether the work depicts or describes, in an offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions, as specifically defined by applicable state law; and
Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
This is a pretty darn conservative definition of obscenity. Personally, I am on Team Brennan — Justice William J. Brennan, who wrote one of the dissents and held that all speech should be protected by the First Amendment and bans should only extend to protecting juveniles and non-consenting adults from seeing obscene materials and (in another ruling) banning child pornography.
However, it’s far too liberal for Mike Lee, who, may we just remind you, tried to make pornography a federal crime earlier this year.
Lee wanted to change the second prong to “depicts, describes or represents actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person” which would include all pornography, as well as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
This was, as we should all know, part of the Project 2025 plan — so definitely something to keep our eyes on.
And now, for your first present … John Waters’ one-man show, This Filthy World. Seems appropriate!
It’s also the anniversary of the opening night of Evita. Under normal circumstances we could all enjoy some videos of Patti Lupone yelling at audience members for various offenses and still talking shit about Madonna’s performance in Evita over 20 years after the movie premiered (I love Madonna but she’s not wrong), but that all now hits a little different given what she said about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis in the New Yorker. She’s since apologized (there’s a first time for everything) and seems to understand where she went wrong, so hopefully there will be no more of that.
So instead, let’s enjoy this video of Audra McDonald singing “Rainbow High” from Evita.
Also, please to enjoy my favorite (sorry, Patti) version of “Another Suitcase In Another Hall” from Evita, by Barbara Dickson (the original Mrs. Johnstone in Blood Brothers), who did not actually ever play Evita but recorded the song for the original concept album.
In case you were wondering, Lupone has not apologized to Madonna, because that would just be going too far.
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Talk amongst yourselves!
Mike Lee, an execrable human being like the rest of the pantysniffing godbotherers out there, just need an excuse to criminalize the speech of sexual minorities. Because we all know that is one of the goals of these fascists...to deem advocacy for queer people as pornography.
Of course we know it is people like Lee who consume the most pornography. And it is people like Lee who harm the most people.
Government small enough to fit in your underwear, that is life controlled by the unreconstructed!
Moving this here, because, once I got done writing and posting it, the new article appeared!
Good Caturday morning to everyone! Today I have the story of Alabaster’s first climb up the catwall. Alabaster came to us in March. He was a rescue who had, at some point been socialized, but had been living in the wild for an extended time. When he arrived at the shelter where Bot Junior volunteers, he was badly mauled, requiring stitches in three different places. He was underweight and infested with fleas. They stitched him up and fixed him, chipped him, and waited for him to recover before offering him for adoption. But a wound on the top of his head didn’t heal, so the vet opened it up and discovered a claw embedded under the skin. After that, he began his journey back to good health. We started with him staying in Bot Jr’s room, so the others could smell him, and get used to the idea of a new family member.
It has been very problematic getting our existing three beasts to accept him. In the beginning Bagheera was fine with him, but the girls were hissy and growling. Over time, the girls slowly accepted him. Bagheera also accepted him, but a serious problem developed. Since they’re cats, zoomies chasing each other are a regular occurrence. Bagheera’s a 17 1/2 pound battle chonk, and Alabaster’s life before chez Bot means he’s afraid of being beat up.
So Alabaster mostly stays in Bot Jr’s room. He only comes downstairs when Bot Jr is there, and mostly hangs out on the couch.
In three months, he’s never climbed the catwall, although he has watched the others do so since his arrival.
Finally, this week, after scratching on the cat post, which is also the launch pad to the cat wall, he climbed up to the top of the post, then ventured onto the catwall for the first time. He made it to the spot where he could look at Belle on top of the antique bookcase, then moved back to the hammock. We were so proud of him!
https://substack.com/profile/155617549-bradthe/note/c-127974498