OK, so I’m striking while the iron is dead cold. But it’s nice to know other people agree with my arguments, namely Marshall Herskovitz (emphasis below all mine):

I was in Washington last week, making a last ditch attempt to convince the unlistening that film “sanitizing” is bad. Film “sanitizing”, where companies from red states edit films made in a blue state to make them less blue — without the permission of the filmmaker or the studio — was about to be made legal by Congress, even though it clearly flies in the face of hundreds of years of copyright law. I kept saying, “What if I put out my own edition of The DaVinci Code where I took out all references to the Catholic Church? How many hours would pass before Doubleday had a restraining order against me? If it holds for books it should hold for DVD’s.“

But like I said, no one was listening. Because last week Washington was embroiled in a different controversy that is essentially the same controversy, only with higher stakes: the threat to change Senate rules regarding filibusters. In both cases you have red state people changing long-standing rules because they want to and because they can…

Yup, absolutely. Republicans didn’t seem to mind the filibuster so much when they were the minority party. History will bite them on the ass if they use the “nuclear option” on the filibuster. The pendulum will swing back to the left and we’ll be unimpeded by Republican filibustering in the future. Well, that is unless the theocons have managed to succeed in their ultimate goal; destroying the pendulum itself.

But back to ClearPlay. My final thought: it used to be that if there was a movie my parents wanted to see that contained objectionable content, they’d find a way to watch it while I was asleep (or pretending to be asleep). If there was content that offended them, they just didn’t watch it. They never thought they had some sort of “right” to watch a movie tailor-made for their particular tastes.

That’s what bugs me about ClearPlay; it seems like there are some adults who want to have prudish morality, yet want to play in the secular pool with all the cool kids. It’s as if they see that everyone else is watching and talking about “Schindler’s List”, so they don’t want to feel left out, yet they want to maintain their position on a moral high horse by filtering out the nudity (“We don’t engage in such filth!”). Along comes ClearPlay, and now the bluenoses can join the water cooler conversations without succumbing to the degenerate rot.

Well, folks, what is so righteous about a moral choice that requires no sacrifice? If you don’t like nudity or cussing, you shouldn’t be watching movies with nudity or cussing. By renting the DVD and filtering out the naughty bits, you betray your supposed morality by sending more money to the people who make the degenerate filth you oppose. You inflate the rental numbers of the movie you find offensive. You actually contribute to the creation of more degenerate filth.

But again, I’ve decided not to care anymore. Filter your movies. Hollywood will take your money and keep making more “Kill Bills” and “Sin Citys” for me to enjoy. And I eagerly await the FilthyPlay device that will fast-forward and slo-mo directly to Halle Berry’s boobies in “Monster’s Ball” and “Swordfish”.