One Hand Jerking by Paul Krassner Page A

Moreover, defendants in criminal pornography cases would be required to provide evidence that they did not use real children to produce the images.
    I guess the time has come for somebody to write a satire about the new judicial process, where an accused person is considered guilty until proven innocent. Oops, too late, that’s already come true.

THE MARRIAGE OF HIP-HOP AND PORNOGRAPHY
    Entertainment reporter Geoff Boucher wrote in the Los Angeles Times : “You might be able to imagine Garth Brooks without his cowboy hat or Britney Spears without the bare midriff . . . but Snoop Dogg without a joint in his hand? It may be a pipe dream, but the chronic king of hip-hop has announced that he is abstaining from marijuana as well as alcohol.
    â€œThis is shocking news considering that Snoop was named the 2002 Stoner of the Year by High Times magazine and has made a habit of openly toking before, during and after his concerts and interviews. He has been, arguably, the most public pothead performer since Bob Marley.”
    The rapper explained in an interview on BET: “I’m 30 years old now. Three kids. A wife. A mom. Brothers. Artists. Family. Friends. They all need me. They depend on me. I’ve been leading [homeboys] off the cliff for five, six years. So now I’m going slow.”
    However, High Times editor Steve Bloom considers the possibility that Snoop’s surprise declaration is not necessarily a true change of heart, since he had been fined and placed on probation for a pot offense in Ohio the previous year.
    â€œHe was the biggest, baddest pot smoker out there,” says Bloom, “and maybe he’s just stepping back because it got too hot. Maybe he really has decided he wants to take a break or not smoke anymore. But all this could be a smoke-screen.”
    Sort of like when Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, both of whom, after they were busted for dope, advised young people to stop taking LSD ( wink, wink ).
    Indeed, Rollingstone.com has reported: “In a closed-door session at the Department of Justice, Snoop Dogg engaged the attorney general in a spirited debate about medical marijuana. ‘The Doggfather and I have our differences,’ an unusually expansive John Ashcroft told reporters afterward, ‘but we are both committed to relieving chronic pain.’ ‘Or at a mutherfuckin’ minimum,’ rejoined Dogg, ‘relievin’ with the Chronic.’”
    In any case, on the Internet, Snoop’s fans reacted to his announcement with both dismay and skepticism. The news also inspired commentary in Aaron McGruder’s controversial comic strip, The Boondocks . Huey Freeman, the radical African-American kid, says, referring to Snoop’s announcement, “It’s the
potential impact on the global economy that I’m worried about,” and his little neighbor Jazmine responds, “Think he’ll do a benefit song for his dealer?”
    Dogg seems to have a double standard, though, when it comes to victimless “crimes.” Whereas his flamboyant image once graced a cover of High Times , he now appears instead, seated on a throne, in full pimp regalia, on the cover of the September 2002 issue of Adult Video News a slick trade journal for the $20-billion pornography industry. Their accompanying article states:
    â€œWhile Snoop Dogg wasn’t the first rapper to make porn—DJ Yella of N.W.A. has been producing it since the mid-1990s— Doggystyle , more than any other porn/hip-hop synthesis, awakened the adult industry to the immense commercial possibilities of the genre. The tape, Snoop’s first collaboration with Hustler Video, in which he introduces the sex scenes but doesn’t have sex on camera, has sold more than 150,000 units world-wide, garnering AVN’s Top Selling Tape of 2001 Award. . . . Largely due to the success of Doggystyle , more and more rappers are appearing in porn videos with no fear of alienating