A person went to prison for hurting Simon Leis's feelings (a blast from the past)

Something something decency bluh bluh bluh!

The Big Cleaning has yielded this ridiculous story from 2002. The story touches on broader issues that are still relevant today.

Throughout greater Cincinnati and into northern Kentucky, it's long been true that if you go against the established narrative, you will be blacklisted. Over the past couple years, the Democrats have been more guilty of this than the Republicans, but the Republicans were far worse for many years before. Even then, the Democrats weren't completely innocent, nor are the Republicans entirely blameless now.

We don't like some of the things we've been hearing about lately in northern Kentucky. More specifically, a few Republican politicians are using their ill-gotten power to scare everybody. I'm not saying that even all Republicans are guilty here, but we're once again being led down a very dangerous road.

This sort of intimidation loomed large throughout greater Cincinnati in 2002, especially under ultraconservative Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis. Back then, a woman got in trouble for "pandering obscenity" for selling homemade porn tapes. This material was distributed only to adults, and was constitutionally protected. She was using the domain name simonleis.com – a political statement about the Republican sheriff's "decency" crusades.

A judge actually sentenced the woman to a year in prison for making fun of the embattled lawman on a porn site. The judge told the woman, "You decided to use the First Amendment as a sword and not as a shield." So she wasn't supposed to use the First Amendment at all? Is the First Amendment supposed to be just a husk that sits there unused?

That came a few years after all those computer bulletin board systems were illegally shut down – which was never remedied.