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It Was Fun While It Lasted

Mike and Harriet McManus: Click here for background and biographies.

If David Ogden is confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, do not expect any rigorous enforcement of laws against child pornography, obscenity, partial birth abortion - or in favor of parental notification of minors seeking abortion.

For 25 years Ogden has represented such clients as Playboy, Penthouse and the ACLU, arguing against laws limiting pornography and abortion. For example, he opposed filters on library computers to protect children from Internet smut and successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children.

Yet when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, he asserted, "I believe that child pornography laws are extremely important. Child pornography is abhorrent." He "apparently experienced a 'Confirmation Conversion'" as he "abandoned the library of liberal views he spent his career advancing," quipped Brian Burch, President of Fidelis, a Catholic legal watchdog consortium. Read On

I walk into the kitchen just in time to hear my 11-year-old daughter summarize for her father the destiny of anyone cast as a celebrity apprentice for Donald Trump: "It's the sign that you're just another clump of dried seaweed washed up on the beach of pop culture."

There's no time for a lecture on cynicism before school, and besides, she has a point.

The cast of NBC's upcoming "The Celebrity Apprentice" series has somehow managed to offer gainful - if short-term - employment to country singer Clint Black, former NBA star (and tattoo canvas) Dennis Rodman and the perennially Botoxed Joan Rivers. Read On

The father of one of the six middle-school students facing felony child-porn charges over

partially nude photos of a female classmate in Massachusetts is arguing that the boys have been punished enough by their parents and should not be slapped with the felony charges. Brian Hunt told the Cape Cod Times that the Lawrence School students, ranging in age from 12 to 14, have "learned their lesson," and that media reports of the incident have been overblown. "They're all good kids," he said. "But they are young. A 13-year-old did what a 13-year-old did. They all knew that they weren't supposed to do it." The six boys are accused of exchanging a nude photo of a 13-year-old female classmate using their cell phones. Charges against them could include possessing or exhibiting a photograph of a child in a sexual act, distributing material of a child in a sexual act, and possession of child pornography, the paper reported. The teens were not suspended from school while awaiting a hearing on the matter, according to the Times. FoxNews reporting.

Our new president has another big problem with one of his nominees. This one hasn’

t made headlines yet, but if he is voted through this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, you’ll hear plenty — and it’s a nightmarish possibility. David W. Ogden is President Obama’s nominee for Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). It would be difficult to find a person less desirable to be second in command at the nation’s top law enforcement agency, the person who would enforce the child pornography and obscenity laws. Throughout his 20-year legal career, David Ogden has argued for the rights of the pornographers over the protection of women and children. Fidelis, a Catholic-based group of political, legal, research, and educational organizations that seek to defend life, faith, and family, has led the way in exposing David Ogden’s record of advocating that judges consider the social sciences, “worldwide consensus,” and international law to decide controversial cases, especially in cases involving underage “suffering” litigants who need “compassion” rather than Constitutional judgment. Read On

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