Comments on A Teaching Moment

If anybody knows the difference between gay porn and literally gay porn, it's Chris Matthews.

i think the distinction that was being made was that some artistic nude art might be viewed as porn, but this was probably some dude eating ass.

Stupid gays.

he should have stuck to Titian...

It's the old "gay porn shows up during slideshow" gaffe. I hate it when that happens!

Seriously though, if you're going to use your laptop in public you should always have a special user account that never contains erotica. It's the only way to be safe. I learned my lesson when a former co-worker helped herself to my personal files while I was at lunch one day. I don't think her eyes have ever un-dilated.

or some Cindy Sherman...

NSFW link... http://www.cindysherman.com/images/photographs/Untitled250.jpg

my point being... why is this a big deal? it obviously was a prank/screw up. If it was straight-no big deal-but GAY? OMG save the children!

This stinks.

Um, if I had ANY kind of porn pop up in a presentation I was giving on my work issued computer it would be a fairly big deal, straight or otherwise.

On Mac at least:

* Create an encrypted disk image with a password.

* Save all your pron directly to this disk image.
   (You can even create a separate iPhoto library there, if desired.)

* Mount the disk image only when viewing (or expanding) the library.

* Unmount immediatelywhen finished.
   (Obvious jokes to follow below.)

Be religious about the last point in particular, and you should have no fear of a teaching moment.

I've never figured out why people actually save pron to their computers. It's not like you are gonna wake up and all the porn will be gone from the internet.

That's right, pron.

"I would say he was mad, mad and disgusted," Harmon said about her son's reaction. "Like I say, the rules are very tight about pornography at school and here it's the teacher looking at it. I think he should be fired," said Harmon.

That is from the rest of the article. What fucking retards- first- he's most likely NOT just sitting there looking at porn all day at the school, second- all those kids? Prudes like their parents. The officials seem pretty chill about it stating "It is not illegal for adults to possess adult pornography." Duh.

@10: maybe you have some favorite images you'd like to hang onto. like ones of Veronica Zemanova. for instance.

that's hot. i wish my art teacher did that during class.

Just the Facts @10:

I've never figured out why people actually save pron to their computers. It's not like you are gonna wake up and all the porn will be gone from the internet.

Well, just off the top of my head:

*  Not dependent on wi-fi

*  Pron signal-to-noise ratio (only see the pron you like)

*  Overall signal-to-noise ratio (freedom from poor web design and other online distractions)

*  Group and arrange as you like

*  Crop or touch up to taste

*  Preserve favorites unlikely to remain available indefinitely

*  Enjoy pron without the need for constant hyper-vigilance against malware

The list goes on...

@7: It is a big deal if it's a prank. Showing pornography to minors is against the law. Not so much if it was a mistake, although he'll likely get fired over it.

Actually, I was happy to see this paragraph: "Fairfield police say they're unaware of the incident, but that it likely wouldn't be a criminal violation if there was no intent to show a pornographic image to minors, according to Sgt. Joel Orr. It is not illegal for adults to possess adult pornography." A gay guy accidentally shows porn to kids and the local law enforcement officers aren't freaking out. That's progress, isn't it?

Was the teacher's name Geoffrey Jellineck?

I've never understood the need for someone to save pr0n - or look at pr0n - on a work computer. Keep that stuff at home, huh guys? It's not that difficult.

@18 A lot of teachers in public schools use their own laptops AS their work laptops because the school can't afford to give the teachers their own computers, but require the use of computers in the classroom and in lesson plans.

If the school district doesn't have a filter that blocks porn sites, the district is in violation of CIPA and COPA. If the teacher is using a computer on which the filter has been turned off for student access or teaching, he's certainly in violation of district policy. So the IT group will get blamed. We always do in these cases ("You should have made it so that he COULDN'T bring up porn!").

Geni @20, your comment assumes that the image was downloaded over the school's internet connection.  Though the article doesn't explicitly say so, it appears the image was a local file on the teacher's computer.

So those kids are all gay now, right?

I wonder if the reaction would be the same for pictures of greek statues? What if he showed pictures from ancient Indian temples
as an example of art? Could he be arrested?

Vince @23, perhaps I'm revealing my art history ignorance, but I'm not aware of any I-assume-you-mean-classical Greek statues depicting sex acts in progress.  Are you?

@23: No. The article makes it sound like this was porn, not art.

@24: It's Italian, but the statue of Hercules wrestling Diomedes could be interpreted that way.

This reminds me of a time when my male English teacher read a poem aloud to my class. (Backstory: I went to an all-girls Catholic high school.) The poem was a riddle, and the answer ended up being a key. But the poet intentionally drew on imagery that made everyone in the class think of a penis. Nobody reported the teacher, or even talked about it after we stopped giggling. The only thing that stuck in my mind was how erotic that poem was, not what kind of trouble my teacher should get in. (But that teacher also had an anthology of bad vampire fiction he lent me, some of which was pornographic, so maybe he was a lech. Oh well!) So my only thought about this news item is that those teenagers are a bunch of sexless prudes.