Rule 1: When someone talks about ‘the children’ watch out for your wallet.

Rule 2: When someone talks about ‘the children’ watch out for your freedoms.

Here’s an example of Rule 2 from Texas. In September, 1999 Jesus Castillo sold a copy of an ‘adults only’ comic book to an undercover cop who clearly had nothing better to do with his time. The cop was an adult and the comic book was stocked in an adult section of the store. ‘Demon Beast Invasion: The Fallen’ may or may not have had its artistic or other merits (part of its plot included women having sex with, um, trees), but that apparently did not worry the prosecuting attorney. He “didn’t care what kind of testimony [was] out there” because the store was across from an elementary school and “comic books, traditionally…are for kids” and that, apparently, was that.

A dumb jury agreed and now, apparently, so has the Supreme Court.

Ridiculous.