It's Mary Beth to the rescue

I guess we all owe a big “thank you” to U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who has wasted federal resources to protect us from something that was no threat to us whatsoever. Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Pittsburgh after a long legal battle stemming from their California company's distribution of videos depicting deviant sexual conduct, including scenes of simulated rape. Buchanan based her prosecution on the contention that the couple's videos violated community standards on obscenity. But these videos were not broadly disseminated in any community. They were sold to people who wanted to view them. Opponents of such video depictions might argue that they encourage sick people to commit similar sex crimes. But it also could be argued that if people used those videos to get their jollies, they might be less likely to act on their sexual fantasies. The case was tossed out by a federal judge in 2005, but Buchanan got that ruling overturned on appeal. She says Wednesday's guilty pleas vindicated her office. Actually, no. It probably just means that Zicari and Romano ran out of money to keep fighting Big Brother.