Cultural decline may be seen, but "Adult is NOT Mainstream." Family values are clearly sought and representative of most Americans, as any opposition is exposed.  Robert Peters of MIM agrees, defenders of hardcore pornography say that the widespread availability of this material is proof that communities now accept it. If that we re true, no jury could ever find any sex material to be obscene—because to be obscene sexual material must violate community standards. But as the Supreme Court noted in Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, at 125-126 (1974):"As stated by the Court of Appeals, the mere fact that materials similar to the brochure at issue here 'are for sale and purchased at book stores around the country does not make them witnesses of virtue.' Ibid. Or, as put by the Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Manarite, 448 F.2nd 583 (CA2 1971): 'Mere availability of similar material by itself means nothing more than that other persons are engaged in similar activities.' Id., at 593." Undoubtedly, there is a large market for hardcore pornography with a society saturated with images of obscenity; but just as with other addictions, a large percentage of hardcore pornography is presumably consumed by a relatively small percentage of people (young and old) addicted to it Further, Ed Hynes also with Morality in Media addresses CfD archive's subject line suggesting "Adult is trying to be Mainstream" by noting a sleaze merchant slipping into town on October 7 and set up shop on Springhill Road in Staunton, Virginia, in the beautiful and historic Shenandoah Valley. Within weeks, Staunton residents reacted as citizens in other towns have done repeatedly in this circumstance: they organized (as "Citizen's Task Force Against Pornography") to let it be known they don’t want so-called “adult” video stores, or any other sex-oriented business, in their community. Soon the local prosecutor, Raymond C. Robertson, investigated and filed obscenity charges against the merchant, Rick Krial, and his shop, After Hours Video. That’s when Big Porn huffed into action. Mr. Krial’s defense counsel, Tate Love, a local attorney, filed a motion in Staunton Circuit Court to bring in Paul Cambria, a well-known porn industry lawyer, to help with the defense. Then Jeffrey Douglas, an attorney in Santa Monica, California, and chairman of the “Free Speech Coalition” – which does PR for Big Porn – told the Staunton Newsleader November 15, "[Cambria’s] just an absolutely spectacular trial attorney. . . He's an extraordinarily formidable opponent." .... Clearly, obscene hardcore pornography is not protected by the First Amendment. - In two polls the vast majority of the American people – more than 80% – have expressed their desire for vigorous enforcement of laws that ban the distribution of obscene hardcore pornography. Dollars spent for pornography are slightly a part of consumer spending that the data not only fail to support otherwise - they disprove it. If dollars spent is the test of porn’s acceptability to the public, Big Porn loses. Read full article by Ed Hynes at www.moralityinmedia.org 

TOUGH LOVE With supportive emails of her position -- on a recent television talk show, Janice Crouse argued that some situations, like teen pregnancy that we were discussing on the program, require “tough love.” Another panelist quickly declared, “Tough love is an oxymoron!” Thus, in the eyes of the left, the only solution to a bad circumstance involving an adolescent is to make it as easy as possible for that child and to help him or her to avoid all negative consequences for personal behavior. Further, the left argues that public policy should be formulated to free teens from the consequences of their mistakes and taxpayer funds should be used to achieve that impossible goal. I respectfully disagree. I firmly believe in the axiom that in terms of public policy, we get more of what we subsidize. In terms of personal behavior, we get more of what we glamorize. Especially regarding adolescents, any policy that accommodates bad behavior from one student will produce similar outcomes in another dozen students. So, if you have a cute pregnant girl wearing adorable maternity outfits, you’ll have a dozen of her friends oohing and ahhing around her and coming to the conclusion that a “baby bump” is actually quite cool, feeling the baby move is very exciting and, later on, seeing a precious little baby wearing designer clothes is thrilling. All in all, the whole situation is quite “adult” and many teenagers long to be considered grown-up.  The television program was prompted by a news item that a Denver school is considering giving maternity leave to new teen mothers. Representatives from the left think that instituting such a policy is compassionate and talk about necessity for keeping teen mothers in school and the need for mother-baby bonding after the birth. Some school districts even provide day care for the babies of their students. All high schools (and some middle schools) are facing questions about how best to address the problem of teen pregnancy. It’s a major problem. The census category “mother-only households with kids” has almost doubled twice since 1960. There were 2.6 million such households in 1960, the number jumped to 5.3 million in 1976 and was 9 million in 2006. Sadly, more than a quarter (28 percent) of the mothers and children in those households live in poverty. Careful reading of the news accounts of many of the tragedies involving children reveals that a disproportionate share of these are the products of broken or single-parent homes.  Is Tough Love an Oxymoron?

FAMILY CONCERNS