. .
   
 
Morality and Decency Conference Speakers
  

   Newsletter Updates

      July 30, 2008

  Invest in America

 Invest in CfD   

       Why Men Matter

 

Years ago, my then-girlfriend urged me to read John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. So I did. It was an interesting read. But it was really nothing I and any other red-blooded American male didn’t already know about the differences between men and women, and how the two – very differently-wired human sexual creatures – might better interact with one another. But it was in a neat little one-volume package that we males could refer to whenever we screwed up, which – according to our female counterparts – was and is often. There have been a number of related-books written since – most of which are categorized in the self-help section of the local bookstore – but very few addressing the recent social and cultural degradation of all that used to be good and noble about being a man. Fact is, for the past three-plus decades there has been a deliberate effort in some circles to make sure the proverbial wind has been taken out of the sails of manliness – I suppose in an attempt to create a more balanced playing field for women – but it has been done at the expense of manhood: Hence, strong, level-headed fatherly figures like Andy Griffith and Ward Cleaver, and far too many of our hard-riding cowboy heroes have been replaced with the likes of Homer Simpson, Al Bundy, and that bunch of milquetoast unmanly men on Friends (There are exceptions like 24’s Jack Bauer, but not without his multitudinous masculine flaws).

Read On

 
Cary Grant
   
   

If Sen. Obama becomes President Obama, my taxes will go up, way up. But I know neither Argentina nor anyone else will cry for me, because I am the rich guy Al Gore warned you about, the one who got all those tax cuts from the evil Bush administration. Yes, I am part of the 1 percent of Americans that paid an astounding 40 percent of all federal income tax in 2006. According to recently released IRS figures, about 50 percent of my fellow Americans paid no federal income tax at all that year. My fellow 1-percenters and I covered for them. But for some it is still not enough. Obama believes in "income redistribution," a concept practiced by Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest. Like Robin, Obama wants to take from the rich and give to the not so rich. He wants to raise taxes big time on those making $250,000 or more. A Cash Transaction

 

The mother of a missing 2-year-old Orlando girl told family that she didn't know the whereabouts of her child in a contentious telephone call from jail released Friday. Casey Anthony, 22, is being held on $500,000 bond after investigators said she lied to them and did not report daughter Caylee Marie Anthony missing for more than a month. In the July 16 call released by the Orange County Corrections Department, Caylee's grandmother, Cindy Anthony, complained to her daughter that she wasn't telling her where the toddler was. Casey Anthony responded angrily that she didn't know where the girl was. "Are you kidding me?" Casey Anthony said. Cindy Anthony responded, "Don't waste your call to scream and holler at me." She added that her daughter's incarceration is her own fault. "You're blaming me that you're sitting in the jail? Blame yourself for telling lies," Cindy Anthony said. Prosecutors said in court earlier this week that Casey Anthony is a person of interest in what is beginning to look like a homicide investigation, though she has not been charged. Sheriff's deputies testified that her car smelled of decomposition and a cadaver-trained dog noted a smell of human remains there. Missing Girl's Family Argues in Jailhouse Call

 

A new tool available to parents and business owners should help cut down on children and employees accessing pornography on their computers. For years, the two most effective means of blocking porn from computers has been filtering software and firewalls. "Those are great. They create a great wall that protects people from accidental exposure or people who are not looking for pornography," says Matthew Yarrow of SurfRecon.com. "But if you have an individual who's actually seeking pornography, a firewall or a filter can actually amount to as little as a speed bump in their ability to get out to the Internet and access stuff." Yarrow says SurfRecon.com is now adding another level of protection. They have created a database of the digital fingerprints of millions of pornographic images that their software can "sniff out" on a computer or network on demand. "The software will start 'crawling' the computer system. Every time it comes across an image file it'll contact our database and say, 'What is this?' And if we have that already categorized, it'll pop up in a category for you saying, 'Hey! We just scanned this computer.  There were 10,000 image files and 750 of them were pornography,'" he explains. New computer program 'sniffs out' porn
 
 
  Family Concerns
 

Opinions expressed in 'Perspectives' columns published by CentersForDecency.org are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the CfD.  If you wish to contact CfD - call 713-266-2715 or write: 1415 South Voss Road, #110-393, Houston, Texas 77057.  We also enjoy your Comments@CentersForDecency.