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Morality and Decency Conference Speakers
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Newsletter Updates
February 2, 2008
 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).
Enter author Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist who frequently champions both men and women, but never one-over-the-other because of gender.... Read On |
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But even if parents closely monitor what their children see on the Internet, the lives of younger Americans are changing drastically because of machines. Used to be, you'd see kids playing sports in the streets and on playgrounds. I don't witness too much of that anymore. Instead, many kids are playing sports games online, where they can experience the thrill of victory without getting sweaty or bloody. They are playing a game, not the game. Growing up on Long Island, sports literally saved me. In my neighborhood, there were the jocks and the hoods. I had friends in both camps. The hoods hung around the shopping center smoking cigarettes and, in the late 1960s, taking dope. I found that kind of stuff boring and hit the ball fields. Many of the hoods bottomed out; some even died. Most of the jocks became prosperous. Sporting competition builds discipline and perseverance. Smoking and taking dope builds nothing. I was lucky to have made the right choice. Read On |
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My primary modus operandi was to connect in my mind (fantasize about) what I read in the “men’s magazines” to the Playboy foldouts that I was most attracted to. I find it amazing that I started writing my own pornography when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, which is an indication to me of how strong the grip of pornography can be on a boy’s life, or a teen’s life, or a young adult’s life. I will conclude with this. I did not seek a job at Morality in Media so that I could fight pornography. In April 1985, Morality in Media’s then general counsel, Paul J. McGeady, called me “out of the blue” and offered me a job as a staff attorney. I had met Paul previously but had never said I would like to work for MIM. Read On |
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Remember that Hilaire Belloc cautionary tale - Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes? I used to love it as a child when telling lies was one of the naughtiest things you could do: Matilda ended up getting burned to death. These days, however, everything has changed and it’s the truths that children tell that make one gasp and stretch one’s eyes. A couple of years ago, my daughter Francesca, then aged 13, told me about a party she had been to one Saturday night. Insight: Olivia (left) and daughter Francesca In the course of the evening, she came upon one of her friends, also aged 13, performing oral sex on a boy in the garden. The boy was standing and videoing the event on his mobile phone. My daughter, in whom the feisty gene has always found strong expression, pulled her friend off the boy, knocked the phone out of his hand and slapped him round the face. I apologize for shocking you, but then there are a number of things shocking about this event: the casual nature in which such an intimate act is performed in public, the young age of the participants and last, but by no means least, the fact that it is being filmed. This not only signals the boy’s disassociation from the physical experience, it also indicates his intention to replay the event and, no doubt, to share his triumph with his friends as one might brandish a trophy above one’s head for all to see. Read On |
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OBSESSED The mother of six who gave birth to octuplets in California this week just wanted "one more girl" and
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FAMILY CONCERNS
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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 appreciate your Comments@CentersForDecency.Org. |
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Patrick Trueman, Chief Counsel with ADF emailed CfD the following UK publication
was obsessed with having children, her mother said. Nadya Suleman, 33, conceived all 14 of her babies through in vitro fertilization, her mother told The Associated Press. She isn't married and has been fixated on being a mother since she was a teenager, Angela Suleman said. Last year, Nadya Suleman decided to have more embryos implanted, hoping to have "just one more girl," her mother told The Los Angeles Times. "And look what happened. Octuplets. Dear God," Angela Suleman told the newspaper Friday. She said she wasn't supportive of her daughter's decision to try to get pregnant again. "It can't go on any longer," the grandmother told the AP. "She's got six children and no husband. I 
