Apparently, our last newsletter and its condemnation of the negative use of sex in politics worked. Many of the campaigns that used negative sex based advertising lost, and some of the most sex negative legislators in the Congress were defeated.

Not much is happening here at Erotic University. In the past, we have had very few people show up to classes in December, so we don't hold classes this month. The regular events that we use to enlist people to appear in our upcoming sex educational videos have been shut down by the city of Los Angeles. You can read all about it in this entry on our blog. I am pretty sure it is a coincidence, but this happened the weekend before the election.

I just got word that it looks like the issue may be settled as early as next week, and while I do not want to get my hopes up too high, things do seem encouraging at this point.

It was a much wilder situation in my appearance on Playboy Radio than in the usual mundane radio chats. I got to hang out with hosts Ginger Lynn and Christy Canyon, and they worked hard to keep me on my toes. You can read about that on this blog entry.

-Jeff Booth
 

Bush Quacks Up the DHHS

One of Bush's first actions after the election was to make one of the most irresponsible and unimaginably inappropriate appointments of his presidency. Eric Keroack is now in charge of family planning at the Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing $283 million a year in family-planning grants that help women plan their pregnancies through contraceptives and information. There is a small problem, though. Eric Keroack does not believe in birth control. Nor does he believe in abortion, or even comprehensive sex education. His previous job was medical director of an organization called A Woman’s Concern, whose official stance on birth control is that it is “demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality, and adverse to human health and happiness.” They also believe, somewhat ironically and illogically, that it contributes to out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion. The organization, which provides Christian crises pregnancy counseling, spews the typical abstinence only misinformation. While Keroack does have a medical degree, he is a quack of the first order. One of his many "theories" is that premarital sex alters brain chemistry in a way that prevents happy marriages, despite any scientific evidence for such an incredible idea. So, a guy who is the medical expert for a lunatic fringe organization and himself a medical quack is now in charge of family planning for the United States government. George sure did get the message that we want change.

Breast Cancer and Abortion

One of the claims in A Woman’s Concern literature is that teens who undergo abortion "may face an eight times greater risk of contracting breast cancer by age 45." The link between abortion and breast cancer has been thoroughly discredited in numerous scientific studies. There is simply no link. It does give you a good idea of the quality of Keroack’s expert advice, though. In fact, a new study indicates that the abortion drug RU-486 helps prevent breast cancer in mice. While the current doses of RU-486 are inappropriate as a preventative measure, further research may lead to the drug’s use in preventing breast cancer. That is information I suspect we will never read on the A Woman’s Concern web site.

Putting a Period on Periods

If a new birth control drug gets approval next year, it could mean the end of monthly periods for most women taking it. Lybrel, a birth-control pill made by Wyeth, would be the first oral contraceptive to deliver an uninterrupted supply of hormones. According to a preliminary study, seventy percent of women who took it for six months were period-free during that period. I'm sure that Dr. Keroack would consider that doubly demeaning.

One Button Condoms

Putting on a condom can be a bit of a struggle, so some German educators are working on a better solution: a spray on condom. They plan to have it on the market by 2008. It will come in colors in a can that offers 20 applications. Put your penis into the can, press the button, and nozzles on all sides rapidly apply the latex. It should also work with any size penis. If you read German or are handy with online translators, they have a Web site called Spray Kondom.

Uplifting Lifting

After 14 years, the government has lifted a ban on silicone breast implants.

National Events

It is a very quiet time this next month, with few events going on, including here at Erotic University. In our next newsletter just before Christmas, we'll have the updated calendar with all of the events for the new year.
 

Finally Fighting Back

In legal briefs filed by the two U.S. broadcasters in two appeals courts last week, CBS Corp. and Fox Television Stations Inc are claiming that the FCC’s ban on indecency is unconstitutionally vague and contradicts past court rulings. The FCC has still to come up with a definition of indecency or any real guidelines for broadcasters, and yet still claims that it plans to continue to crack down on indecency. Now that is indecent.

What is Child Porn?

Child pornography is a serious issue.  Our child pornography laws are tough, and protecting children from sexual exploitation is important.  There is one problem, though. While you may think you know exactly what child pornography is, not everyone may agree with you. While the videos Traci Lords made when she was underage were clearly illegal, I can’t really call that child pornography, since she certainly does not appear to be a child and she fooled everyone on the set. She was the criminal, and the producers who were taken in by her mature features and realistic fake ID were the victims. I would not have had them rounded up for producing child pornography, since that was not their intent. While all of the videos were destroyed at significant expense, none of the producers were found guilty of child pornography. Nor would I have arrested the producers on child porn charges for the sexually suggestive Brooke Shields Calvin Klein jean ads made when she was fifteen. The current Justice Department sees things differently. They are going after child modeling Web sites and arresting the photographers for child pornography because while fully clothed, the poses are too suggestive. Suggestive can be in the eyes of the beholder, and while admittedly some of these sites seem to be crossing the line, that line is also very close to many more legitimate undertakings, like making movies, underwear ads, and even clothing ads.  The penalties for child pornography are exceptionally harsh, but now the DoJ wants to blur the definition to a point where those tools can be used as a very blunt instrument.  Federal law does not differentiate between a picture of someone sexually molesting a five year old and a picture of a 17 year old in a provocative pose. Maybe we need laws to prohibit child modeling sites as exploitive. Ironically, former Rep Mark Foley of teen instant message fame announced just such a law, but it was over broad and probably unconstitutional. Comparing potentially suggestive fully clothed poses to forcing children to have sex is a bit extreme. Extremism, however, is no stranger to the Bush Justice Department.

Tougher in China

In a court decision that will be envied by many U.S. conservatives, Chen Hui, the founder of the Pornographic Summer web site (China's largest adult site) was sentenced to life in prison on pornography charges.

And in Iran

An Iranian soap actress is being prosecuted on morality charges for appearing in a sex video she made with her boyfriend. Apparently it was  a privately made video that he later released. She has been dropped from the cast of the soap opera, and, since unmarried sex is illegal there, she faces a public lashing and a jail term.  And again, sadly, I bet there are plenty of conservatives who would welcome similar laws here.

FBI Violates Injunction

The Free Speech Coalition is seeking a halt to all 2257 inspections following what they believe are violations of a court-ordered injunction. The injunction prevented the inspection of records of secondary producers, producers not directly involved in the production of the content. According to the FSC, the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated the injunction when agents inspected the records of secondary producers Legend, Pure Play Media, and Robert Hill Releasing. The issue is a big deal because the courts have prohibited authorities from examining the records of FSC members who are secondary producers, as there is a legal dispute that secondary producers are required to keep extensive records that may be difficult for them to obtain and violate the privacy of performers. Violations of the record keeping laws in any way can lead to extreme legal jeopardy. Beginning during the summer and continuing are numerous inspections of adult companies by the FBI.