The good news: Conservative anti-porn organization Morality in Media recently lost $150,000 in Congressional funding.
The bad news: For the past two years, conservative anti-porn organization Morality in Media had $150,000 in Congressional funding.
From the Morality in Media announcement list:
Dear Friend of Morality In Media,
You can’t save the world if you can’t pay the bills.
It’s a sad truth. Many a fine project has disappeared into the dustbin of history because of a lack of funding.
And now Morality In Media is facing a financial crisis. The Congress has changed hands, and MIM has lost vital congressional funding for one of our most important projects.
Which means that, in months ahead, MIM will have to raise $150,000 from other sources to keep this project operating!
If you want us to keep up our battle against pornography, please to donate your most generous possible emergency contribution!
Let me explain how this happened.
You see, for the past two years, Congressional appropriations for the U.S. Department of Justice have included critical funding for MIM’s obscenity-fighting website.
That website, , supplies vital information that federal investigators and U.S. Attorneys can use to investigate and prosecute internet obscenity.
I’ve told you in the past of the important role this website plays in our nation’s fight against internet obscenity.
In fact, since its inception, MIM’s website has received over 60,000 reports of internet obscenity!
But we are now facing what is for us a major crisis.
You see, for the past two years MIM has received an annual grant of $150,000 for our website. That money was contained in an Appropriations Bill that was passed by Congress.
But, this past November, Congress changed hands.
And with the change in Congress, the Appropriations Committees changed. As a result, the 2007 Appropriations Bill contains no funding for MIM’s obscenity-fighting project.
Yes, we can and will apply directly to the Justice Department for a new grant. But when we do so, we will be competing with thousands of other applicants.
MIM won’t know for months whether we will get a new grant from Justice. But one thing is certain – THIS PROJECT SHOULD AND WILL CONTINUE IF WE CAN RAISE THE ADDITIONAL $150,000!
That’s why I’m writing you today with this appeal.
You know, fighting obscenity and indecency is tough work. But there are also great rewards.
And I want you to know that there is one reward that all of us at MIM find very encouraging.
It is the realization that so many Americans are willing to sacrifice to help us in our battle against pornography.
Yes, the generous and faithful support of Morality in Media’s donors gives us great inspiration in our work.
But the job also has its hard parts. And today MIM is facing a potential deficit of $150,000. And today I am asking you to make a truly sacrificial gift to Morality In Media.
So here’s what I’m asking you to do…First, we need your fervent prayers in support of our work. We simply couldn’t survive without them.
Second, we need your most generous support possible, right now. I know from what MIM president Bob Peters tells me that MIM depends a great deal on gifts of between $100 and $1,000.
Some of our donors can make donations of much more than $1000. And others of very limited means give us $10 or $25, with their enthusiastic and prayerful support.
Can you help Morality In Media at this critical time?
Please to make a truly sacrificial contribution! Can you support our work with a $250 donation? I know it’s a lot, but this situation is crucial.
Your critical donation today will assure that Morality In Media can continue its vital work to combat illegal obscenity and indecency in every facet of American life.
And let me assure you, with your indispensable help, we will continue that battle on all fronts.
In recent months, MIM lawyers submitted amicus briefs in two federal court cases involving the broadcast indecency law.
Both cases were filed by broadcast TV networks that are unhappy about specific indecency fines they received for polluting the public airwaves with vulgarity and nudity.
But the networks aren’t just asking the courts to reverse the fines for specific programs. They are asking the courts to declare the broadcast indecency law unconstitutional!
And by suing in both New York and Philadelphia, they think they have a better chance of finding friendly judges.
Yes, these are critical battles, and MIM needs your most generous possible help to win them!
Thank you, and may God bless you.
Sincerely,
Christopher Manion
Vice President
If that lengthy fundraising letter has you fumbling for your wallet, I’m sure the (adult entertainment advocacy group) will be more than happy to take your money.
You can find out more about and through .
Update: saw fit to link this piece. Thanks, Viviane!
Today, March 9, is the last day to comment on the proposed .XXX domain extension.
- .XXX domains would cost $60 per URL per year
- The new extension would be voluntary, punishing businesses that choose to self-regulate and not addressing the vast majority of adult webmasters using .com, .net, or international extensions
- Defining adult content, commercial or noncommercial, is very subjective
- The extension would likely become mandatory or pseudo-mandatory through credit card processor regulations; this would financially penalize the adult industry in a way that no other industry is subject to as well as open the industry up for censorship
From the :
It is imperative that ICANN hear from the industry in a BIG way! Please send an e-mail to ICANN and simply state “I am in the adult entertainment industry and I oppose .XXX”. If you are a webmaster, state that you are a webmaster in your e-mail as well as how many websites you manage.
E-mail your comments to: xxx-icm-agreement@icann.org.
Public comments can be viewed at: . Comments received on or before March 9, 2007 will be considered at the next scheduled Special Meeting of the ICANN Board.
“,”
Act now and make your voice heard.
(Thanks to for the reminder.)
Thank you for the votes!
The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #63? Submit a link to your best post of the week using Participants, repost the linklist within a week and you’re all set.
This Week’s Picks
(http://lafillemariee.blogspot.com)
“I fucked one man at the request of another, in exactly the way asked for. Then I reported what happened to the one who requested it.”
(http://radicalvixen.com/blog)
“I walked out the door, saw a man standing there and almost puked.”
Low Class Stripper? Classism and society’s view of adult entertainment (http://fullfrontalpolitics.com)
“For a lot of women sex work is a last-ditch option, something we all consider in the back of our minds when we’re growing up; we ask ourselves once or twice, if we needed the money, would we strip?”
Mr. Sugasm Himself
(http://sugarbank.com)
Editors’ Choice
(http://kinkyfarmwife.blogspot.com)
courtesy of ?
The ladies at dirtyspoke are still taking nominations for the . Nominations close 12 midnight EST on January 15, 2007 so
Only one nomination per IP address (duplicates will be deleted). Make sure to include the blog site address (i.e.-http://your-site.com) in the ballot form.
The following categories are open for nomination:
- Best Overall Sex Blog (Any sex blog, by a man, a woman, a group, gay/lesbian, etc.) – Winner to appear with Meme on the radio and receive a copy of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s new book ““
- Best Female Sex Blog (Limited to blogs written by a woman, that means she’s gotta have a vagina)
- Best Male Sex Blog (Limited to blogs written by a man, yes, with a penis)
- Best Couple/Group Sex Blog (This can be a blog written by a couple or group, but has to have at least 2 writers – Not a blog about group sex) Winner to receive a 2 DVD set of , Season 4 (Catch the premiere on Showtime Jan. 7, 2007 at 10pm)
- Sexiest Sex Blogger (Based on pictures of the blog writer) Winner to receive a copy of ““
If you’d like to submit Full Frontal Politics for nomination, please use http://fullfrontalpolitics.com/ as the address. Thank you!
It isn’t safe for an honest pornographer in Iran these days:
Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – A man was flogged in public in the town of Behshahr, northern Iran, for producing home-made pornographic videos, state media reported on Sunday.
The unnamed man was lashed 100 times in public, the daily Etemaad Melli wrote.
He had been found guilty of filming his sexual relations with married women, the report said.
Thousands of young people are flogged in Iran each year on trivial charges that include drinking alcohol, attending mixed-sex parties, and sexual misconduct. Iran’s Judiciary views flogging as the appropriate punishment for combating moral crimes, particularly among the youth. Islamic judges insist on carrying out the punishment in town squares, as “a lesson for all to see.”
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Oh, it gets worse. Iran’s amateur porn stars have particularly short-lived careers.
TEHRAN, Iran — An amateur porn movie could net 31 people the death penalty in Iran’s capital city. The group faces death for filming and producing an adult movie that was shot using a cellphone, said Saiid Mortazavi, the president of Tehran’s criminal court.
The group of 31 people also has been charged with sexual assault on the actress in the movie.
[...]
Iran has a track record of executing amateur adult makers. A man who made adult movies with his wife was publicly hanged in late-2005 and a female porn star was stoned to death after spending eight years in prison for performing in an adult film.
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Keep it safe and legal, folks. And remember – it wasn’t always this way.
“When I sit in the alehouse, I am a woman, and I am an exuberant young man. When I am present at a place of quarrelling, I am a woman, a perfect figure. When I sit by the gate of the tavern, I am a prostitute familiar with the penis; the friend of a man, the girlfriend of a woman.” –
- (AVN)
- (Alternet; thanks to for the link)
- (XBiz)
- (Missoulian.com)
- (XBiz)
- (The Sunday Times)
From the “I like to think I’m this insightful when I’m drunk” files:
So here’s what I want to talk about with class. This guy was all, “I would like to see sex shops zoned into a particular area.” Well that’s how it Already IS, fucker!! That’s how it’;s BEEN for decades now, and guess what, that’s where the PROBLOEMS come from! Just think for one nanosecond about the term “slumming.” That is fucked up. That implies a direct corrolation between porn/sex/dirty stuff and LOW CLASS. And let’s not forget lower class folks are presumed to be “wilder” and all that bullshit… oh and when it comes to sex shops, strip clubs, etc., eben if they DON’T want it in their neighborhood, guess who has the most effect when it comes to NIMBY (not in my back yard) bullshit? It’s not the poor!
Look I was blind to a lot of this stuff (not all of it tho) for a long time but now that I see it? I fucking see it EVERYWHERE, and it pisses me the fuck off!! Because to me it is now so fucking OBVIOUS, that it pisses me off that some people just.don’t.see it.
Okay and this is one of the main things that annoyed me about Pamela Paul’s book Pornified too. She doesn;t want porn to go away. She just wants it to go back to being something confined to the wrong side of the tracks. And she doesn’t see anything wrong with that! She just puts it out there like there’s nothing worth examining. She even used the phrase “low class stripper” a couple times and just didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
-the fabulous/infamous Amber Rhea, under the influence of a little vodka and a lot of pissed off
(“,” )
It’s funny – I didn’t see it either for a while, or I saw it and didn’t focus my eyes on what I was seeing.
For a lot of women sex work is a last-ditch option, something we all consider in the back of our minds when we’re growing up; we ask ourselves once or twice, if we needed the money, would we strip? Would we do porn? Turn tricks? And that fallback, that fishnet safety net, is there for every woman when times get tough.
Of course, it’s a valid emergency gig, but it’s not a decent job, let alone a respectable career choice. Once again, nice girls don’t. Well bred girls don’t. It’s beneath them – much like community college and dating outside their background.
So, yeah, it’s a class thing. Sex work is something a woman can turn to when she’s down and then slander once she’s back on her feet. In fact, she’s expected to. That’s part of the ritual of the redemption of the whore: she has to cast off her old life to be reaccepted into society.
It’s funny, the correlation between porn and lower-class neighborhoods. There’s an assumption that sex shops lower property values, so they’re restricted to less desirable areas. Interestingly enough there is no cause and effect there. According to Manhattan lawyer Herald Price Fahringer, “” (There’s been more on that issue recently, but I can’t find the link I’m thinking of; if anyone turns up some info, you’ll be duly rewarded with link love.)
Question your assumptions: porn is adult entertainment, and a working-class stiff doesn’t have half the entertainment budget a CEO does…
- (XBiz)
- (Canadian Press)
- (1up.com)
- (New York Times)
- (NPR)
- (PNN Online)
- (Boston.com)
- (Advocate.com)
- (The Plain Dealer) *
* For more information on the voluntary Restricted to Adults label, visit .
The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasmer participants. Want in Sugasm #62? Submit a link to your best post of the week using Participants, repost the linklist within a week and you’re all set.
This Week’s Picks
(http://erotischism.blogspot.com)
“But as sexually satisfied as he kept Kendall — or as satisfied as one man could — she was yearning for another kind of action.”
(http://perverselypoly.blogspot.com)
“I admire Rachel’s altruism, despite her saying it’s a practical matter of what it takes to get her wet.”
(http://redvelvetropeburn.com)
“The hands pressed into her lower back and she wanted to ask Him if He had felt them but her orgasm overtook her and she lost all conscious thought for a few moments.”
Mr. Sugasm Himself
(http://sugarbank.com)
Editors’ Choice
(http://pick-up-pieces.blogspot.com)
courtesy of .
The end of 2006 is shaping up to be a pretty exciting week for the forces of porn:
The just launched and is . If you’ve got a podcast out there geared toward the adult industry, or if you’re about to start one, check them out. They’ll host your podcast and promote you to their listener base.
Frankly I’m glad to see an industry-specific business podcast for adult entertainment. If you’re an adult webmaster or do sex-related affiliate marketing give their podcasts a listen.
Sam Sugar’s is now in beta and is also . The site’s relaunching with a bold new look and a very 2.0 theme:
has entered the public Beta phase, allowing users to contribute to and benefit from what its owner calls “one of the adult Internet’s most valuable URLs.”
Here’s how the system works: Users upload erotic photos and links to their websites or affiliate programs. The photos automatically are placed in a gallery, and surfers who visit the site vote for their favorites. The most popular galleries appear on TGP.com’s home page, thereby generating significant traffic for the originating website.
“,”
Affiliate links are more than welcome, and Sam has invited both the amateur and professional sex blogging community to participate. Solo models, your time has come…