Porn
"Pornography wants you, it wants your husband or wife, it wants your son and daughter, your grandchildren, and your in-laws. It doesn't share well, and it doesn't leave easily. It is a cruel master, and seeks more slaves." From this fine Salvo essay that appeared earlier this summer. Highly recommended. * * * * * * * As a young man (age 16-25), I had no serious objection to pornography. Sure, I knew it was a sin and I was never much drawn to it, but my disapproval stopped there: a matter of taste, with a salting of a sense of sin. But over the past 15 years or so, I've developed a loathsome disdain for it. Mostly, because it's stupid, but also because it's debilitating and, I believe, the catalyst of much human suffering: from abortion to divorce (I've seen many marriages disrupted or terminated as a result of the one-handed religion). I'd rather my children smoke pot than watch pornography, but you don't even need a doctor's prescription for Debbie Does Dallas. * * * * * * * This little story has three interesting angles: (1) Warren, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) is regulating fortune tellers. (2) The reason? "We want to be sure there is some recourse in case we do get somebody who is not legitimate." An illegitimate fortune teller? Perish the thought. (3) "Over one in seven Americans consulted a psychic or fortune-teller in 2009, according to the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life." Fourteen percent? That's hard to believe. If my hometown holds up the demographic, that would mean 1,500 people consulted those gypsy realms. Not believable. Then again, maybe fortune tellers appear to a more, um, multi-cultural demographic. My hometown is pretty much exclusively white. Heck, until the Mexicans started arriving after Clinton shut down the guest worker program (at the UAW's behest), Poles with three-syllable last names were about the most exotic element in our population. * * * * * * * Hats off to my wife, Marie. This is her first day in 17 years that she hasn't had a kid staying with her all day. Our youngest, Tess, leaves for kindergarten in a few hours. Tess is excited . . . and so is Marie, if a little bit melancholy.
