Egypt's top comedian Adel Imam, widely known across the Arab world as the leader, is locked in a sharp spat with a Muslim preacher, who accuses Imam of degrading Muslim clerics in his movies.

Imam mocks preachers, including me, Khalid Al Guindy, a prominent Muslim televangelist said on Azhari, a private religious TV station, which he manages: I have asked Imam more than once to stop making fun of Islamic figures, but to no avail.

He casts Muslims in an unfavourable light by portraying the Muslims wearing the jallabia (flowing garments) and sporting beards as terrorists. He is a mere actor, who calls himself a leader. He is the leader of himself. My leader is (President) Hosni Mubarak.

Imam, who portrayed a militant in a hit film called The Terrorist, responded: I have always been the target of insults from others. But this time I feel distressed because my detractor is a Muslim preacher, who said I am a mere actor, Imam said in a call to the private television Al Hayat channel. I ask God to forgive him for what he said against me.

Earlier this year, a fundamentalist in Algeria had reportedly passed a fatwa (a religious edict) on shedding the blood of Imam for criticising the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas for triggering a devastating Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip.

A new flier distributed by the Westboro Baptist Church invites its supporters to protest gay icon and equality advocate Lady Gaga, in St. Louis Missouri, the first week on January.

According to the Bible homosexuality is an abomination and she has to shut her filthy mouth and stop promoting it, says attorney and Westboro member Shirley Phelps-Roper, reports Radar Online.

Surreal statements from the event listing on Westboro Baptist's web calendar include:

Lady Gaga has no qualms about displaying her filth for all the world to see, using the platform given to her by God to teach rebellion against Him. She loudly and proudly proclaims her fornication and sexual relations with women, saying that she wants to free and liberate her young fans. Gag! She glories in her shame, encourages everyone she can get her hands on to do the same....Like the many whores who came before her, Lady of the night Gaga thinks she can change God by teaching you to hate Him and liberating you from His standards. ....

And to all those that would follow the example of this treacherous tart.... this warning from God: ....I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. Lev. 26:27-30. Catch that? Because you won't obey, God will cause you to eat your children, He'll cast your dead bodies on those of your idols, and He'll abhor you. Obeying God is your only recourse at this hour. But because you heed the words of stupid rebels like Lady Gaga INSTEAD of the God who created you, this generation is doomed.

Gaga has been an avid supporter of gay rights, famously appearing at the Marriage Equality March in Washington, D.C. in October.

Stephen Green, the director of campaign group Christian Voice, has spoken out in support of the death penalty for homosexuals.

His comments come almost a month after Uganda proposed a law that would make gay sex punishable by a life sentence or even death.

In a statement that will outrage human rights groups, Stephen Green claimed:

• Gay people who have sex knowing they are HIV positive should be given the death penalty because they have committed murder;
• Capital punishment is acceptable because it is ordained by God in the Bible;
• Britain's laws promote perversion because they do not make homosexuality a criminal offence.

Green said: As a Christian I agree with the death penalty and I don't see why infecting someone with HIV should be treated in any other way than if you killed someone with a knife. It is extraordinary to think it is OK to infect someone else with HIV and get away with it.

Green's organisation is urging other Christians to support the Ugandan people in their determination to rid their nation of foreign homosexual proselytisation. It claims gay westerners are travelling to the country to convert Ugandans. Green added: This law is an understandable reaction to the pressure from human rights activists and homosexuals who are coming to the country as sex tourists.

Maine's Christian Civic League is calling for a ban on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The League writes that we live in a time where the public has been dangerously desensitized to violence, and that many find a thrill in participating in violent video games. It claims that Modern Warfare 2 goes too far, even in our own desensitized age, and specifically calls out the No Russian scene (which it calls the Massacre Level) as most offending.

All decent people should denounce the game, continues the League, which goes on to suggest that the state of Maine should open debate into banning these games completely.

The League then attempts to play up the link between violent videogames and school shootings, and while Maine has yet to have a school shooting of its own, the danger is growing each passing day adds the League. The ready availability of drugs, violent video games, and outrageous rock music is a witch's brew which will eventually lead to tragedy here in Maine.

David Walsh said when he was assembling his first report card on video game violence 13 years ago, children were attacking on-screen monsters or aliens with imaginary chain saws and guns.

That first report card, which singled out bloody first-person shooter games Doom and Duke Nukem, made an instant splash on Capitol Hill in 1996 and made the annual reports issued each holiday season by Walsh's National Institute on Media and the Family a news fixture.

But there was no video game report card this year, and there won't be any more. The institute is closing its doors, a victim of the poor economy. Walsh, the group's founder and president, is packing his books as his staff of eight full-time employees prepares to shut down Dec. 23.

Fundraising has been more and more difficult, Walsh said: It really wasn't that we put ourselves out of business, because the technology is changing so quickly, the issues just won't quit.

While some people have posted on gaming Web sites celebrating the institute's demise, others have praised its role in helping get retailers to post game ratings and ask for an identification when selling mature-rated games.

It was Walsh's group that announced in 2005 that the best-selling video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contained graphic sexual images that could be unlocked using an Internet download. The ESRB conducted its own investigation and revoked the game's M (mature) rating and tagged it AO (adults only). That led to major retailers pulling the game from their shelves.

Last summer, the institute learned that founding sponsor Fairview Health Services was pulling out. After looking at going independent, the institute's board decided to shut down at the end of the year. Walsh said the organization is talking to three nonprofits about taking on its work.

The nutters of Family First NZ are calling on their government to join the Australian government's just-announced plan to introduce legislation to block websites that feature child pornography, bestiality, sexual violence against women, and detailed instruction of crime and drug use.

Government-commissioned trials in Australia have found that blocking banned material can be accurate and have no effect on internet speed, says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ: Laws around the filtering of the internet are a great investment to protect families as internet usage becomes more and more common in NZ homes. The internet should not be left unregulated when it comes to the protection of children.

Because of the availability, affordability, and anonymity of the internet, we must put as many safeguards in place as possible – and sooner rather than later.

While parents can take as many precautions as possible, including purchasing computer security products and supervising their children's internet use, the Australian government is not leaving anything to chance and is being proactive in the protection of children and families, says McCoskrie.

Actor Sam Elliott has accused the Catholic Church of pressurising Hollywood producers to scrap a classic fantasy trilogy.

Studio bosses have shelved plans to film the final two instalments of His Dark Materials, despite the success of the first movie, The Golden Compass, two years ago.

The film, based on the books by Philip Pullman angered Catholics who accused it of promoting atheism. In the book trilogy, set in a series of parallel worlds, heroine Lyra fights the Magisterium, an evil organisation some have interpreted as being based on the Catholic Church. The Magisterium wields huge power and experiments on children. In a climactic battle angels fight each other and God is presented as a frail, ancient and powerless figure.

Catholic campaigners in America organised a boycott of The Golden Compass. Right-wing US broadcaster Bill O'Reilly, of Fox News, attacked its release in 2007, calling it a war on Christmas.

Elliot, who plays Lyra's ally, Lee Scoresby, has challenged O'Reilly to a TV debate and claimed money could not be the reason for the series being shelved.

The production company, New Line, had said the making of the second and third films was dependent on the financial success of The Golden Compass. The movie had a budget of $180million (£110million) and made $380million (£234million).

Asked what happened to the series, Elliot said: The Catholic Church happened to The Golden Compass, as far as I'm concerned. It did 'incredible' at the box office, taking $380million. Incredible. It took $85million in the States. The Catholic Church ... lambasted them, and I think it scared New Line off.

Two dozen members of a Southern California Christian organization picketed outside the Playboy Mansion for more than three hours Saturday night.

The group, called Strike LA, said the picket was a major prayer initiative and was intended to disrupt Playboy's 56th anniversary of its publication, according to its website.

The magazine, according to Strike LA, has promoted a culture of lust, sensuality, pornography and all sorts of sexual perversion.

Strike LA said it chose Saturday, Dec. 12, as an ideal to protest because 12 is the number of perfection (governmental perfection).

The group also asked its members to fast for 10 days before the Playboy Mansion picket.

A new ice cube tray that makes replica frozen moulds of the Titanic for people to sink into a drink has been criticised as sick and distasteful.

The product, called the Gin and Titonic ice tray, also makes little icebergs so the drinker can re-create history by making the two objects collide in the glass.

They then watch as the four inch long Titanic ice cube sinks to the bottom of the cup before the drink is ready to go down with the ship.

The rubber tray consists of four replica moulds of the luxury liner that struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, killing 1,522 people. The item, that also has four round icebergs to pair with the ice ships, has gone on sale over the internet in time for Christmas.

Brian Ticehurst, a Titanic historian, said: They are distasteful, hundreds of people died in the tragedy. Surely this is the wrong way to remember them? How long will it be before this firm makes ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11?

Tim Brant, secretary of the Merchant Navy Association, said: It is a bit of a sick idea and it is distasteful to the people who suffered and their families. The sinking of the Titanic is an event that should be commemorated not celebrated.

Joe Edmundson, spokesman for Fred and Friends, based in Maryland, US, defended the product. He said: We design housewares that are functional and fun. The Gin and Titonic is quite a good seller around the world. Somebody is always going to be offended by something, especially when it involves humour with a little edge.

A Christmas card has been withdrawn from Tesco stores after complaints that it makes fun of children with ginger hair.

The card shows a child with ginger hair sitting on the lap of Santa Claus, and the words: Santa loves all kids. Even ginger ones.

Davinia Phillips of York, whose three daughters are redheads, said she found the card offensive.

Ms Phillips spotted the card while visiting a Tesco store in York. She said: I picked it up and I couldn't believe it. I just thought 'What is so funny about that?' I didn't really get the joke. I thought I would buy it, because I wanted proof that I had seen it.

A Tesco spokesman said: We sell a large range of Christmas cards, including some which are intended to be humorous. It is never our intention to offend any customer and we are sorry if this card caused any upset.

Pope Ratzinger has been whingeing about the media. He complained that the mass media: Tend to make us feel like spectators, as if evil regards only others and certain things could never happen to us.

He also lamented about what he described as a steady diet of news about evil in the world: Every day, through the newspapers, television, radio, evil is reported, repeated, amplified, making us used to horrible things, making us become insensitive, and, in some way, poisoning us. Hearts harden and thoughts darken.

Perhaps he was referring to news coverage of abusive catholic priests.

With James Dobson retiring it is clear that the nutter group, Focus on the Family, is adrift and searching for a new mission. It may have found one in its blistering attack on the play Santa Claus is Coming Out.

The right wing organization is in a tizzy over this comedy that poses the serious question: What if Santa Claus were actually gay?

Unfortunately, Focus on the Family provides the answer by exploiting this issue for political gain and distorting the essence of the production. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network (GLSEN) will also benefit from a charity performance of Santa Claus is Coming Out, giving Focus on the Family further reason to misrepresent the play.

In a story headlined GLSEN Fundraiser Sexualizes Santa, the group claims that the comedy, perverts the innocence of Christmas and sexualizes the longtime, child-revered icon of Santa Claus. The group went on to claim that the goal of Santa Claus is Coming Out is to, desensitize kids and attack parents' God-given rights to protect their innocence.

The charges leveled against Santa Is Coming Out are ludicrous, if not libelous. In an interview with Instinct Magazine, Playwright Jeffrey Solomon rebutted Focus on the Family's bogus charges.

We have not marketed this play with sex, said Solomon. The play is not about sex. The play simply asks a hypothetical question: 'How would the world react, if Mrs. Claus were revealed to be a beard, and that Santa Claus was actually a gay man?' The very mention or the image of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people is not automatically sexual, unless you are viewing them with sex-tinted glasses.

Isn't it time that Focus on the Family take its huge budget of more that $125 million and help real families stay together? Has this group done anything substantive to address the divorce rate in America? Has it stopped child or spousal abuse? Has this wealthy organization increased living wages so families can afford to stay together?

Nope. Instead it wastes precious time and money on petty, media-friendly pet issues that play well to frothing fundamentalists who get worked into a lather and then donate what little money they have left over from their paychecks.

I applaud Jeffrey Solomon and director Joe Brancato for producing a play that will make people think, which is a heck of a lot more than Focus on the Family is asking of its followers.

A war on pink toys and clothes for little girls which calls on parents to boycott shops selling sexist gifts this Christmas is being backed by a nutter Labour minister.

The Pinkstinks pressure group claims that young girls are being led up pink alleys by stores which target them with presents such as pink fairy wings and princess dresses.

It is organising a boycott of shops including the Early Learning Centre, which the group claims are leading the pinkification of girls' toys which end up crushing their ambitions later in life.

Bridget Prentice, the Injustice Minister, said that she was supporting the campaign because she was concerned that shops were creating Christmas gifts which were aimed particularly at either girls or boys.

She went on: It's about not funnelling girls into pretty, pretty jobs, but giving them aspirations and challenging them to fulfil their potential. We want to say to organisations like the Early Learning Centre that we rely on them to be progressive about encouraging girls to think of themselves as equal, and not to reinforce the old stereotypes.

Emma Moore who founded the Pinkstinks group with her twin sister Abi told the News Shopper local newspaper: Ask yourself what we want girls and boys to learn from an early age. Is it that pink, passive and pretty is for girls and that blue, bold and challenging is for boys?

Pinkstinks has 2,000 supporters on the social networking website Facebook.

A spokesman for the Early Learning Centre said: Come down to Early Learning Centre and see for yourself the huge range of toys in an assortment of colours. Customers can choose a red kitchen, a blue kitchen, a blue cash register, a yellow dollhouse or a gorgeous farm.

Comment: Telegraph Leader

10th December 2009. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Little girls like pink; it is part of their innocent charm, not an indication that they plan to waste their lives.

Bridget Prentice, the Justice Minister, is supporting a boycott of selected toy shops by the revoltingly named Pinkstinks campaign as a protest against the sale of sexist pink toys to little girls. As she explains: It's not about funnelling girls into pretty-pretty jobs, but giving them aspirations and challenging them to fulfil their potential.

It really is difficult to think of a sillier or more patronising cause, worthy of the trendy Modern Parents who inflict misery on their children in the pages of Viz magazine. Little girls like pink; it is part of their innocent charm, not an indication that they plan to waste their lives in pretty-pretty jobs, whatever they might be. One has to ask: what toys was Mrs Prentice given as a child to turn her into such a caricature of a humourless feminist?

A marketing campaign for Ann Summers sex shops wishing customers a Merry XXXmas provoked a row with the Church of England. Religious nutters branded the shop's Christmas slogan - in the windows of all its 138 stores - as insensitive and crass and called for it to be removed. There was also anger over another Ann Summers slogan calling on customers to Have a horny Christmas.

The Very Reverend Chris Dalliston, Dean of Newcastle, said: Without wanting to be a killjoy, [...BUT...] my feeling is that it is insensitive, at best uncomfortable, and at worst a crass marketing slogan. Many people see Christmas as a sacred and special festival.

That isn't to say ordinary fun and human enjoyment shouldn't be part of it, but people need to be sensitive to the feelings not just of the Church, but of the many people for whom Christmas is an important part of their relationship with God.

One has to accept this is a time of year which is of great importance commercially. But it is about having awareness of the spiritual significance of Christmas as a celebration of Christ's birth. Let's not throw the Christ child out with the bath water.

Last night the boss of Ann Summers said she would investigate the complaint - but also pointed out that the company was proud of its marketing campaign.

Jacqueline Gold, chief executive at Ann Summers. said: Our festive campaign was designed to put our customers in the Christmas spirit, with a model accessorising our lingerie with a pair of reindeer horns. The accompanying slogan is a light-hearted play on words, which if questioned by children, can be explained by the fact the horns are being worn - after all, Rudolph plays a large part at Christmas time. We are proud of our tongue-in-cheek window and marketing messages, designed to make our customers smile. We aim to offer women the opportunity to feel sexy and have fun.

One or two questions have been raised about our new Christmas windows and we are listening to feedback from our customers and staff to ensure that we achieve the right balance. We value customers opinions and we will always investigate any complaints, however few and far between.'

Matt King, who passes Ann Summers every day on his way to work at Newcastle University, contacted his local councillor, Nick Forbes, to raise his concerns about the window display and to ask him to take it up with the council: I think it brings a highly sexual language to the high street. Everyone who can read, whether they are four years old or 80, is being wished this message, which they may not want. I would have thought the council would be concerned that this would end up being a seedy end of town as a result.

Councillor Forbes said: I can see how this would be extremely offensive to Christians at this special time of year. I would have thought that sex shops would be aware of the potential offence they could cause and I would urge them to stop using the slogan immediately.

A council spokesman said: We have received a complaint about this window display. It is in poor taste and inappropriate in a main shopping street, but we have no powers to make the shop owners take it down.

A video advertisement on CBS's Web site that mashes material from the iconic Frosty the Snowman Christmastime cartoon with two of the network's comedy series is supposedly offensive and should be pulled.

The video ad, Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman, takes authentic dialogue from CBS' How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men and dubs it on top of the cartoon classic, changing well-known Frosty scenes to contain suggestions that the snowman and his friends visit a strip club.

The mash-up also discusses Frosty's porn collection and contains repeated mentions of prior sexual conquests. The ad is intended to promote the network's upcoming broadcasts of Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns.

Television blogs characterized the video as hilarious. You'll never look at 'Frosty the Snowman' the same way again, read a post on tvshark.com.

BUt Bob Peters, president of Morality in Media, added that officials at the Federal Trade Commission should be concerned about the promotion.

CBS is doing much the same thing that alcohol and tobacco companies have done in the past -- namely, using imagery in advertising that would naturally attract children in order to market an adult product, Peters said in a statement to FoxNews.com. Legal matters aside, it should go without saying that CBS TV ought to be ashamed of itself -- using an animated Christmas season setting, complete with young children, to chat about strippers, whores, pornography, sadomasochism, sexual promiscuity, and more.

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council said the advertisement was reprehensible. It's either ignorance or arrogance, but I can't imagine the folks at the once-Tiffany network should think this is OK, he told FoxNews.com. Someone had to write it and someone had to approve it. It speaks to the decisions that are being made at CBS these days.

Winter also called for the advertisement to be pulled, characterizing it as the outcome of the network attempting to do everything they can to be offensive rather than creative.

Ultra-nutter rabbis in Jerusalem have launched a crackdown on the use of the internet, on the grounds it is filled with abomination and is leading believers astray. The rabbis have called on the public to report to them anyone engaging in religiously proscribed use of the web.

Ultra-orthodox rabbis are uncomfortable with the net's growing popularity within their insular community, which strives to preserve an ancient lifestyle guided by strict Jewish law.

In recent weeks, a growing number of rabbis have devoted sermons to the perceived evils of the internet. It is seen foremost as violating modesty laws – according to ultra-orthodox belief, it is forbidden to publish even images of the faces of women. Rabbis say the web is also rife with evil speech. Yisrael Hager, a leading rabbi, told his followers: This epidemic must be stopped.

One ultra-orthodox group has threatened to exclude from its education system any children of people found to be internet-users, while others allow it for work purposes if the content is filtered.

Posters have sprung up in the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim area, signed by the Committee for the Purity of the Neighbourhood. The posters voice alarm at growing surreptitious use of the net by rabbinical seminary students who live in rented flats. To our dismay, there have been found in the unsupervised apartments computers with all sorts of abomination, say the posters. Possession of a computer has been forbidden by the great sages of Israel and its results cannot be estimated.

Games nutter and California State Senator Leland Yee is urging parents and holiday shoppers to avoid the purchasing of violent games in the coming month, referring to their potentially harmful effect on minors.

It is vitally important that parents and grandparents consider the content in video games before making holiday purchases, said Yee. There is mounting evidence that ultraviolent video games have negative effects on children, and can cause real behavioral changes.

Yee cited a Common Sense Media list of games to specifically avoid, which includes:

• Manhunt
• Resident Evil 4 & 5
• Dead Rising
• Grand Theft Auto IV & San Andreas
• God of War II
• Mortal Kombat: Deception
• MadWorld
• Gears of War
• Saints Row 2.

The Effects Of Pornography On Individuals, Marriage, Family And Community

The study, authored by Pat Fagan, Ph.D., FRC's senior fellow and director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion, is actually a selective review of a number of articles, studies and research done over the years.

Pornography is a visual representation of sexuality which distorts an individual's concept of the nature of conjugal relations. This, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to individual happiness. In undermining marriage it is one of the factors in undermining social stability.

Social scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects.

• Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Wives notice and are upset by the difference.
• Pornography use is a pathway to infidelity and divorce, and is frequently a major factor in these family disasters.
• Among couples affected by one spouse's addiction, two-thirds experience a loss of interest in sexual intercourse.
• Both spouses perceive pornography viewing as tantamount to infidelity.
• Pornography viewing leads to a loss of interest in good family relations.
   
• Pornography is addictive, and neuroscientists are beginning to map the biological substrate of this addiction.
• Users tend to become desensitized to the type of pornorgraphy they use, become bored with it, and then seek more perverse forms of pornography.
• Men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity.
• Prolonged consumption of pornography by men produces stronger notions of women as commodities or as sex objects.
• Pornography engenders greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to a greater risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs. These, in turn, lead to still more weaknesses and debilities.
• Child-sex offenders are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved in its distribution.
   
• Many adolescents who view pornography initially feel shame, diminished self-confidence, and sexual uncertainty, but these feelings quickly shift to unadulterated enjoyment with regular viewing.
• The presence of sexually oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding community, leading to increases in crime and decreases in property values.
• The main defenses against pornography are close family life, a good marriage and good relations between parents and children, coupled with deliberate parental monitoring of Internet use. Traditionally, government has kept a tight lid on sexual traffic and businesses, but in matters of pornography that has waned almost completely, except where child pornography is concerned. Given the massive, deleterious individual, marital, family, and social effects of pornography, it is time for citizens, communities, and government to reconsider their laissez-faire approach.

The Catholic League has condemned Joanna Krupa's racy ads for PETA in which she lobbies against pet stores and animal breeding.

In the Be An Angel for Animals campaign, the Playboy model and Dancing with the Stars alum appears as a nude, winged angel: in one, she holds a strategically placed crucifix; in another, she holds her dog and a rosary.

The Catholic League, calling PETA animal killers and a fraud, says that the organization exploits Christian symbols with the new Krupa billboards.

Krupa fired back in a statement:  As a practicing Catholic, I am shocked that the Catholic League is speaking out against my PETA ads, which I am very proud of. I'm doing what the Catholic Church should be doing, working to stop senseless suffering of animals, the most defenseless of god's creation.

The Duchess of Cornwall has spoken of her concern over the effect on young people of music videos supposedly glorifying sex and violence.

Speaking to victims of rape and sexual abuse at a rape crisis centre in London, Camilla was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: A lot of those videos are terrifying. I am sure they trigger a response in some of the young people. I can never understand how they get away with making those things.

The topic of Beyonce's controversial video for her song Video Phone arose during the conversation. In the video, which also features the unconventional Lady GaGa, Beyonce dances semi-naked while brandishing toy guns at bare-chested men wearing hoods over their faces.

It has happened too quickly, values have changed so much, Camilla said; I suppose it's peer pressure, that's the problem. You don't want to look the odd one out. But it takes a strong person to show that they don't approve, especially at that age. It's a breakdown of discipline. There doesn't seem to be any punishment for such behaviour. The teachers are too kind.

Church nutters have accused the video game  Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles of promoting the occult

Bishop Bryant of Jarrow, Archdeacon Brian Smith and Rt Rev John Goddard have all accused the game of promoting such interests amongst the UK's youth, with the latter stating: If we dabble in this area we open ourselves to influences and put ourselves at risk. I would regard any encouragement for children to be drawn into this behaviour with extreme horror.

Publisher Capcom spokesperson Leo Tan, however, is less convinced about the proposed risk: This is scaremongering and typical religious hysteria. You cannot blame society's ills on video games. It's just absurd.

Most games (and movies) like Resident Evil show characters fighting evil not supporting it. Unfortunately the clergy is showing a lack of understanding of the video games industry and is too quick to splash the holy water and lump video games players into stereotypical boxes.

Are the parents sitting on the MPAA's ratings board out of their minds?

This is not a rhetorical question, because the answer is Yes, they are if they honestly believe that the stab em, rip 'em, slice 'em, dice 'em, martial arts exploitation action film Ninja Assassin doesn't qualify as an adults-only movie.

In the opening sequence of James McTeigue's high-velocity, gleefully gory experience, a ninja assassin wipes out a room full of scoffing ruffians. Heads explode in crimson showers. Body parts fall to the floor. It takes one man a few seconds before he realizes he's been neatly sliced in half, the long way. One half of him can only watch in horror as his other half slides to the floor.

Ninja Assassin isn't just one constant blood geyser. It's the Old Faithful of blood geysers.

That Ninja Assassin would merit a mere R rating shows just how the MPAA's Ratings Board has abandoned its responsibility to properly advise and warn American parents about the increasingly frank and explicit nature of today's movies.

The New Zealand nutter organisation, Family First, is calling for higher standards concerning violent and sexual content in the media, as a first step towards tackling family violence.

It is White Ribbon Day, which the Families Commission describes as aiming to raise awareness of men's violence against women.

However, Family First says the anti-violence message contained in campaigns such as It's not OK is being undermined by violence in the media, a lax approach to pornography and the sexualisation of children in marketing which are normalising unacceptable behaviour.

Director Bob McCoskrie says the use of violence against women as the punch line in comedies such as Family Guy and American Dad also trivialises the seriousness of the issue. McCoskrie says it is clear broadcasting and advertising standards need to be tightened up.

Video games depicting war have come under nutter fire for flouting laws governing armed conflicts.

Nutter rights groups played various games to see if any broke humanitarian laws that govern what is a war crime.

The study condemned the games for violating laws by letting players kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings.

It said game makers should work harder to remind players about the real world limits on their actions.

The study was carried out by two Swiss nutter rights organisations - Trial and Pro Juventute. Staff played the games in the presence of lawyers skilled in the interpretation of humanitarian laws.

Twenty games were scrutinised to see if the conflicts they portrayed and what players can do in the virtual theatres of war were subject to the same limits as in the real world.

The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is... astonishing, said the study.

Army of Two, Call of Duty 5, Far Cry 2 and Conflict Desert Storm were among the games examined. those who violate international humanitarian law end up as war criminals, not as winners Trial/ Pro Juventute

The testers looked for violations of the Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocols which cover war should be waged. In particular, the testers looked for how combatants who surrendered were treated, what happened to citizens caught up in war zones and whether damage to buildings was proportionate.

Some games did punish the killing of civilians and reward strategies that tried to limit the damage the conflict, said the study. However, it said, many others allowed protected objects such as churches and mosques to be attacked; some depicted interrogations that involved torture or degradation and a few permitted summary executions.

It noted that, even though most players would never become real world combatants, the games could influence what people believe war is like and how soldiers conduct themselves in the real world. It said games were sending an erroneous message that conflicts were waged without limits or that anything was acceptable in counter-terrorism operations.

Jim Rossignol, who writes on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, said: Perhaps what this research demonstrates is that the researchers misunderstand what games are, and how they are treated, intellectually, by the people who play them.

The latest movie in vampire saga Twilight is a deviant moral vacuum, the Vatican said.

New Moon, which opens in Britain today, is a mixture of excesses aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element, a spokesman added.

Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council of Culture, said: Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office.

This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern.

Hollywood's latest doomsday offering 2012 has caused a storm in Indonesia, with conservative clerics condemning it as a provocation against Islam.

Screenings have been sold out across the capital Jakarta following the film's success in North America.

But while most viewers said they had enjoyed the film's apocalyptic vision of life after December 21, 2012, when the fulfilment of a Mayan prophecy sees the Earth engulfed by catastrophe, senior clerics were deeply troubled.

The country's top Islamic body, the National Council of Ulema (MUI), is divided over whether or not to issue a fatwa or religious edict against the film. One local branch has already done so, to little apparent effect.

The controversial things about the film are, first, in Islam doomsday should not be visualised or predicted, it's the secret of God, council chairman Amidhan told AFP: For the common people, the portrayal of doomsday in this film could distort their faith -- that's what I'm worried about.

He also complained that the film showed mosques being destroyed but not churches, despite sequences depicting the Vatican collapsing and Rio de Janeiro's monumental Christ the Redeemer statue crumbling to pieces.

The film shows that everything including Kaaba (Islam holiest shrine) and mosques were devastated except for churches. The film is a provocation against Islam, Amidhan said: The Indonesian film censorship body should have cut part of the scene on the devastation of mosques or the Kaaba because it hurts the Muslim people.

In a recent radio interview, Labour MP Keith Vaz again had a whinge at video games:

If you look to the packaging of an 18-rated videogame, it's [the size of] a tiny 10p coin. What it should be is the same as cigarettes - it should be splashed across the front: This has the potential to damage your health - and that is not happening.

Vaz indicated that he would like to see 18+ rated games sectioned off at retail and put in their own section. Parents who buy games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for their kids who are under the age of 18 are psychologically damaging their children added Vaz.

When it comes to keeping violent games out of the hands of children, Vaz put the onus on parents, before noting that he didn't really know what games his own 14-year old son was playing, I have a son who is 14 years of age - I don't know what games he looks at, but I shall ensure that in future I will look at the covers, to make sure that these games are not over the age of 18.

The Big Questions on BBC 1 Sunday Morning?

Their first discussion was about the evils of computer games, they had Miranda Suit from Media March on there putting forward anecdotal evidence and personal opinion as fact.

There was a few gamers on there defending their hobby, but overall it seemed the pro-censorship lot were making a bigger noise.

From the BBC:

Nicky Campbell presents The Big Questions live from the Grace Academy, Solihull. Contributing their views are comedian Stephen K Amos, journalist and Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, and the Right Reverend Stephen Lowe, the former bishop of Hulme.

Update: Modern Warfare: Nutters vs Gamers

17th November 2009. Based on article from mcvuk.com

Activision's Modern Warfare 2 was heavily criticised by UK religious leaders from across the belief spectrum on BBC One yesterday.

Chief executive of the London Jewish Forum Alex Goldberg told presenter Nicky Campbell and the studio audience:

Surely this [scene] puts the gamer in the position of being a terrorist? The whole plot here is that it's a military commander – whatever – who doesn't want to blow his cover, so he blows up innocent civilians. We're asking gamers to be put in that situation. Article continues below

We fudge this issue about children time and time again throughout this debate. Let's face it – it's children playing this game. In the Holy scriptures, when Cain kills Abel, God asks him one question: Are you your brother's keeper? The rest of the bible is an answer to that – and it's a big yes. When I play this game I don't get that answer – I get upset.

Fazan Mohammed of the British Muslim Forum added:

You can't equate it with watching TV or a movie or reading a book. This is a much more intimate experience. You're mentally playing out the effects of violence. A lot of people make the excuse that this is sport – that it's just entertainment. But Joseph Goebbels – the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany – said his entertainment did more for the German people, in terms of creating the psyche for war and hostility towards others, than the speeches of Adolf Hitler. The idea this is entertainment is not justification whatsoever.

And the retired Bishop of Hulme, the Rt. Reverend Stephen Lowe – himself a proud fan of World Of Warcraft – said that the airport scene should have been cut out by the BBFC. He commented:

If you are in that role, which is a terrorist in a game killing other people with massive violence coming back at you on the screen, and [you're getting a] thrill from that, I think that's actually sick. We need to sort that out.

I don't think it should be in a game, because gaming for me is not about that sort of process. When I was young, [society was] worried about horror comics – because they were going to pollute the minds of young people and make them violent. This is very different from that; this is taking on the role of a terrorist in a way that relates to the news – what we actually see on our [TV] screens. That is fundamentally different. It somehow says: 'Maybe this is all right.' It isn't.

Other critics of the game that appeared on the show included Miranda Suit of anti-obscenity pressure group Mediamarch, who called for better regulation of violent video games.

New Zealand's RadioLive host Michael Laws has slammed the release of record-breaking videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and made a homophobic attack on the chief censor.

He talked about the game during the opening editorial of his radio show last Thursday – specifically, the controversial segment in which players go undercover to infiltrate a terrorist group and carry out an attack on civilians at an airport.

An outraged and misinformed Mr Laws exclaimed: Gamers are a very unusual group of people. If mass murder was ever to be committed in this country, it would be committed by a gamer.

Despite stating the game was restricted as an R18 item, Laws asked his listeners: Is this what we want for our kids? A glorification of the killing of innocent people by terrorists?

Laws questioned New Zealand's chief censor Bill Hastings' decision to allow the game to be sold in New Zealand and made special mention of his sexual preference. I know the gay guy we've got at the moment who is the Chief Censor Bill Hastings is a liberal sort of guy, said Laws. I don't care if he lets gay sex through because, well, that's what he enjoys watching in a darkened room somewhere and thinks everybody else of his ilk should be able to do so as well.

My View by Vivienne Pattison, Head Of Mediawatch-UK

There are numerous studies linking exposure to violence in entertainment with violent behaviour. Vivienne Pattison

Bearing in mind the cost to society - and the misery of the victims of violent behaviour - if there is the slightest possibility that violent games can cause harm, is this worth the risk?

We know that violent games with 18 Certificates are being played by children.

Do we really want to find that we are training a new generation to be killers?

Olivia Recommends: True Blood

Channel 4's latest attempt to seduce us with a mixture of swearing and sex comes in the form of True Blood, the latest in the long line of sexually explicit, violent and vulgar programmes that have, sadly, become the norm on British television.

True Blood is a shocking tale of depravity, explicit sexuality (bordering on pornography) and vile language.

Even before the opening credits have rolled in the first episode, we see a young woman pleasuring a young man while driving her car.

The plot is lazily set up at the outset via a television broadcast of a lady vampire informing us that since scientists have found a way to make artificial human blood, vampires no longer represent a threat to society.

As the tale unfolds, we learn there has been a horrifying reversal of events and that some humans, known as vampire drainers, like to drink the blood of vampires as it increases their strength, sexual appetite and performance.

The programme is full of others with fantastical powers. Set in Louisiana, there's the telepathic waitress, Sookie, and the shapeshifter Sam. Then there are the fang-bangers - humans who like having sex with vampires - and the drug dealers.

More offensive than all this is the sheer distasteful nature of the content. There's oral sex, overt discussion of genitalia, graphic sex scenes bordering on the deviant, and foul language.

It's animalistic, violent, corrupt and scary, and it airs on Channel 4 at 10pm on Wednesdays.

Comment: Foul

10th November 2009. From Alan

Nice to see the Daily Mail being so consistent about the evils of swearing, particularly as the editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, is known to his subordinates as "the vagina monologue" on account of the frequency with which he uses the C-word around the office.

Cartoons should be given movie-style age ratings to protect children from the violence shown in programmes such as Scooby Doo and Batman, a child safety 'expert' has warned.

Dr Karen Pfeffer, a senior lecturer at Lincoln University, said that risky behaviour which would normally lead to injury is rarely shown to have negative consequences in cartoons.

She claims to have found evidence that there children who watch violent programmes are more likely to engage in risky behaviour and injure themselves.

Dr Pfeffer, who is also an international mentor for the World Health Organisation, will address the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents this week and call for children's television programmes, particularly live action programmes, to carry ratings for parents to make informed choices for their children.

Among the programmes she deemed to contain the most risky behaviour were Scooby-Doo, Batman, X-Men and Ben 10.

I have looked at whether television's portrayal of risky behaviour affects children and have found evidence of children imitating dangerous TV behaviours, evidence of a positive correlation between amount of TV viewing and injury rates and evidence that TV viewing can affect children's perceptions of risk, she said.

TV provides dangerous role models for children, especially boys. It is recommended that children's television programmes, particularly live action programmes, include ratings for parents on the portrayal of injury content. This would assist parents to make informed decisions.

Dr Pfeffer's paper, Risk and injury portrayal in boys' and girls' favourite television programmes, will be published later this month.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the latest in a series of first-person war games, features bloody conflict. It is so realistic that at some points a warning offers players the option to skip scenes.

In the course of the ten hours or so the game will take to complete in solo mode, the player will assume a variety of roles in a global war against Russian ultranationalists led by Vladimir Makarov.

One of the most controversial of these is an episode in which a character must choose whether to kill unarmed civilians in a Russian airport to infiltrate a terrorist group successfully.

The scene is 'so shocking' that Activision, the game's distributor, issued a statement. At the beginning of the game, there are two 'checkpoints' where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can't be disabled, it said. Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes.

Nutters, however, have accused Activision of being disingenuous. Warnings of extreme content had a strong appeal to younger players, they said.

Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East, told The Times: I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks. Whilst I appreciate that this game has been certified as an 18, I firmly believe that certain levels of violence should not be made into interactive entertainment. This would include acting as a terrorist, as is the case here, or violence against women. I will be raising this issue in Parliament on Monday.

On this latest South Park episode, called The F-Word, the kids decide that they will change the meaning of the word fag so that it will be used as a slur against burly, inconsiderate motorcyclists who ride loud Harley-Davidson bikes instead of against gay people.

The children's casual and frequent use of the word, which was broadcast unbleeped, offends adults and several gay characters on the show. But after the town learns the etymology of the word faggot (which began use as a derisive term for old women) and gains the approval of a dictionary official, their new meaning for the word is accepted.

But the episode did not sit easy with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an advocacy group that monitors issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in the media. In a news release issued on Thursday night, the group asks for Comedy Central and the South Park staff to apologize for what it calls a slur-filled episode.

In a statement, GLAAD officials said they recognized that the episode was attempting to use edgy humor to provide commentary on current issues. They added: Yet despite what the South Park writers may believe, the definition of the F-word remains one that is harmful and derogatory to the LGBT community.

The statement says that the epithet remains a hateful slur that is often part of the harassment, bullying and violence that gay people, and gay youth in particular, experience on a daily basis in this country. It is an epithet that has real consequences for real people's lives.

300 protesters have held a candlelit protest outside a Glasgow theatre over the staging of a play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual.

The protest was held outside the Tron Theatre, where Jesus, Queen of Heaven, in which Christ is a transsexual woman, is being staged.

The play is part of the Glasgay! arts festival which celebrates Scotland's homosexual, lesbian, bi-sexual and transsexual culture. Festival organisers said there was no intention to incite or offend anyone. According to publicity for the show, it presents her sayings, her miracles and her testimony as the daughter of God.

The Christian protesters gathered outside the theatre ahead of the opening night on Tuesday, singing hymns and waving placards saying, Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven, and God: My Son Is Not A Pervert [even if many of my priests are!].

The play, which runs until Saturday, is written and performed by Jo Clifford, a transsexual playwright.

A skip has been put here to collect videogames: Killerspiele, the name given to violent games by Germany's tabloid press.

Midway through the day, a cameraman from a local television station clambers over the skip's side. He needs a compelling shot for the piece that will run tonight, a story about how swathes of Germany's youths have seen the error of their hobby and brought their perilous playthings to this public burning. Crouching on its floor, he angles the camera upwards, while a young boy in a beanie and a puffer jacket leans over and hurls a copy of Grand Theft Auto in with an echoic clack.

The cameraman captures the premeditated moment from this particular angle because any other would reveal the truth of the situation: the skip is otherwise empty. By the end of the day, that sealed copy of San Andreas will be joined by Def Jam: Fight for New York, OpenArena and Small Soldiers, a sorry clutch of ageing titles that represent the full extent of German gamers' ambivalence to this most uncomfortable stunt.

...Read the full article

The acclaimed hindu sound byte leader is calling on Indian censors to get tough on vulgarity and violence in Bollywood.

Strict religious heads have asked Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) officials to review India's Cinematograph Act over fears standards are slipping. Rajan Zed, the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, says, Seeing the continuous increase in the unnecessary vulgarity and violence in Indian films, it appears that the board has lost the sense of India's cultural milieu and is ignoring directions.

We are fully supportive of the artistic freedom and expression and we do not want any unnecessary censorship...BUT...we're highly concerned about the increasing presence of the explicit scenes in the movies which were there simply for mercantile greed, and have nothing to do with cinematic elements.

Zed has asked CBFC chairperson Sharmila Tagore to view the films as a regular Indian mother who was struggling to raise her children to become moraland successful citizens, and not as the mother whose children attend nightclubs and late-night parties.

He adds, The Cinematograph Act lays down that a film has to be certified keeping morality in mind, besides other things. Whatever happened to the CBFC guidelines for certification, like human sensibilities are not offended by vulgarity, obscenity or depravity?

The nutter campaign group, Morality in Media, have commissioned a survey by Harris Interactive.

The questions and overall breakdown of responses are as follows:

1. Viewing hardcore adult pornography on the Internet is morally acceptable

• 6%--Strongly agree
• 9%--Somewhat agree
• 13%--Somewhat disagree
• 63%--Strongly disagree
• 9%--Don't know

2. Viewing hardcore adult pornography on the Internet is, generally, harmless entertainment

• 7%--Strongly agree
• 11%--Somewhat agree
• 11%--Somewhat disagree
• 63%--Strongly disagree
• 8%--Don't know

Overall, women are more likely than men to disagree with each statement (morally acceptable - 85% women vs. 66% men; harmless entertainment - 82% women vs. 64% men).

Morality in Media president Robert Peters had the following comments:

There is a perception held by many that hardcore adult pornography has become acceptable in American society. But the perception is false. This is not to say that there isn't a market for hardcore adult pornography. There is. But what primarily fuels the market is sexual addiction, not casual viewing. Furthermore, just because a person experiments with this material or on occasion succumbs to the temptation to view it does not mean he approves of what is viewed or of all pornography, especially when online hardcore adult pornographers often promote their products aggressively and deceptively.

In Hamling v. United States, the Supreme Court recognized that the mere fact that hardcore adult pornographic materials are available in the nation or in a community does not 'make them witnesses of virtue' or prove that similar materials at issue in a criminal obscenity trial are acceptable under community standards and therefore legal to disseminate.

In Miller v. California, the Supreme Court also stated: 'This much has been categorically settled by the Court, that obscene material is unprotected by the First Amendment.' The Miller Court went on to define 'obscene' in a manner intended to restrict the reach of obscenity laws to 'hard-core' pornography. Today, most adult pornography distributed commercially is 'hardcore.'

It is unfortunate that so little has been done at the Federal level to curb distribution of hardcore adult pornography. Under President Clinton, the Justice Department turned its back to the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography on the Internet. Under President Bush, the Justice Department said the right things but failed to implement policies to get the job done. It remains to be seen whether the Obama administration will enforce federal obscenity laws.

Children's lobby nutters are calling on the Australian government to review its decision to classify as suitable for 15-year-olds an upcoming video game that allows players to assume the role of a terrorist and shoot innocent civilians in an airport.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a highly realistic shooter title due for release on November 10, is one of the most anticipated games of the year. Its predecessor, Modern Warfare, sold more than 14 million copies worldwide and garnered a slew of game of the year awards.

But the game has sparked nutter controversy after leaked footage revealed that, in one of the missions, players can join a group of Russian ultranationalist terrorists and massacre civilians with assault weapons in an airport. The mission effectively simulates a terrorist attack from a first-person view.

Jane Roberts, president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, called on the Classification Board to review its rating decision. She said even if the game maintained an MA15+ rating it would still be easily accessible by people under 15.

The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that's meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against, said Roberts, who is also the principal policy officer in Western Australia's Department of Premier and Cabinet.

We understand that it's a game but ... we're not far off when you look at the images that you could actually put it on a Channel Nine news report and you'd think maybe that is real.

Activision, the game's publisher, and its lawyers, have been working frantically to remove all traces of the footage from the web, arguing that it was released illegally before the game had come out. But the company has confirmed the footage is authentic and that the mission is part of the game.

Nicholas Suzor, spokesman for the lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said the incident highlighted the need for an R18+ rating for video games. But he did not believe a video game could breed terrorism. He said previous games such as Counter-Strike have allowed players to assume the role of terrorists.

Films often show the villain's perspective and, by doing that, they get across the character's story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories. We may make an argument that these sorts of topics are not suitable for children, but I don't at all accept that it is unsuitable for adults.

Comedian Larry David is under attack from critics who say he pushed the mocking of religion and Christian belief in miracles over the edge in the latest episode of his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, which the cable network defended as playful.

On the show's most recent installment, David urinates on a painting of Jesus Christ, causing a woman to believe the painting depicts Jesus crying.

Deal Hudson, author and publisher of InsideCatholic.com, said he doesn't find any humor in the episode. I don't think it's funny, Hudson told Foxnews.com. Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions -- Jewish or Muslim -- there'd be a huge outcry. It's simply not a level playing field.

Somebody should [apologize], Hudson said. When is it going to stop? When is common sense going to dictate that people realize this willingness of artists to do to Christianity what they would never do to Judaism or Islam?

In a statement to Foxnews.com, HBO downplayed the controversy.

Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody and satire, the statement read. Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.

During Sunday's episode, David, who created, wrote and produced Seinfeld, visits a bathroom in his assistant's home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus. Instead of wiping it off, David leaves the restroom. Minutes later, David's assistant enters the bathroom and concludes that Jesus is crying. She then summons her mother to the bathroom, where both women kneel in prayer.

The episode, The Bare Midriff, primarily revolves around David's assistant and her belly-revealing attire. According to the show's Web site, a new pill increased David's urine flow, leading to the misunderstanding about a miraculously weeping Jesus.

HBO promoted the controversial scene on the show's site, complete with a squirm-o-meter that ranked the urine incident ahead of David's confronting his assistant about her exposed midriff.

The nutters of Morality in Media are gearing up for its annual White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week.

WRAP is a Religious Right group's efforts to publicize what it sees as the harms of pornography. Led by the Morality in Media (MIM), the movement hopes to escalate enforcement of obscenity laws and put behind bars adult entertainment operators like Goldman, who faces a federal jury over an eight-count indictment on obscenity charges.

The group is distributing WRAP ribbons through Sunday and is promoting letter-writing campaigns to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

MIM President Robert Peters said Monday that there is a breakdown over enforcement of hardcore movies, and that he hopes that more adult entertainment operators leave the business altogether.

While enforcement of obscenity laws is not the whole answer to the pornography problem, vigorous enforcement will put many hardcore pornographers out of business and encourage others to get or stay out, Peters said. It will also send the message that pornography is a moral and social evil. Youth especially need to hear this message.

Peters blamed a fueled-up proliferation of adult material on the Internet for much of today's societal ills: It is clear that the explosion of hardcore pornography on the Internet and elsewhere is fueling this moral crisis. The Supreme Court has held that obscenity laws can be enforced against 'hardcore pornography,' and these days most commercially distributed pornography is 'hardcore.'

Meanwhile, Barry Goldman faces trial tomorrow at U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., over his efforts selling DVDs through TorturePortal.com.

Two weeks before American star Beyonce Knowles is scheduled to hold her first ever concert in Egypt, an Islamist MP publicly blasted the government for accepting to host the event and accused the government of violating Sharia law.

The pop star is set for a government-approved gig at the Red Sea resort of Port Ghalib, irking Muslim Brotherhood member Hamdi Hassan, who slammed the government for allowing a singer who appears naked in her clips to perform, which he said would spread vice. The government is trying to make people indulge in sin and licentiousness to cover up the other crimes it is committing against them, Hassan said in a parliament session.

Hassan highlighted what he called government double standards for refusing to allow an Islamic band that sings religious songs for children to enter the country.

Update: This is not Egypt.

7th November 2009. See article from google.com

A group on social networking site Facebook opposing Beyonce's concert has attracted nearly 10,000 members.

One poster displayed on the site, showing the silhouette of a curvacious woman with a diagonal red line through it, was entitled This is not Egypt.

The International Nanny Association (INA) is whingeing at the upcoming Electronic Arts game Dante's Inferno.

The game features Bad Nanny rewards for players who slaughter a yet undetermined number of unbaptized infants, leading INA to say that the game component was created out of poor taste and bad judgment.

INA is opposed to video games that promote and encourage players to kill babies, even in fantasy play. It is our opinion that this type of play may promote violence towards children. The name of the trophy or achievement, Bad Nanny, is offensive to our association in that we strive to promote and educate the public regarding the selfless work nannies do to support families by providing quality in-home child care.

INA urged its members to email the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) with concerns and complaints.

A movement to make porn films condom-only is sure to gain further traction as two groups plan to protest the Marriott hotel chain.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Pink Cross Foundation claim Marriott acts as a middleman in selling condom-less porn productions because it makes millions from the pay-per-view lineup it offers in its hotel rooms.

The groups are planning a Porn In at the downtown Los Angeles Marriott. They also will announce a viral and print ad campaign for a hotel boycott.

They will protest in front of the Figueroa Street Marriott with banners and three-foot wide condoms. Later, a press conference will be held in a hotel room with streaming porn on the room's flat screen.

Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said that until he gets a commitment from Marriott officials to block condomless adult films to their hotel guests he will urge a public boycott of the entire Marriott chain, which pencils out to about 3,000.

We want to highlight the brazen hypocrisy — the Mormon Marriott's moral masquerade — of such a so-called family oriented hotel chain profiteering off adult films that endanger the lives of the performers acting in them, Weinstein said.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has taken a stand after an adult performer tested positive for HIV several months ago.

US singer Beyonce has postponed a planned concert in Malaysia following accusations by Islamic conservatives that the show would be immoral.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party called for the show in Kuala Lumpur to be scrapped because it would promote Western sexy performances.

Organisers said the concert, which was due to be held on 25 October, would be postponed to a future date.

The postponement is solely [the] decision of the artiste and has nothing to do with other external reasons, organisers Marctensia said in a statement.

Last month, Marctensia addressed concerns the singer might wear inappropriate outfits, saying all parties have come to an amicable understanding about stage costumes.

Female performers at Malaysian concerts are required by government rules to cover up from the shoulders to knees, with no cleavage showing.

Attacking someone for being fat should be a hate crime, campaigners say.

They want so-called fat-ism to be made illegal on the same grounds as race, age and religious discrimination.

A demonstration was held outside the offices of the mayor of London asking him to lead the way in making sure employers are not prejudiced.

Protesters want the UK to follow San Francisco, where a law bans fat-ism in housing and employment and stops doctors pressing patients to slim down.

Sondra Solway, a San Francisco lawyer, said: The San Francisco ordinance says you may want to mention weight to the patient but if the patient says they do not want to talk about that then you are asked to respect those wishes.

People who are very overweight do experience a lot of prejudice both in their social life and working life and do need some protection. Dr Ian Campbell, Weight Concern

The campaigners, who belong to the Size Acceptance Movement, say surveys show 93% of employers would rather employ a thin person than a fat one even if they are equally qualified.

A German nutter group has organized an event designed to get participants to bring their violent video games, tagged killer games, to in order to dispose of them in a trash can.

Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden, or Action Alliance (loosely translated), has setup the event for this Saturday, October 17 in front of the Stuttgart State Opera. One game tosser will win a signed jersey from the German national soccer team.

The Action Alliance is made up, at least partially, of the parents of children slain earlier this year at the awful school shooting incident in Winnenden, Germany, which claimed 16 lives.

Update: Rubbish Idea

20th October 2009. Based on article from gamepolitics.com

The Killer Game Drive put on by Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden over this past weekend appears to have been a failure.

The group was attempting to get people to come and toss killer games into a dumpster, and, well, while the Action Alliance did have a huge, graffiti-laden repository, let's just say that it probably didn't take them hours to empty it.

From pictures posted online of the event, it appears that just three games made it into the dumpster: a copy of Grand Theft Auto, Small Soldiers for the Game Boy Advance and one other unknown title.

A sexually illustrated Book of Genesis by subversive artist Robert Crumb, which depicts Bible characters having intercourse, has predictably been condemned by religious groups.

The book, which is released this month, carries the warning adult supervision recommended for minors, and is described as scandalous satire by its publishers.

Crumb has said he does not believe that the Bible is the word of God. I take it all for myth from start to finish, with probably some faint relation to historical reality. They're great stories. But for people to take texts as something sacred, handed down from God... that's pretty backward, I think.

It is turning the Bible into titillation, said Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute, a religious think-tank. It seems wholly inappropriate for what is essentially God's rescue plan for mankind. If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves. Representing it in your own way is all very well and good but it must be remembered that it is a matter of people's faith, their religion. Faith is such an important part of people's lives that one must remember to tread very carefully.

A spokeswoman for the Bible Society said she hadn't seen the book but that reviews had suggested that Crumb had really engaged with the Book of Genesis. It may surprise people but the bible does contain nudity, sex and violence. That's because it contains real stories about real people. If by reading the book people are encouraged to re-engage with the Bible then that can only be a good thing.

As Antichrist approaches its US theatrical release date it has predictably been making waves amongst the usual nutters.

The Christian media ministry MovieGuide is inviting people concerned about the film's 'gruesome and graphic' content to join a petition of the MPAA to rate the movie NC-17, which would not only prevent children from viewing the film, but also dissuade many theaters from showing it.

Coming to your local theater Oct. 23 is a movie that I can only call the most horrific movie ever seen, writes Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission. It's called Antichrist, and it's filled with a wicked worldview, vile pornographic scenes, onscreen mutilation of private parts and some other material which I simply cannot describe to you in a family publication.

We cannot stop this movie, he continues, but we have a strategy which we believe will be the next best thing.

MovieGuide's petition explains three reasons why an NC-17 rating, rather than an R rating for the film, would limit the number of people – especially children – exposed to the movie:

• An R rated movie easily makes its way to the cinema in your local neighborhood. Thankfully, many local cinemas still won't show the movie if it's NC-17.
   
• An R-rated movie stands a chance to make more money than NC-17, and this will only encourage some producers in Hollywood to make more vile movies like this.
   
• And most importantly, children under 17 cannot get into movies with an NC-17 rating, unlike R-rated movies, which admit them.

According to MovieGuide's review of the film, William Defoe's newest effort includes demonic activity, full nudity and graphic on-screen depictions of sex, sadomasochism, sexual mutilation with both a block of wood and a pair of scissors, child abuse, and violent animal acts.

Antichrist is the wicked story of a married couple's plunge into occult darkness as they try to grieve the loss of their son, the review states. This movie wallows in evil and contains extremely graphic pornographic sexual scenes, much occult content and extreme sadomasochistic violence, making it a movie to avoid.

If the world had standards, this movie would be Triple X and banned, states the site's review of the film. As it is, we are issuing our strongest warning not to see it, and to complain to the MPAA for allowing a movie like this to come to theaters near you.

The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina is on the loose.

Here is what they got planned for Halloween:

Halloween Book Burning

Burning Perversions of God's Word

Oct. 31, 2009, 7pm

Great Preaching and Singing

Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan's bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect.

These are perversions of God's Word, the King James Bible.We will also be burning Satan's music such as country , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.

We will also be burning Satan's popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort, Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham Rick Warren Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.

We are not burning Bibles written in other languages that are based on the TR. We are not burning the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva or other translations that are based on the TR.

Our Scriptural Bases For Burning

The Scriptural bases for what we are doing each year is found in Acts 19:18-20 "And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."

A US nutter group is slamming 7-Eleven for choosing to stock the November issue of Playboy, which will feature cartoon character Marge Simpson on the cover.

Most American dads know the dangers that porn represents to young males, American Family Association Special Projects Director Randy Sharp said in a press release. It's irresponsible of 7-Eleven to display porn in front of boys who pop into 7-11s for a hot dog or a Slurpee.

The Telegraph recently reported, Despite being on the front cover, Marge will not be totally bare, with the magazine only featuring 'implied nudity.'

The move is a sign of changes to come from new CEO Scott Flanders. The Marge Simpson centerfold is obviously somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Flanders said in an interview: It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual.

Just days before the release of the new movie Agora by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, nutters are denouncing the film for promoting hatred of Christians and reinforcing false clichés about the Catholic Church.

The president of the Religious Anti-Defamation Observatory, Antonio Alonso Marcos, has sent an open letter to Amenabar denouncing the film's anti-Christian bias.

The reason for my letter is to make you realize something that you already know but have dismissed as unimportant: your film is going to awaken hatred against Christians in today's society. You present a biased view of the relationship between science and the Church, between faith and reason. It has been pointed out to you directly and indirectly, and you have used a somewhat vague excuse and looked the other way, Marcos wrote.

Marcos reminded Amenabar of the comments made by people who have already seen a private screening of the film and which Amenabar himself echoed during a television interview. During the interview he said, At the end of the film, people sitting near me said Christians are bunch of SOBs: This has been and will be the reaction of the public in general, and you know it, Marcos said in his letter. Is that what you were looking for? To throw manure on an institution that today helps millions of human beings to live and enjoy life to the fullest? he asked the director.

In response to Amenabar's statements that the film is not against Christians but rather against those who set off bombs and kill in the name of God, that is, against religious fanatics, Marcos wondered why the director has not recreated situations like those that take place in the Middle East.

Agora, which stars Rachel Weisz, is an epic film that recounts the story of Hipatia, a pagan woman who was killed for her political beliefs. According to some Spanish media, the film has yet to find a distributor in the United States because of its strong anti-Christian bias.

Nutters are urging councils to bar horror film Saw VI as 'concerns mount' over its grisly content.

The certificate 18 movie, which has shocking scenes of murder and torture, is set for release at Halloween.

However local authorities are able to block films and Tory MP Julian Brazier has urged them to ban Saw VI.

He said: The British Board of Film Classification is passing more and more violent films.

But councils do have the power to ban such films and I welcome any taking this tough line.

Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch, called for tighter controls. She said: Studies link exposure to film violence with violent behaviour. If there is the slightest chance that media violence can cause harm, is it worth the risk?

[always worth considering parallels with religion. Studies link exposure to religion with violent behaviour. If there is the slightest chance that religion can cause harm, is it worth the risk?]

But Sue Clark of the BBFC said: We believe adults should be free to choose their own entertainment.

The Archbishop of York has condemned the glamourisation of prostitution as a middle-class trade.

Dr John Sentamu attacked the books and television programme based on the character Belle de Jour, a high-end London call girl, for misleading the public over the reality of prostitution.

He said that the lifestyle portrayed in the works was in stark contrast to the suffering endured by the majority of women involved in the sex trade: There is a myth that has been perpetuated in recent years that many people who prostitute themselves do so not because they are being oppressed or desperate for money, but because they see it as an easy way to make money through a relatively 'safe' and lucrative career, he said.

Archbishop Sentamu continued: We are meant to believe that these sex workers are independent women, empowered by the hold they have over men, who sell their bodies for money but who treat it like any other day job. This attitude can be evidenced by the popularity of books and television programmes such as The Secret Diary of A Call Girl, where the heroine, Belle du Jour, a high-end call-girl, has two very distinct lives.

His comments come on the eve of a vote in the House of Lords on laws proposed in the Police and Crime Bill that are designed to tackle prostitution. The archbishop expressed concern that there are moves to weaken the legislation.

He urged for the inclusion of a new offence proposed in the Bill targeting men with court action if they use prostitutes who have been trafficked, are controlled by pimps or are working for drug dealers.

Hindus are concerned regarding upcoming Hollywood blockbuster Avatar

Expressing concern at the forthcoming blockbuster Hollywood movie Avatar, Hindus have urged its famed director James Cameron to be careful when handling Hindu concepts and terminology.

Hindu sound bite nutter, Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada, said that avatar was one of the central themes of Hinduism and insensitive handling of faith traditions sometimes results in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols and hurting the devotees.

A protest by Muslim clerics torpedoed a Brazilian samba show in the Lebanese city of Tire, local officials said.

A statement by the clerics condemned plans for the open-air display by a dance troupe that has been touring Lebanon.

We support tourism...BUT...are against obscenity, said Sheikh Ali Yassin, who heads a group of clerics in the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim city.

The local council responded by cancelling the show after consulting politicians and security officials, officials said.

The troupe, including musicians and scantily clad dancers, performed in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square last week.

Anti-video game nutter Jack Thompson is suing Facebook for $120 million, accusing the social website of causing him emotional distress by not removing threatening comments posted by gamers.

Thompson is best known for his ludicrous attempts to sue game makers over claims adult content in video games is directly responsible for acts of real-world violence. Last year, he was permanently disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court after it ruled he abused the legal system by submitting numerous, frivolous and inappropriate filings.

His ostentatious behavior both in court and as a talking head on news programs has also made him a subject of considerable anger and ridicule among gamers. In a lawsuit filed in Florida on August 29, Thompson said several user groups on Facebook are advocating physical harm against him.

There are literally hundreds of anti-Thompson groups on Facebook, usually with rude names but Thompson claims Facebook has allowed more insidious material to remain on the website, such as the user group Jack Thompson should be smacked across the face with an Atari 2600 and another that offers $50 to anyone who punches the former attorney in the face. The latter group has apparently been removed from Facebook since the filing.