US Sex Sells News

A traveller to the distinctly unfriendly Texas town of Crockett (which bills itself as The Cleanest, Friendliest City in Texas) fell victim to an unfriendly ban on sex toys.

For some reason the guy was targeted by county police, who asked if they could search his hotel room. The man, apparently being under the impression that he'd committed no crime, consented to the search.

They found a laptop bag containing 11 sex toys -- so they promptly busted him under Texas' Obscene Device Law which states, A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same.

Now, many people are under the impression that the legality of sex toys in Texas was settled back in February of 2008, when a US appeals court ruled that a ban on sex toys was unconstitutional. However, the promotion of obscene devices would remain illegal in 20 counties.

So while Alabama is now the only state with an official prohibition on selling or possessing sex toys, those planning to travel to Texas with their dildos or strokers might want to limit the selection they bring.

An era of adult television has come to an and, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times , which reported that the Time-Warner owned, pay cable network HBO has spent the summer, quietly and without fanfare, removing its once-prodigious library of erotic documentaries and entertainment programs from the network and the HBO streaming platforms, HBO Go and HBO Now.

Since the 1990s, HBO has produced and broadcast such series as the influential Real Sex , the Las Vegas brothel reality series Cathouse , and recurring instructional sex specials hosted by adult performer Katie Morgan.

But HBO has not produced new adult late night programs for several years, and now the network will no longer offer repeats or archived shows from its adult category either.

While HBO's new owner, the telecom giant AT&T, informed HBO employees earlier this year that it planned big changes for the network, the elimination of HBO's erotic fare, network execs told the Times , was not mandated by AT&T and in fact began well before the telecom conglomerate took over. The reason that HBO is ditching their late night lineup, according to what one spokesperson told the Times , is simply that HBO viewers have lost interest, most likely due to the proliferation of adult content online.

Update: Never enough

3rd September 2018. See  article from w2.parentstv.org

US moralists always want more. The Parents Television Council writes:

The Parents Television Council applauds HBO and its corporate parent, AT&T, for removing the pornographic content from its platform -- but urges AT&T to make the same move by removing X-rated pornographic content from DirecTV. PTC President Tim Winter whinged:

AT&T's HBO made a wise decision to remove pornographic content, even citing that 'there wasn't strong demand for this kind of adult programming.' While that is a huge positive step forward, the same logic should also extend to AT&T-owned DirecTV, which still offers hardcore pornographic content to subscribers.

How can a company that says it is built on responsibility continue to deliver and profit from pornography? How much does DirecTV porn really increase the earnings per share? Is this a reasonable tradeoff for a so-called responsible company?

Given that AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson was the 36th National President of the Boy Scouts, it's hard to reconcile that role with the DirecTV pornographic lineup. Are the explicit pornographic titles on DirecTV about grandmothers, mothers, or stepsisters what he wants his scouts to be thinking of?