The Jeff Booth Show

Internet Radio with Pictures

Show Transcripts

June 8th , 2008

You can contact us at:

Jeff@eroticuniversity.com

(818) 613-9248

This is the Jeff Booth Show for June 8th, 2008, brought to you by the Center for Sexual Expression and Education, and Erotic University. I’m Jeff Booth. We have our usual round-up of sex in the news dealing with politics, and in our Sexvestigation, we take a closer look at the link between abstinence education and lying, and how things just got even sleazier. We spent this weekend at Erotica L.A., the show in Los Angeles featuring adult stars, adult toys, sensuous products and other related items, and we got to chat with Mike and Lynn, a host couple with Dream Pleasure Tours. They tell us all about these couple only adventures, and how you can get away for one of the sexiest vacations you could possibly imagine. Just click on the topic to the left you want to listen to, and thanks for clicking in.

Sexvestigation

Abstinence promotion and honesty don’t seem to get along together too well. In fact, they seem to prefer to not even be in the same room. And maybe its contagious. That’s the only explanation I can think of for the bizarre actions of Kmart. They just got caught up in the same spirit of dishonesty.

It seemed the obvious place for abstinence- in your pants. And then Kmart lied about it. Here is the story- Kmart sells sweat pants with the True Love Waits slogan on them- a well-known slogan of the abstinence movement. When asked about it, the K-Mart representative could have said that they strongly support the idea that young people should abstain from sex until marriage and supports the use of fake and terrifying statistics and made up facts to scare the bejeepers out of them so that they are too frightened to have sex. But instead, the Kmart spokesperson said that the pants are not associated with any group or any cause, its just a graphic put on the pants. And I suppose that would be believable, it is possible they were simply unaware of the use of the slogan, except for one teeny tiny detail. Their own advertising.  Here is the KMart ad copy:  “Whether she is lounging around the house, going to practice, or doing her chores.  These soft athletic style crop pants will keep her comfy. Perfect for wearing with her favorite sweatshirt or t. These athletic pants boldly proclaim just where she stands by pointing out that true love waits in a large screen print on the front and the back.  Drawstring waist. Bold Abstinence screen print. “ So maybe the Kmart representative never read the ad about the bold abstinence print. Maybe it was because the ad was too subtle. Here is my suggestion for some new ad copy.  “When he is staring at your tight shapely little ass, he’ll clearly get the message that this is one set of pants he’ll never get into. Perfect for wearing with your “Generation Pure” sweatshirt and “I’m Saving It” panties.  And yes, those are also actual clothing items, but Kmart does not carry them, not yet at least. And I suspect there was no mistake. They were simply lying.

And just when you thought it could not get any more bizarre with the abstinence crowd- they have a new ally. An ally so expert in lying and misinformation and propaganda that they had a huge impact on a presidential election. That’s right, the folks behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are now on the abstinence bandwagon. The PR firm that created the Swift Boat ads is now creating campaigns for an organization called Parents for Truth, and you know when these folks use the word truth, they mean anything but.

It is tied in with the National Abstinence Education Association, which sort of does the opposite of education, if by education you mean learning stuff that is actually true. They use the same made up information we’ve talked about many times on this show, and if you thought that no one could be sleazier than the people behind the Swift Boat ads, you haven’t met the NAEA folks yet.

Meet Valerie Huber, their executive director. She was found guilty of Neglect of Duty when she worked at the Ohio Department of Health. She ran their abstinence program, and hired a vendor to do $100,000 worth of media work. Turns out, Cox Creative was registered by her, and she used her health department address. They are very tough in Ohio. She was penalized with a one day suspension- with pay. Most of us would call that a vacation day. Even though they found that she had lied to investigators, and mishandled purchase orders. That way there would have been minimal interference with her Christian based government funded program with conferences featuring anti-gay speakers. But lying is not a problem for Ohio authorities- they condoned her consistent use of misinformation and lies in the official materials she prepared supporting abstinence and attacking contraception and abortion. And you can’t really blame her for not getting her facts right. The Ohio Department of Health managed to hire someone who is not a health expert and has no training for the job. 

And meet Bruce Cook, an NAEA board member. As the Chairman of the Georgia State Department of Human Resources he used his public position to promote his private business, the abstinence-only program choosing the Best. Which wasn’t really the best choice, since it is riddled with lies and misinformation. But he had to pay for it somehow, which may be why he decided to cut funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs, and cut family planning funds leaving 64,000 women without services.

And allow me to also introduce LeAnna Benn, Board Director. Her profitable publicly funded abstinence program Teen-Aid  managed to teach not just misinformation about sex, but to also add doses of sexism, racism, and even classism. It told young people not to marry across class boundaries. They got their materials into schools using subterfuge, including made up statistics about their effectiveness. And the program has been introduced into classrooms despite teacher’s objections that the materials are poorly written and scientifically inaccurate.

Lying is to abstinence education as alcohol was to W.C. Fields. You just can’t imagine one without the other. And as sleazy and dishonest as the promoters of abstinence education materials tend to be, they have finally found true compatriots in teaming up with the people behind the Swift Boat ads.

News

Sam Nunn, the former powerful chairman of the Armed Forces Committee in the 1990’s, was the key impediment to Clinton’s ending the ban on gays in the military, which led to the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy which really didn’t change things that much. One thing that has changed is Sam Nunn. Speaking in Atlanta last week, he said “I think [when] 15 years go by on any personnel policy, it’s appropriate to take another look at it — see how it’s working, ask the hard questions, hear from the military. Start with a Pentagon study.” Any reasonable look would show that times have changed, and that gays and lesbians can and do serve honorably. Last month, Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen also said that the military was ready to accept gay service members if Congress repeals DADT. A December 2006 survey of service members who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” Things really are changing. And if gays are finally accepted, it will be interesting to see who the Christian Right turns their hatred on next.

And presidential candidate John McCain is reaching out to the gay community- to snub them. McCain will be appearing with country singer John Rich. Rich is somewhat notorious for this quote last year:  “I think if you legalize that, you’ve got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory. You can call me a radical, but how can you tell an aunt that she can’t marry her nephew if they are really in love and sharing the bills? How can you tell them they can’t get married, but something else that’s unnatural can happen?” And who would know better about inbreeding than a country music star? To be fair, Obama was scheduled to appear with a similarly homophobic gospel singer, Donnie McClurkin. But Obama strongly denounced McClurkin when he became aware of his anti-gay views. I’m guessing that John Rich will be warmly embraced, since McCain, or Oldy McAngry as my wife has dubbed him, doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting any of the gay vote.

And while McAngry may still be staunchly anti-gay, the rest of the country seems to be moving away from that stance. In the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, six out of ten Americans say the government should not regulate whether gays and lesbians can marry the people they choose. Interestingly, these results were consistent at every level of education. The country is moving forward, while McCain stays stuck in the 50’s. In California, the Supreme Court refused to stay there decision to allow gay marriage, and same sex couples will be allowed to get married starting June 16th. And even though the initiative to overturn the Supreme Court decision has qualified for the November ballot, we’ll have many months of gay marriage behind us and I suspect no apocalypse and few problems. That may make it even less of an issue to Californians, and with Obama as the Democratic candidate, we should see a huge surge in the youth vote, and younger people don’t have the same problems with gay marriage that the really really old folk still stuck in the last century do, you know, people like John McCain.

McCain’s former spiritual advisor, Pastor Hagee (a former Whacko of the week for his insane ideas about sex), has lost a lot of support, especially with his pronouncement that the anti-Christ will be a part Jewish homosexual. Why did McCain want to be associated with this insane nutball so much in the first place that he courted him for over a year? Because Hagee was closely tied into the Bush White House. They would take his calls.  And he wrote a book about Bush called God’s Candidate for America. It makes sense that McCain would also want that kind of support. SO who is left who still wants to be associated with Hagee and his anti-semitic, anti-gay, anti-muslim rhetoric? How about Joe Lieberman. Even McCain isn’t that crazy.  

Nevada’s governor Jim Gibbons has long been hounded by persistent rumors of cheating on his wife, and in a well-publicized case he was accused of sexual assault in a parking garage. In the case of the assault, the cocktail waitress alleges she was offered money to drop the charges, and when she didn’t, she was literally taunted by the Sheriff. The District Attorney, who was a heavy Gibbons campaign contributor, never followed up with the case.  And the whole thing was covered up, at least, that appears to be what the governor’s wife is alleging in her divorce proceedings. One thing that corrupt hypocritical family values politicians should have learned by now is that you should try and keep your family together. Otherwise, estranged spouses start talking. And Dawn Gibbons, his second wife, apparently has a lot to say.  Except, since the governor got their court case sealed, she can’t say it publicly on the record. But she is challenging that court ruling, and implying that there is a lot to learn about the governor. Perhaps about his long rumored  affair with the wife of a Reno doctor. Or perhaps about the infamously anti-immigrant Gibbons employing undocumented workers. Or the story behind his plagiarizing a speech in 2005.  Or his interference with the investigation involving a business associate. Or the federal investigation of him on bribery charges that dawn would have intimate knowledge of, a case that seems to be the reason behind the firing of the federal prosecutor in Nevada by the Justice Department. Please Dawn. We want to know all about your husband’s family values.