I prefer the term stimulus package to the word bailout. It’s sexier and implies a positive outlook and outcome. A bailout is something you do when the ship is sinking, with the express goal of keeping the thing afloat. On a more visceral level, most people like to be stimulated but few get excited about propping up something that is failing. It’s only human nature.

In the case of the legislation defeated yesterday in the House, I think it is safe to say that either term is applicable and probably others as well. The bill was presumably crafted with several goals in mind: to save threatened institutions, restore a semblance of confidence in Wall Street, add liquidity to jump start the flow of credit and perhaps most important of all, send a message domestically as well as internationally that the United States still knows what it is doing when it comes to the exercise of free market capitalism. [insert laugh track here]

Not surprisingly, even as the bill was being rejected the market went into a free fall, losing well over 700 points and more than a trillion dollars by the close of trading. Commentators this morning questioned whether the $700 billion in spending contained in the bill now looks like a deal, but I’m not so sure the losses yesterday were real. In the same way that the value of so many homes has been so gratuitously inflated over the past several years, is it not likely that yesterday’s “losses” are more a correction than an actual loss, a reflection of reality rather than desire?

In truth, I could be way off-base with that. I'm not an expert, but one fragment of truth that I have taken away from all of this is that when we can no longer trust the value of things, the first casualty is confidence. It’s only human nature.

This brings us to pornography, the value of which has always been more or less apparent. Whatever else one might say about the interaction between provider and consumer, a porn transaction has historically been a relatively straightforward proposition whose desired outcome is rarely unclear. The trouble usually comes with the mechanics of the deal, such as being overcharged by fraudulent billing practices, not receiving in a member’s area what was promised in a tour or actually being ripped off for goods being sold under false pretenses. But these rip-offs happen in every business, and porn consumers have long since been trained to exercise caution. This is not meant to excuse the perpetrators of these schemes, of course, but to propose a realistic picture of the marketplace.

Today, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the industry to establish a predictable valuation of many of its products, with good reason. Adult fare now can be viewed in so many different formats and mediums across so many delivery platforms that getting a reliable gauge on worth is almost impossible. In lieu of valuation the market rules like a benevolent dictator, which is preferable from a consumer’s standpoint but somewhat problematic for a potential investor. Add in the stampede to free content, and the value of the content must now be evaluated against the value of the traffic, whether any sales are ultimately forthcoming or not.

Ironically, the time is ripe for more rather than less investment in adult entertainment. After all, if you can’t trust Wall Street, the housing market, banks or your mattress, where are you going to invest?

I would argue that with due diligence, adult entertainment is not the worst place to put some money that is looking for a return. Let me repeat, with due diligence money can and will continue to be made in porn. While not recession proof it is recession resistant, and if an investor is serious about finding and working with people who take a long view of the industry and bring professional values to bear, the potential to realize returns or better is as real today as it will be tomorrow.

Even in the presumably barren arena of free, new revenue-generating models are being conceived that show a way to the future. You will need to stay ahead of the curve to exploit them successfully, but isn’t that often the safest place to be, as long as you are not under or overestimating the value of the products and service you provide, even if it is human nature?

The odd thing about living in a constant state of chaos is that one gets used to it. Many of the people who work in adult know what I mean, especially those who toil online.

Our landscape is always changing, the ground beneath us always shifting and the quality that many people seem to cultivate and admire most is the ability to adapt quickly and efficiently to ever-evolving market realities. After all, those realities don't ask for our permission to exist; they don't care. It is our job to serve their needs.

One wonders, then, if in light of the recent economic meltdown whether the mainstream captains of industry are sufficiently versatile to be able to stay abreast of market realities. Indeed, they really need to be ahead of the game rather than abreast, but for argument's sake let's hold them to a slightly lesser standard.

Unfortunately, even with such largesse the nation's leaders appear to be seriously, perhaps fatally unable to... lead. Instead, they are acting as if the failure of commercial and investment banks and the bursting of the housing bubble took them by surprise. I say acting as if because I don't really believe that many of them did not see it coming, though one is hard pressed to explain why dire warnings were not sounded much sooner.

I believe similar impulses have been at work within the adult entertainment industry, where market forces that are for all intents and purposes obvious and unavoidable have been essentially ignored for far too long. Perhaps it's normal behavior to stick with what's worked in the past, but I am here to say that in a digital economy praying for the old days to return is tantamount to suicide.

The problem is that we are all in uncharted territory, and no one has a rule book that outlines how to proceed. Instead, we have to resort to basic economic fundamentals combined with a ruthless ingenuity and fearlessness. These are I believe the current requirements for success in business.

But even with those qualities, the challenges that face us are monumental. The value of products and services is uncertain precisely because of the changing relationship between producers and consumers; add to the mix a world market that encompasses different economic structures and it becomes even more difficult to create a reliable picture that allows for confident predictions.

One of the pundits presented it this way on one of the TV news programs this weekend; there are two basic reactions to the credit and housing disaster. The first are people who announce with certainty what has happened and what will happen. The second are people who try to explain how we got here but have no clue what will happen. The first group hasn't a clue what they are talking about, the second a realistic grasp of the situation.

It is at times like this that I am glad to have spent the past 9 years working in the adult Internet industry. I believe I am better equipped because of it to deal with the meltdown of the old system, which is what I think we are seeing.

It doesn't mean I will survive it, but it may mean that my sense of comfort with utter chaos will hold me and those who share that comfort in much better stead than the traditional old-school types who are now running around like chickens with their heads cut off, asking us to trust that this time they have finally learned their lesson.

The quote comes from a recently published editorial in Scotland's Sunday Herald, written by Brian McNair, a professor of journalism and communication at the University of Strathclyde, and the author of Striptease Culture (Routledge, 2002) and Mediated Sex (Arnold, 1996).

He's upset that hoary old U.K. has decided to enact an The Obscene Publications Act, which outlaws the possession of "extreme pornography," defined as images which portray "in an explicit and realistic way" acts that "threaten a person's life", or that could likely result in "serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals."

Yes, it is somewhat ironic that England, Orwell's home and the country in which 1984 is set, has chosen to pass such a law, though considering the number of security cameras throughout the country, this action can hardly be seen as a first step toward taking "the ‘thought police’ out of the realm of fiction." The nation long since started down that road.

So it's not like the state is entering your mind, mate; it is entering your mind, mucking around to find our what you're up to and into, then passing judgment on you, your mind, your behavior and all the other stuff that makes up your sense of self, and then maybe throwing you into jail.

God save the Queen.

Big D of Bangin3D.com is at it again. This time he thinks he's the Illustrated Man, or rather, the Illustrated Banner Man.

He just posted up a thread on GFY offering up his right arm as a banner spot for some edgy flesh-loving marketer, or marketers — it's a big arm. (see photo of his left arm)

Some respondents to the post think that at $10 a centimeter he's selling tat spots too cheaply, but I'm not sure how one calculates the value of something that never existed before.

Actually, now that I think about it, as the test case he probably should err on the high side. But it's his arm. This is very subjective territory.

Will it catch on? Like reality porn and tube sites, will body advertising sweep the industry?

Big D says there is already interest. I don't doubt it. Who wouldn't want to own a piece of Big D?!

The New York Post this morning reported the possible existence of God.

Well, not literally, but certainly figuratively if it is true that a 15-minute, 16-millimeter film exists that shows Marilyn Monroe performing oral sex on a man whose face is obscured.

"An illicit copy of the steamy, still-FBI-classified reel... was just sold to a New York businessman for $1.5 million, said Keya Morgan, the well-known memorabilia collector who discovered the film and brokered its purchase," the article reads.

The writer of the story, Hasini Gittens, says that such a sex tape would only continue the "sordid tradition of peddling raunchy video footage of celebrities à la Paris Hilton...," but I would have to disagree with that clearly moral judgment and the ease with which it unifies the various participants throughout history without regard to pedigree.

Set aside the fact that one cannot truly assess the sordid nature of anything without having first seen it, heard it or experienced it. Even if it is sordid, It's Marilyn Monroe, so it can only be so sordid, and maybe it is perfectly sordid.

Because it presumably still is contraband, the footage may only ever get to be seen by a privileged few, but just knowing it's there makes life a lot better. Sort of like knowing that extraterrestrial life exists because you have had a close encounter, even if no one believes you.

The story also said that Hoover's men exhaustively investigated the "ownership" of the male parts, hoping to find them attached to one of the Kennedy brothers, but apparently came up short.

Of course, who but a Kennedy could endure Monroe for fifteen minutes of unendurable bliss? Mailer? Maybe, he was a novelist. DiMaggio? Baseball player, not a chance. Giancana? Big time mobster, so yeah, maybe. At any rate, the forensic anatomic investigators will have a field day with this one for years to come.

There is a lot more info in the article and to the story, which will surely have legs. Check it out.

Yes, kudos and best of luck to KidZui, the latest attempt to create a safe place and a great experience for kids on the Internet.

The way they are going about it seems very thoughtful and pragmatic, and I hope corporations and vendors of all types and sizes jump on the bandwagon and help promote and sponsor this venture. It needs to succeed without becoming a marketing and advertising nightmare.

To be honest, I also want it to succeed so that those naysayers who have condemned the idea of a kids.com over the years get to eat their words, especially the delirious folk behind the .XXX idea.

Enough of these money-making schemes disguised as methods to protect kids. If parents only knew how dishonest most of those claims are, they would rise up in international protest. Well, maybe KidZui is one way they are doing just that.

So here's to the success to KidZui, and to any and all projects taking concept to fruition that actually bring honesty and rationality to the task of providing a safe online experience for our kids.

I am downloading KidZui for my 4-year-old today, by the way, and will report back on how he likes it.

The anniversary of one of the most execrable laws ever passed by Congress occurred two days ago.

The year was 1873, not the best of times for the United States, mired as it was not only in a stock market crash and resulting depression, but also the second corruption-ridden presidential term of Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant.

Perhaps to take citizens' attention off these and other national woes, Congress passed The Comstock Act, which became law on March 3 and outlawed the distribution through the U.S. Postal Service of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" materials, including any information about birth control and abortion.

The law was the brainchild of Anthony Comstock (1844-1915, pictured above), a former dry goods clerk who, earlier that same year, had founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

A passionate defender of public morality, Comstock not only convinced Congress to pass the law named after him, but he also took personal responsibility for enforcing it, at one point even contacting the New York City police about the contents of George Bernard Shaw's play, Mrs. Warren's Profession. In retribution, Shaw coined the term "comstockery," defined as "censorship because of perceived obscenity or immorality."

The following is partial text of the Comstock Act:

"Be it enacted... That whoever, within the District of Columbia or any of the Territories of the United States...shall sell...or shall offer to sell, or to lend, or to give away, or in any manner to exhibit, or shall otherwise publish or offer to publish in any manner, or shall have in his possession, for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper of other material, or any cast instrument, or other article of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section…can be purchased or obtained, or shall manufacture, draw, or print, or in any wise make any of such articles, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in any court of the United States...he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court."

It took until 1971 for Congress to remove the prohibition on birth control. Today, we are still fighting the forces of intolerance and comstockery directed at sexual expression and identity.

Sorry, but if you want your ideas to be taken seriously, you really ought to at least try to have them make sense.

Unfortunately for his country, it seems Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy couldn't care less about either making sense or being taken seriously. Pity. It's such a nice country.

His quote in response to criticisms about the imminent plan to institute mandatory Internet filtering — i.e. censorship — is a stunner.

"If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree," he said.

That, readers, is an inane statement, but it is also a particular type of totalitarian rhetoric that George Orwell warned us about many years ago.

Shame on the Australian minister for employing it. Being an Australian, he really should be more sensitive to this sort of sloppy undemocratic thinking.

I suppose at some point they will also equate this move with the war on terror.

Buggers.

No surprise to us technological elites that G4, the youth-skewed TV network usually focused on all things video game, has been niftily sliding an increasing dosage of adult fare into its offerings in the form of soft videos, news items and other relatively innocuous items.

G4 crews have also been spotted covering the occasional adult industry party, manning the red carpet and even utilizing the inestimable interviewing talents of gram ponante.

Now G4 is stepping it up once again, actually promoting the fact that they will be in Vegas in January for the Adult Entertainment Expo. They are also going around town interviewing people for a documentary. They even had the nerve to stop by the XBIZ offices to interview me!

Not everyone is happy. Steve Lightspeed has lodged an official complaint. He says his kids like to watch G4 and he's not sure he wants them exposed to, say, the highlights of the kink.com booth show. One has to assume the little Lightspeeds fall well under the 18 threshold and are not inclined to playing in dungeons.

Tough call, imho. One can well understand that G4 would want to give their of-age audience the content they live for, which of necessity includes undulating flesh and lots of it. Indeed, G4 has probably looked at the landscape and long since concluded that a bleak future awaits if they don't at least acknowledge the dark side.

On the other hand, what to do with the little ones lured by the excitement of the video game world and the chance to hang with the big kids?

My guess is they'll simply stick with softer fare overall, continue adding escalating shots of naughtiness during the nighttime TV slots and maybe over time think about integrating an age-restricted members area into the G4 website. Of course that last item may never happen.

Of greater interest is the fact that the mainstreaming of porn is also happening at a place like G4, which is a community for all ages. Steve's first responsibility, as he has shown, is to his kids, but he also has to be concerned about the "gentrification" of adult content or any trend that would make this less of an "outlaw" business.

Paradoxically, people in adult are rightfully protective not just of the sanctity of their industry, but also of its singular identity as a sanctuary for taboo bending if not breaking.

In that sense, G4, with its fun, gee-whiz attitude, while exposing us to a new generation of potential consumers, may also be unwittingly planting the seeds of our destruction.

Happy New Year, btw!

He died at the age of 64. He was a genius.

He had absolutely nothing to do with the adult entertainment industry, and would have blanched at the idea of being mentioned in reference to it, but in fact even here his greatness has been felt.

I know of at least two other people who work full-time in this business who knew Gar well, worked with him over the years and loved him as much if not far more than I. They are grieving deeply this week as well.

I acted with him, was directed by him and studied with him for years, and I can say with absolute certainty that I am a more complete human being for the experience, and am definitely a much better actor.

The holiday season is immeasurably more sad for hundreds of people this year because of this untimely loss, but each and every one of those same people is also celebrating the life of this extraordinary man, and counting their blessings for having known him.

I'm sorry for posting this here, but I had to let people know that we have all lost a great man, even those who never met him.