Pro-family nutters have wrapped up what is being called a "productive" meeting with officials of Marriott International.

The meeting focused on the hotel chain's practice of selling in room pornographic movies at some of its properties.

Last month, leaders of 47 pro-family groups sent a letter to Marriott CEO John W. Marriott the Third, which asked for a meeting with Marriott executives about the issue.

Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, says the meeting in Washington D.C. was a good first step: Two things came out of the meeting. They are going to look into a system where people would have to call the front desk and get the movie turned on.

Secondly, notes Wildmon, the Marriot executives will discuss the issue further with some of their franchisees. And he says pro-family nutters will have another meeting with Marriott representatives in about six weeks to check progress on the issue.

Woman and Horse

Criminal charges against India’s leading living artist for an allegedly obscene painting of a Hindu goddess have been quashed in a ruling that said religious extremism risked pushing the country into a “pre-Renaissance era”.

Maqbool Fida Husain, 92, a Muslim, who has been called “the Picasso of India”, was served with private criminal complaints by Hindu groups for Bharat Mata (Mother India), a work representing the nation as a nude woman.

The Delhi High Court judged that the picture could not be construed as offensive.

The nutters of the Society for Promotion of Community Standards has written to New Zealand's Film and Literature Board of Review, seeking a review of the approval of the book for R18 release.

The society's executive director David Lane says the material breeds a culture of death in New Zealand and is not just a matter for the chief censor to deal with legally.

Lane says the society is seeking an assurance that those who deal with depressive and suicidal people have been consulted over the release of the book.

He says there will be calls for bookshops to be publicly shunned, should they stock the title.

Hindu nutters have contacted various cinema organisations in Australia urging them not to distribute or screen the upcoming Hollywood movie The Love Guru until Paramount Pictures makes changes to it.

Vamsi Krishna, representing Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Society for Scientific Spirituality, sent a letter to several film groups saying the film would hurt the feelings of the worldwide spiritual and Hindu community unless certain scenes were altered.

The letter went to the Australia Classification Board, Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, Australian Film Commission, Media Standards Australia, Becker Entertainment, Hopscotch Films, Hoyts Cinema Chain, Palace Cinemas, and Palace Films.

If the trailer is an indicator of the content of the movie…then we feel that this movie is most likely to hurt the sentiments of seekers from various spiritual paths and also the peaceful Hindu community at large in Australia, the letter said: Poking fun is one thing...BUT...if it creates a sense of belittling others’ faith, then it is wrong.

Update: Worldwide Calls

12th May 2008

Hindu groups have contacted Central Board of Film Certification (Censor Board) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India, urging them not to screen upcoming Hollywood movie The Love Guru till its presenter Paramount Pictures makes necessary changes in it.

It seems that the hindu groups are sending their calls for a ban worldwide and the same story is cropping up in multiple stories. Surely good hype for Love Guru.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) has called on the television network HBO to stop airing shows like Cathouse, which promote sex trafficking and prostitution.

On April 24, 2008, CATW held a picket line protest in front of the corporate offices of HBO in New York City to protest its reality series Cathouse, set in a brothel.

CATW claimed that by airing shows like Cathouse, HBO normalizes prostitution and its legalization. The cultural and legal acceptance of prostitution, in turn, encourages the demand for prostituted and trafficked women and girls in the global sex trade. Legitimizing pimps as entrepreneurs and managers, as well as portraying patronizing prostituted women as acceptable, harmless entertainment commences a vicious cycle in which the sex industry expands, and increases the demand for sex trafficked women and girls.

Islamic militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, which border Afghanistan have issued a decree banning music from mobile phone ringtones and vehicles in tribal areas of the country. A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Maulana Faqir Mohammed said, the they would not allow commuters to play music in their cars or use musical ringtones on mobile phones.

He warned that offenders would be punished according to Shariah lynch mob law.

This is not the first time that Taliban leaders have tried to clamp down on music in their areas - and a wave of attacks on mobile phone stores in North Waziristan was carried out last October to stop them selling music capable phones.

The shop-owners said at the time that they had received several letters, asking them not to sell mobile phones pre-loaded with 'musical' ring tones. Many retailers had started offering phones pre-loaded with 'jihadi' ringtones, but this did not seem enough to appease the militants.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) has called on the television network HBO to stop airing shows like Cathouse, which promote sex trafficking and prostitution.

On April 24, 2008, CATW held a picket line protest in front of the corporate offices of HBO in New York City to protest its reality series Cathouse, set in a brothel.

Australia's Catholic church has taken a swipe at foul-mouthed British chef Gordon Ramsay and demanded his reality television shows be either taken off air or shown at a later time.

The move comes as Australia's Parliament holds an inquiry into swearing on television, prompted by Ramsay's antics in his series Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

One episode broadcast recently featured Ramsay using a four-letter expletive more than 80 times, while he also shouts at a chef saying: You French pig.

There can be no excuse for vilification of this sort. We conclude that this episode should never have been aired on Australian television, the Catholic church in the southern city of Adelaide said in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry.

Ramsay's reality programmes are popular ratings drawcards in Australia, but they have also prompted complaints from schools and parent groups who are angry that the shows are broadcast at times when children may be watching television.

Two of the Ramsay programmes air at 8.30pm, while one of the shows, Hell's Kitchen, where contestants compete to win a restaurant, is aired at a later 9.30pm time slot.

Conservative Senator Cory Bernardi initiated a Senate inquiry into swearing after his office received several complaints about Ramsay's programmes.

The inquiry has received more than 50 public submissions, with the overwhelming majority in favour of tighter regulation and calling for the Nine television network, which broadcasts the programmes, to censor Ramsay.

But the Council for Civil Liberties in Australia's largest state of New South Wales said it has no problems with Ramsay's programmes, which regularly attract more than one million viewers: This inquiry is yet another attempt to restrict the freedom of expression of ordinary Australians. Not everyone is offended by coarse language.

Teenage boys are going wild this week over a more dangerous cultural low: Grand Theft Auto IV. The new video game from Rockstar Games is flying off the shelves, and all the early reviews are glowing. GamePro magazine calls it the pinnacle of interactive entertainment and game design.

Yes, young lads, you can visit strip clubs and get lap dances, pick up prostitutes, go on assassination missions and conduct gangland-style executions. The New York Times applauded the game’s winsome procession of grifters, hustlers, drug peddlers and other gloriously unrepentant lowlifes.

WhatTheyPlay.com is a resource site for parents, and interviews with children find they like the series for its wide-open play, particularly the vicarious experience of the thug life. I’m never going to be a car-jacking, whore-murdering gang member, said one, so I guess it’s very interesting to see what your life could be like, if you chose that path. It’s amazing to become so immersed in the game experience and really be able to feel like a criminal.

The violent content also attracts children as a way to vent anger or stress. One boy explained: “Last week, I missed homework and my teacher yelled at me. When I went home, I started playing [Grand Theft Auto] Vice City, and got a tank. I ran over everybody. And I smashed a lot of cars and blew them up.

There’s something odd about our culture when we try to prevent children under 17 from seeing violent or sexually overt material in a two-hour R-rated movie, but we’re cavalier about selling the same experience - actually, a more offensive experience since it’s entirely non-judgmental - in an M-rated video game that will be played every night for months.

There’s only one word to describe parents who would buy this game for their children: Disgraceful. But retailers, too, must be pressed to check ID before selling the game to children who most assuredly will seek to purchase it. Legally, stores cannot sell children pornographic magazines or handguns - but they can legally sell video games to children that contain pornographic content or that teach children how to gun down cops.

They can choose to line their pockets with the proceeds of the sale of this cultural poison to youngsters. They can join the chorus of consequential deniability, too. All they have to worry about is their conscience.

Members of the Concerned Women for America are criticizing Wikipedia for allowing content that includes sexually explicit images.

According to a report in World Net Daily, Matt Barber - the Concerned Women for America's policy director for cultural issues and a constitutional law attorney - said he was outraged by the decision: Children use Wikipedia all of the time for reports for school, and this stuff is not just pornography: This is hardcore pornography. Much of it may even be in violation of our nation's obscenity laws.

Wikpedia, an online encyclopedia that features user-submitted content, has some detailed photographs that accompany more adult articles on subjects such as "fluffer" and "striptease."

Barber said many of the filtering devices people have in their homes and schools are not geared toward protecting against Wikipedia's material.

Wikipedia's goal is to provide an encyclopedia that contains the sum of all human knowledge, Mark Pelligrini, a regional representative for Wikipedia, told World Net Daily: To that end, Wikipedia does not censor objectionable material.

[I]f someone goes to the articles on 'sex,' 'penis' or any graphic topic, we do provide frank descriptions and images. For images, we aim for clinical pictures of the sort you would find in an anatomy or medical textbook.

Barber said he planned to contact the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's office to determine whether Wikipedia may be engaging in the dissemination of illegal obscenity.

The prospect of the BBC auditioning pop hopefuls in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber for the role of Jesus has led a Christian group to promise Jerry Springer the Opera-style protests if the project goes ahead.

Christian Voice said tonight that they might even try to get young Christians into the audition room itself to share the Gospel of the real Jesus Christ with Lord Lloyd-Webber himself.

The BBC are now said to be reconsidering their decision to air the reality TV show based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar just weeks after the composer said he wanted to cast Jesus as a follow-up to Maria in The Sound of Music and Nancy and Oliver in the musical Oliver.

The TV shows How do you solve a problem like Maria and I'd Do Anything were regarded by TV bosses as such a success that Lord Lloyd-Webber has been urged to come up with another one. He said in March: I have an idea to do Jesus Christ Superstar next year and then maybe another all-new show which I'm really excited about.

But the BBC are now said by the website UnrealityTV to be worried that they will face the same sort of complaints from Christian groups that they faced over Jerry Springer Opera a few years ago.

Auditions could take place this year, but as with previous shows, they will be held across the country and the judges, who will include Lloyd Webber, will be at each venue.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said tonight: If it were to go ahead, the show would then become for Christian Voice very much a Jerry Springer the Opera operation, with witness and evangelism at every venue. There are still plenty of veterans of the early protests over Jesus Christ Superstar around who would love to share the Gospel with the queuing wanabees. It might even be that we could encourage Christian singers to enrol in order to tell Andrew Lloyd-Webber just what they think of his project in the audition room itself.

A Roman Catholic newspaper cleared its first legal hurdle in its fight against a Malaysian government ban on Christians using the word "Allah" as a synonym for "God."

High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that prosecutors' objection to a lawsuit by The Herald weekly was without merit. The judge said she will allow the paper to contest the government ban in court.

The government says the word "Allah" refers only to the Muslim God and its use by Christians might confuse Muslims. It has threatened to revoke the paper's publishing license if it defies the order.

The Herald also wants a court declaration that "Allah" is not for exclusive use by Muslims. The court agreed that the church's application is not frivolous nor vexatious nor an abuse of process. It deserves to be heard, said Derek Fernandez, a lawyer for the newspaper.

The court will set a trial date later, Fernandez told reporters.

The Herald  insists that "Allah" is an Arabic word that predates Islam and has been used for centuries to mean "God" in Malay.

In a separate case in Malaysia, the Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also filed a lawsuit in an effort to be allowed to use "Allah" after officials last year banned the import of books containing the word. Hearings in that case were still in the preliminary stages.

The enemies of free expression are at it again, with Morality in Media President Robert Peters criticizing FBI Director Robert Mueller for refusing to investigate obscenity crimes that do not depict the most extreme hardcore pornography.

Peters' letter to Mueller cites a number of ways in which he feels that constitutionally-protected materials lead to child abuse, including allowing "child molesters [to] use 'adult' obscenity (i.e., no minors depicted) to entice, arouse, desensitize and instruct their child victims," and how a consenting adult's viewing of legal erotica inevitably leads to the consumer's depravation and a "downward spiral" of viewing child pornography rather than "adult obscenity."

Peters' rant praised the efforts of former Attorney General Ashcroft and condemned the Supreme Court for upholding the Constitution in its overturning of the CDA and COPA.

MIM is also calling for increased efforts focusing on online adult entertainment as well as erotica delivered via in-room hotel PPV systems, citing titles from Hustler as an example of his belief that much obscenity features teens who may be at least 18 but who are promoted for their youth.

It wouldn't require a tremendous allocation of investigative and prosecutorial resources to substantially reduce traffic in obscene materials, Peters said. Because much if not most hardcore pornography is controlled by a relatively small number of companies based in the U.S. But it would require a commitment.

Finally, Peters expressed his support for Big Brother's monitoring of consumer's surfing habits via ISP record retention and called on the Justice Department and FBI to change its counter productive obscenity enforcement policies that make it more difficult if not impossible to win [this] war.

Australian bishops urge their government to ban pornography, one of the most evil uses of the Internet in a new pastoral letter on Internet safety.

The letter explains that the relative anonymity of the Internet and its private nature means that there is a real danger of pornographic addiction. The Bishops warn that All of these images are humiliating and degrading, most often towards women.

The letter points to a growing body of research about the damage that Internet pornography is doing to marriages and relationships. In 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald spent two months charting this new social phenomenon which it said was poisoning couples and destroying families. The investigation found that counselors were reporting that an increasing number of clients had begun to cite Internet pornography as a factor in their relationship breakdowns.

The bishops point out moreover that while it is damaging to marriages, addiction to Internet pornography is no less damaging to single people or to those dedicated to living a life of celibacy.

The letter explains: The Church commends the intimate giving of spouses to each other. Pornography undermines this. It injures the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.

The bishops urge parents to discuss the dangers of pornography - its damaging impact on human dignity and on relationships - with their children, and call for the government to ban such degrading materials: Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials, and that includes, as far as possible, distribution on the Internet.

A Christian party has lost a High Court bid to have its party election broadcast (PEB) repeated, after claims it was censored by the BBC and ITV.

Christian Choice said the BBC forced changes to its description of a Muslim group in a PEB aired in London.

The BBC said it expressed concern and Christian Choice responded by agreeing to change the form of words.

The judge said the request had been left "far too late" - although he did not think the PEB had been libellous.

Alan Craig, the party's candidate for London mayor, had argued the action breached his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights - which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

Rejecting Craig's request for a judicial review, the judge, Mr Justice Collins, said he should have launched the legal challenge before the broadcast took place on 23 April. He said it was "perfectly permissible" for the BBC to take into account legal advice that the original broadcast might have been libellous - although he did not think it would have been.

But the judge said the BBC had indicated that if a legal challenge had been issued before the broadcast it would have backed down and let them publish as they wished.

Unfortunately that was not done, Mr Justice Collins added. He ordered Mr Craig to pay the BBC's £11,875 in legal costs.

Original version:

You may know about plans by a separatist Islamic group to build Europe’s biggest mosque next to the Olympics site in West Ham. I think it’s a bad idea that will bring division and I’m glad moderate Muslims support my stance in opposing it.

Censored version:

You may know about controversial plans by an Islamic group to build Europe’s biggest mosque next to the Olympics site in West Ham. I think it’s a bad idea that will bring division and I’m glad some Muslims leaders support my stance in opposing it.

TA councillor has called for more control over advertising posters in "culturally sensitive" areas of Birmingham.

Coun Talib Hussain made his plea after a billboard on the corner of Sydenham Road and Golden Hillock Road, in predominantly Muslim Sparkbrook, was defaced.

The hoarding, close to mosques in Anderton Road and Golden Hillock Road and visible to parents and children walking to Montgomery Primary School, promotes Matalan's new swimwear range and features three scantily-clad models.

The models have been covered in thick white paint to conceal bare flesh.

Coun Talib Hussain (Ind, Sparkbrook) criticised the vandalism but said it was a result of the lack of action from city council bosses. He said: I condemn the people that did this but at the same time it's wrong for companies to put that kind of advert in sensitive wards.

I have received complaints on a number of occasions not to put adverts like that in Sparkbrook. The city council should not give permission to advertising like that in these wards. Having families seeing naked pictures does not bring the community together, it provokes things.

The vandalism is similar to a spate of attacks in 2005 and 2006 by a group called Muslims Against Advertising.

A Birmingham City Council spokesman, said: Our only power is to approve where advertising can take place, but not what is put on it. That is between the Advertising Standards Agency and the firm itself.

The ASA said the content of billboard adverts was controlled by billboard owner and the advertiser, and that the agency only had "responsive" powers: If we receive complaints we will consider if an advert should be removed.

The lawsuit by the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur against the government of Malaysia has been adjourned until April 29. The archdiocese is claiming the right to use the word "Allah" in its Catholic weekly, the Herald.

The standoff over the use of the word "Allah" is just one more chapter in the difficulties facing the majority Muslim country, where a secular constitution is accompanied by Islamic courts charged with applying sharia.

On December 10, the domestic security ministry had prohibited the Malay-language section of the Herald from using the word "Allah" to designate the Christian God, claiming it could be used in this way only by Muslims. Fr Andrew Lawrence, the director of the newspaper, was forced to accept the restriction, but the archdiocese decided to sue the government.

The archbishop of the capital, Murphy Pakiam, maintains that the domestic security minister and the federal government are making a mistake: I am advised by my solicitors that I have a legal right to use the word 'Allah' in the Herald, and this legal right stems from the right to freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.

Archbishop Pakiam further reports that he has been under constant pressure from the government to conform to the "directives". At the same time, numerous threats have been issued, creating a climate of "apprehension".

The bishop concludes by describing as unreasonable and irrational" the justification of the ministry, according to which the use of the word "Allah" is a security issue which is purportedly causing much confusion and which threatens and endangers peace, public order and security". Over thirteen years of publication, he adds, no article in the Herald has ever caused any incidents.

Family First NZ is calling for the latest version of the Grand Theft Auto video game series to be banned in NZ.

Grand Theft Auto IV is scheduled for release this week. It follows on from previous Grand Theft Auto games which included constant graphic violence and sexual situations. Players could re-enact having sex with a prostitute, beating her bloody, taking her money and running her over with a car and shooting at police officers.

Rockstar Games which produces the game says the company is going even further in its pursuit of realism with this latest game in the series and players can buy cocaine, set enemies alight, shoot a policeman, drink drive, and visit strip clubs – all with improved physics and animation which makes the game feel more real, according to reviewers.

In Australia the graphic violence contained in the game was modified to meet an MA15+ rating, still with warnings of strong violence, strong coarse language, drug and sexual references. The Australian censorship board warned that as the violence is relatively frequent, causing blood spray and injury detail, the impact is strong.

It is completely naïve to believe that teenagers and young children won’t have access to and be able to play the game, says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ: It is also completely unrealistic to believe that young people will not be influenced in their attitudes and behaviours by constant exposure to this type of material.

Family First says that with concerns in the increasing rates of juvenile violent and sexual offending, it is time we acted to protect our young people and communities from the effects and influences of these extreme types of video games.

So-called ‘entertainment’ and freedom of expression should never be at the expense of the safety of our community, appropriate emotional and moral development of our children, and promoting acceptable attitudes towards women, violence and law enforcement, says McCoskrie.

However, such is the popularity of the title that big electronics stores are planning midnight openings to cash in on demand from gamers.

A London mayoral candidate is taking the BBC and ITV to the High Court for censoring his party Election Broadcasts in the run up to the May 1 elections.

The Christian Choice candidate, Alan Craig, has instructed the Christian Legal Centre to file papers this morning at the Royal Courts of Justice after BBC and ITV officials instructed him to remove parts of his Party Election Broadcast which was aired on Wednesday evening.

Cllr Craig, a long-standing campaigner against the 'mega-mosque', due to be built in Newham close to the site of the Olympic Games, originally described the organisation behind it, Tablighi Jamaat, as ‘separatist’.

However, BBC and ITV officials responsible for supervising the Broadcasts instructed him to moderate his views and change this description of the Islamic organisation if he wanted it aired.

Cllr Craig claims not only ‘political interference’ by the broadcasters, but says such action breeches his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of speech.

According to the Christian Legal Centre, Cllr Craig changed the word to “controversial” under duress. Late in the day ITV insisted that the agreed word “controversial” should be applied to the mosque plans not to the Islamic group. Cllr Craig’s objections to the mega-mosque, however, have consistently been related to the nature of the Islamic group behind the project - the plans have not yet been published.

Cllr Craig said: BBC and ITV officials, none of whom were lawyers to our knowledge, clearly instructed us to ‘tone down’ our views and change the sense if we wanted the PEB broadcast. The legal language of ‘libel’ was mentioned by the BBC, and in the case of TV, we were forced to go back to the studios at the last minute to record a censored version of the PEB.

I am advised that libel is a defamation of an individual, and no-where in the broadcast do we defame individuals. My comments are reasonable and moderate and do not contradict the Racial and Religious Hatred Act. The BBC and ITV are not entitled to limit free speech and I look forward to the judge ordering them both to broadcast my original message.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre, said: Providing that the content of an election broadcast is within the law, the BBC and ITV should enable the electorate to hear the unedited views of candidates and allow them to make up their own minds as to whether they agree or not.

The Christian Legal Centre will be calling for a Judicial Review of the BBC’s and ITV’s decision, and ask the judge to order, as a matter of urgency, the unedited Party Election Broadcast on both channels. The case will be heard next Monday when Cllr Craig will be represented by leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond.

Update: The Censored Word

29th April 2008

Original version:

You may know about plans by a separatist Islamic group to build Europe’s biggest mosque next to the Olympics site in West Ham. I think it’s a bad idea that will bring division and I’m glad moderate Muslims support my stance in opposing it.

Censored version:

You may know about controversial plans by an Islamic group to build Europe’s biggest mosque next to the Olympics site in West Ham. I think it’s a bad idea that will bring division and I’m glad some Muslims leaders support my stance in opposing it.

The BBC should not apply its impartiality rules when it comes to religion, and the Corporation should be biased in favour of Christianity, said Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor last week.

The Cardinal was speaking after a speech by BBC Director-General Mark Thompson in Westminster Cathedral. Thompson, a Catholic, said that the BBC intended to increase its religious coverage after the "success" of programmes like The Monastery and Extreme Pilgrim.

Murphy O'Connor also said that Christianity should have unopposed time to deliver its message on the BBC. Sometimes the adversarial aspect — if you've got one view you've got to have the opposite view — supplants what we need.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: Cardinal O'Connor speaks like a classic demagogue. His desire to have no contradiction to his message is authoritarian and anti-democratic. Religion already has hours of time of TV and radio in which no-one is allowed to question or comment. Thought for the Day is one such slot, where preachers of all hues are allowed to make blatantly political pitches for religious points of view, and no-one is allowed to interrupt. Mark Thompson's enthusiasm for the Catholic Church is beginning to suggest that his approach to religion is not entirely balanced or objective. If he listens to the Cardinal, he risks undermining the BBC's precious heritage of trust as an impartial voice for the whole nation – not just the Church.

European electronics retailer Media Markt was sued by a Swiss politician for selling John Woo’s Stranglehold. To be more precise, Roland Näf sued the manager of a local branch of Media Markt.

Now, the reason Näf is doing this is that he wants to see how effective this law is when used against video games. He states that Swiss law isn’t strict enough in that respect. Even though the video game industry voluntarily uses a system that prohibits selling overly violent games to minors, kids could still easily get their hands on them, especially since the law doesn’t forbid giving the games to them.

So Näf wants to ban video games from being produced or sold at all. He wants prohibition.

Actually, he already tried to change the law but was turned down by the parliament. They said that the law as it is now was good enough and that no connection between video games and violent minors was evident.

Good to know that there are some politicians who actually think about the matter instead of lashing out irrationally.

A video interview showing American TV actor Jason Beghe criticising Scientology has been removed from YouTube.

The 48-year-old was the first celebrity to speak out against the religion, telling how his 12 years with the church damaged him and accusing Scientology of being “destructive” and a “rip-off”.

After Beghe’s criticism of the church made headlines yesterday, YouTube suspended the account of the prolific Scientology critic who posted the video, making the clip unavailable to viewers.

But the suspension has angered YouTube users who have thrown their weight behind Mark Bunker, who uses the name XenuTV1 on the site. By this morning, 45 YouTube members had used their sign-ons to re-post Bunker’s interview with the Cane and CSI actor.

In the clip, Benghe said: My experience personally, and what I’ve observed for myself, is that Scientology is destructive and a rip-off. It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological and mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution.

One YouTube user, Vongoloid, uploaded the video with the message: Actor Jason Beghe exposes... Scientology to Mark Bunker of Xenu TV. YouTube suspended Mark's account, XenuTV1, so I am putting this up for justice.

Angry viewers posted comments below the re-hosted clips Unsuspend his fuckiing account, YouTube, wrote one: Banning free speech is a major no no. Knock it off.

Marriott International will meet in Washington May 14 with anti-porn nutters that have petitioned the hotel chain to remove adult movies from its rooms.

Coming in response to an April 3 letter signed by 47 "pro-family" groups, the meeting may or may not serve to further the groups' agenda, as making such a broad change to the corporation's policy would be a very complex proposition, Marriott officials say.

Marriott is a publicly traded company, so Mr. Marriott would not make a unilateral decision, said VP of communications Roger Conner, referring to CEO J.W. Marriott Jr., to whom the letter was addressed.

This is the first time a major hotel chain has agreed to meet with anti-adult lobbying groups, but even so, Conner stressed that it's the individual properties and not Marriott International that decide whether or not to offer adult programming, and that receive compensation for it from Lodgenet and other providers.

Adult industry attorney Paul Cambria, however, pointed out to Cybercast that, Adult entertainment is completely protected by the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has said so time and time again.

Reacting to the US Justice Department’s indictment of producer John Stagliano on obscenity charges, executives from nutter groups said their organizations are pleased by the indictment, but concerned about the type of material being prosecuted.

Early indications lead us to believe this material is once again the ‘worst of the worst,’ said Daniel Weiss, the senior analyst for media and sexuality at Focus on the Family: The Justice Department does nothing to stop the mainstreaming of pornography by only prosecuting material at the extreme edge of society.

Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, concurred with Weiss and called on the government to initiate far more obscenity prosecutions: The case is an important obscenity case, but standing alone it isn’t going to stem the tide of obscenity. They’ve just got to do more cases, or the pornographers are going to win.

Peters asserted that, despite the proliferation of pornography in American society and the “mainstreaming” of adult content, Americans are not accepting of pornography: Just because there’s a lot of pornography around doesn’t mean the American people accept it.

Diane Duke, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, told XBIZ that: It’s difficult to win any obscenity case, and it will be difficult for them to convict Evil Angel, because most people really don’t want to tell their neighbors what they can or can’t watch.

Nearly 50 nutter organisations are asking the Marriott hotel chain to take pornographic movies out of guest rooms.

In an April 3 letter to CEO John Marriott III, 47 pro-family nutters requested a meeting to discuss the issue. The letter goes on to say that pulling the pay-per-view movies would be in line with Marriott's public statement of promoting the well-being of children and families and stand against ... such tragedies as human trafficking and the exploitation of children.

Among the nutters who signed the letter are: Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Bishop Harry Jackson (High Impact Leadership Council), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Paul Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation), Dr. Richard Land (Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), Matt Staver (Liberty Counsel), and Robert Peters (Morality in Media).

Don Wildmon, the founder and chairman of the American Family Association, was one of the signatories to the letter. He says it is time for Marriott to put families first: Children can go [into a Marriott room and] accidentally ... access the porn. So we're asking Marriott simply to put people above profits and [to] drop the porn movies from their guest rooms."

Wildmon says so far, Marriott has not responded to a request to meet with representatives of the pro-family groups to discuss the matter.

According to a press release from AFA, Marriott has approximately 2,800 hotels in the U.S. -- and about 2,400 of them offer in-room pornographic movies.