I've discovered, in part by blogging here and at a few other sites for more than two years, that with respect to so-called "moral" issues such as abortion and pornography, I'm essentially Libertarian. I have real concerns about both (here's an example, regarding abortion); but I don't think that sweeping bans would serve any constructive purpose. I mention all this because a story in today's news got me thinking. It's about neighbors in an Encino, California subdivision upset over the frequent use of a private home there for making pornographic films. Not that anyone can see anything from the street or through any windows. And it's all legal, even if the shooting of a porno fiilm on Easter Sunday, and the steady pace of productions in the home seem a bit much. For better or worse, it's not only within the law, but a matter of individual property rights, in this case exercised by the couple who rent the home. Writing about it all at lavoice.org, one neighbor observed the lessor would probably have been within rights to evict the lessee. But cashflow is paramount, apparently.

Which takes us right back to the growth of the pornography industry in the U.S. The right to private adult use of adult pornography is indisputable even if the product itself can have a harmful effect. The demand is huge and growing. The problem is not sex itself of course - that's a blessing from God, and a double-mitzvah if you share it with your beloved on the Sabbath. Rather, what's greatly troubling is the saturation of American popular culture with vastly more explicit sexual imagery, and the resulting perversion of what can and should be a wonderful, special thing. This occurs due to personal fears of real intimacy; plus hyper-commerce, addiction, and the corrosive combination of technology with human weakness, greed, and ignorance.

Parents are buying their children and teens video-capable iPods, sometimes unaware of the growing prevalence of what is called iPorn, or video pornography made and marketed to iPod users. "Mobile porn" content is increasingly being marketed to users of cell phones, many of which now have small built-in video screens and Internet connectivity. One "alt-porn" producer freely admits targeting young people as film paticipants via MySpace.com. He says he's only looking for 18-year-olds and up, but the site draws huge numbers of younger teens, many of them fairly unschooled, judging by what they reveal on their own pages there.

Adult porn addiction is a real psychological disorder which destroys the bond between partners and shatters relationships. At the same time that pay-porn sites are proliferating on the Internet, reports accrue weekly - if not daily - of school teachers charged or convicted of inappropriate sexual activity with students. That such cases are becoming noticeable as a trend even in socially conservative states like Utah speaks volumes - and as elsewhere, images of pornography are often found on the computer hard drives of the teachers involved. Allegations of hidden camera voyeurism are also increasingly in the news. Those nailed recently for using cell-phone cameras or video cameras for voyeurism include a former three-term Vermont state legislator and lawyer, who was also a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention; the principal of a Chimacum, Washington high school; a former Brigham Young University instructor; and a repeat sexual offender from Port Clinton, Ohio who after this latest arrest, revealingly got his computer out of his home faster than police could get there for an inspection. Of those four cases, the victims were minors in the last three.

Who could not favor prosecution of such vermin to the fullest extent of the law? But when there is an underlying addiction to pornography - which is to say, usually - that really betrays a fear of intimacy. Not just, or even primarily sexual intimacy; but emotional and personal intimacy.

Lessons on intimacy begin very early, in family life and friendships. Intimacy can't be nurtured by legislative fiat, any better than laughably ineffective Internet filters can really block pornography from computers.

A good place for parents to begin is by paying attention to what sort of entertainment is preferred by the kids with which your kids play. If my son sees that a play date at the house of a budding pal involves hours of computer games and staring at videos, the entertainment program is either going to be very different next time around, or there won't be a next time. That's one of my values, but it's also one of his.

As a pro-choice-but-not-pro-abortion, hands-off-the-cancer-that-is-legal-adult-pornography social libertarian, I believe personal values and choices are what really matters when it comes to morality. There's one choice made by the porn-film-studio-in-our-Encino-house-parents that sickens me. The SF Chron article (second link from top, above) notes:

Regulations require certification of ownership to rent out a home as a film location. According to property records, the house -- a 15-year-old, four-bedroom, five-bath, 5,000-square-foot, stone-and-brick traditional -- sold last year for $1.65 million to Hamid Banafsheha. When reached by phone, Banafsheha -- a 40-year-old electric supply warehouse owner -- said he had just found out about the filming from neighbors. Banafsheha said he had rented the home to a couple with two infant daughters. "I'm sorry for all the neighbors," he said, adding that he had told his tenants to cease and desist. A woman who answered the phone at the film site last week and identified herself as tenant Odelia Bustenay did offer a response to the neighbors' concerns before hanging up. "Everything we do here is legal," she said. "We got permits for everything. If they are upset then they are nosy."

Legal isn't necessarily moral, decent, or community-minded. Odelia Bustenay: you are one sorry excuse for a human being.

TECHNORATI TAGS: ENCINO, CALIFORNIA, ODELIA BUSTENAY, PORNOGRPAHY, PORN MOVIE FILMING, PRIVATE HOMES, TECHNOLOGY, iPORN, MOBILE PORN, UPSKIRT PHOTOGRAPHY, VOYEURISM, MORALITY, LIBERTARIAN, PARENTING, INTIMACY, VERMONT, CHIMACUM, WASHINGTON, PORT CLINTON, OHIO