(I think that this is harmless, but will go through the motions of warning that this may be NSFW).
New Scientist points us to a study done by Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School that shows that conservatives love their porn:
…Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” Edelman says….
…The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.
…Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage…
According to Edelman’s paper, 8 of the top 10 states signing up for porn subscriptions voted for John McCain in last year’s presidential election, Florida and Hawaii were exceptions. Of the states with the lowest subscription rate, 6 out of the lowest 10 voted for Barack Obama.
So what does this tell me? That here is one other front of the Culture War that conservatives are losing badly — after all, they are (as was widely known) big consumers of the thing they claim is so harmful. This paper (while not exactly definitive, but good enough for its point) begins to document the real waste of energy it is to try to control what grown people view. The BushCo DOJ spent a great many resources targeting this industry, which always struck me as a particularly stupid policy. And their focus wasn’t entirely on child porn (which is beyond the pale and folks making that should be sent to the guillotine.) No doubt a corner of the family values set will continue to raise cain over grown up choices, but after this, you do know to ask them tips on the particularly hot sites.