COLORADO SPRINGS – The first time I heard the voice of James Hetfield, it was growl-shouting the words “Lashing out the action, returning the reaction / Weak are ripped and torn away / Hypnotizing power, crushing all that cower / Battery is here to stay!” Soon, evidently, I’ll be...

PHOENIX – In June 2013, Phoenix police raided what they called a “self-serve porn studio” near Sky Harbor Airport, charging William James Hartwell and six women with various prostitution-related crimes. Now, three and one-half years later, Hartwell’s trial is finally is poised to...

SAN FRANCISCO – When I first heard about Kink.com acquiring the Mission District Armory in San Francisco some years ago, I thought of the moment as a potential watershed for the progress of the American adult entertainment industry. A porn studio poised to operate (openly!) in a...

BISMARCK, N.D. – For many years, I believed former attorney Jack Thompson, the man who once prosecuted 2 Live Crew for obscenity, spent years concocting and promoting flawed legislation that sought to regulate video games like pornography and was later disbarred for a variety of...

LONDON, Ontario – One of the reasons the scientific method has been so successful over the centuries is its reliance upon the ability of researchers to reproduce outcomes as a way to confirm prior experimental results. Repeatability and confirmability are crucial elements of any...

LOS ANGELES – On the Twitter account for pornstar-turned-politician Ela Darling, just above where her official @ElaDarling handle is displayed, are the words “Stoned Adulterer.” It’s a cute handle, sure, and certainly won’t shock Darling’s legion of devoted fans or voters who...

WASHINGTON – In the middle of a confirmation hearing at which the headline-making questions and answers were mostly about immigration, race and abortion, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah raised the specter of pornography: Would Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Let’s say you woke up one morning and found your Twitter feed lit up with outrage over the airing of gay porn on a popular television show. What sort of sex acts would you assume the offending program had aired? Playing the odds, would you assume it was...