For more than a decade, Norma Hotaling has made it her mission to curb San Francisco’s prolific prostitution business. The 56-year-old ex-prostitute believes that in order to tackle the sex-for-sale industry “you have to start with demand reduction.” Which is why in 1995 she started the First Offender Prostitution Program, a unique form of remediation in which offenders must pay a $1,000 fine and attend an eight-hour class that highlights the ills of prostitution and strives to sensitize them to the plight of sex workers.

That’s where the johns school seems to be having an effect. The San Francisco program shows it is possible to appeal to the customers’ sense of “empathy for those harmed,” says Michael Shively, a sociologist who reviewed the program for the Department of Justice, which provides some of its funding. Shively’s study, released in May, found that recidivism rates of those who completed “Johns school” were 30 percent less likely to be rearrested for soliciting sex than were men who did not opt for the program. And an earlier study of a similar program in Buffalo, N.Y., resulted in an 87.5 percent drop in the recidivism rate for attendees. Shively admits he was skeptical at first. “It didn’t seem realistic that one eight-hour day of talking at men would change their behavior,” he says. “Now I’m an advocate.” 

But is it realistic to believe an eight-hour seminar can truly remedy a problem stemming from the heart?

According to Ben Stein, who recently hosted the hit film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, John McCain’s campaign needs an infusion of inspiration:

“Mr. McCain is running the absolute most pathetic campaign I have ever seen in my whole life,” Stein said in his unmistakable monotone delivery. “His campaign is just heartbreakingly pathetic. He is a very impressive guy. He is a brave guy, but he is running the most lackluster campaign I have ever seen in my entire life. I would have thought Bob Dole’s campaign would have set a record for poor campaigns, but this one is even worse. I mean it is shocking.”

Which is why he thinks Karl Rove—a man he describes as “about the smartest in the country in terms of politics”—is McCain’s ticket to victory. What do you think?

Ready or not, it’s Monday!

Today’s quote is from an artist: “Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.”

When I was a kid, my mother always signed my siblings and me up for our library’s summer reading program. I still remember the thrill of getting an ink stamp on my reading log each week–and collecting little trinkets intended as incentives to keep reading.

So imagine my surprise when I learned that my public library now offers a summer reading program for adults, too. Each adult who reads 15 hours receives a reusable library bag, a coupon for a coffee from the library cafe, and a free ticket to a local baseball game. According to one of the librarians, the program generated a much bigger response than was initially expected.

Did any of you have the opportunity to participate in an adult summer reading program? How about your children?

On Saturdays, we consider a passage of Scripture:  

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews 2:1-4

Happy Saturday!

Today’s quote is from a movie: “I trust everyone. It’s the devil inside them I don’t trust.”

A federal appeals court ruled July 23 that the state of Colorado violated constitutional rights when it blocked Colorado Christian University (CCU) students from receiving taxpayer-funded financial aid.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overturned a lower court decision holding the nondenominational CCU “pervasively sectarian” and thus ineligible for state scholarship dollars. The three-judge panel said the state discriminated without constitutional justification by granting funds to some religious institutions–including Methodist and Roman Catholic universities–but then refusing to distribute money to schools labeled “pervasively sectarian.”

Students “attending institutions such as CCU who take their faith-based commitment seriously should have an equal opportunity to participate in Colorado’s financial aid program,” said Paul Corts, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

But critics called it the latest example of a worrisome trend.

“The bottom line is that taxpayers will now end up having to pay for religious indoctrination,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The law wasn’t discrimination, but “a sensible judgment by Colorado that some colleges are so religious that they cannot expect taxpayers to support them.”

Thoughts?

For 10 years now, a unique event has inspired fathers and daughters to pursue purity. Dubbed the Father-Daughter Purity Ball, creators Randy and Lisa Wilson–themselves the parents of five daughters–say they created the event not only to challenge young girls to a higher standard, but also to help fathers who are clueless about the role they should play in their daughters’ lives.

During the black-tie affairs, which are held all across the nation, fathers and daughters commit to uphold purity in their lives, with fathers vowing to safeguard their young daughters’ purity in mind, body, and soul. The concept has drawn a lot of attention:

And inevitably the criticism arrived as well, dressed up in social science and scholarly glee at the semiotics of girls kneeling beneath raised swords to affirm their purity. The events have been called odd, creepy, oppressive of a girl’s “sexual self-agency,” as one USA Today columnist put it. Father-daughter bonding is great, the critics agree–but wouldn’t a cooking class or a soccer game be emotionally healthier than a ceremony freighted with rings and roses and vows? Some academic skeptics make a practical objection: The majority of kids who make a virginity pledge, they argue, will still have sex before marriage but are less likely than other kids to use contraception, since that would involve planning ahead for something they have promised not to do. This puts them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases. To which defenders say: Teen pledgers typically do postpone having sex, have fewer partners, get pregnant less often and if they make it through high school as virgins, are twice as likely to graduate from college–so where’s the downside?

What are your thoughts about the Purity Ball? Do any of you have personal experience attending one?

Here it is, Rants! & Raves!, your weekly chance to sound off about the week past. Remember the rules:

 1. A Rave! is something that happened during the past week that you’re pleased about and is signified by the word “Rave!” and/or an appropriately peppy emoticon.

2 A Rant! is something that happened during the past week that you’re ticked about and is signified by the word “Rant!” and/or an appropriately grumpy emoticon.

3. You may Rant! about something a person said, did or wrote, but you may not Rant! about generally disliking a person.

Have fun!

TGIF!

Today’s quote is from a movie: “In my life I find that memories of the spirit linger and sweeten long after memories of the brain have faded.”