WASHINGTON (CNN) – Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”

Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people.”

“We should be delivering [the request] by the end of today to our congressmen and [Secretary of the Treasury Henry] Paulson asking for this $5 billion dollar bailout,” he told CNN Wednesday.

Flynt and Francis concede the industry itself is in no financial danger — DVD sales have slipped over the past year, but Web traffic has continued to grow.

But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. “People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

So far, there has been no congressional reaction to the request.
CNN

Two-thirds of American adults are overweight—more of them women than men—yet fewer than one-quarter are dieting. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control found that women eat over 300 more calories a day than they did in 1971. Fewer than one-third of Americans get regular exercise.

Most Americans are fat and happy. Of course everyone would love to cut their cancer risk by one-third—unless it means skipping that extra scoop of ice cream, or jogging three times a week. Reducing cancer risk isn’t that important. Until you get it.

As Associated Press reporter Maria Cheng noted, there is a reluctance on the part of many doctors to make too much of this study: “Any discussion of weight and breast cancer is considered sensitive because some may misconstrue that as the medical establishment blaming women for their disease.”

No one should be “blamed” for getting a disease, but nor is it a good idea to simply ignore the person’s lifestyle choices that greatly increase their chances of getting that disease. If a person chooses an unhealthy lifestyle (smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, etc.), doctors should not be shy about warning them the risks they are assuming.
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This image from Polish Television’s TVP via APTN shows a firefighter walking near some of the wreckage at the crash site where Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country’s most prominent military and civilian leaders died Saturday April 10, 2010 along with dozens of others when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in near Smolensk in western Russia. (AP Photo/TVP via APTN)

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MOSCOW | Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders died today when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96, officials said.

Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

On board were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.

Although initial signs pointed to an accident with no indication of foul play, the death of a Polish president and much of the Polish state and defense establishment in Russia en route to commemorating one of the saddest events in Poland’s long, complicated history with Russia, was laden with tragic irony.