Trying to be objective as my view of reality will allow, I agree there are multiple forces/trends at work around us, powers and principalities even. I do hoverer thing that it is naive in the extreme to assume that the hand of the religious right doesn't own the biggest thumb pressing on the scales. In the wake of the Jon Benet Ramsey case, I don't recall any sustained outcry to stop dressing little girls up as vamps. I really don't think that the media flood concerning a few selected (IE. white middle class) child atrocities would [absent the tremendous influence of the theocons] have led to the current climate of recasting what was innocent into something suspect of being sinister. By the same token, we wouldn't be making a federal case about Sponge Bob and Buster Bunny promoting the "gay agenda." Nor, would a family dispute in Florida suddenly become a Congressional crusade, challenging the very bedrock of federalist democracy. Is there a direct influence on events here? How direct is a matter of opinion. I don't think it's accurate to suggest however that it is non-existent. Events don't occur in a vacuum. If you pull back and look at the big picture, the climate as opposed to the weather, what is the single most influential cultural phenomenon of the last decade in this country? Hint, it isn't Hip Hop or child abductions. Perhaps you disagree with my thesis. That's fine and I hope I am pr oven wrong but still, you might want to spend just a second pondering the words of prominent and influential Evangelical leader Rev. D. James Kennedy. "As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring His truth and His will to bear on every sphere of our world and our society. We are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken