In the meantime, as the US economy teeters on the edge of recession, two of the most successful components of the economy are hardcore porn and drugs! Schlosser estimates that the porn industry now approaches Hollywood’s domestic gross - around 10 billion dollars a year. Figures for illegal drugs are obviously estimated, but it is now thought by many that cannabis is now twice as large a cash crop as maize in the US. None of this stops the authorities and religious zealots from riding roughshod over independent justice systems, individual rights, civil liberties and the freedom of expression. Obviously these industries supply a huge demand from the US citizens and yet people involved are still subjected to levels of McCarthyist witch-hunting and the whipping up of moral panics. Ah, Bush’s America, where two of the biggest pillars of the failing economy are drugs and hardcore porno. God bless America! By way of comparison, countries such as the Netherlands who have decriminalised both cannabis and hardcore porn find less crime in those areas. But why let reality interfere with your agenda? Thanks to Aly at Penguin Books for my copy.