I'm endlessly amazed - and ashamed - at how so many of us in the States tolerate violence images in the media, but shun sexuality. So many parents let their children watch excessively violent films without worry or complaint until one sex scene comes on, one nude scene comes on, one breast gets exposed. Hmm... one breast gets exposed. It's only been a few years since the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl "titillated" and tried our country to no end (the irony being that there were relatively no complaints about the endless erectile dysfunction drug ads that ran throughout the broadcast), where we became the laughing-stock of the world for our Victorian attitudes related to sex.

Today I was perusing the recently released Small Arms Survey 2007. Interesting and frightening reading. Check this out: U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms. We're easily the most heavily armed country in the world, with 90 guns for every 100 of our people!

So... guns are good, and breasts are bad. (Well, per the Viagra ads, maybe boners are okay.) Strange, and sad, our priorities - and our morals.

Go home and have sex, urged the governor.

Where, you ask? California? New York?

Not a chance. The call to duty came from Sergei Morozov, governor of the central Russian province of Ulyanovsk, in an attempt to boost the birth rate there. Couples who had sex yesterday and deliver on June 12 will be eligible to win prizes such as cars, TVs, and refrigerators.

"The scheme is working. People want the prizes," said Dr. Andrei Malykh.

It's possible, though, that they also need the permission. And the time to do it.