I've been married to Rob too long. Last night, I displayed (to his glee) Republican leanings. ::sigh::

We had dinner at Applebee's (all you can eat riblets on Tuesdays and Thursdays) which is attached to the mall. After dinner, he wanted to get something at Radio Shack, so we headed into the shops. Note: HE wanted something, not me! :)

In Suncoast Videos, we browsed the shelves. Toward the back of the store, right next to the display of John Wayne Westerns, the shelves from floor-to-ceiling were filled with "Mature" videos. Mature, as in Playboy productions, videos. On the other side of this grouping were the Star Trek series' videos.

I puzzled over this. "Rob, doesn't it seem to you very odd that they'd have these videos where kids couldn't help but see them? I mean, John Wayne...then hooters!" "Oooh! Hooters! Where?"

Seeing no help in that quarter, I puzzled until we reached the register to pay for the Episode One DVD that Rob insisted I wanted. I asked the clerk about the mature video display. Rob stood off to the side, chuckling. I told him to head to Radio Shack where I'd catch up to him. "And miss this? I think not!" he gloated.

He (and the manager he called out) were kind and courteous and I even felt bad for mentioning it. Apparently, all Suncoast shops are set up in a precise pattern given to them by their home office. The clerk said they keep an eye on kids so they don't pick up those videos, but that section of the store isn't visible from the register. The manager said he didn't understand it either, as they have to mask mature DVDs with black plastic but this doesn't apply to the video tapes. He gave me their district manager's phone number and apologized. I said, "It's okay."

But is it? Is it really okay to have a shop, where I've often let my boys go into without me hovering nearby, that displays soft core porn next to icons like Jean Luc Picard and John Wayne?

It's the same thing with the anime. I like anime, but a lot of it is sexual, often bondage and rape, and lots of bare-breasted female schoolgirls. Suncoast has almost a whole wall of it, interspersed with tapes from that kids' program, Dragonball-Z. I mentioned this to the shop manager as well, since Dragonball-Z is on the top shelves while anime depicting naked sweet young things is right at a 5-year-old's eye level. "They're in alphabetical order," the manager apologized.

As we walked away, Rob commented that I was turning Republican. I said, "No, I'm a mother."

And think about it.... labels for music were the brainchild of Tipper Gore -- not as a Republican or Democrat but as a mom.