The Slipping of Moral Standards

Some of the things I've been exposed to recently that show a slipping of moral standards in today's society:

-- Nudity is allowed at a local beach unless "private citizens" object: San Onofre State Beach. Turns out this has been on the books for a long time, but still ...

-- We recently rented a movie that was clearly designed for and advertised to children where there is swearing and where the boy - the boy! - wears eyeliner and the (older) girl does not. Avoid it, the movie stinks: Lenny the Wonder Dog. Seriously, skip it, it's a horrible movie.

-- Listening to NPR (*gasp* am I old enough to do that?!) the other day while driving home from work, there was a spot about a study on Europe's population that shows that it is falling. In the interview, Iceland was specifically cited as a contrary country where the population is growing, but large percentages of the children born there are born to unwed mothers. Maybe I'm just sensitive to the whole issue of marriage lately, but the interviewee seemed to imply that the institution of marriage is unimportant and that there is no cause for concern.

-- I've been listening to NPR lately because I can't find any radio station that meets my standards of morality (or my taste in music). The one station that used to play the music I like changed their format and now regularly uses the word "orgy" and swears a lot, and plays a lot of songs about random sex and infidelity.

-- Entertainment Weekly online identified an Olympic "Stud" of the Day -- highlighting a talented athlete that had performed well. This of itself would be fine, but their writeups regularly discussed how the author would like to have sex with that person.

These are just the few things that occurred to me in the 3 minutes of thinking I did on this topic.

I think I'm a moral prude, and I'm positive that's not a bad thing.