The porn industry is asking for a bailout. For crying out loud. Joe Francis, maker of Girls Gone Wild, and Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, are asking for a $5 billion bailout, according to TMZ.com.

“People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in a statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex. With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

And you’re going to stimulate people to have sex by invigorating the porn industry? It’s like when they showed Pandas videos of mating pandas, hoping that would stimulate them. I would doubt that econmic misery depresses sexual activity, but even if it did, would that be so bad? Maybe some abstinence will do them good. Besides, people who aren’t sexually active have other reasons; and they were probably inactive even beforethe economic downturn.

Naturally, this announcement was made in time for the 2009 AVN Adult Expo, taking place in Las Vegas alongside CES, which I always thought was ingenious.