The latest from the American Taliban:

A pro-family organization in Michigan is mobilizing forces to protest magazine displays in grocery story checkout lines.

Bill Johnson’s American Decency Association says he is tired of the risqué magazine displays along the checkout line, and his group wants to do something about it.

"If there’s a place where Christians can win the battle against indecency, it ought to be at the checkout counter," says Johnson. "And it’s greatly concerning to us because we believe there are numbers of people who are really alarmed by the pornographic nature, the verbiage, the actual pictures themselves [on the magazine covers]." The vulgar nature of many of the magazines can wield an influence, he contends. "Little by little, that which we tolerate and that which we then accept … does work its way down into the very moral fiber of our country," eventually becoming the "cultural norm," he says.

Particularly upsetting to Johnson’s group is the current issue of Cosmopolitan, which is devoted to sexual fulfillment techniques for women.

Sexual fulfillment techniques for women?  No, we can’t have that!

Look, I have my own particular problem with these magazines — collectively, I think they set up unrealistic expectations of what women should look like, and that contributes to esteem problems (particularly in teenage girls), and health problems.  Frankly, I think that’s a real issue worth debating — unlike trying to get Food Lion to conform to somebody’s priggish view of society.

Anyway, the American Decency Association (don’t you love the name?) website has some suggestions about how to combat the Cosmo scourge upon your shopping trips.