Update:  Sunday, June 1, 2008
Craig and I received the following email earlier today:

From: Tom Elliott
To: Donny Pauling, Craig Gross
Date: Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Subject: Tomorrow

Hey, guys –

Bad news. We’re going to have to take a rain check on tomorrow’s segment. I’m unable to provide a lot of detail, but the short story is that Laura will not be hosting the Laura Ingraham show for the foreseeable future. This just developed over the weekend, so I apologize for the late notice. Could someone please contact Ron, or should I? Whatever’s easiest. (I don’t have an email address, and don’t really want to bother him on a Sunday.)

I do hope we’ll still be able to air this segment; it likely will just have to wait a little while.

Thanks,

Tom

Tom Elliott
Executive Producer
The Laura Ingraham Show

This coming Monday (June 2nd) I’ll be on the Laura Ingraham Show along with Craig Gross and Ron Jeremy (the famous porn star). From the call I received last Tuesday, someone from the show saw the debate at Yale on Nightline ABC. From what I gather, this will be more of a discussion than a debate. I’m also told Laura is syndicated on more than 340 stations and has 6 million listeners. I haven’t checked those numbers for myself, but that’s a lot of people, people!

To see when Laura’s show broadcasts in your area, and on which station, click here.

I stumbled across this video over on Craig Gross’ blog. I gotta share it with you! Craig was traveling with Ron for the Porn Debate tour and writes:

So, we were catching up on things, sharing where we had been most recent and I mentioned that I was at a Christian conference the night before with a band. He then says….”I love that Christian Music.”

So, I had to pick up my camera and the rest is below.

We listened to the Chris Tomlin and Steve Fee albums cause I don’t have any Michael W. Smith on my Ipod or the Time Life worship album. I will try and track those down for our two debates next week. Look for Ron and I at a worship concert soon. I will make sure he stays awake.

Good stuff. And the ending is hilarious!

From an email I received, sent by someone close enough to me to feel comfortable saying such a thing:

Each side was equally split. Each had one piece of eye candy and one fat guy.

Hee Hee.

I don’t have a lot of time to write this at the moment, as I’m in Orlando, Florida for a Porn and Pancakes event that starts in a little over an hour. I’ll then be on an airplane home. But I wanted to write a quick note and give links to more of the debate.

To edit a two hour event down to less than 20 minutes of actual airtime is quite a challenge for anyone, I’m sure. I think ABC did okay at that. I do think some great arguments were left out. But overall, I’m okay with the final result. Just okay. I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to decide how to edit for such a short time period.

Should you want to watch more, here is the debate ALMOST uncensored. The same commercial plays for 15 seconds before the beginning of each part, and there were still a few things cut here, but you get much more of the event by watching these:

Part 1:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4365288

Part 2:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4365373

Part 3:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4367518

Part 4:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4367795

Part 5:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4367956

Part 6:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4367990

Part 7:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4368158

Part 8:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4368160

Part 9:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4368248

Part 10:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4368272

All in all, it was a great experience and I’m glad I was able to be part of it. I hope a few lives were touched and hope some of the issues raised caused people to do some soul searching. One Yale student wrote this:

The Great Porn Debate with Ron Jeremy and Monique Alexander arguing the pros and Craig Gross of XXXChurch.com and Donnie Pauling arguing the con side may have been the most eye opening. Craig and Donnie were able to illuminate many of the dark sides of the porn industry that really challenged a lot of students’ common conception of the “glamorous” business of adult entertainment. Ron and Monique were able to make some interesting points about a woman’s choice to work in porn, and porn’s ability to provide an element of fantasy for healthy couples.

But working first hand this past week with porn stars has swayed me towards the anti-porn side of XXX-Church.com. Steven Hirsch, co-founder of Vivid entertainment, is one of the most impressive businessmen I’ve had a chance to meet; it just sucks his business involves the degradation of young women. Most of us on the team are pretty disillusioned with the adult entertainment industry. They come off as normal people but the more you work with them the more you get an eerie sense of turpitude. Besides, who needs porn when Craig Gross is your pastor and is that hot?

Now… off to get ready for P&P.

Added 3/8/2008:

You can watch the the program that aired on Nightline here.
Or you can watch the entire debate in one file here.

If you have time, I suggest watching the part that aired (for all the exciting editing and commentary) and then watching the full debate.

The debate we filmed at Yale University is finally here! It airs tonight on Nightline ABC after the evening news. Check your TV guide for times (usually 11:35pm). My favorite “TV Guide” is the one on Yahoo:

http://tv.yahoo.com/listings

Watch it. TiVo it. Tell all your friends, and half of your enemies.

Then come back tomorrow and tell me what you think!

Face Off Now On Friday!

Sorry about this…but Friday is a good night for it. This date is set in stone.

Best,

Ethan

That’s the word I received two hours ago from the producer of Nightline ABC. So, if “Set In Stone” means Set in Stone you’ll be able to see the debate this Friday night, February 29th, on ABC. Check your local listings for times, but for most of you that will be 11:35pm. I say “most” of you because I thought Nightline came on at 11:35pm everywhere until visiting Minneapolis last week. The show came on on an hour earlier there.

Click to enlarge either photo…

Last week Craig showed me how to use GarageBand on my MacBook Pro to record my own podcast. This is the first I’ve recorded on my own. If you plan to watch the debate on Nightline this coming Thursday evening please listen to this first. By warning you, I’m just easing my conscience a little, I guess. This recording sounds slightly “static-y” for some reason… I’ll have to learn how to fix that next time.

If you have 7 free minutes, listen (click the arrow):

[audio http://donnysramblings.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/donnypodcastnightline.mp3]

I messed with GarageBand for hours while sitting at Starbucks today. There are many nifty things I’ll be able to do with that program just as soon as I figure out how to use it right.

Another fun way I amused myself was by playing with a program called Photo Booth, using it to take “self portraits”. Click to enlarge:

Yesterday I was in Los Angeles for a Porn and Pancakes event at the Oasis Christian Center. When I arrived I was picked up at the Los Angeles Airport by Jeff Borkoski, an Oasis LA Associate Pastor. Jeff took me to my amazing room at the Orlando near Beverly Center.

Prior to arriving in LA, I’d received an email from Michelle (nice song playing on your profile right now Michelle – I like it), who handles all bookings and arrangements for XXXChurch. Michelle passed along a question from Oasis. Since I flew in Friday afternoon, what did I want to do Friday night? What a nice gesture! I haven’t been asked that question before.

Such thoughtfulness continued the entire time I was in Los Angeles. When I reached that VERY nice room I mentioned at the Orlando, on the desk was an impressive gift basket filled with so much food I couldn’t possibly eat all of it, which is why several items from it currently sit in front of me, here at home between my keyboard and my iMac, even as I type this blog entry.

While at the church I had a “shadow”, which was another staff pastor who kept me company and made sure I didn’t need anything. The church was amazingly beautiful and the men who attended P&P were some of the most friendly, down to earth people I’ve ever met. And very diverse. It really did my heart very well to be a part of this event this weekend.

Classy. Classy. Classy.

As for the event itself: I’ve been told lots of conversations have been going on afterward. I know I spoke with dozens of men and had some great conversations of my own. God really moves through these events!

—–

After the event, Craig Gross and his wife and two beautiful children headed off to Ron Jeremy’s house to meet his turtle and go to lunch. Ron, who has two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s in education, is called “Uncle Ron” by Craig’s kids.

I wish I could put into words how this makes me feel. Craig and his family have made Ron part of theirs. While some may question such a thing, I think it is a perfect example of Christians who are being Jesus in skin and loving without judgment. Shouldn’t that be how all of us act? Loving those who may not believe as we do, and may in fact be involved in activities we greatly dislike?

This… this is a type of Christianity I can dedicate my life to…

—–

After breakfast, the men begin filling up the main sanctuary at Oasis LA. Click to enlarge.

I just received this email from the producer of Nightline:

Due to breaking news. It’s tentatively scheduled to air next Thursday 2/28/08. I hope you guys understand and thanks.

What the breaking news is, I don’t know. A “behind the scenes” preview of the show is online here and here (see videos on the right side of that second link).

Disappointing.

I just received an email from Nightline’s producer. The air date has moved to THURSDAY instead of Friday. So this THURSDAY the 21st is the air date.

I’ve got lots of people to inform. Please spread the word.

Also, ABCNews has updated the story I linked to earlier to include new information from after the filming of the debate, including feedback from Yale students. Click here to re-read that article.

And finally, I’ve posted some snapshots of Yale University. What a gorgeous place! Click here for photos of the campus.