We should all take care not to become part of the hype producing machinery that continually presents opinions or ideology as ‘facts.’ – Ann Jordan
The government just can’t resist trying to control anything involving sex:
[A lesbian who]…is trying to conceive a child…wants to use…sperm from a man she trusts. But…under federal regulations, the donor must undergo…expensive and time-consuming [tests] so…she…is suing…Jane Doe wants to…get pregnant on her own, without paying for a fertility clinic or a sperm bank, and without government interference…But the FDA does not permit…informal transactions. A donor is required to have his blood and urine tested in a medical setting within a week of every body-tissue transfer…
They’re only women, and therefore incompetent to know what’s best for them:
…Father and son accused pimps Vincent George, Sr., and Vincent George, Jr., had an unlikely cheering section in a Manhattan courtroom today — the very five admitted prostitutes who they’re accused of threatening and coercing. “We are not victims!”…the…women shouted at reporters…the son’s lawyer, David Epstein [said] “They came in and out of Manhattan by themselves, they had their own houses and bank accounts, and they could have left anytime they wanted.” John Temple, who heads the Manhattan DA’s human trafficking program, counters that phone taps prove both the dad, 55, and the son, 33, built up a million-dollar escort business by keeping their five women terrified virtual prisoners…six limo drivers accused of ferrying the women to their assignations are also charged.
Yet another case of government interference magnifying harm:
…On July 3 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first “rapid home” test for HIV…[which may] prevent…more than 4,000 new HIV infections in its first year of use alone…[but] the…approval…did not occur until…24 years after the FDA received its first application…[until recently it] forbade [any] tests…[other than] those…performed in a clinical setting…Out of concern that some people might respond…irrationally to the extremely valuable information a home test could provide, everyone was deprived of that option…imagine the number [of infections] that could have been averted if a rapid home test…had been approved five years ago. Or ten. Or 15…
Despite government efforts to quash bitcoin it’s still going strong, and one writer suggests it might help in the Greek monetary crisis:
…the drachma is not Greece’s only [non-euro] option…an alternative currency could emerge or an already existing one could be adopted. In some parts of Greece social entrepreneurship, technology, and skepticism of politicians have already…created an environment where cryptocurrencies could become increasingly popular…The most prominent of these…is bitcoin…[which] frees those who use it from political uncertainty [and] fiat policies, and is less affected by international money markets than traditional currencies…There have been reports of more Europeans using bitcoin as their confidence in political solutions diminishes…
Obviously, the NIJ is unacquainted with William of Occam: “An overwhelming majority of human trafficking cases involve sex trafficking, according to a recent study issued by the National Institute of Justice…Nearly all identified sex trafficking victims were female and 70 percent of suspects were male…” In other words, cops arrested a bunch of people and labeled them “victims” or “perpetrators” almost purely on the basis of gender, then a “study” was done to justify the assignments rather than recognizing them for what they are: rubbish based in the sexist notion that women are incompetent victims.
A former Facebook executive wants to outdo Google by linking an anti-whore campaign to an expansion of the number of people condemned to “sex offender” registration: “Facebook’s former chief privacy officer is bankrolling an anti-human trafficking ballot measure that…would toughen penalties for sex trafficking and add those convicted of the crime to the state’s sex offender registry. Most significantly, it also would require all registered offenders to surrender their “Internet identifiers” to law enforcement, including user names and email accounts…Chris Kelly…has contributed $1.6 million to the initiative since December…” The campaign is based largely on lies such as “Every girl sold on the street today is also being sold on the Internet”, a triple-whopper which 1) equates performing a service with chattel slavery; 2) uses passive voice to imply girls do not choose prostitution when in fact over 86% do; and 3) bizarrely defines 25% as “every”.
A new reader who found me via The Agitator sent me a copy of Prince of Darkness this week, but I only have his real name and I’m not sure if he posts under that or uses a screen name. I hope he reads this and emails me so I can thank him properly!
Though Argentina has its own problems with “survivors” agitating against improved rights for sex workers, at least they aren’t pushing for increased criminalization yet:
In Argentina, women who [have] sex in exchange for money have splintered into two groups. The one group…who call themselves “sex workers” to reflect their choice to work in the profession, is finalizing a bill…for…greater rights…The other group…prefers the term “prostitutes,” insisting that they are victims…of the industry…[they propose] policies that offer subsidies and create alternative employment opportunities…
Australian prohibitionists just won’t let go of that Queensland mining bone:
…police officer Inspector Paul Biggin says while sex workers have also been a major beneficiary of the [mining] boom, there are growing concerns about women being brought in from overseas and exploited by criminals…”A lot of…women come from Asian countries and they’re the types…that certainly do get exploited because of their poor education or the fact that they’re easily tricked,” he said… few women…have reported any mistreatment. “A lot of times they don’t because there is a fear factor involved,” he said.
Translation: “poor Asian women are stupid”. And the reason they don’t tell him what he wants to hear must be “fear”; after all, he can’t possibly be wrong.
…Jules Kim, the migration project manager at Scarlet Alliance, said…”Using ‘doesn’t speak English’ as an indicator would not be applied to any other profession…English skills are not tied in to education levels at all so someone could be highly educated and yet have poor English skills.” Ms Kim says the extent of the problem in mining communities has been exaggerated…
It’ll be interesting to see what other workers’ rights this eventually leads to: “Swedish prostitutes won the right to claim benefits, including sick days and parental leave…’As long as sex workers pay their taxes, they should have the same access to sick-leave benefits and parental leave as anybody else,’ [said social insurance director] Joakim Jarnryd…’We don’t make any moral judgments’…”
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs
US officials hoped to silence whore’s voices by barring them from attending the International AIDS Conference in Washington on July 22nd-27th, but India’s Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee had other ideas and organized a “hub” which will be digitally linked with the main event. Andrew Hunter of the Asia [Pacific] Network of Sex Workers said, “We are holding this Global Hub…in India because sex workers are not allowed entry into the U.S. to attend the main AIDS conference. This event will allow us to participate as well as give sex workers from around the globe a chance to still contribute to important discussions…”
Health officials have long criticized US anti-whore policies as destructive, and a new report released for the conference by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law has gone even further, as explained in this article by Cheryl Overs:
The report of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law…recommends the repeal [of] laws that prohibit consenting adults from buying or selling sex, including those laws that have the effect of prohibiting commercial sex such as laws against “immoral” earnings, “living off the earnings” of prostitution and brothel-keeping. It calls for an end to police harassment and violence against sex workers and a prohibition of mandatory HIV and STI testing…It also recommends withdrawal of the Pepfar anti-prostitution pledge. This marks a significant advance for sex workers’ struggle for sex work to be decriminalised and recognised as an occupation…
I’ll have more to say about this article in my upcoming column of the 27th.
What makes this news rather than a typical abuse is that the cops are being prosecuted: “A Kansas City police officer has been…accused…of having sex with two women in exchange for not arresting them. One woman told police she was working as a prostitute, and the other said she had outstanding warrants and marijuana in her motel room when she met Jeffrey Holmes…prosecutors in neighboring Platte County charged another Kansas City police officer with misappropriating about $75,000 from his elderly mother…”
This thorough debunking of the oft-repeated claim that “human trafficking is the third most profitable business for organized crime” by Ann Jordan and Lynn Burke was published over a year ago, but only came to my attention this week:
…Evidence for this claim either does not exist or is impossible to locate. Despite the efforts of the authors and two professional reference librarians to locate the original reliable source, the research only turned up similar statements and not one article was uncovered that contained any evidence to support the claim…it is not unusual to hear statements that claim to be about trafficking but are really talking about smuggling…It would certainly make more sense to say that smuggling is the third largest source of organized crime profits…
Compare to the outrageous claims made by other FBI agents about “human trafficking” cases they claim to have been personally involved in:
A former police officer who retired from the FBI…has written a book about seeing legions of angels guarding the Pennsylvania site where a hijacked airliner crashed [on September 11th, 2001]. Lillie Leonardi…remembers the burning pine and jet fuel stinging her nostrils. She said she also remembers a smoldering crater littered with debris too small to associate with the jetliner or 40 passengers and crew on board…”That’s when I started seeing like shimmery lights…and it was kind of misty and that’s when I first saw, like, the angels there,” Leonardi said…[she] kept it to herself for the better part of two years [but] as…[symptoms of] post-traumatic stress disorder [surfaced] she began telling a close circle of friends and colleagues what she saw…
Metaupdates
Reading Between the Lines in TW3 (#26)
The San Francisco Bay Guardian interviewed an escort who was targeted by the recent “Operation Cross Country” because somebody thought she looked under 18. The article also revealed the ratio of adult sex workers to underage ones arrested in the Bay Area: 61 adults to 6 “children” (i.e. 16- or 17-year-old women). 10 to 1 is a very poor ratio considering that about 3.5% of all hookers are underage and the cops were specifically targeting youthful women.
The Course of a Disease in TW3 (#26)
“Hundreds of…sex workers protested in Paris…against plans to make soliciting prostitution illegal…France’s minister for women’s rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem…[has said] she would seek to make prostitution disappear by punishing those who pay for sex…but her remarks unleashed a hail of criticism from sex workers’ unions, which argued that punishing clients would drive business underground, endangering prostitutes…”
This Week in 2011
The last column of my first year was a two-part interview with my husband using reader-supplied questions, and the first of my second year explains why streetwalkers are a “Bone of Contention” among activists. “Housewife Harlotry” demonstrates that transactional sex is an important part of marriage, “The Proper Study” is a short history of prostitution research and “Sisters in Arms” looks at the inevitable result of laws which infantilize women.
This Week in 2010
Though I’d write “Streetwalkers” a bit differently now, it still has some good points to make. “Wanna Date?” asks whether it’s really possible to draw a sharp line between dating and whoring, and “Madonna and Whore” discusses the infamous duality and shows how girlfriends straddle it. Finally, “Do You Party?” looks at my deep hatred of cocaine.
“We should all take care not to become part of the hype producing machinery that continually presents opinions or ideology as ‘facts.’ ”
One of the interesting things I see is that when I present my FACTS as to my personal case and the cases of millions of other men these are immediately downgraded to “opinions” by women….and then when women present me their FALSE opinions they upgrade them to “facts”.
When men do this I just call them liars and they accept they are liars.
When women do this and I call them liars they are “upset” and pretend to be the “victim of a bully”…that “bully” being logic and reason it would seem.
hi everybody, ow i`m not trying to be a downer on “the bad news”….but there has got to be some shread of Good or “better” news out there.I know the sex hating,man hating folks people who enjoy sex hating make a big splash…… but there has got to be some “evolved” people in the world. am i being to nieve??I`m not up set at what at the blog at all. but sometime i go away feeling like “well i`ll just put threads on my cock and unscrew it and put it in the freezer”. maby a good news friday. Again i just love the info here. (and being an artist i can have a bit of a whooo is me attitude) ok…thats all.
I know how you feel, Sam, but it isn’t all bad today; women refuting “pimps and hos” mythology is good, as is a home HIV test. Swedish whores getting sick leave and Parisian whores staging a massive protest demonstrate rebellion against the Swedish Model, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian is questioning “sex trafficking” mythology in print. Best of all, the world’s peak AIDS agency came out unequivocally for absolute global decriminalization in its report, which is major, major good news!
I wonder if the Aids Healthcare Foundation is getting a “cut” off that new home HIV test?
Bitcoin may be an option for Greece but it’s not a good one. I can see some individual Greeks themselves resorting to it more likely they’ll adopt the drachma again for about 5 milliseconds before it heads into the toilet. Then they’ll do like Zimbabweans – and become damn good currency converters by using any foreign currency available. Greeks can’t pay off their debt in bitcoin – no European nation or any holder of Greek debt will accept it. It’s a wet dream for now.
^^When I visited Australia for the first time in the early ’80’s – I was STUNNED by the level of racism against Asians. Now we have here an Ozzy Dudley Dooright who’s here to save all those Asian Girls! LOL
By the way – what is a “poor education”? Has that been defined? Does that mean graduating from a shitty college with a degree in alcohol, or does that mean just graduating from high school but no college or is that a dropout from high school or … all of the above? Well, in any case – we know that Asian women aren’t as intelligent as Caucasians so their tiny minds are easily fooled by a savvy white sex trader! I’m so glad I’m a part of the master race and my genome isn’t intellectually challenged like all those brown peoples out there! You just know there are NO WHITE women who are dumb enough to choose hooking for a living! Thank Goodness! LOL!!
I really appreciate the information you share. It’s a side of things that the general populace doesn’t get…which, of course, you know. There’s a fear that in order to abolish the cruelty and exploitation of women who are victimized society must abolish the industry as a whole. That’s like saying that in order to stop the gross abuse of power that we endure at the hands of SOME politicians we much abolish the entire govenrment system.
“[A lesbian who]…is trying to conceive a child…wants to use…sperm from a man she trusts. But…under federal regulations, the donor must undergo…expensive and time-consuming [tests]”
What? A woman is trying to get pregnant without government “help”? How can this be?
For some reason, the public is prepared to believe any sort of rubbish about the sex business. They wouldn’t believe the same about say, the plumbing, or accounting business, or insurance, and insurance is way more a racket. I don’t really understand why.
At the core of is, sex work is simply providing a service.
“[A lesbian who]…is trying to conceive a child…wants to use…sperm from a man she trusts.”
What am I missing here? If the “traditional” method isn’t acceptable for her, then what about DIY AI? An ovulation thermometer, a co-operative man and a syringe and cannula — or a straw, or even a small chicken-baster. What’s the difficulty?
It’s obviously meant to be a test case; there’s no legitimate reason she can’t use DIY method even if she’s too impractical or hung-up to use the easy method Mother Nature provided.
The biggest hazard in the natural method that one avoids by going through a clinic is the prospect that either the mother, or a welfare agency paying her, is going to demand child support from the man who helped her out, and thus effectively destroy his life, whether he’s capable of complying or not.
It would be nice if the legal system upheld contracts disclaiming this power.
I knew a lesbian couple from Australia who got a child through IUI without any difficulty. It is possible to hammer out legal agreements that obviate him from support. I know women in this country who have done that to make their loser ex-husband go away.
This appears to be a case of unintended bureaucratic consequences. Looks to me like the federal law here was actually written to govern TISSUE transfers such as heart, liver, lungs – but it’s being applied to semen.
The SFGate (not my favorite rag) seems to want to make this into a lesbian controversy – and they say that hetero couples don’t have to undergo this testing when they have sex. Uhm yeah – but then again – neither to lebian couples when THEY have sex. There is no inequality here since a hetero woman would have to have the same testing done for her sperm donor if she were undergoing the same procedure. Sexual orientation here has NOTHING to do with this – though I suppose we’re supposed to have more pity because the woman is a lesbian. LOL.
Having said all that – this is ridiculous to apply this organ law to semen. Crazy government overreach.
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/TissueSafety/ucm232876.htm
Krulac, you’re right. But I don’t think it is appropriate to call it “unintended.” I think that the congress is fully cognizant that such thing are going to happen. I think the proper term is “unacknowledged.”
And if you think that’s crazy, try this one on for size.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/02/2027216/fda-regulating-your-stem-cells-as-interstate-commerce
“A non-surgical procedure that treats joint pain involves removing stem cells from a patient’s blood and reinserting them into the joint. The facility conducting these procedures resides in Colorado, but because it orders equipment to perform the procedure from outside of Colorado, the FDA claims it must regulate this process and that it can classify stem cells as a drug. This issue opens the debate of what the FDA, or other regulatory bodies, may regulate within each of our own bodies.”
Quick: Name five activities with no possible plausible effect on interstate commerce.
So apparently you can’t even auto-donate without the FDA sticking their nose into it.
Every once in a while, Akismet does something really weird; though your comments are unmoderated, it suddenly decided this one was spam. Once I discovered that, I “un-spammed” it. Sorry for the delay.
It’s because of the links in the reply. Two or more links and Akismet automatically considers it Spam until the blog admin says otherwise. But you can change that: Dashboard —> Settings —> Discussion —> Comment Moderation. Then just allow a higher number of links to allow per comment so that it doesn’t get held up in the moderation queue.
That’s not it, though; extra links usually just flag a comment for moderation. This one was actually sent to the spam folder, so I had to un-spam it and then approve it. It does happen from time to time, but it’s hard to tell why.
Ah, bit coin, this should be interesting. I have to go to work right now, but why do you like bitcoin?
Do I have to “like” something to report on it or find it interesting? I find the Spanish Inquisition interesting, but I can’t say I “like” it.
The Spanish Inquisition? I wasn’t expecting that… 🙂
Nobody does. 😉
Complete the line:
“I’d prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition, than to…”
Pretty much bitcoin is a hilariously inept cryptocurrency.
At the current moment, I would agree with you.
Inept in what way? If you’d list your concerns, I might be able to address them…
(Disclosure: Yes, I support Bitcoin, as my past posts would suggest.)
There’s a lot to address but just starting with …
1. It’s a “science project” currency. It’s not being used to buy and sell tangible things with very much – which is the main purpose of a currency. Most bitcoins are being collected and hoarded by collectors who hope to accumulate a large number of them – because bitcoins are finite.
2. They’re simply not a threat to the world currencies at the moment – if they were, the US government and every other western government would be trying to shut them down. That’s the number one thing right there – I should have listed that first. If there’s anything that comes along to improve liberty and choice for people – the government would be right out there in front with their boot on it. With bitcoin,, they aren’t. The US government feels there is more danger in you taking a super-size slurpy on a 747 than there is in you hoarding bitcoin. That pretty much tells you where bitcoin is at.
1. I can’t deny that the BTC economy is not as diverse as I might like, and being so new it would certainly have that “science project” air about it. However, the fact that the supply is finite is not an issue to usability because unlike dollars or gold, BTC is infinitely dividable. It’s currently divided out to 8 decimal places and if necessary, that can be extended even farther. And for the most part, those who are hoarding bitcoins wouldn’t do so if they didn’t expect them to have value in the future. (Also, keep in mind that some of those “hoarders” might not be spending because they *can’t* spend. An unfortunately large number of BTC have been permanently removed from circulation due to inept eWallet operators losing the keys to their wallets.)
2. Around May-June 2011, when it first got mainstream press coverage, and the bubble occurred (hitting highs of $30/BTC), Charles Schumer did hyperventilate a bit over Silk Road and BTC being used to buy drugs. I think the subsequent popping of the bubble and collapse to $2/BTC made them think that it was a flash in the pan and nothing to worry about. It’s now back up to $7.50/BTC along a more sustainable growth trajectory, but the media and congresscritters haven’t dedicated any press time to it. The government is still aware of it (as FBI leaks indicate). And ultimately, even if they did decide it was a big threat, because of the way it works, there’s not much they can do about it short of shutting down the entire Internet.
Hi Maggie,
you and your readers might want to read this. The USA Empire is collapsing into lawlessness. Courtesy of no fault divorce.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/12-factors-that-are-turning-the-streets-of-america-into-a-living-hell
Except that every single crime has been dropping every year since the early ’90s, and some are at lower levels now than have EVER been recorded.
I think a lot of people both here in the US as well as other countries get their ideas about the US from news reports. Remember though that the news media tends to just report the unusual stuff that happens. Non-events don’t get put on the news. The fact that millions of people go from day to day without being involved in any crime doesn’t make the news, what does is the the unusual stuff like a child being kidnapped by a total stranger or someone being murdered.
As Maggie pointed out we’re actually living in some of the safest conditions throughout history right now.
Re: the HIV test. I’ve never understood this paternal attitude of our medical establishment. Some time ago, my wife wanted to get a test from the breast cancer gene. They made her provide all kinds of info, do an interview and eventually concluded she couldn’t have it — even if she was willing to pay for it herself. Ridiculous.
A similar thing is going on with genes for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. There is a legitimate fear of insurance companies abusing the information. But some people are holding back because they think future sufferers can’t handle the truth. In reality, the WANT to know so that they can plan for their future needs.
I recommend Christus Muguerza Hospital in Monterrey, Mexico. Very professional, cheap enough that paying for everything out-of-pocket is still affordable, and the hospital is off the radar to insurance companies. I went there in 2009 to get a lot of tests done, and I was blown away by their professionalism. The only downsides: You need a passport to go there, and you need to call the 800 number on the back of your credit card AHEAD OF TIME, or else every charge you make to the hospital will be disallowed by the credit-card provider.
i read the interview with the escort that got arrested and she says that she faces up to 60 days in jail.i thought that sex workers who get arrested spend one night in jail and then they get released,at least thats how it works for illegal workers in Greece.is it that bad in the U.S?as for the bitcoin ,well they can go to hell.this coin is not a solution.the only solution would be for the european countries(Greece,,Spain,Italy), who get exploited and threatened by Germany and their bankers to stand up to the economic war that Hitlers rightful successor,Merkel has declared and to trash like the imf.But under such conditions,i can only dream.
In some American states, prostitutes can be imprisoned for literally years.
I feel safer already!
Harm Magnification – certainly the home test should be legal, but people should remember that this antibody-based method is not reliable and should always be validated by a better test. Also, it is quite strange that the media is so obsessed with HIV, considering that Hepatitis C kills more people in the United States.
The Course of a Disease – surely the ever more bizarre contradictions of the Swedish model will lead to its eventual demise.
Decentralization – In Germany, there are lots of local currencies like the Chiemgauer which has over half a million dollars worth of currency in circulation. Not only does it provide a stable and safe alternative, but people also use it to increase independence from power concentrations elsewhere; all quite positive developments.
Except for the fact that the Chiemgauer is directly linked to the Euro on a 1 for 1 basis – so it’s falling right now at the exact same rate the Euro is.
And – it’s not a currency that can be “saved” economically. Each Chiem note expires every three months and the holder must pay 2% of it’s value to reactivate it.
It’s a niche thing and works to keep money within localities – but it has it’s downsides. I believe that, even though you can buy a Chiem for 1 Euro – if you sell it back you only get .95 Euro in return.
I admit it, I’m a compulsive nit-picker when it comes to music, especially under-appreciated artists. So as I was reading your excellent piece on cocaine, I felt that I must note that the song “Cocaine” was written by J.J. Cale, not Eric Clapton. Clapton’s cover is much better known, of course. “After Midnight” is also a J.J. Cale composition, as is the less known (but also covered by Clapton) “Tulsa Time”.
Love your blog, and have been appreciating your guest commenting at The Agitator!
Ah, thank you! In my early blogging days, I’m afraid I was a lot less careful about proper quote attribution!
One other comment on the cocaine link…your comments fall into line with the late Robert Anton Wilson, author of much libertarian-streaked science fiction as well as the fascinating “Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits”. In an interview several years after that book was published, he said that the only thing he wanted to change about it was to be even more negative about cocaine.
The campaign is based largely on lies such as “Every girl sold on the street today is also being sold on the Internet”, a triple-whopper which 1) equates performing a service with chattel slavery; 2) uses passive voice to imply girls do not choose prostitution when in fact over 86% do; and 3) bizarrely defines 25% as “every”.
Lordisa! The drama! This splits Believers into two categories: 1) Those who hate us so intensely that they will tell whatever lie that will make our lives as hellish as possible; 2) The mentally incompetent who shouldn’t be trusted in making decisions more complicated than “velcro or shoelaces?”
I think we need to restrict them to velcro for their own good; they might accidentally strangle themselves with shoelaces.
OK, I’m back online now, and we’ll see if I get caught up before the weekend. I will say, though, that what I do most weekends is well worth falling behind.
[…] sure it is heavily employed in “trafficking” propaganda*. Over and over we’re told that “girls are sold for sex”, implying that they have no active role and that the legal fiction of a minor’s inability to […]