The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure. – Eric Hoffer
I’m very glad I never had this kind of celebrity as a client:
…[a] woman [called] Tiffany told TMZ she had “no issues” with [accused Aurora spree killer James] Holmes…”He was really nice…He felt bad that I wasn’t getting more customers while in Colorado, so he called a few days later and we met up again”
I could just as well have filed this one as “The More the Better”:
…Miranda Kane is…telling her tales of life as an escort…“My past career was comedy – I am just new to standing up and telling people about it,” she said. The 31-year-old certainly has enough material to draw from for Coin Operated Girl…“I was really big – about 25 stone – and I was never without a date,” she explains. But it would never go further than just one night. “For men, it is like riding a moped. You really want to ride one but you would be embarrassed if your friends saw you”…when the recession hit – which led to the market being flooded with women offering similar services – combined with a loss of weight, she decided it was time for a career change…it is not just the chance to hear a modern take on the world’s oldest career which should bring people through the doors, but the chance to save a bit of money…“It’s £145 cheaper an hour than my normal rate,” she smiles. Coin Operated Girl at the Camden People’s Theatre from Monday, August 6, until Wednesday, August 8, at 9pm…
Though increasing numbers of Canadians support decriminalization, many Canadian politicians are just as disgusting and dishonest as their American brethren:
The war against human traffickers that prey on our youth is now out in the open. Those profiting from the recruitment of…women and girls into the sex trade…[are] targeting Canadian high school students since they can no longer import young women from abroad to sexually exploit…Many of these victims are terrified to talk about the reality of their experiences, and are effectively muzzled by coaching, manipulation and abuse…All around the globe…women and girls are forced into…the sex industry through coercion, threats, deception, or fraud…The average age of entry into prostitution in Canada is between 12 and 14 years of age. It’s impossible to believe that these young girls and boys are making a rational choice to sell their bodies to 20-40 men a night…Canadians must send a strong message to the pimps…that our children will not be bought or sold.
It’s good to see the claims of these fanatics growing ever more extreme, bizarre and impossible; when the hysteria is over their fall will be that much harder.
HIV-Positive Man Cured in Berlin
…Two men…[with] HIV and cancer have been seemingly cleared of the virus…more than two years after receiving bone marrow transplants, HIV can’t be detected anywhere in their bodies. These two new cases are reminiscent of the so-called “Berlin patient,” the only person known to have been cured of [HIV] infection…Both men…endured…treatment for lymphoma, both had stem cell treatments and both had stayed on their HIV drugs throughout… The donor cells, it appears, killed off and replaced the infected cells. And the HIV drugs protected the donor cells while they did it…
For Those Who Think Legalization is a Good Idea
When will people learn that governments’ use of laws always exceeds the stated purpose of those laws?
Four sex workers from [New Delhi]…have challenged a government eviction order…”There is thus no legislative guidance on the implementation of [the anti-brothel law, so]…absolute discretion is vested on the police administration…[which] has resulted in arbitrariness in action and abuse of power and authority”…the women claimed that they had been staying in the area for decades and not involved in business of running any brothel…”The act never intended to penalise prostitution per se, except in public places…but aimed at curbing…organised prostitution,” the petition said…
People are condemned to the “sex offender” registry for many trivial offenses or things that shouldn’t even be crimes, but this is Kafkaesque even by those standards:
In May 2007, my husband and I were asked to assist an acquaintance in putting down a 14-year-old dog…the [owner’s] teenaged daughter…protested the plan vehemently…the day before the planned euthanasia, [police said] the girl had accused him of touching her…since [then] we’ve been fighting a legal system that, without notice, has curtailed our ability to travel, to obtain life insurance, even to petition for redress…police needed no corroboration for the charge; the accusation alone was sufficient, and jail time…was expected…a private investigator…proved the accuser wrong. But…with a minor, it’s all inadmissible…the county [said it] would accept a no-contest plea, but that my husband would still be a registered sex offender for at least 10 years and possibly for the rest of his life. If he didn’t take it, a court date would be set in five to six months, and some jail time would be expected. We were given five minutes to decide. My husband pleaded no contest…
Since then, the Devoys have had to endure constantly-escalating registration requirements and finally started an organization called Reform Sex Offender Laws of Virginia.
This happened three years ago, but was called to my attention by Krulac last week; just imagine the uproar if he had said “woman” instead of “hooker”. But you know, NHI and all.
The sick American mind at work again, seeing sex where it isn’t and imagining that pictures are magically dangerous to their subjects:
…Lauren Ferrari posted a photo on Facebook of her 5-year-old pretending to nurse her 2-year-old. Within 24 hours, Facebook took the picture down…Stefanie Thomas of the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children…[opined] that Ferrari’s decision to post the photo was “poor parenting” because it’s impossible to control where that photo might end up…it wasn’t the first time the site has deleted photos of young girls pretending to breastfeed…Last summer…[alarmists] were outraged [about a nursing doll they claimed]…sexualizes children…Tessa Blake… [argues] it is natural for girls to mimic their moms. “My daughter has been lifting up her shirt and ‘nursing’ her babies for years. Are you suggesting this is shameful? What if she feeds her doll with a bottle? Is she not being a kid then, or is it just the breast that’s the problem?” Blake asked…
A big “thank you” to regular reader Pat Murphy, who sent me a copy of Ronald Weitzer’s new book Legalizing Prostitution. I still don’t know the screen name or contact info of the reader who sent me Prince of Darkness, so whoever it was please let me know!
Though few politicians support it, “sex trafficking” fetishists have succeeded in exposing Denmark to the Swedish rot. Sex worker advocates there are reasonably confident that it hasn’t a chance, so what makes this article notable is the reporter’s attitude:
…despite a report from Norway showing that making it illegal to buy sex in that country…has not resulted in a decrease the number of sex workers…[and has made them] the victims of more violence…[a] parliamentary group…remains focused on criminalising the sex for hire business…”Making it illegal to be a john is a baseless ideological process,” [said] Christian Groes-Green, an assistant professor at Roskilde University…”If they are having problems dealing with real political issues, bringing back the sex debate is just good politics”…
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs
“Sri Lanka police will conduct surprise raids on hotels and guest houses in the country to detect whether underage children are used for prostitution and other sexual acts…” Because, hey, who cares about property rights and tourists’ privacy? It’s for the children!
In the UK as in the US, some porn is arbitrarily deemed illegal due to a vague and wavering line; in Britain it’s “extreme pornography”, defined as “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” or if it portrays “an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals”:
…the Crown Prosecution Service…[argues] that images of fisting should be classified as “extreme pornography” with the risk to the defendant of three years in custody [and] inclusion on the sex offenders’ register…for [an] image…of [a legal] activity…the Prosecution must prove that the act of fisting is “likely to result in serious injury to a person’s anus”…Before being arrested and charged with these offences, Simon [Walsh] was a successful professional and politician…who, amongst other things, prosecuted police officers accused of disciplinary offences. After being charged, Simon lost both professional and political positions, despite the fact that no pornography was found on any of his work…[or] home computers…the police had to “interrogate” Simon’s personal email account (server) in order to discover a few images they deemed questionable. This…contaminated the only source of evidence; making it impossible to identify whether images attached to emails had in fact been opened and viewed…
Note the emphasized line, especially in light of the fact that the images were in an incoming email and may not have been opened. In other words, it’s highly likely that the police simply sent the images to him, then pretended to “find” the “evidence” as they do with planted drugs.
Only other peoples’ kind of sex work is bad! Ours isn’t even sexual!
The owner of a Saskatoon exotic dancing business [argues that]…the new…licensing bylaw for adult services…is discriminatory. “We provide entertainment, not sexual favours,” said Bella Kaje, owner of KJ’s Party Favors…”I don’t like what they’re categorizing us with…and…these obscene amounts (for a licence) is more…discrimination” …An adult service agency licence…will cost $500 [plus] $200 for each renewal…[then] $250, plus $100 for each renewal, for [each] performer…[or employee, including] drivers and receptionists…
Meanwhile, across the pond: “Council officials say they will check up on a new ‘tantric temple’ centre which offers clients massages from women in G-strings…owners are insisting that no sexual services will be carried out…” Because erotic massages from naked people aren’t sexual services.
Birds of a feather, and all that: “Jerry Sandusky’s ‘The Second Mile’ wants to divert…$2 million dollars in assets…to the Arrow Child and Family Ministry…[in order to prevent] victims from seeking to liquidate his organization’s assets as civil cases are pursued against him…”
Metaupdates
Yet another gun to the internet’s head is turned aside:
…Section 230 says that websites aren’t liable for third party content…[and has therefore] become the foundation for the entire user-generated content industry…Despite [the] enormous social benefits…state legislators [frequently] consider enacting laws that conflict with Section 230…the Washington state legislature enacted one such law in an overzealous effort to shut down online child prostitution…[but] in Backpage and Internet Archive v. McKenna…a federal judge rejected the Washington legislature’s efforts, turning the case into a major victory for…user-generated content…
This Week in 2011
The erosion of “innocent until proven guilty”, a short biography of the Athenian hetaera Aspasia, and a Canadian town buys a strip club; also, answers to questions about “doggie style”, what happens when a client finishes quickly and whether a whore and client can ever be friends. “August Updates (Part One)” contains items about a book of vulva pictures, cops harassing strippers and streetwalkers, and the beginning of decriminalization in India; “Part Two” discusses invented “sex trafficking” victims, rising STI rates in older amateurs and South Korean whores fighting for their rights.
This Week in 2010
“Genesis of a Harlot” is the three-part story of how I slowly grew toward sex work and “The Only Working Girl in New Orleans” the three-part story of what happened after Hurricane Katrina; “Phryne” was a famous Athenian hetaera, and “Whores and Wives” discusses the varied reactions wives have to discovering their husbands have employed hookers.
another government attempt at deporting immigrants.shocking.as for the agency owner,who says that he will go to schools with poles to attract students,i think hes trying to scare parents,teachers and officials so that they will try to prevent the ban of foreign strippers in favour of protecting their ”innocent”daughters.a rather desperate attempt but women trying to marry people they dont know and who might treat them badly, is even more desperate.i understand how they feel perfectly;like most Greeks i have family members,who are immigrants in Detroit,Germany,Johannesbourg,Australia and i know all the difficulties they have been through trying to establish a better life and some people treating them like dirt. people who work in the sex industry,get treated even worse by the general public and are even more vulnurable when politicians are in need of votes.
The prosecution of Simon Walsh is strange. The images were apparently attachments to a three year old email. Just how do you “interrogate” someone’s email or their server? Wet towels were the favoured method here years ago — they leave no marks.
There’s another excellent commentary about the trial at:
http://heresydungeon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-trial-of-simon-walsh-at-kingston.html
and you can follow the action live on twitter at #porntrial
In this case, “interrogate” = “hack”.
Maggie wrote:
Note the emphasized line, especially in light of the fact that the images were in an incoming email and may not have been opened.
And here’s another joker in the deck. Unless the subject line said, “EXTREME GRAPHIC ILLEGAL F**STING PICS ATTACHED!” exactly how does he divine that the contents are illegal? Does he have to put his forehead on the monitor and emulate Carnac the Magnificent?
And, knowing cops and prosecutors, even that would constitute “opening.”
This is exactly the point I make in this coming Wednesday’s column. It isn’t real law, as the term is understood by rational thinkers; it’s the primitive superstition of child-minds. Certain things (drugs, porn, etc) are ritually taboo, and touching them (“possession”), even involuntarily, magically renders the person so touched “unclean” and therefore subject to ritual purification via arrest, ordeal and ostracism from the community. The only people who can “safely” handle these things are the priests, who are protected by magical talismans called “badges” and absolved of sin by virtue of their membership in the priest class.
At least we can be sure that only criminals get emails with bizarre or questionable content.
[Official Announcer Voice]
“Thank you Mr. Peterman. That is all.”
😉
Perhaps, though “hack” suggests an illegal activity. The offending email was three years old, apparently, so perhaps not planted by the cops. And Simon Walsh did nothing to prevent any “interrogation” of his computers, freely giving his passwords. As I’m a neighbouring jurisdiction, I’m careful about what I say: but the prosecution does smack of political interference. And just to be clear, neither fisting nor sounding has any appeal for me, but each to his own, chacun à son goȗt.
The cops do lots of illegal things which are magically declared legal by the presence of the Holy Badge. And personally, I think fisting is disgusting, but that doesn’t mean it (or pictures of it) should be illegal.
I’ve learned over the years that the “whole truth” rarely comes out in open court. It looks as if there is a significant “back story” here; whether we will eventually get to hear it is uncertain. I do have trust in the common sense of the jury, though.
I trust the jury to make the best, most reasonable decision they can. I’m not so sure that I trust that they will get al the best information to make that decision with.
Reading the tweets about the prosecution and defence cases today (7 August) reminds me of the 1960 prosecution of Lady Chatterly: surely we have moved on from there? It might not be significant that the defendant has prosecuted corrupt cops…And while I’ve sounded more people that you’ve had hot breakfasts, and while I’ve had four or even eight fingers in someone’s rectum, don’t get me wrong, I don’t find it in any way appealing. But it’s not about my personal tastes; it’s about the freedom to choose, to live the life you want.
(The judge will sum up tomorrow, 8 August: I expect and hope that it won’t take the jury more than a nanosecond to acquit.)
I’ll be interested in seeing how this turns out.
Do email or “tweet” me if verdict is announced by Friday afternoon; I want to get it into this week’s TW3 if possible.
Wed 8 Aug: Not guilty on all counts.
Cool.
LFMFAO! So true!! 😛
On Sri Lanka, well it’s not at the top of my choice of tourist destinations anyway!!
Concerning the YouTube link I sent you …
That guy is one of those characters that NO ONE sympathizes with. OWS wouldn’t like the guy because he’s a rich guy milking the public. Tea Party wouldn’t like the guy because he’s a non-producer who’s bilking tax dollars to enrich himself using bullshit green programs as cover.
And then, to top it off – he makes an asswipe comment about hookers being gang raped by prisoners on an exercise break.
Call me Alinsky – but I just thought that this guy was the perfect target for whores to bounce their public disdain off of in a manner that all the Mr. and Mrs. “John Q’s” could identify with. Think about it – you have whores out there who are struggling to get by and raising families – and paying their taxes so that Captain Shithead can intercept them in Washington DC and use them to fund the expansion of his indoor swimming pool. And to put icing on that shit sandwich – he makes jokes about gang raping some of the people he’s getting that money from.
See – this is the way I think – any opportunity we have to get the general public on the side of sex workers – we need to exploit.
Totally off topic but whenever I can give people a smile … I like to do it. I found this on DavidLeeRoth.com … it’s DLR singing and dancing to the O’Jay’s hit … “Love Train” … it’s … two and half fucking hours of Dave doing this and some of it is hilarious. He’s the only guy I know with the nuts to do something this crazy!
I have been smiling at this all week! 😛
http://www.davidleeroth.com/video/50-rides-love-train
Back in the mid- to late-Eighties, I thought it would be just great to be one of the Jungle Studs, DLR’s group of global adventure tourists.
Wait one cotton-pickin’ minute:
Since when is nursing a sexual thing? I mean, i realize that there are guys who get off on lactation, but there are guys who get off on urination too. Should we outlaw singing potties because of that?
Nursing is what breasts are … you know .. for. Breasts have a sexual context — I wrote a post about it that a couple of great blogs linked to. But nursing is not a sexual context. Pretending to nurse a doll is no more sexual than pretending to change its diaper or feed it with a bottle.
Our culture fetishizes breasts to a weird degree: in much of the world, public nursing or toplessness isn’t a big deal. Do we have to cave into the hysterics?
Honestly, I think we should just put these people and Michael Bloomberg in a sack and throw it off a bridge.
make sure to add a dog, a snake, a rooster, and a monkey to the bag.
I was told that knowledge of Marcus Cicero’s kid brother was not a prerequisite for this course. ;^)
But Extra-Credit points ARE offered!
Did someone call my name? 😛
Having a celebrity as a client is a whole other level of complication. I did it a few times, and was glad mostly not to.
As to the whole “extreme porn” thing.
What’s “extreme” is a matter of individual judgement and taste. Fisting, vaginal or anal, is one of those acts where it’s best to know what you’re doing, and how to do it. Like some S&M, it’s something best thought out, and planned, not just plunged into, forgive the pun. Like any sex act, it just doesn’t appeal to everyone. There are likely people, on camera and off, who don’t prepare properly, and hurt themselves, There are many who do not.
As I’ve mentioned, one of my specialties, as as an escort, was a more energetic, rougher session. No doubt, many of the anti-trafficking, sex-haters would have been appalled at my performances. But for me, I’m not sure why, but it was easier than other styles, and just seemed natural to me. And I did that for years, and am not injured by it. (Sure, I’d occasionally end up with bruises, but that’s just part of it. No worries. They go away.) It was between consenting adults.
And that’s the important bit- What business have we to prohibit the acts between consenting adults? Oh sure, you can argue there is a line there, say if one person wants to allow another to amputate a limb or something. One might argue that that brings in society, and medical intervention and the risk of death. And i understand that, and am not sure where I stand on that.
But we allow other risky things. Athletes risk injury or death. Yet no one is for calling off the superbowl.
Well yeah Comix, but those are men. It’s OK for them to do dangerous things. But you poor little girls…
[makes ‘rocking a baby’ motion with arms]
You might have noticed that there are women athletes, too.
Yes, and the only time I hear anybody complaining about how sports is too rough is when women are competing.* Especially small women, in particular gymnasts and figure skaters. Then we get books like Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. I never hear about little BOYS in handsome boxes or anything like that. I actually think that women in sports helps to knock down the “poor little girls” thing, so I’m glad to see women doing things like taekwondo and marathon.
* Yes, occasionally somebody will bitch about boxing or MMA, but that’s about it.
every time i told an older person that i played soccer they looked at me strange,probably because they expected a tomboy,which im certainly not and asked me how could my mother allow me to do that with so many dangerous fouls and injuries that might occur.ive never heard of anyone asking a boy that.truth is my mother did freak out when i started playing with boys in the schoolyard when i was 12 and pleaded me to go play girly games with girls,but i had no choice, since the girls were hating on me,because i had gotten boobs earlier than them.i remember spending the whole summer learning to play soccer from my cousin and watching tapes of Real Madrid and Manchester United games,before i asked the boys to play in September,when the schools started.this desperation for company grew into love for the sport,though and i started playing in an athletic center,where a retired professional player had created an academy that was teaching children and teenagers how to play. needless to say that if it wasnt for my father,i would never have been able to do that,everyone else was against it because i was this fragile little doll.
Urination, obviously completely harmless, is also targeted for censorship. Government really does believe that it should and can control judgment and taste. The UK is not a free country, but even in the US where speech is protected by law the government simply can’t help itself, even if it has to undermine its own legitimacy through legal obscenity like in the Max Hardcore case.
Not related to anything here, but Democrats, please: lay off the frikkin’ horse. Rafalca is an American competitor in the Olympic Games (and so, for that matter, is Fafalca’s rider, Jan Ebeling). I, for one, am rooting for my country’s horse and my country’s rider.
They finished something like 13th, which isn’t a medal, but isn’t anything to be ashamed of when you’re up against the best in the world. Lay off the horse.
It’s hard to believe America is in such trouble when we focus on the things that are really important, huh?
Don’t tell anybody, but I’m starting to get a little tired of the car garage, too.
I’ve been watching these Olympics like a fiend, and so far I haven’t found the tribes of nomadic harlots known to roam the world from one big sporting event to the next. But hey, they’ve GOT to be there, right? I mean, Farley and company wouldn’t lie to me, would they?
The Olympic Village typically has more sex going on than Woodstock anyway. ;-P
I’ve been watching as much as I can. Did you see Venus/Sharapova this morning. Wow, talk about mass destruction.
Yeah, Ms Williams was pretty ruthless.
But then, when was the last time you heard of somebody being ruthful?
Very rarely, and only when they inadvertently dropped the opening “t”.
My statement about “the car garage” was suppose to read “the car elevator” I doubt even Cenk Uygar would begrudge the Romneys a car garage.
Just saw Rafalka on TV! Apparently she’s not out of things yet. There was some second event I didn’t know she was in. Missed the beginning of the performance (Rafalca was about halfway through when I tuned in), but I’ll be checking the scores.
I’ve not heard about this, Sailor. But are they claiming that Romney’s going to nominate Fafalca to the Supreme Court or make him a priest in the Mormon Church?
I wish, because at least those things would matter. Well, not the priest thing, except to other LDS,
No, it goes something like this: Romney is such a rich out-of-touch guy that he and his wife own dressage horses. DresSAGE. How Thurston Howell the Third is THAT?! And Mitt being Mitt, he had to try to distance himself from the whole thing. “I don’t even know what day they’re competing.”
Dude, your wife (your WIFE!) has a horse in the mother-loving OLYMPIC GAMES. Own it and it’ll be a good on you. Wuss.
“Aah, Lovey Dear. ahh, when is our horse riding in that little soiree in London town?”
😉
The logical end to this kind of thinking is to arrest prostitutes and charge them with trafficking themselves.
Hooker Humor – this is really good news. Not only is the media coverage pretty good, but Ms. Kane herself projects an image completely at odds with the prohibitionist viewpoint.
“Many Canadian teen prostitutes are frightened to talk about the reality of their awful lives, that they are held prisoner and exploited by evil pimps.”
“`Many’? Not `All’? So why didn’t you quote any of the brave few who are supposedly willing to speak out about their supposedly horrible lives? I cry BS.”
“Oh my, the problem is worse than I thought! These poor kids, they’re ALL terrified to speak out!”
“EVERY last teen prostitute in Canada is the slave of a pimp, and yet NONE of them will speak to the police or to a reporter? Sorry, I don’t believe it.”
“No, no, it’s true! Those pimps are really, truly terrifying.”
“I’m thinking of a girl who was a true sex slave, as in, kept as a prisoner in a weirdo’s basement. She escaped — naked — and told the guy’s neighbors to call the police. How can the Canadian pimps keep these Canadian prostitutes silent when this true-life slaver couldn’t keep his true-life sex slave silent?”
“Because they’re MORE than pimps. They’re — they’re VAMPIRES! Undead creatures of darkness.”
“Vampire pimps? Uh-huh.”
“With their purple suits, and purple hats, and gold rings, and blood-dripping fangs. Is it any wonder than no Canadian teen prostitutes have spoken out?”
“Well, that’s one explanation. The other explanation is that few Canadian teen prostitutes are speaking out about their horrible lives because few Canadian teen prostitutes’ lives are horrible.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080080/reviews
I could swear that there was a sequel to this called “Vampire Hookers from Hell.” And the only reason was that my younger brother and I were in a video store picking out a rental when he stopped and started laughing. I walked back, and he asked me, “Is this a horror movie, or a whore movie.?”
And you know, they’re banging like 20-40 guys a NIGHT. Do they have those guys lined up outside the hotel room, hardons to the ready? These people can’t even do basic math….
Even if they can’t do math, history would help; Honolulu brothels required girls to do 100 a day, but they had a special system to facilitate things, imposed a strict 3-minute limit and literally had lines around the block.
The Canadian article has lots of very skeptical comments – the politician apparently didn’t get away with it. I suspect this kind of puritanical “women’s rights” politician (I guess she’s conservative, though I don’t know if that means Christian in Canada) has a hard tim eselling her juice to the public there.
Alas, we have an insatiable appetite for it.
[…] The judge was “lenient” in that he “only” stole £500 from each and “only” put them on probation for two years rather than caging them. Because, as everyone including the judge admits, these taboo images were sent them unsolicited by a third party. That third party could be anyone, including the police themselves trying to manufacture a crime: […]