The Constitution tells us that…the state may not use a butcher knife on a problem that requires a scalpel to fix. – Judge John T. Nixon
A former madam…[will] open the UK’s first brothel…for disabled clients. Becky Adams…said: “People have the same sexual urges whether they’re disabled or not…A soldier who comes home from war disabled doesn’t stop being a normal, healthy person with normal, healthy needs…Our new brothel will be kitted out with ramps and hoists for wheelchair access, just like any other service for disabled people.” The two-roomed establishment, called Para Doxies from the old English word for prostitutes, will be sufficient for two sex workers…and staff to assist clients…the brothel will provide transport to collect clients
and take them home afterwards…
As I’ve mentioned before, Irene Adler was one of my favorite fictional heroines, yet a number of people seemed surprised when I was displeased with the BBC turning her from a courtesan into a dominatrix in its “updated” Sherlock Holmes series. This recent io9 article by Esther Inglis-Arkell explores the problems of modern Adler adaptations at some length:
Irene Adler only appeared in one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, but she’s considered a pivotal figure in the Holmes canon, nonetheless. And we’ve seen several of the latest…interpretations debut their own versions of Irene Adler in recent years…Why is Arthur Conan Doyle’s Irene Adler so much better than the versions crafted by Steven Moffat and Guy Ritchie?…In both…Irene Adler is not simply an admirable person with a taste for sleuthery and adventure. In the movie series, she’s both a woman who marries rich men for a living and a thief…In the TV series, she’s a dominatrix who dabbles in blackmail and international terrorist intrigue (on the side of the terrorists). Both characters lean very heavily on sexuality and criminality…and…while the original Adler was independent, they’re both pawns of Moriarty…
Intra-family spying gets ever more intrusive:
…KidTrack™…monitors text messages, incoming and outgoing phone log, each web site visited, location and media…“We see this as being no different than a parent examining the contents of a backpack…” said Ernie Rush of Rush Software…[customer] Rebecca Quesada [said] “As a mother, I feel much safer knowing that I have access to every single text message my daughter sends and receives…I can know where she is at all times, know who she is calling and who she is being called by and have access to every picture that she takes, as well as every single web site that she visits”…KidTrack silently captures this information and periodically uploads it to…servers where it can be viewed by the parent via a web browser…
“Silently” = “without the kid’s knowledge”. And that means it can just as easily be loaded onto a spouse’s or employee’s phone. My mother was incredibly overprotective by ‘70s standards, but you know what? She respected my privacy, and never once (to my knowledge) snooped in my purse, read my mail or censored my reading material.
Normally I’m against lynch mobs, but in the case of “authorities” I make an exception because it’s often the only way they will face any consequences for their actions: “…a politician in northeast India accused of rape was stripped and beaten by a crowd of women. Bikram Singh Brahma is a member of the Congress Party in Assam…He was arrested…[after attacking] the woman…while he was staying at her family’s house…”
Apparently, the average age of Xactware board members is 12:
The Lehi [Utah] City Council has renamed Morning Glory Road after a technology company planning to relocate to the street raised concerns about the name’s sexual connotation…”Morning glory” is the name of a flower…but…is sometimes used to describe male arousal. Councilman Johnny Revill…[said] he didn’t know about the term’s slang meaning previously but was happy to appease Xactware officials…
This reaction to a terrible freak accident is, apparently, not a parody:
A 22 year old stripper in Cleveland, OH [died]…after a freak lap dance accident. She apparently launched herself over a railing, falling head first to the floor 15 feet below…she should have been provided with adequate safety gear. Safety straps and fall netting should have been an absolute minimum protection…something clearly needs to be done. Better equipment and improved training are clearly called for…drug testing might also be in order…
Time tries to glorify the controlling behavior of a pathologically-entitled prude:
Administrators let offenders at one of Iowa’s most dangerous prison units watch violent and sexually explicit movies and TV shows…despite repeated complaints from a female officer who said it encouraged inmates to sexually harass her…administrators told [Kristine Sink] not to turn off the…shows. When she did, they accused her of insubordination…Sink said she has fought a lonely battle under four wardens against movies that caused inmates to become sexually aggressive — through “10 years of misery.” She filed a lawsuit…against prison officials alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and workplace retaliation, seeking an unspecified amount of damages…
I have a solution for you, Kristine. If you are too prissy to handle the sort of raw behavior any sane person would expect from male prisoners, why don’t you get a job someplace other than a FUCKING MEN’S PRISON?
I received
two more generous presents this week: the whole series of Bullshit! from Paul Reinerfelt, and the Sex Power soundtrack from Pat Murphy. Also, I’ve discovered that it was Gumdeo who sent the copy of Crisis and Leviathan last week. My sincere thanks to all of you!
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs
Notice that “feminists” aren’t too concerned with “stereotyped gender roles” when it comes to “rescuing” sex workers:
…in an endeavor as far removed from their former lives as the gleaming banks and trendy boutiques of Tel Aviv are from the city’s sleazy subculture…former prostitutes…have received…training in dress design and sewing…[and] are now aiming to find a place in the world of fashion…
One later passage is absurd even by lawhead standards:
Up until a few years ago Israel was a prime destination for traffickers of women. An estimated 3,000 women per year were smuggled in, mostly from Eastern Europe, to work in the sex industry. That number has declined since Israel passed an antitrafficking law in 2006…and most of the prostitutes here are now said to be Israelis.
3000 per year for, say, 10 or 15 years…where did they all go? Obviously, they must have obediently vanished into Sheol when the magical law was passed.
Paypal is at it again; they’ve blocked the account of regular reader Frank Adamo for distributing “sexually oriented material” involving a minor. Girl Becomes Woman is a photo-documentary of breast development, starting at age 9; Frank said, “[It’s] no more ‘sexually oriented’ than a documentary about pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding…I used Paypal to process donations to create the Breast Pride Education Foundation, and after a year…[and] approximately 100 donations Paypal suddenly decides to protect itself from possible scandal by blocking my account and holding my money for six months!” He filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but they closed the complaint without action. Frank notes that the sudden condemnation of his work as porn conveniently came just after he tried to transfer $1000 from Paypal into his bank account.
Yet again: As long as government actors have excessive power over individuals, this will keep happening:
Two Los Angeles Police…officers…allegedly [preyed] on women…[for] five years, luring them into an unmarked car and forcing them to perform sex acts…Luis Valenzuela and James Nichols targeted at least four women whom they had arrested previously or who worked for them as informants…The pair repeatedly used the threat of jail to get women into their car and drove them to secluded areas where one…demanded sex while the other kept watch…
And keep happening: “…[South Carolina cop] Larry Heyward [has been arrested and charged with sexual] offenses on a child between the ages of 11 and 14 years [while assigned to the child’s school]…”
[Washington, D.C. cop] Wendel Palmer…pleaded not guilty…to charges of first-degree child sexual abuse…
[which] occurred while Palmer directed [a church] youth choir…Palmer would tell the girl to stay with him…while the rest of the choir members went to a store. The assaults began in August 2004 when the girl was 11…[and] ran through August 2006…she told investigators there were “too many incidents to count”…
Foreign officials visiting Colombia: Pay your damned hookers! Colombian hookers: Please start charging your damned clients in advance! “…prostitutes stole numerous items from the Honduras embassy in Bogota, Colombia…an employee of the Ambassador…organized a party with alcohol and sex at the facility…[but] they were not paid for their services…[and retaliated by stealing phones, computers and national security documents]…” And just in case you thought American media had let go of the story featured in the original column of this name: “Two [DEA] agents ‘facilitated a sexual encounter’ between a prostitute and a U.S. Secret Service agent…in April 2012…a third DEA agent present on the night of the incident was not involved…” Translation: two guys helped a co-worker find someone to provide a legal service he wanted. Oh, be still my heart.
The Immunity Syndrome (TW3 #19)
In the past year, cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea has become five times as common in North America:
…drug resistance has now reached North America in sizable numbers…of 133 patients [in a Toronto study]…6.77 percent…failed to respond to treatment…experts…call “its arrival deeply troubling; clinicians now face the emergence of cephalosporin-resistant N. gonorrhoeae without any well-studied, effective backup treatment options”…
First They Came for the Hookers…
Texas just won’t stop until it makes all sex work as dangerous as criminalized streetwalking:
After years of battling in court, the City of Houston and the popular…strip club, Treasures, have reached an agreement…in exchange for dropping three separate lawsuits against each other, Treasures will pay $100,000 into City-administered Nuisance Abatement Fund to help combat human trafficking. Additionally, the club must post signs at every table stating no illegal activities, including lewdness, prostitution or drug use are permitted…The agreement effectively ends a court battle stretching back to 1983…attorneys for Harris County continue to move ahead with a lawsuit alleging Treasures is a haven for drug trafficking and prostitution…
Meanwhile, in Dallas:
State Representative Bill Zedler first gained attention…when he led a…crusade to block a Hooters from opening near his neighborhood in Arlington…claiming it would serve as a magnet for sexual predators…[he has] [continued] the fight against Hooters while expanding his focus to battle…other sexually oriented businesses. His latest salvo…HB 337…would…license [strippers]…New York considered a similar measure several years ago. And Alabama apparently passed one…But Zedler’s bill…would…require [dancers] to “conspicuously display the…license on his or her person when conducting business…” The bill’s stated purpose is to prevent human trafficking and protect public health…More likely, it will be used as a pretext for hassling businesses Zedler disapproves of…
“Sex trafficking” is already criminal; what this law actually intends to do is wipe out inexpensive escort advertising: “A federal judge has temporarily barred [Tennessee] officials from enforcing a law…intended to criminalize sex trafficking of minors, after a challenge by…Backpage.com…”
While “authorities” in Rio de Janeiro try to persecute sex workers into hiding before the World Cup, other cities are instead helping them:
Prostitutes in one of Brazil’s biggest cities are beginning to sign up for free English classes ahead of this year’s Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup. Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes in the city of Belo Horizonte, said…”It will be important for the girls who will be able to use English to let their clients know what they are charging and learn about what turns them on…for the same reasons we are also thinking of offering free French and Italian classes”…
Secret Squirrel:
What bothers me is that there are parents who blind to the incredible breach of faith and trust the use of such software implies, even if the child doesn’t find a way to disable or get around it.
The New Victorianism:
If the Xactware board have nothing better to do than worry about than such a tenuously suggestive road name, I for one would avoid their software like the plague.
The Punitive Mindset:
I suspect that if all “violent and explicit” entertainment was removed, the prisoners would become even more sexually agressive towards the female guards.
The prisoners would indeed become more sexually aggressive, but most of it would be directed toward whoever they could actually get their hands on, namely other prisoners. And that’s exactly what people like Sink want.
Hanlon’s razor Maggie. She is more likely to be ignorant than evil. Almost no humans are evil.
I think I have a different definition of evil than you do. My practical definition is, “the desire to exert control over others that they neither desire nor require.” Evil to me is something one does, not something one is, though I fully admit to sloppily using it as an adjective for people rather than actions from time to time.
Evil is as evil does? Works for me.
>But Zedler’s bill…would…require [dancers] to “conspicuously display the…license on his or her person when conducting business…”
Thinking back to my stripping days… How would I have done that? By the end of my set, I was nude. I didn’t have pockets, or anything to pin a license to.
Bingo!
Perhaps a transparent cardholder with the license, not unlike the ID badges one sees at academic conferences, could be fitted around the strippers’ necks. Sexy.
A necklace perhaps?
A piercing. Pin it to a nipple. In fact, put it on on stage. Yelp and whimper, as if there weren’t already a pierced hole in the nipple. Gives you a certain niche appeal.
Then if vice or other Moral Guardians complain that it’s violent or degrading or S&M or whatever, blame the lawmakers. It is their fault, after all.
Do you see this as actually a negative? I’m not sure I do. The fact is … ADULTS are monitored by the government in exactly the same ways. The kids might as well get used to it and … my theory is – that human nature will NOT take to such stifling intrusiveness for very long before there is a HUGE backlash against it. MORE PLEASE – until people finally get upset about this issue! I honestly don’t see how people aren’t more upset about this now. It’s probably because Uncle Sam does it’s “snooping” in such opaque ways that the average American doesn’t feel he’s being watched all the time.
The thing that confuses me is they talk about all these “treatment failures”. Okay – so what do they DO with those “failures”? “Sorry – you’re gonna die of the clap” ?? Or … more likely … are they moving on to cure those cases using a combination of drugs? I have googled and can’t find this info and I just wonder why? Why haven’t I seen a story about a 17 year old girl who died of untreatable gono? I don’t get it.
I have to laugh at this aspect of Texas. They DO know that Houston, and particularly the Dallas-Fort Worth area probably has more whores per acre than anywhere else in the world? Just check out ECCIE and you’ll see. They’re hot – and plentiful – and if I lived in Texas I’d be a broke man! 🙂
Found it here … http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6131a3.htm
I found another website that quoted a survey that found 9 “treatment failures” and every single one of them was cured using combinations of drugs – or just stronger drugs – or double doses of the drugs.
So … “untreatable gonorrhea” is a myth methinks. “Convieniently treatable” – is another story.
The problem is that the more complex a treatment, especially for STDs, the less likely a patient is to finish the regimen. This is especially important since antibiotic regimens which do not completely kill the disease are the main driver of those diseases becoming resistant to antibiotics. One-dose cure is the ideal in STD treatment, and every additional dose required increases the likelihood of creating a resistant bug.
Yeah I agree with that … but, for quite a long time I’ve had the feeling that this issue is being used as a scare tactic against sex.
Like this site here … http://www.sott.net/article/255950-First-cases-of-incurable-antibiotic-resistant-gonorrhea-found-in-North-America-as-CDC-warns-of-public-health-nightmare
In the headline it calls this type of gono “incurable” … however, in fact, if you read AT THE VERY END OF THE STORY – all nine people were cured by using ceftriaxone, which is a cephalosporin that supposedly their cases were “immune” to.
You might think that Paypal closed that guy’s account due to some ideological objection of for fears of prosecution. But actually, they’re just thieves: http://www.paypalsucks.org/
That website, by the way, is actually an ad for another service. This is the link I meant to use: http://paypalsucks.org/
I was just about to link to that site. Paypal also froze the account of the Regretsy charity fund last Christmas because they “improperly” used the ‘Donate’ button since that is only for “worthy causes”. They did not consider charity a worthy cause.
Don’t use Paypal for ANYTHING. EVER.
I used to have a Paypal account, but closed it several years ago because they started blocking me from buying things from companies who use them as a credit card processor; as soon as I cancelled my own account the problems evaporated.
That site 8943 linked to has similar horror stories like yours and so much worse. But since Paypal is connected to eBay and has wormed its way into so many other businesses, they have become “Too Big To Fail”, which is all the more reason for it to go down in flames.
The Pirate Parties and Wikileaks are keenly aware of this problem. Hopefully, we can figure out how to do some open-source, non-profit alternative in the future.
Actually, just make Bitcoins more common.
Wait a second…didn’t I send something to you before Christmas via PayPal? Or is it that you can receive PayPal payments from other people who have accounts but not send any?
It’s that you’re replying to a two-year-old comment and I only fixed the problem and re-established my account one year ago.
*facepalm* I need to look at the dates of the posts before I reply.
I have to disagree a bit on the Adler thing. The Guy Ritchie movies did seem to lose their way with her (Mycroft too). And getting rid of her was one of movie two’s big mis-steps. She wasn’t bad, per se, but she also wasnt the kind of person who could outfox Holmes.
The TV show, on the other hand, got it mostly right, I thought. She was certainly the equal of Holmes and Moriarity, more of a free agent than Moriarity’s pawn. And I loved the way she kept Sherlock from reading anything into her appearance.
I must admit I’m prejudiced at the writers’ apparently thinking that a dominatrix is either cooler or more socially acceptable (or both) than a courtesan; perhaps I’m paranoid, but I smell “trafficking” hysteria as a component of that decision.
In the original, Irene clearly beats Sherlock. In the modern, TV, version she equally clearly doesn’t — and — silly girl — has to be rescued by Sherlock, a point not lost on the fiministas. The original resolves the problem elegantly, but as Moriarty is involved in the TV series perhaps this wasn’t possible. And it’s clear in the originals that Mycroft was cleverer than Sherlock — Mycroft could out-think Sherlock any time, so the TV ending is doubly wrong.
And yes, Maggie, I think you’re being just a teensy bit paranoid 🙂
Oh, I’m pretty sure the dom v. courtesan thing was a trafficking issue. As it was, they got some heat for making her ANY kind of sex worker. I really do hope they bring her back for series 3. The chemistry between Pulver and Cumerbatch was great. And I think Pulver’s name is one of those that’s been circulated if they ever decide to do a female Doctor Who.
As for Sherlock beating her, it took quite a bit for that to happen. She was able to match him in wits for almost the entire episode. In the end, the only thing that did her in was a small bit of sentiment. MUCH better than the movie, where she’s in no way a match for him.
On the morning glory thing – looks like sexual obsession on the part of the complainers is the only possible explanation. At wikipedia, there are 27 instances of morning glory. Only one is the – horrors!! – object of their paranoia.
“I have a solution for you, Kristine. If you are too prissy to handle the sort of raw behavior any sane person would expect from male prisoners, why don’t you get a job someplace other than a FUCKING MEN’S PRISON?”
Best response ever.
Maybe you could talk to that “sportcaster” who wore tight clothes & then switched her hips in front of the football players in their locker room and claimed she was sexually harassed?
In regards to KidTrack. I can see employers using this against their employees. Its only a matter of time before they do it, if it hasn’t been done already.
If the kid finds out what you’re doing, you can play a funeral dirge for his respect, because you won’t have it. Kids old enough to text anything worth being worried about are too old to give respect simply because it is demanded. But the reason parents are willing to risk this is because they think that we live in a world with a kiddy-diddler behind every tree, where more teenagers are dying of drug overdoses than ever before, where teen pregnancy is through the roof, and where all forms of violence are up, up, up. In reality all of those things are down, down, down. In many cases, at historic lows. And parents (AND KIDS!) need to know this.
If Xactware ever sponsors a Boy Scout troop, they will inform the Scouts that they can no longer pitch tents.
Robert Wilson’s piece is disgusting. He’s trying to be cute because the woman who died was a stripper. The FOX article by Lindsay Buckingham(*) was much more respectful, apparently because Buckingham realizes that the death of a stripper is no less tragic and no more cute than the death of any other human being. As for safety equipment: yes, investigate. There was a safety railing. Good. Was it wobbly? Was it lower than regulations demand? Were dancers encouraged to use the railing for dance stunts? No, I don’t think that exotic dancers should wear safety straps at all times, or even every time they’re on the second floor, but their lives are as valuable as anyone else’s, and they shouldn’t face a lesser concern than anyone else.
I have to agree with you about Kristine. While the prisons are filled to overflowing with harmless pot smokers and such, there are the occasional real criminals, and the harmless pot smokers soon learn to act just like them out of self-preservation. If Kristine wants to be around men who act like perfect gentlemen, she should go someplace where she’s more likely to encounter perfect gentlemen. I’m not sure where that is, but a prison probably isn’t it.
I notice a quote from Kristine: ““No private employer could get away with this.” So the Iowa state prisons are not run by a private, for-profit company? I’m going to see if I can find out.
Girl Becomes Woman is a wonderful idea for a book. I think Frank Adamo should worry less about whether or not any of the readers have “prurient interest,” though. The book follows Anjeza until she is a fully mature woman. Shouldn’t men look at fully mature women with prurient interest? As long as the author doesn’t play to that, by having Anjeza doing something sexy in the pictures but rather just stand or sit there, then any prurience is on the part of the viewer, and not Frank’s or Anjeza’s responsibility. Actually, I’ve thought for some time that a study following a specific child through puberty was an excellent idea. There should be one with a boy, too.
When you create a job which gives certain adults a great deal of power over children and teenagers, adults who want to abuse children and teenagers will attempt to be hired for those jobs.
You’d think the officials would learn to pay for what they purchased, but you’d think the hookers would learn that they need to charge BEFORE they do a blinking thing. Maybe the hookers in Columbia don’t talk to each other?
Sometimes it’s embarrassing to live in Texas.
I just love it when people act as if sexual trafficking in children, or murder, or rape, or selling heroin to kids, weren’t already against the law. I don’t love it when big chunks of the general public act as if they don’t know this. It’s because they don’t stop frothing at the mouth long enough to say, “Wait a minute, isn’t cannibalism at Sunday school already illegal?”
Rosetta Stone should sponsor the language lessons, and run commercials based on this.
(*) I’m guessing not THAT Lindsay Buckingham.