A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible. – Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics
The stream slowed down somewhat this week, probably due in part to several major news stories consuming a lot of the intellectual bandwidth. That is not by any means a complaint or criticism; it’s just that I don’t generally cover major news stories outside of the harlosphere because I feel that others have already covered them in far greater depth than either my format or time allows. I do have some personal news, though: those of you who just can’t get enough Maggie will be glad to hear that I have joined the British website Cliterati as a regular contributor, and will be publishing there every Sunday starting next week. Most of the essays will be new ones, some will be cross-posts and a few will be reposts of older articles which I feel deserve new attention; my first, “Speech and More Speech“, appeared a few days early so that it would still be timely (since it’s on the subject of a controversy which unfolded last weekend).
This week’s leading contributor was Radley Balko, occupying the top-dog slot above the first video (a card trick posted by Teller which says a lot about how easy it is to manipulate human perception). The second video, “The Vertical Pole”, was provided by Feminist Whore, and the links between the two by Nun Ya (“Hell’s Angels”), Offgridman (“brick wall” and “baby step”), C. Andrew (“infanticide”), Grace (“Lance Armstrong” and “biggest thing”), Thomas Larson (“mouse”), Popehat (“Cthulhu”), Brooke Magnanti (“hidden mothers”), Baylen Linnekin (“robot restaurant”), and Antonio Lorusso (“fungal sex”).
- Craigslist, Pat Robertson and the Ab Rocket.
- Sounds like he was trying to make up for lost time.
- SWAT team murders man for having too many cats.
- Cops shoot man for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk.
- Urban safety precaution: lock and bolt your door to keep cops from unexpectedly opening it and murdering your loved ones.
- In June of 2010 a German university student mooned a group of Hell’s Angels, threw a puppy at them and then escaped on a stolen bulldozer.
- Cops excuse murder by claiming a man too drunk to see a brick wall was able to “aim” his car at them…twice.
- Washington D.C. cop murdered his mistress and left his infant daughter to die in an overheated car.
- Why Lance Armstrong’s “confession” should worry you.
- R.I.P. Stanley Cohen, great scholar of moral panics.
- A carnivorous mouse which howls at the moon.
- Dread Cthulhu leads his cult to milestone year.
- Hidden mothers in Victorian portraits.
- The biggest thing in the universe.
- Another baby step.
- Robot restaurant.
- Fungal sex.
From the Archives
- Unlike their American brethren, Canadian reporters usually blame harm to sex workers on the bad laws and the evil actions of the police.
- Government defines consenting individuals as victims or victims as consenting individuals, depending on what’s most convenient.
- Indian “rescue” group tries to solve problem of their victims escaping by abducting their children instead.
- Control freaks often use rhetoric startlingly similar to that regularly employed against whores.
- Porn companies issue first warning about leaving LA due to condom law.
- Positive profile of a streetwalker from the prohibitionist New York Times.
- Why would anyone want to work at a place where she was unwanted?
- Official Norwegian study condemns Swedish model as a public menace.
- Politician claims persecuting transgender people “protects everybody”.
- The Netherlands only started collecting sex work taxes two years ago.
- Why Friday the Thirteenth is a day to speak out for sex worker rights.
- Why was everyone so surprised that Silvio Berlusconi hired hookers?
- “Sex Workers Want To Stop Trafficking”, a video from SWOP Chicago.
- Sweden says prostitutes can infallibly be recognized by their clothes.
- How creating criminals from citizens establishes universal criminality.
- Prohibitionists try to blame Backpage for the actions of a serial killer.
- Meet Anna, a prisoner in a world something like ours…but not quite.
- What harm reduction is about, and why sex work is a form of it.
- HIV-positive psycho tried to infect as many people as possible.
- Cosmopolitan‘s juvenile, absurd and ass-backward sex advice.
- Elena Jeffreys on the ridiculous prejudices against sex work.
- Reluctant sex workers are prohibitionists’ best weapons.
- The flu, Jesus Christ Superstar and the invisible majority.
- Sleazy company will test stolen underwear for semen.
- Crypto-moralists wage war on bacon and cheese.
- After 60 years, science still can’t find the G-spot.
- Doublethink in Modesto, California.
- A short tribute to Dolly Parton.
- Is there a “hooker gene”?
- Ottawa’s human library.
- 2011 in review.
THANK YOU for the Lance Armstrong link! I posted a little tirade on my crap-blog a few days ago about this but this guy is soooo much more articulate than I am.
With Lance Armstrong – the USADA has moved beyond the standard piss tests and blood draws – and into the world of FBI-style investigations. What could go wrong?
No doubt the folks at USADA are raising their champagne glasses today, since they’ve scored a major victory which will help move them down the path toward enshrinement within this government as another “self licking ice cream cone” like the BATF or Department of Education is. In short – these guys now have JOB SECURITY and POWER – created from whole cloth and Lance Armstrong!
In many states of Europe – the quasi-legal counterparts of the USADA are actually part of the government – and they take Olympic anti-doping policy and translate them into LAW which many Europeans are forced to follow. Early last year – the UK began to rip products off the shelves containing geranium extract – which is nothing more than a stimulant (like caffeine). Used in moderation – the products were great tools for fat loss. They didn’t enhance anyone’s performance – but that didn’t matter. They were stripped from the shelves at the recommendation of European Anti-Doping commissions.
What was the response by body builders and athletes in those countries? Well, they started up a black market business in EPHEDRA – which was the fat cutter of choice before it was banned. Of course – Ephedra is potentially more dangerous than geranium extract by a long shot.
Government sucks – it always does.
+1 !
Hah! Good on you, Maggie. Now, are we going to have to teach you to write English, not American? No, you’ll suss it out brilliantly on your own. I’m just taking the piss.
Congrats on your new writing gig, Maggie. Re: USADA – it will only be a question of time before it is used to target athletes that don’t “properly” represent the USA. I mean, who needs testing when you can build a consensus?
Yes, congrats on writing for Cliterati! I assume they won’t wuss out and want to apologize for association with you like when, what was it Feministe, did the same thing? Wankers.
Anyway, the Hidden Mother portraits. I’d seen those before and i think we touched on them in my 19th century art history course. But the ones that still give me nightmares are the Momento Mori pictures. *shudder* According to this article, the practice of post-mortem family photography (“remembrance”) is being revived by a business in Colorado named Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep*.
*My absolute least favorite prayer growing up.
“My absolute least favorite prayer growing up.”
Yup, cuz the last thing a child should hear before *trying* to go to sleep is that he just might not wake up…
I was always tired the next morning because I thought I’d die in my sleep. I forget when I grew out of it….I think as I got a better understanding of how death usually works and well as how probability works.
I’m going to provide another link on my own, and I’m going to quote these words from the link:
“A parallel revolution was born out of the feminist movement of the 1970′s, coming to an end around 1995.”
http://radicalhub.com/2012/12/08/back-from-the-london-feminist-film-festival/
This refers to lesbian separatism, which the author of the post gives an ending of around 1995. Why that particular cut-off date? Because that’s the time when radfems started wasting their energies on opposing sex-workers in earnest, thus leaving them no time to maintain separatism.
Great to hear about the Cliterati gig. I hope it is the first of many!
More of your writing in more places is a good thing.
Congrats on the new column!
The police story is just horrible. That is an extremely cruel way to kill a child.
Phoenix authorities say a 5-year-old boy was found in a car’s front passenger seat after police fired at the vehicle and fatally shot the driver.
Sgt. Trent Crump says the motorist evaded a traffic stop late Monday night after he appeared to be impaired.
( Appeared to be ….. could it be he was talking to the child ??)
Crump says officers later shot at the car and killed the driver after the vehicle struck a brick wall at a home
( So he didn’t stop for a traffic stop, was chased crashed )
and the man tried drive off —
first in one direction toward officers and then in another direction toward a different officer.
( Definition : drive toward, cop speak for stepped in front of the car to allow shooting just like I Felt Afraid . )
Crump says the boy discovered in the car wasn’t hurt.
(The kid wasn’t hurt just saw his dad more than likely die in a hail of bullets)
No identities have been released.
S.O.P / C.Y.A
Maggie, who is the lovely being “ghost-imaged” into Upper right hand corner of the equally lovely The Vertical Pole video. Luv, rich
I’m afraid I know no more about the video than you do; if you follow the link to YouTube, you could try asking the person who posted it there, but sex workers are often pretty tight-lipped about stuff like that (for obvious reasons).
My wish for my dying day is similar to Ashley Burns’. Except my no. 1 girl is a year and a month older than I am. My niece sent me a “bucket list” and several of the things on it were kind of automatic for anyone in his forties. Other things… who WANTS to have some of those experiences? A few of them may have grown my character or something, but still.
Sounds like the monsignor had a bucket list of his own.
Cross-dressing? check
Drugs? check
Sex in the rectory? check
Nude bungee jumping? still on the list
My card was right there between the 10 of Spades and Jack of Hearts.
1) German Hell’s Angels don’t bother to chase, OR they have the world’s slowest motorcycles.
2) I’m glad the puppy is OK.
3) He was probably in more danger of being beaten to death by commuters than bikers.
Armstrong cheated. USADA’s power is expanding in a way that is not good. A lot of the comment seem to assume that if one is true, the other must be false, or if the other is true, the other doesn’t matter. No. Armstrong cheated, and USADA’s power is expanding in a way that is not good.
I was about to add Folk Devils and Moral Panics to my Amazon Wish List. Then I saw the price. No way to save by getting it used? I’ll check my library, after I finished the books I bought.
This is the rodent who trained the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! There was The Mouse That Roared, but this The Mouse That Howled.
I’m going to get a pair of glittens, but only if they have a pic of Hello Kitty on each one… or maybe of Wolverine. I’ll let you wonder how that relates to Mr. Cthulhu.
Those are some creepy mother-photo pics.
That’s pretty big. There are also links there to more news about that Antarctic expedition. Seems it’s run into some problems. In unrelated news, the team for Miskatonic University enjoyed an upset win in today’s football game.
Now if only the feds could follow Filner’s example.
The robot restaurant is a step in the direction of what Edgar Rice Burroughs described in A Princess of Mars just over a hundred years ago. But it isn’t there yet.
And, the sex makes better penicillin.
This was good, but it kind of ignores the issue. The pole dancer isn’t disparaged because her length of tubular metal is vertical instead of horizontal, but because her art, her sport, originated with strippers. Thus, no matter how it evolves, it is forever contaminated by sex rays. Disparaging an athlete because of her link, tenuous though it is, to sex workers is every bit as ridiculous as disparaging her because her pole is vertical instead of horizontal, but that’s why it happens.
As some of you already know (and as the rest of you will know now, and will know better if you click my Gravitar and follow the link), I design low- and zero-G sports as a sort of hobby. I’ve already put “Vertical Pole” as an event under the category of “Lunar Gymnastics.” I’m now inspired to do more work on it.
My error above is that I put b/ inside the angle brackets instead of /b. Sorry, my bad.
And Maggie fixed it. Thanks. Her good.
I congratulated you before on the extra writing gig, but congrats again.