The desire to write for publication is one which inheres strongly in every human breast…the whole intelligent public are today seeking expression…and yearning to behold their thoughts and ideals permanently crystallized in the magic medium of type. – H.P. Lovecraft
We’re just about back around to our normal configuration; look for next week’s news columns on Saturday and Sunday again (though not yet in the usual order), and we’ll also be back to numbering the links columns rather than naming them. I’ll be coming home from the symposium today (see yesterday’s column) so you may not see me around at all, but I should be back to business as usual tomorrow. Our top link contributor this week was Michael Whiteacre, who supplied everything down to the first video; that one (and “911”) was suggested by my cat. The second video (the beginning of a documentary on the making of A Clockwork Orange) was provided by Jack Shafer, and the links between the videos were contributed by Radley Balko (“desensitize”), Antonio Lorusso (“turn signal”), Cliterati (“vomiting” and “Lovecraft”), Neil Gaiman (“Kipling”), Pee-wee Herman (“magic crayon”), Jesse Walker (“endometriosis” and “Sherlock Holmes”), and Aspasia (“persecution”).
- Oklahoma man may have spontaneously combusted.
- Florida man stores bullets in oven; unpleasant hijinks ensue.
- Swede wanted for murder goes to surrender, finds police station closed.
- Ohio court says cops are justified in smashing down your door if you forget to use a turn signal.
- Cops are being trained to desensitize themselves to murdering children and pregnant women.
- Florida man arrested for repeatedly calling 911 after his cat was denied entry into strip club.
- Police beat, humiliate, abuse and arrest person for “crime” of vomiting.
- Scholar discovers fifty lost poems by Rudyard Kipling.
- Fake Soviet “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.
- Harold’s magic purple crayon becomes a reality.
- The shocking true form of endometriosis.
- The myth of Christian persecution.
- Who owns Sherlock Holmes?
- H.P. Lovecraft on blogging.
From the Archives
- My four-part interview with Jill Brenneman, sex worker rights activist and genuine survivor of coerced prostitution.
- How to make hard-to-get legal pseudoephedrine from readily-available illegal methamphetamine.
- Another article bemoaning the fact that women use sex to make a living.
- Politicians and cops snapping their fingers to keep the elephants away.
- Detroit police too busy chasing whores to worry about home invasions.
- Sweden tries men for running brothel “authorities” say doesn’t exist.
- Paypal has entered a “biggest busybody” competition with Google.
- Indian NGO “rescues” girls from prostitution by prostituting them.
- Olympe de Gouges: courtesan, writer and ethical revolutionary.
- Another reason why amateurs have more STIs than pros.
- When theft becomes the primary function of government.
- Uptight Italian women get in huff over sexy bartender.
- What’s the best way to perform oral sex on a man?
- R.I.P. Miss Edna, last madam of the Chicken Ranch.
- Another creepy gadget for spying on spouses.
- I won’t do another column like this until 2016.
- The secret indictment against Julian Assange.
- The court of the demimonde, February 1794.
- Nicholas Kristof’s fun new way to play God.
- Getting around the constitution in Florida.
- Why do so many more escorts kiss now?
- How to make money from a moral panic.
- Another butt-injection killer is caught.
- America’s scorched-earth war on sex.
- Louisiana’s crimes against society.
- How does one find an escort?
- Why is sex such a taboo?
- Strip clubs cause gangs.
- Leah outs David Vitter.
- Legislators gone wild.
he brought a cat to a strip club?couldnt he leave the cat alone for a few hours?or was he so lonely that he had developed a bond that was too strong with her?even then the girls there would be more helpful to him to releive his loneliness.about the article of those people that are so offended by the fact that college students use sex work to get by,i would like to speak about my experience to those people,since im both a university student and live in a country with worse economic problems than Britain for university students or not.i would say to them that although i would not think of getting into phone sex(though i would still want to have a sugar daddy)if i didnt have to move out and if my parents didnt suffer significant wage cuts,i wouldnt like to do something else,right now.what i would do if my parents were able to fulfill all my economic needs and desires would be not working at all.thats what i would only find prefererable.not getting phlebitis by serving obnoxious assholes as a waitress or any other minimum wage job people find acceptable for university students to hold.so many people fail to understand that sex work is not this horrible state where people are supposed to suffer the worst emotional damage possible.they atribute it to our supposedly damaged childhood,if we enjoy it but what does it say about their upbringing that they consider sex to be worse even than murder for a persons psyche?i mean,people find the hollywood cop,who holds a job where he shoots criminals and gets shot by them oh,so glamorous and they find sex work damaging?personally im fed up with all the bitching and the stereotypes that they apply to us just because they couldnt imagine doing what we do. i dont find them holding water.but since you,Maggie have spent more years in sex work than me and met more sex workers than i have,since you have worked both in strip clubs and run an escort agency im asking you does it seem to you that a disproportionate number of sex workers have been abused in their childhood,are drug addicts or do sex workers have more loser boyfriends,that they need to support than the general population?
Strip bars in America are now “pussy free zones”?? What in the world is this place coming to?!
Also – just because some atheistic professor writes a book saying the early Christians weren’t persecuted by the Romans … doesn’t make it true.
I am neither Christian, nor atheist – and I’m a bit tired of dealing with the incessant crying that comes from both sides.
It’s clear that the Romans DID cruicify and execute some Christians … just because they were Christians.
It’s clear that Christians tend to overstate the magnitude of these “persecutions”. Yet the evidence is on their side that at least a few early Christians were “persecuted”.
The Romans persecuted A LOT of people.
And it’s possible the early Christian leaders crafted their actions to “manipulate” a Roman response. For instance – I’ve often said that yes, the early Mormons were persecuted in America but they brought it on themselves to a certain extent. They were disobeying laws and making claims that they were the only rightful church of God and everyone else was going to hell. Newsflash – their disregard for the law and smugness pissed some people off.
But … and I have studied the early Mormons a GREAT deal – Joseph Smith and the early Mormon leaders did everything they could to “tweak” the “gentile” population at large. Why? Well, they did it to instill a seigelike mentality in all Mormons. And the “It’s us against the world!” kind of mentality brought all Mormons together in a common purpose – survival. In fact, can’t remember the dude’s name but one representative of the U.S. government who went to Utah came back and told the President … “Leave the Mormons alone and they’ll die off due to infighting amoungst themselves – it’s their hatred for us that keeps them going.”
Very possible the early Christian leaders did the same thing too!
And – even more possible that Joseph Smith got the idea from them!!
The coroner for Galway, Ireland, recorded death by spontaneous combustion about 18 months ago — it was his first such case. There was considerable scepticism about this at the time.
It’s possible to construct a theory whereby bodies burn easily — obesity, diabetes and ketosis, with possibly the production of acetone are usually involved. However, the actual ignition seems to be external rather than “spontaneous”.
Also, bodies can burn completely at lower temperatures if there is enough time. The victim was 66, and was prone to drinking and smoking. I think he got drunk and dropped a lit cigarette. He couldn’t move and the smoldering flames never grew big enough to go past the immediate area of the body.
“Ohio court says cops are justified in smashing down your door if you forget to use a turn signal.”
Having followed the link, that sounds like the opposite of what they said. I interpreted the decision as “This is what we’re legally obliged to decide, but we’re aware it is batshit insane and we suggest it be overturned by a higher court that has the proper authority to do so.”
How have I not seen that kitten video yet!? Amazing
The fifty lost poems are fake. Here’s one:
“A short poem, “The Gambler”, finishes with the couplet: “Three times wounded; three times gassed / Three times wrecked – I lost at last”, while another fragment runs: “This was a Godlike soul before it was crazed / No matter. The grave makes whole.”
The word ‘last’ only rhymes with ‘gassed’ if you are american. Kipling was not. What rookie error, on the part of this forger!
As far behind as I am, I’m skipping the LINKS posts for now, and when I’m otherwise caught up I will return to them. I always enjoy at least a few of the links, which is why it takes me so long to get through them all (sometimes a link will lead me to something which then leads me to something else entirely, either on the same subject or there will be a link at the bottom of the page or something like that).