You should view each interaction with the cops with an extreme caution bordering on paranoia, as you would handle a dangerous wild animal.
– Ken White
Lots and lots of links this week, but a very small average per contributor; even the leader, Radley Balko, had only three (counting the first video, which is extremely funny and well worth ten minutes of your time). The second video was mentioned by Cliterati back before Christmas, but if North America gets another severe cold snap maybe this will help. The links between the two videos were provided by Jemima (“Beowulf”), Clarkhat (“four”), Cthulhuchick (“tased”), Jesse Walker (“journalism”), Walter Olson (“chefs”), Aspasia (“atheists”), Nun Ya (“headline”), Laura Lee (“lede”), Grace (“child support”), Mike Siegel (“Hell” & “Barbie”), Mistress Matisse (“link”), Popehat (“texting”), Jason Kuznicki (“prohibitionists”), Lucy Steigerwald (“cage”), Korhomme (“never call cops”), and Jasper Gregory (“Nazi”).
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
- Libertarianism happens to people.
- Beowulf in 100 tweets.
- Cop beats 4-year-old into a coma.
- Lawyer for cops says being tased is fun.
- Cop murders woman for being paranoid.
- Hard-hitting, well-researched journalism.
- Welcome to our world, chefs and atheists.
- Headline of the week and lede of the week.
- Man jailed for paying too much child support.
- I’m destined for the 7th circle; how about you?
- For when you absolutely MUST link the Daily Mail.
- Retired cop murders man for texting in a theater.
- Not exactly the way I played with Barbie, but close.
- Cops harass woman because her child “looks cold”.
- Prohibitionists aren’t limiting themselves to humans any more.
- If you want imprisonment done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.
- I love the tender scene where he screams, “Put the cage on Julia!”
- Never call cops for any reason whatsoever. Don’t TALK to them, either.
- While promoting criminalization of the word “Nazi”, Israeli politician says “We allow too many freedoms“.
From the Archives
- Cops, Congress, cocoa, cats, Satan, Romans, vegans, Lego, Mother Goose, monsters, words, Africa, assassins, libertarians & lawyers.
- How can I get over feeling that paid sex is all business with no sexual desire on her part?
- What’s the solution to male sexual frustration beside prostitution or masturbation?
- Why isn’t it OK to advise women how to protect themselves from rape?
- For one who’s “not trying to be condescending”, she does a good job.
- Canadian press blames bad laws & bad cops for harm to sex workers.
- What do you think about verification services like Date Check & P411?
- Official Norwegian study condemns Swedish model as public menace.
- Politician says persecuting transgender people “protects everybody”.
- Prohibitionists try to blame Backpage for the actions of a serial killer.
- Positive streetwalker profile in the prohibitionist New York Times.
- Why Friday the 13th is a day to speak out for sex worker rights.
- A preliminary injunction against a narrow part of the CASE Act.
- HIV-positive psycho tried to infect as many people as possible.
- Some just use extraordinary powers as a way to meet people.
- The medicalization of sexual dysfunction is bad for everyone.
- Will severe Peyronie’s Syndrome doom a sexual relationship?
- Elena Jeffreys on the ridiculous prejudices against sex work.
- Another Jezebel debutante gets the vapors over sex work.
- The beginning of the end of the “anti-prostitution pledge”.
- Porn companies warn they’ll leave LA due to condom law.
- Louisiana cops make moronic “gypsy whore” statements.
- Reluctant sex workers are prohibitionists’ best weapons.
- Actress works as courtesan; whores collectively yawn.
- Sleazy company will test stolen underwear for semen.
- News on two ladies who were fired for past sex work.
- Can a consensual adult incestuous relationship work?
- A constitutional challenge to Korean prostitution law.
- Meet Anna, a prisoner in a world not quite like ours.
- Politician fights law requiring sex ed teachers to lie.
- Crypto-moralists wage war on bacon and cheese.
- After reading this, you’ll want to wash your eyes.
- After 60 years, science still can’t find the G-spot.
- Q: What’s the Cost of a Rumour? A: £500,000.
- Another excellent anti-criminalization editorial.
- “Rescue” group abducts sex workers’ children.
- Juxtaposing “sex trafficking” hype with facts.
- Can hookers orgasm several times a day?
- A lawsuit against the “condom porn” law.
- Do most hookers enjoy sex with clients?
- Old man caged for grossing out prudes.
- Is there such a thing as too much sex?
- A fake Swedish model “consultation”.
- The French edition of Paying For It.
- I share my hate mail with y’all.
- WWAV gets a new building.
- Ottawa’s human library.
- Universal criminality.
- Cuckoo advertising.
- Is squirting real?
- 2011 in review.
I’ll be joining you right there in the seventh circle of hell, Maggie, that is, I would if I believed in such.
As for the over-cheery attitudes of american waitstaff, it took me a while to get used to that, and I still don’t find it as easy to get into long conversations with the waitress as my always-lived-in-the-USA friends do. And I find i all but impossible to send food not done to my liking back.
As for the bad cops, well, we need to realize that especially in the USA, the structure of policing is corrupt beyond redemption or repair. It needs to be completely torn down and something new put in it’s place.
I don’t believe in it either, but it’s still fun. Especially for a D&Der.
Did you read Clark Bianco’s “Burn the Fucking System to the Ground“? Awesome and totally true, though many still don’t see it.
Off to read your link.
I’ve read the link. It says, better than I can, how I see the situation. It’s not that there is corruption and inequality in the system, it’s that those are components of the system.
And I’d rather see the system torn down rather than see it continue that way.
I do think however, in a nation as large, complex as the USA, there has to be a system.
That’s why I see anarcho-socialism, or democratic socialism as the answer.
Keep the people running the system. make the decisions as close to the people involved as possible. spread power so as to diffuse it. Let the people own it.
That’s the best chance I can see.
Only level 2 – for lust. Figures.
Oh, all three of us for the 7th level then? Shall we get a flat together? 🙂 I’m pretty sure I probably have a time-share in the 4th level though.
I suspect most sex workers will end up on the 7th; maybe we can work out some kind of a deal with the centaurs. 😉
😀
If I remember my Greek mythology correctly, they would totally be up for that! Randy centaurs. 🙂
As a heretic, I’m only on the 6th level.
Your blog is always so full of thoughtful commentary and informative
links. I read it every day. I was surprised and dismayed to see the link to the video claiming that one can heat a room with 4 tea candles.
Without going into the full calc (ask and ye shall receive) I think a VERY GENEROUS estimate of the heating power of 4 tea candles is about 150 watts. IF they burn for 4 hours at constant power (I did mention VERY
GENEROUS estimates) that is a total of 600 watt-hours of energy, 0.6
kilowatt hours.
In your part of the country, you can buy a kilowatt-hour of electric
energy for about 6 cents, delivered. So the energy of 4 tea candles (that would cost me about 16 cents) is at most equal to about 3.6 cents of cheap, safe, reliable electric power. Once you factor in the very non-trivial time, gasoline, and other forms of energy required to get those tea candles to your home, the electric bill looks like a screaming bargain, even in parts of the country that pay double what you do for a kilowatt-hour of electricity..
I also doubt very much that 150 watts will heat any but the smallest and most well-insulated rooms. Rooms so tight that I’d much prefer a nice 150 watt light bulb to 4 open flames producing soot and consuming oxygen.
The room in the video appears to have 2 computers, which will consume several hundred watts even with flat-panel displays. He also has at least 2 light bulbs. Even at 40 watts each, it adds up. If he has a total of 3 bulbs of 60 watts going, he is getting perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 of his heat produced inside the room from those little candles.
But the room appears to be an attic room, with sloping ceilings. There is a large brick chimney visible.
Interior walls and floors between stories of homes are often not insulated. There is an excellent chance that the fellow in the video is getting a substantial amount of his room heat from the floor below and/or from the chimney.
I keep a $4 per 100-pack of Ikea tea candles around, but I use them for light, not heat, and only when the power is out and I don’t feel like starting the generator. They work well enough for that, but they are quite dangerous to table tops and other items.
So energy and power considerations suggest that tea candles burning paraffin wax are both expensive and unlikely heat a room effectively. Without sensitive instruments and careful control of other variables like outside air temperature, inside temperature in adjacent rooms, wind, sunshine, etc. I would be extremely surprised if you can measure any temperature rise at all.
The flowerpots are just mumbo-jumbo. They can’t change the tiny amount of energy contained in 4 tea candles. Arguments about heat transfer efficiency, radiation, etc. have their place, but only after you have produced enough energy to make a difference. With such a small heat source, it just won’t make much difference.
Claire Wolfe blogged the same mis-information in December:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2013/12/02/space-heaters-made-from-candles-and-flowerpots/
and later she did the experiment:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2013/12/07/flowerpot-space-heater-experiment-two-the-engineers-were-right/
She observed NO temperature rise. Zip. Nada.
In Europe, Minergie and Passivhaus are quite common types of new builds today. A few tea candles might be enough to heat a whole Passivhaus. Pre-existing houses can’t usually be insulated to such levels.
The Passivhaus is a remarkable construction standard, but even those ultra-efficient buildings typically incorporate a heating element rated 800 to 1500 watts. (wikipedia entry, and wiki reference 35) That’s at least 5 to 10 times the heating power provided by the 4 tea candles.
I trust we can agree that there is no evidence that the space in the video is insulated to Passivhaus standards. Quite the opposite.
Perhaps the 4 tea candles is a bit of an exaggeration. But, at least in the UK, it’s possible to heat a house for 24 hours in winter if the day is sunny (and the house south facing). And, with solar panels for hot water and photo-voltaic panels for electricity it’s quite possible to be in credit with your electricity supplier.
I’ve always felt that there needs to be a different scale for sex professionals.
To measure what?
Link # 1 proves conclusively that the DEA doesn’t know shit from shinola.
Even though I support Israel; that politician is an idiot.
Today’s never call the cops was originally linked to on Twitter by @Skepticscalpel, I simply RTed it. It was an unusual tweet for him, for, as you would guess, he’s medical.
I always credit the person I follow, even if he RTed someone else.
6th Circle for me, apparently. At least I get to live in a city.