Sunday was the one-year anniversary of the day I arrived in Seattle by train on the visit that was to change my entire life. I thought it was just going to be an ordinary, albeit extra-nice, tour stop; I had no idea that I would bond so deeply with my friends here, nor that I would develop such deep feelings for Jae so quickly. By the time I left I knew I would return for at least a visit; within a few weeks I had decided to relocate. And before 90 days had passed since my departure, I was back. But that was no mere change of residence, oh no; those who have followed this diary feature over the past year know what a long, strange trip it’s been. Where will it take me next? I have absolutely no idea, and I’ve given up on trying to predict; I can barely even keep on schedule with this blog. But I’m going to keep on working, and keep on writing, and keep on fighting the good fight, and keep on expanding my horizons, and chronicling the whole thing right here. And maybe one day, I’ll even figure out what it all means.
Archive for November, 2015
Diary #280
Posted in Diary, Philosophy, tagged activism, anecdote, blogging on November 10, 2015| 2 Comments »
Guest Columnist: Domina Elle
Posted in Current Events, Guest Columns, Perception, Tyranny, tagged California, Challenge, cops, hysteria, law on November 9, 2015| 10 Comments »
Domina Elle is a professional Dominatrix who hosts in her “FUNgeon” in Denver, Colorado. She is also an artist, photographer, member of the Erotic Service Providers’ Union and board member of the Erotic Service Providers’ Legal, Educational and Research Project (ESPLERP).
War has been declared upon all American erotic service providers and their clients, and as in every war a propaganda campaign has been set into motion to justify it; no one can argue with “save the children”. Certainly not the elected officials who have jumped on the legislative bandwagon to further criminalize adult consensual erotic services, and certainly not the opportunistic NGO’s participating in what has become a billion dollar federal grant program via the non profit industrial complex known to sex workers as the “rescue industry”. Certainly not the law enforcement agencies which justify arresting consenting adults, as they, too generate revenue for their employer the state. Each day there are new casualties in the war against prostitution; each day immeasurable damage is being perpetrated upon erotic service providers and the body count rises, both figuratively and literally. We must fight back. It has become more crucial than ever before that we do so, and in a solid tangible way.
The word “Decriminalization” has become a mantra chanted by sex workers around the globe. Tears of joy were shed when a council of Amnesty International recently announced its support of the decriminalization of prostitution, just as the United Nations and the World Health Organization had already done. Even the U.S. State Department, in its 2015 “Universal Periodic Review Of Human Rights“, affirmed United Nations recommendation #86, stating: “We agree that no one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution”. But these declarations are as of yet merely suggestions, and have not translated into harm reduction for sex worker communities throughout the globe. To ensure that our needs are met we ourselves must transform our rallying cry into a reality, bringing about the emancipation and protections which our vast community so desperately needs. In America, this action must be accomplished through the courts; it isn’t an easy path and requires much diligence and of course a great deal of money. While the Erotic Service Providers’ Legal, Educational and Research Project’s (ESPLERP’s) legal challenge has already been filed and is in process, the truly tricky part is the continual funding of the case. Because we are criminalized and stigmatized, the US sex worker rights movement is not well funded, and the little funding which is available is not being prioritized towards striking down the unconstitutional anti-prostitution laws. So while some of the most dedicated and diligent activists I have ever known of are at the heart of supporting this challenge, without sufficient funding the case could fall apart (which is certainly what our opponents hope for).
In early August, ESPLERP members, supporters and legal representatives gathered in California to hear the lower court judge’s decision, which was that there would be no public hearing and that the ruling would be announced at a future time. ESPLERP’s lawyer Louis Sirkin stated that this type of action by the court is not uncommon, and that he wasn’t surprised at all; we were also told that there is no time limit on how long the Judge can take to render his decision, so now we wait. From day one, our plan was to take this case to the highest court possible in order for more states to be affected, and more people to be emancipated. If the lower court judge stands by the principles in the Bill Of Rights and rules in our favor, erotic service providers who are criminalized in the state of California will be free from criminalization and the real work can begin in California at least. If the judge chooses to dismiss the case, we will go up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; if that court rules in our favor no fewer than nine states will be emancipated from the threat and devastation of criminalization, and other sex workers and organizations in other parts of the US would be able to use the ruling to file similar cases or defend themselves from charges. THIS WOULD BE HUGE!
A legal challenge such as this is no small task. My dream, as a member of the erotic service provider community, is to see the emancipation of our people, and this case could be the key to open that door. Decriminalization is hardly a panacea; it’s only the means of stopping the immediate harm caused by arrest and the life devastation which comes with it. Law enforcement agencies would no longer have the means by which they literally rape and pillage our community with impunity. Though decriminalization is only the beginning of what sex workers need to accomplish, it will give the erotic services community a safer platform upon which to openly organize in order to demand and protect our rights that much more. The storm of oppression is already here raining down upon us, and we haven’t even seen the eye just yet. We need the legal umbrella provided by decriminalization, and we can rally around this legal challenge to achieve solidarity as we never have before; it can provide a powerful and warm fire around which we can join our hearts and minds to weather the storm together. We can do this, but it requires you to be around that fire contributing your fuel to it. For more information about the challenge please visit decriminalizesexwork.com, and to donate to the legal challenge fund please go to litigatetoemancipate.com. Viva la revolution!
Links #279
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged California, cell phones, Central Asia, Connecticut, cops, drugs, imaginative fiction, nostalgia, surveillance, Things We Choose To Do Together, video on November 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
God saved my voice so I could continue to talk. – Walter DeLeon
For this week’s video I decided to feature another sci-fi flick from the Paramount vault, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, which is actually much better than its sensationalistic title would suggest. The links above the video are from Radley Balko (first two), Maxine Doogan, Popehat, and Jason Kuznicki (in that order).
- To protect and serve.
- Nanny will teach you a lesson, children.
- Your phone calls and texts are not private.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
- Those of us with sinus problems knew this within an hour of first trying it.
From the Archives
- Prohibitionism, white culture, Big Brother, cops, England, Chrome, cats, cows, the SPLC and the ultimate infographic.
- Even some who believe in “sex trafficking” myth are beginning to place blame where it belongs.
- When will Gay, Inc finally admit prostitution laws disproportionately affect its constituency?
- Economist explains why “end demand” strategies have the opposite of their claimed effect.
- Starbucks, cops, irony, law, Bill Watterson, transmen, surveillance & more.
- Nick Kristof denies responsibility for promoting lies which harm thousands.
- “Sex trafficking” mythology’s roots in the evangelical/neofeminist alliance.
- Two “artists” exploit the poorest, most tragic streetwalkers they can find.
- £45 “feminist” T-shirts made in sweatshops by women paid 62p an hour.
- How can cops mouth these ridiculous dysphemisms with a straight face?
- South African makes a habit of beating up women he thinks are whores.
- Fanatics want to destroy 1000 people for trying to talk dirty to a robot.
- Why I don’t give a shit about your unsupported anecdotal “evidence”.
- Activists, please check the source before disseminating infographics.
- Another court declares strippers employees rather than contractors.
- Another life destroyed by fanatics who don’t know what a “child” is.
- Mathematical illiterates in California want young girls to fear boys.
- Reporter actually condemns a former model’s firing over her past.
- A former Rhode Island male escort talks about decriminalization.
- “Sex robot” critic reveals his ignorance of sexuality and sex work.
- Financier suspected of murdering two sex workers in Hong Kong.
- An “app” for busybodies to report their “suspicions” to the cops.
- Mob beats man to death after woman calls him a “sex offender”.
- You know that study that claims fewer men are paying for sex?
- Wouldn’t a retired courtesan make the best partner for a man?
- French clients wrote a manifesto opposing the Swedish model.
- Swede acquitted of rape charge because he has magic sperm.
- Justin Bieber caught trying to sneak out of a Brazilian brothel.
- What if a client starts mistaking romance for professionalism?
- “Sex trafficking home” is my new favorite “trafficking” idiocy.
- Politician makes last-ditch effort to hobble prohibitionist law.
- Is it in the harlot’s best interests to maintain the patriarchy?
- How the agency of young sex workers is habitually denied.
- Germany’s first professional association for sex workers.
- Scientist explains that water is wet and the sky is blue.
- More on the judge who called rape “theft of services”.
- Everett, Washington’s freakish war on coffee stands.
- Mike Siegel corrects bad “campus rape crisis” math.
- As vile as any similar badge-lickery from the US.
- Sex workers in Chennai want a red-light district.
- Only three Storyville buildings are still standing.
- Kansas hits a sperm donor up for child support.
- In which I introduce “King of the Hill” rankings.
- The “sex trafficking” gyre continues to widen.
- Compare and contrast with Swedish rhetoric.
- If something’s in a movie, it must be true!
- My last two columns for Guy Fawkes Day.
- A delay in my return from New Orleans.
- Sex slaves! 40 clients a day! Ice cream!
- Dating website fined for using fembots.
- Cowardice disguised as class warfare.
- The beginning of Monica Jones’ case.
- A review (of sorts) of Sheri’s Ranch.
- More “sex trafficking” hentai.
- The cost of “sex ray” phobia.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- King of the Hill!
- The Egyptian.
In the News (#586)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Acting and Activism, Africa, Alaska, Backpage, Bad Fantasy-Good Reality, California, censorship, cops, end demand, End Demand (updates), Hollywood, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, Kenya, King of the Hill, language, Mother Learns From Her Children, Parable, Pennsylvania, prohibitionist myths, rape, Safe Targets, Saving Them from Themselves, serial killers, sexting, shame, Surplus Women, Texas, Thailand, The Lion and the Ox, The Scarlet Letter, Things We Choose To Do Together, underage, United Kingdom, Vendetta, Washington (state), Wisconsin on November 7, 2015| 9 Comments »
Social policies do not have to be so dumb. – Laura Agustín
This article is so stupidly evil it’s almost fascinating:
A plan to publicly shame those who solicit sex with minors moved forward…with a draft ordinance covering Los Angeles County expected next week…Don Knabe has been pushing for a “shame campaign” since late last year…the…ordinance that would provide for the publication of names and booking photos of those convicted of soliciting prostitution or loitering with intent to solicit prostitution…Sheila Kuehl…questioned the practice of arresting people for loitering with intent, saying she thought the allegation amounted to “mind reading”…The Los Angeles Times editorial board, when Knabe first made his proposal, called the plan “anachronistic” and said it amounted to “sensationalism”…
Noah Berlatsky with another analogy for the absurdity of prohibition:
Should young women be allowed to enter the music industry? That seems like a preposterous question. But consider: Kesha…filed a lawsuit against her former producer Dr. Luke…alleging that he had sexually, physically, and mentally abused her for a decade…Kesha’s lawsuit also alleges that Sony music refused to take steps to stop the abuse, and even covered up for it…The situation is not rare; producers and managers like Phil Spector and Ike Turner have physically and mentally abused their artists for years…Shouldn’t there be laws in place to prevent women from entering an industry such as this where they can be abused and harmed? It should be clear why this is a bad idea. Heavy-handed restrictions on women would hurt women, not protect them. To make it illegal for women to be musicians and pop stars would be abusive and unfair in itself…And yet, when it comes to sex work, restricting women’s options in the name of “protecting” them is suddenly seen as reasonable, logical, and necessary…
How many more kids’ lives have to be destroyed before we stop the cops?
Police in a Pennsylvania school district have charged at least three kids—one of them just 11 years old—with distributing sexually explicit pictures of other minors. They…face juvenile detention, expulsion, and a variety of other life-altering consequences. This is somehow in their best interests—and the interests of kids everywhere—authorities claim…The levelling of charges…should not be viewed as some low-cost precondition to keeping kids safe, but a horrible, life-derailing consequence in and of itself…But we live in a country where paranoid delusions about safety provide cover for police to enforce absurd laws that make life miserable for kids…
Kenyan police are investigating the murders of 10 women working as prostitutes, a record number of attacks in one month that has led to fears of a serial killer…campaigners have called on the government to legalise prostitution and offer proper protection to vulnerable women. The police commander in the town of Nakuru, where four bodies were found, said an intense manhunt was under way…Hassan Barua said security had been improved in the area, but would not comment on whether one suspect was wanted for multiple murders…
When the issue of sex workers in Thailand is brought up, any discussion is usually characterized with words of “exploitation”, “coercion”, and “human trafficking”. However…Some…girls…[feel] that sex work [is] a means of emancipating themselves economically…A prevailing attitude…[is] that they feel better being paid for the sex they provide, rather than providing sex to a husband in a dead end relationship that they get nothing for. This was most prevalent in those who had been married before…Some even talk about providing sex as helping clients with a basic need…What was most common with those sex workers who had been prudent financially, was a satisfaction with their career as a sex worker…
The Mother Learns From Her Children
…Sex worker rights activists from around the world will join researchers and experts to present evidence to parliament in support of the decriminalisation of sex work. The day-long symposium, organised by the English Collective of Prostitutes and hosted by shadow chancellor John McDonnell, is an opportunity for parliamentarians and the public to sidestep the charged emotion of international debates on the nature of sex work and hear crime-related, humanitarian, and public health analyses from leading academics and campaigners…The symposium will compare the outcomes of Sweden’s criminalisation of the buying of sex with the full decriminalisation model that has flourished in New Zealand…activists from Thailand, Taiwan, Canada and South Africa will explain how criminalisation, rescue and rehabilitation programs have affected sex workers there. Rachel West, an American sex worker rights activist, will explore how a recent surge in anti-trafficking policing has disproportionately affected black sex workers and their clients…
Laura Agustín on the uselessness of the term “human trafficking”:
…There are young people now who have grown up surrounded by campaigning against trafficking, unaware there is conflict about how to define the term. Some want to dedicate energy to combating what is figured as a modern social evil. Some compare themselves with 19th-century anti-slavery advocates and feel outraged that anyone would question what they are doing…after…the idea of trafficking began its ascent…we who were interested in migration, sex work and labour policy realised it was useless for gaining equity or rights…the assumption is this human mobility to work is fomented by criminals who use force and coercion against their victims…Behind this over-simplification and over-focus on sex lie real social inequalities and oppressions: migration policies that favour middle- and upper-class jobs, out-of-date notions of the formal economy and productive labour, young people who want to get away from home, job-seekers willing to take risks to make more money, laws that make commercial sex illegal, laws that make sweatshops illegal and…more. To lump all this under a single term simply disappears the array of different situations, encourages reductionism and feeds into a moralistic agenda of Good and Evil…
“The Harvard of sex trafficking” has now morphed into “The Harvard of pimp school”. Or was it really the other way around? Does it really matter, when both phrases are utterly ludicrous?
Milwaukee has become “the Harvard of pimp school” and Wisconsin is a hub of human trafficking, a [self-declared] expert has said in the wake of an FBI sting last month in which nine adolescents were [arrested]…meaning Milwaukee is tied with Las Vegas for the third highest number of young people [arrested]…Denver topped the list, with 20…and Detroit was next with 19. Over the past four years, however, Milwaukee has consistently ranked among the top five cities in the nation for [arrests of underage sex workers]…
Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together:
A…Houston mother of two says she was raped in her hospital bed by a doctor…she reported the rape to nurses who responded with cold skepticism. She had to wait nearly two years for police to collect the alleged attacker’s DNA and make an arrest. And now…Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh…may get off scot-free in civil court. And Texas law may entitle her to only modest compensation from Sheikh’s employer at the time of the rape, the prestigious Baylor College of Medicine…Baylor doctors staff Ben Taub, which is a public hospital owned by Harris County. The doctor isn’t the only one who can deploy the “government unit” shield. Baylor lawyers have successfully argued that the college itself can be construed as a government entity and is entitled to the same protections a county institution would enjoy…Baylor can argue it is immune to the claim altogether…and…the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that rape in some circumstances is covered by medical malpractice laws…
Acting and Activism (Traffic Updates)
Anderson’s right at home in a movie based on ridiculous, exaggerated conspiracy theories:
Gillian Anderson wasn’t expecting to appear in the movie Sold. The actress, known for her role on The X-Files, had initially been approached by…director Jeffrey Brown…about just being part of the film’s campaign. She immediately said yes because she felt passionate about…sex trafficking…”High school students go missing and they are…forced into prostitution where there is violence and they don’t get paid for being a sex slave…And they get brainwashed into being a part of a community and they are terrified for their lives to escape”…
Tara Burns, Maxine Doogan and two others on “sex trafficking” in Alaska:
…Last year a woman dialed 911 in Anchorage and reported that she had been a victim of sex trafficking. When the [cops]…decided to follow up with her they…traveled to where she was working as an independent escort and…posed as a customer to book an appointment with her and meet her in a sexual context. Then [they] placed her in handcuffs, threatened her with felony charges, and told her nobody would be able to “actually” love her as she was. In response to a…complaint about this incident, the Department of Public Safety explained that this is a common “strategy of building rapport” with victims…
“Oakland City Council Takes Stand Against Sex Workers“. Seriously.
On October 20…[Oakland, California] endorsed…The “CEASE Network”…a project of Demand Abolition, a Boston-based program dedicated to “eradicating the illegal commercial sex industry” by going after “demand.” That means targeting clients…Demand Abolition is a program of Hunt Alternatives, the foundation of Swanee Hunt…the daughter of…oil tycoon H.L. Hunt…The groups fund law enforcement and public media campaigns and advocate for stronger legal penalties…when police agencies and district attorneys broadly target demand, they end up wasting resources on arrests and prosecutions that further criminalize adult sex workers and their clients…the Demand Abolition approach…[threatens] marginalized workers in the sex industry. That was a concern of government officials in San Francisco, which last year ended a brief partnership with Demand Abolition after facing a backlash from…sex workers…
My friend Savannah Sly is quoted extensively in this article about the fascist BEST program:
…a new public-private coalition that aims to have sites like backpage.com blocked in…workplaces…free speech advocates and…sex workers…are critical of the BEST Employer Alliance’s methods, warning that it errors on the side of censorship and endangers sex workers…If third-party Web hosting were akin to aiding in criminal activity, then Facebook and Twitter would quickly cease to exist…By pressuring credit card companies to divest, and now by pressuring employers to block the site en masse, the anti-Backpage set hopes to slowly choke the site out of its users…Savannah Sly, the director of…SWOP…said…”This painting of all clients as pedophiles reminds me of how we use to paint all homosexual men as pedophiles…If you shut down Backpage adult listings…You’re denying thousands and thousands of workers who need money. And if you shut down all of Backpage, you’re punishing hundreds of thousands of people who want access to roommate listings, sale items, general classifieds…all for the crimes of a very, very small few”…
In fact, I’m relatively sure she was riding in my car while giving this interview.
Faithless
Posted in Perception, Q & A, tagged dating, Madonna/whore, marriage, politicians, psychology on November 6, 2015| 15 Comments »
My girlfriend and I have been together for almost 5 years and I want to marry her, but I can’t shake off suspicions that she may be a call girl. She claims not to be one, but there are just too many odd coincidences. Do you know of any non-invasive ways to find out whether she is one or not? Signs I should look out for? I hate having this fear and I’m definitely not the type of guy who would want to “rescue” her from her situation. I would much rather step out of the way if need be…but I’m actually afraid my life may be in danger…My anxiety is so bad it’s interfering with my ability to work. Have you heard of any situations where call girls were used to distract men that were some kind of socio-political target?
If you’ve read a lot of my advice columns, you know that I don’t usually give unequivocal recommendations, but I’m going to make an exception in this case. You say that you’d rather step out of the way if need be; I would say you do indeed need to do just that. For whatever reason, you have absolutely no trust in your girlfriend, and if you feel this way after knowing her for five years I’m afraid you will never be able to build the trust that’s absolutely vital to making a marriage work. Your anxiety has reached a level that, frankly, seems clinically paranoid to me; I’m not a psychologist and I don’t know what kind of work you do that would make you a “target”, but if you don’t feel safe in a sexual relationship for any reason it is time to end it for both of your good. If you’re wrong, your concerns about her have no cause and would therefore almost certainly haunt you from now on, no matter what she does; if you’re right, she’s been lying to you for five years and that’s no basis to build a marriage on. Either way, this relationship is not going to work, and the sooner you both move on to partners in whom you can have more trust, the better for all involved.
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
Wildfire
Posted in History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged cops, holidays, politicians on November 5, 2015| 63 Comments »
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. – Thomas Jefferson
The quote which forms today’s epigram is probably a familiar one, but few people are familiar with the larger paragraph in which it is embedded. Jefferson was referring to Shay’s Rebellion (arguably the single strongest motivator which caused the weak central government of the Articles of Confederation to be replaced by the strong one established by the US Constitution) when he wrote:
God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion…If [the people] remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Every November 5th I call for a rededication of the holiday from one in which rebels are burned in effigy to one in which tyrants are burned in effigy instead; in most of those essays I have quoted what I wrote the first time, words which echo Jefferson’s sentiments expressed above:
Governments need to be reminded (at least annually if not constantly) that they only hold power by the sufferance of all the people, not merely the majority, and that the overthrow of any government by a disgruntled minority is always a possibility. I would like to see most if not all politicians and their minions paying for their power and privilege by being forced to live in a constant state of nervous anxiety; maybe then fewer would choose that path and more would concern themselves with keeping all the citizenry happy rather than merely pleasing barely enough of the population to keep themselves in office.
Every time a cop murders some unarmed person, pig apologists sonorously remind us how dangerous police work is (which it isn’t, by the by), and how tewwified the poor widdle coppies are, boo hoo hoo. To which I reply: They aren’t nearly terrified enough. I want them to be so fucking terrified that they can’t sleep at night, so utterly frightened that they don’t dare leave their fucking stations. I want them so scared they piss themselves on a daily basis and quit long before they can develop the kind of swagger that lets them go around beating, robbing, raping and murdering without fear of repercussions. I want them to have nightmares of surveillance cameras recording their every move, and I want televised trials of bad cops every fucking day to serve the same function as a coyote’s hide nailed to a fence post by a rancher. Tyrants and their thug-enforcers alike deserve to be burned in effigy, to be cursed and spat upon every time they venture into public, to be (figuratively) crucified for the slightest abuse of power. We make government positions attractive to sociopaths by heaping accolades and privileges upon them; instead, those positions need to be made so repellent that nobody will stay in them for very long. The price of power needs to be very high indeed to prevent exactly what the United States has turned into: a fascist police state whose rulers can do anything they like to the ruled without any consequences at all.
It’s much, much too late for this to happen in the US; no decaying empire in the history of the world has ever been revived once it got to the level of corruption this country reached a generation ago, and things have grown much worse since then. Two years ago I wrote:
…old, decaying things must be cleared away – sometimes forcibly – in order to make way for new, younger and often better things. Old people must pass on to make room for new children; dilapidated buildings must be demolished to pave the way for new construction. And old, moribund governments which serve only the entrenched and wealthy must be removed if we are to build new ones which better serve all of the people and protect minorities from oppression by both majorities and other, more privileged minorities…
Like it or not, this is the future Americans face; our rulers have made peaceful change impossible, therefore violent change has become inevitable. The system will be burned to the ground, whether we want it to or not; I don’t really want to see it, but if I live to be as old as Maman that will be a forlorn hope, as I don’t actually believe the system can survive another 40 years the way things are going. The fire is coming, but as The Onion satirically reminds us, that is not a bad thing:
…a study…found that regular, controlled Washington, D.C. wildfires are crucial to the restoration of a healthy political environment. “Periodic blazes that destroy sections of the Beltway region are a natural part of the political cycle and play a key role in maintaining democratic balance,” read the study in part, which explained that occasional wildfires of mild to moderate intensity are the most important and effective mechanism for clearing out old federal agencies so that new ones can take their place and flourish. “Although such fires are often considered a hazard, without them government would quickly become dense, overrun, and impenetrable, stifling political diversity and inhibiting the germination of new ideas”…The study concluded that attempts to suppress the wildfires would likely only lead to the occurrence of far more powerful blazes in the future capable of causing significant, permanent damage to the government’s branches.
In reality, the entrenched establishment has prevented those moderate fires; the big one which will cause permanent damage is coming. We can only hope that the ashes left behind are fertile soil for something better, leaner and healthier.
Diary #279
Posted in Diary, tagged blogging, holidays, Presents on November 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Slowly but surely, I’m getting back into the swing of things in Seattle. Last week I attended a lovely party at which I got to meet quite a few inhabitants and habitués of the Seattle demimonde, and to catch up with some friends and fans I hadn’t seen in a while. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for my birthday; in a few days I’m going to be marking the occasion by getting together with a small group of friends, but I still wanted to do something on Halloween and Jae goes to sleep quite early these days. She doesn’t like horror movies anyway, and since that’s my usual Halloween entertainment I was at a bit of a loss. But Abby May came through for me by taking me out to Guillermo del Toro’s new release, Crimson Peak; it was a treat to see a Gothic on the big screen again, and since it’s been years since I’ve been to a theater at all that was already a treat in itself. Late in the (rainy, spooky) afternoon I got a lovely flower arrangement from Grace, along with a card that had me crying like a baby. And Jae displayed her knack for clever gifts by presenting me with the lady in the picture, who now occupies a place of honor atop my desk; if you don’t understand why this gift is appropriate, I call your attention to my book cover and several stories I published almost a year ago. And if you know me in person, you might want to pay attention to a certain recurring theme in my wardrobe.
In the News (#585)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Above the Law, advertising, animals, Business As Usual, California, Capricious Lusts, Checklist, Coming and Going, cops, diversion programs, East Asia, escort services, Guinea Pigs, Higher Education, hysteria, internet, language, pimps, politicians, prohibitionist myths, psychology, rape, scams, Scapegoats, Texas, The Face of Trafficking, The Lion and the Ox, The More the Better, Twitter, United Kingdom, video, Where Are the Protests?, Yellow Fever, yellow journalism on November 3, 2015| 18 Comments »
I support sex workers because I was one…it’s a job that’s needlessly shunned by society when frankly we should be worshiped. – Margaret Cho
…the West Midlands branch of Hope for Justice has rescued 82 people so far this year. Many of those were unknown to police…few cases of modern slavery have gone through the criminal justice system. Only 130 cases that involved human trafficking were successfully prosecuted in 2014-15, representing just one prosecution for every 100…victims [claimed by fetishists]…
That last statement is roughly equivalent to my claiming to be a millionaire, but the bank will only let me have 1% of my money.
A website which purported to connect students with internships in every industry functioned in that manner for five years, from June of 2010. But at some point after August 1st of this year, the site was taken over by some sort of scammer who planned to use it to exploit wannabe sex workers by offering to “teach them the trade” via an “internship program”. In other words, a crooked escort service or group of services was trying to trick newbie whores into working for them for free. Once the sex worker community got ahold of the link and started tweeting it around, the site vanished at some point in the last few days.
She’s been all over Twitter since, interacting with and following outspoken sex workers:
Margaret Cho…opened up about her former life as a sex worker to her thousands of Twitter followers Thursday, saying of herself and her fellow sex workers: “we were tough and proud…Sex work is simply work. For me it was honest work. I was a sex worker when I was young. It was hard but well paid. There’s no shame in it”…
[Connecticut] resident Timothy T. Cutcher denies having sex with dogs or any of his relatives. However, the 23-year-old man told the Reflector it’s true he’s addicted to sex…Cutcher said he’s “borderline mentally disabled”…
No, it isn’t true, because there is no such thing as “sex addiction”.
A few hundred down, tens of thousands to go:
…In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse. The number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. California and New York — with several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies — offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records…
Alison Bass on the yellow journalism which permeates coverage of sex work:
When it comes to the coverage of sex work or trafficking, the mainstream media seems to forget a basic journalistic principle — the need to get their facts straight…anti-trafficking groups have spread grossly inaccurate and inflated statistics about the number of women and children being trafficked for paid sex in the United States…[Gloria] Steinem…points to the Nordic Model “as being the only system that seems to work for women in the trade.” In fact, the opposite is true…sex workers themselves say that the…decriminalized model that New Zealand adopted in 2003 is a much more successful approach…why [do] otherwise respectable media drop their journalistic standards when reporting on the sex trade…Is it because they’re so desperate to be politically correct…or is it because the mere mention of women’s sexuality sends normally methodical journalists into a tizzy of sensationalistic misinformation?…
…”Trafficking”…is less a clear-cut crime than a call to moral panic. The vagueness of the definition allows or even encourages governments, organizations, and researchers to claim that there are tens of millions of trafficking victims worldwide on the basis of little more than hyperbolic guesses…the term “sex trafficking”…seems to have been developed by anti-prostitution feminists in the 1990s…to describe the migration of women from the collapsing Soviet Union to the United States…Obama also uses the term to refer to children pressed into military service and agricultural laborers forced to work under poor conditions or without pay…the term…often is used to refer to cases in which there is no migration at all…in practice, trafficking does not mean “modern-day slavery.” Nor does it mean being transported across borders for purposes of sexual exploitation. Instead, it usually refers to one or more of the following: being underage and selling sex; illegally immigrating; being subjected to any kind of forced labor or abusive labor practices; engaging in consensual sex work…
…In October of 2014 the Seattle police department implemented the “Buyer Beware” program…he rate of rape shot up 150% compared to October 2013. November 2014 the rate of rape shot up 225% compared to November 2013. December 2014 the rate of rape shot up 80% compared to December 2013. Statistics for 2015 are not yet available…The rape rate from January 2013 to September 2013 compared to the rape rate from January 2014 to September 2014 were nearly identical with the rate in 2014 being up a slight 4% for the nine month period. Once the “Buyer Beware” program was implemented in October and the correlating jump in rape for the final three months of 2014, the final three months of 2014 compared to the final three months of 2013, the rape rate was up 151%. That brought the year over year rate up 28%…
Here’s a long, thorough look at Kathryn Griffin and her “prostitution diversion” scam in Houston:
…Griffin is currently under fire from sex worker and human rights advocates who say her tough-love, one-size-fits-all approach is flawed and fails to respect basic human dignity. People who are arrested for prostitution are not necessarily poor and dependent on drugs, and so-called “rescue-and-recovery” operations that lump sex workers in with victims of sex trafficking have lead to human rights abuses across the globe. Many activists say Griffin’s habit of thrusting her clients into the limelight…isn’t just manipulative, it’s dangerous…Kamylla claims she never offered [an undercover cop] sexual intercourse, but she could not afford a lawyer. She called [the 8 Minutes] team…and…asked if they could help her with legal representation. Instead of connecting Kamylla with an attorney, they connected her with…Griffin…At the time, Adrian Garcia was the sheriff of Houston, and in April he resigned to run for mayor of Houston. Sex worker activists began connecting the dots on social media. It turned out that Griffin has Garcia to thank for her program in the Houston jail, along with its $40,000 annual budget. The activists dug up photos of Griffin and Garcia appearing in public together and were outraged to discover via social media that Griffin’s We’ve Been There Done That participants, many of whom were once held in Garcia’s jail, were asked to volunteer for Garcia’s campaign, and posed with him for photos wearing their organization’s T-shirt. “Adrian Garcia is basically arresting himself this little army of free labor,” [said] one activist…Sex worker activists obtained audio recordings from some of the meetings that Kamylla attended, and the content made them furious. In one recording, which is posted on YouTube, Griffin insists that a criminal is a criminal, and criminals hurt people, so even anyone who has “prostituted” even “one time” must admit that they share common ground with rapists and even Charles Manson…
“She declined the officer’s request“. Badge-lickers are nauseatingly obsequious, even when they’re talking about a savage would-be rapist:
A shocking video…captures the moment a [cop] brutally beats a mother on the street after “she refused to perform a sex act on him”. In the clip, Weerasinghe Arachchilage Kanthilatha, a sex worker from Ratnapuara, Sri Lanka, is seen being struck repeatedly…She can be heard screaming out in pain as she lies on the ground…[P.P. Thissera] threatened to “teach her a lesson” before returning a few days later and attacking her with [his] baton. The incident occurred in September 2014 and caused a public outcry…Kanthilatha and her lawyer have filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court, citing violation of her rights…
Yet another software package designed to sell whores out to the cops:
A San Diego State University professor and graduate student have developed [software]…that they believe could help law enforcement identify human trafficking victims…[it] can browse though thousands of Internet ads for “escorts” and finding potential victims through certain key words, phrases or other indicators….Murray Jennex…said the knowledge management system he and graduate student Marisa Hultgren developed could be a potential tool for [targeting sex workers for arrest]…“We’re looking for things that indicate young people,” Jennex said. “Things like, ‘Barely legal, fresh, college freshman”…The system they developed also searches for indicators that a person is being confined, such as ads that stipulate in-calls only, meaning a client must come to a specific place. The system also searches for signs that a victim is being moved from town to town…Posts that suggest an escort is “open minded” and “willing to try anything” also could indicate somebody is being coerced by a trafficker…
So basically sex workers in their early twenties, or who don’t have cars, or who tour, or who do fetish work, are all “trafficking victims”. The ignorance involved here is truly staggering.
The Face of Trafficking (#567)
Another case of what really happens when a wannabe “pimp” abducts a girl:
An East Bay rapper has been charged with human trafficking and sexually abusing a minor over a period of several weeks, and could spend the next 20 years in prison if convicted. Joshua Richard Durham…goes by the stage name “Five Hunnet”…Police started investigating the case after the alleged victim — a female runaway who is [16] years old — told her family that Durham had been soliciting her…from Aug. 1 through Aug. 11…[and again] from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 Durham continued to traffic the girl…and also forced her to perform oral sex on him during that time…
As usual: no cartel, no interstate travel, and victim got away in a very short time. This is absolutely nothing like the myths. The story has one horrifying element, though: “Some of his lyrics contain references to pimping, and members of the District Attorney’s Office reportedly instructed…police to listen to Durham’s lyrics for potential evidence…” Can you imagine what crimes the pigs could discover “evidence” for in my fiction?
Here’s what Tara Burns had to say about another highly-publicized recent case:
The public hears about trafficking most frequently in made-up, sensational movies and fundraising tall tales…Did you think sex trafficking was people being forced into prostitution? That hardly ever happens — if for no other reason than that the customers would freak out…in #TheStory, which Zola has clarified is “based on a true story“, sex trafficking happened when Jessica lied and told her they were just going to dance and the guy was just her roommate (fraud in recruitment). Women like Zola have been charged with conspiracy to traffick just for posting ads on the Internet…Sex trafficking in real life and the courtroom is so different from sex trafficking on TV that no one even recognizes it…
Links #278
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged cops, holidays, Mexico, Missouri, video on November 2, 2015| 4 Comments »
What caused this…is still a mystery. – Chuanmin Hu
It always seems that the best Halloween videos appear after it’s too late to feature them before Halloween! This one’s from Claudia Cristophe and the links above it are from Clarkhat (the first two), Elizabeth N. Brown, Nun Ya, and Radley Balko (in that order).
- Radio ghosts.
- Soylent green is people!
- Attack of the seaweed monster.
- Peoria has a low threshold of terror.
- Gang of thugs shoots woman while trying to abduct her grandchild.
From the Archives
- Devils, monsters, Ouija, cops, words, bullying, Gollum, “Annabel Lee”, censorship, government, horror films and two horror shorts.
- You might be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later you dance with the Reaper.
- It’s not only cops who think that believing a woman is a whore is grounds for assaulting her.
- Woman says it’s “inappropriate” for a Halloween party to be held Halloween weekend.
- Naturally, they don’t speak up for whores or donate any money to decrim.
- These types of procedures are very common in Swedish-flavored regimes.
- Cops, puritanism, clowns, investors, Halloween & real-life horror stories.
- When will amateurs learn that the War on Whores affects them as well?
- That “1 in 5” claim rests on defining “attempted forced kissing” as rape.
- Belle Knox’s story used as basis for an episode of Law and Order: SVU.
- LA Times reporters are forbidden to call the acts of rapist cops “rape”.
- Indian whores protest another attempt to impose the Swedish model.
- This academic’s blind spot about “sex trafficking” hysteria is massive.
- Another example of the state punishing citizens for following its lead.
- More pearl-clutching about young pop-stars from old, dried-up ones.
- US military bans personnel in Korea from buying drinks for women.
- Any advice for a married man who has fallen in love with a lesbian?
- Seven Edinburgh sauna licences renewed despite police objections.
- Interviews with activists about the rescue industry and its myths.
- It was a “cleansing initiative”. You know, like “ethnic cleansing”.
- Irish politicians can always agree on control of women’s bodies.
- Media pretend bureaucrat hiring whores is somehow shocking.
- European anti-migration policies grow steadily more horrible.
- “Right. And the Invisible Fence collar…lets my dog be a dog.“
- “He had merely wanted to ‘pray for those dancers by name’.”
- Teen boys from Norway set up a fake escort service scam.
- The zombie legislation called CISPA just won’t stay dead.
- How should I act for my boyfriend who’s into cuckolding?
- Nigeria threatens to make paying for sex a capital crime.
- Zürich’s tippelzones have too much surveillance to work.
- A short biography of Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine.
- A collection of things to read and watch for Halloween.
- US Marine tried for murder of a sex worker in Hawaii.
- How cops and the media collaborate to destroy lives.
- Radio host tries to pass off sexual assault as BDSM.
- Church employee loses job for attempted bestiality.
- Please, Roman Kalinowski, become a prohibitionist.
- A powerful argument against draconian sentences.
- Theresa May moans about “modern day slavery”.
- “Trafficking” as an excuse for surveillance again.
- On the relationship between harlotry and death.
- Cops refer to teens as a criminal “sexting ring”.
- October 2010 and October 2011 in retrospect.
- His motive is obvious, but this is still freakish.
- Another excellent essay from Wendy Lyon.
- Cops plunge down a “sexting” rabbit hole.
- My two previous columns for Halloween.
- The vile mistreatment of Alicia Beltran.
- I love it when they feed on their own.
- An online “human trafficking” course.
- My most recent trip to New Orleans.
- Business as usual in a police state.
- The infamous “tiger porn” case.
- Sara Kruzan is finally paroled.
- 25,000 “victims” in Chicago?
- Rapist cops of the week.
- End demand squared.
- Messiah of Evil.
- Titcoin.
A Necessary End
Posted in Holidays, Philosophy, tagged A Moral Cancer, crypto-moralism, disease, holidays, paganism, psychology, Thanatopsis on November 1, 2015| 30 Comments »
It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (II, ii)
Just recently, we were once again subjected to the silly spectacle of grown men sonorously pronouncing that yet another of life’s simple pleasures leads to an “increased risk” of cancer…the implication being that one ought to avoid the stuff as though it were poison. Dr. Brooke Magnanti (whose judgment I trust much more than I would that of the WHO) assures me that the risk is small indeed:
A far smaller percentage of people who eat processed meat regularly will get cancer from it compared to the percentage who get cancer that smoke regularly…If it had been better reported, the news should not have alarmed people any more than knowing that sun exposure, hormone therapy of any kind including the Pill, wild garlic, alcohol, and salted fish also definitely cause cancer, in sufficient doses…
Since I’ve been on oral estrogen for over 20 years and don’t actually eat that much bacon or sausage, I have absolutely no plans to make any changes in my diet whatsoever, any more than I would due to any other nutritional proclamation by “experts” (which is to say somewhere between zero and not at all). While I can think of many good reasons to alter one’s behavior, a slightly elevated risk of dying from one cause rather than another is not among them. Colorectal cancer is probably not a particularly pleasant way to go, but guess what? Most of the other possible routes aren’t any better, and some are much worse. As I wrote in “The Day of the Dead“,
…death is the one inescapable experience of material existence. You will die, and so will I, and there is absolutely nothing any of us can do about it…yet vast numbers are so obsessed with this simple and indisputable fact that they waste much of their time on Earth in a struggle they absolutely cannot win. In a pathetic attempt to stretch their allotted quantity of days just a little further, many are willing to dramatically reduce the quality of the whole…
If you really believe that it’s worth turning every meal into an ordeal (or at least a math problem) for the rest of your life in order to buy a ticket for a raffle whose prize is an extra year or two of senility and decrepitude at the end, be my guest; it’s your life and you are free to waste it as you like. But please don’t expect me to join you; I’ve got better things to do with my time here on this plane than to spend it fleeing death. Once a year on this day, I drink a toast to the Reaper and remind him that I’m not afraid of him; when he at last come to collect me it will be a rendezvous rather than a capture, a meeting (whether anticipated or unexpected) of old friends rather than the cornering of a terrified animal by a hunter who has never in the history of the world ever failed to run down his prey.
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff