Late Saturday night, Lorelei Rivers and I will be getting on a redeye flight to the East Coast, where we’ll meet up with the gentleman I call Ghost Rider; on Sunday evening we’ll get on another plane together, and disembark the next morning in Dublin. Yes, a generous client is taking my girlfriend and me on a week-long vacation to Ireland; that is seriously living the hooker dream, my friends! Oh, wait; clearly I’m suffering from false consciousness, because we all know that the lives of prostituted women are unending cascades of suffering and degradation. What I really mean is that an evil, exploitative “john” is going to “traffic” two helpless, innocent “victims” across international borders to satisfy his carnal lusts 50 times a day each. No doubt we’ll be forced to use drugs to survive the violation; oh, woe is us! Actually, in all seriousness I will need to use drugs to survive the flights, but those drugs will be my good old Valium and Zofran combo, plus as much booze as the air hostess will give me. So much has changed in the last year and a half; at that time I couldn’t have even hoped for a trip like this. But now my vertigo is more manageable (though that still requires a lot of planning), I have my passport again, and a generous gentleman is subsidizing my flying! And that means this is really a kind of dress rehearsal; in the future, I’ll be able to travel to any place a client needs me to go, provided he’s willing to book me for enough time to justify the travel (at least 24 hours to the UK, Ireland or Western Europe and 2 days for anyplace farther than that). Take a look at your budget, international fans! And in the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for photo hijinks with Lorelei & me in the Emerald Isle!
Archive for July, 2017
Diary #367
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged blogging, drugs, Ireland on July 11, 2017| 6 Comments »
Seventh Anniversary
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, blogging on July 10, 2017| 5 Comments »
You can…Google me naked and get a lot of applicable results, which is not something most people can say. – “Sixth Anniversary”
Seven years, and I don’t even have the fabled itch yet! Doing a blog in my own peculiar way, with its rigid scheduling and content requirements, really is something like a marriage; but like a good marriage, it’s a labor of love. And it is a good marriage; I take care of The Honest Courtesan, feeding her and grooming her and getting her lovely ornaments to adorn her, and I make sure she gets plenty of attention from readers (over 2500 posts, nearly 100 pages and over 48,000 comment; nearly 2000 subscribers and almost 14,000 Twitter followers; and nearly 6 million page views from all over the world). In return, she has made me a minor celebrity, extremely well-known in the demimonde and libertarian circles, and even occasionally recognized in public; she helps me to get work and has made my writing much more than the exercise in vanity it was seven years ago. I have published two books (with more to come), have written many articles and been interviewed too many times to count, and I’m even widely considered a sex symbol now, which is still very difficult for my chubby, homely 13-year-old self to believe. There will be a documentary about me released sometime next year, and at the end of this week I’ll be visiting Europe for the first time (something which would’ve been basically impossible two years ago). And all because just over seven years ago, I enjoyed an online friend’s blog post about Wonder Woman and asked how I could set up a blog myself. In some ways, seven years ago seems like yesterday, and in some ways it feels like forever; there’s no guarantee I’ll still be around in another seven years, because there are no guarantees in life. But as of right now, I plan to keep this blog/creatrix relationship going for as long as my brain and fingers allow me to do so.
Links #366
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged animals, cops, drugs, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, Never Call the Cops, New Jersey, New York, politicians, surveillance, teachers, video, Washington (state) on July 9, 2017| 5 Comments »
I could fucking kill you. – unidentified Illinois cop
This week’s video is a kind of private message for the ladies who love me, but the rest of you can enjoy the music. And if you don’t like The Bangles, I don’t want to hear about it. The links above the video were contributed by Dave Krueger (“cute” and “street”), Rick Horowitz (“truth”), Tim Cushing (“volunteer”), Popehat (“pen”), and Skye (“burning”).
- Thoughtcrime.
- One of the cutest things ever.
- A cop tells the truth for a change.
- Never volunteer to help them, either.
- Cops murder a man for owning a pen.
- The beginning of the end of Burning Man.
- Cops beat man into hospital for crossing the street.
From the Archives
- Getting a massage is grounds for public shaming at the hands of the state.
- The unholy mess created by trying to stop people from migrating to work.
- Aussie reporters lap up noxious idiocy vomited out by “rescue” fetishists.
- Politician blames advertising site for damage caused by criminalization.
- “Religious” guy spends time gawking at, then defacing escort websites.
- CMT pap is probably the most unintentionally-hilarious anti-whore pap.
- Neighbors complain about a dominatrix because, naturally, sex rays.
- Ever wonder where all those supposed “sex trafficking victims” are?
- Clueless reporter is surprised that most whores’ clients are married.
- Cathy Reisenwitz on the psychology behind support for prohibition.
- States compete to inflict the most mindlessly-draconian sentences.
- Cops aren’t satisfied with merely sneaking spooge; they throw it.
- Anybody we claim is a victim is one, regardless of what she says.
- Distributing soap bars to fight “pimps” hiding in hotel lavatories.
- “Justice system” destroys woman’s life for giving a friend a ride.
- Are clients of sex work as varied as those of other service work?
- A vile collection of prohibitionist lies, mostly from a prosecutor.
- I hope people don’t get the idea that this is unique to Oakland.
- Without full decriminalization, cops will always harass whores.
- Prohibition turns every individual’s body into a “crime scene”.
- This is not “decriminalization” as some sources are reporting.
- This story has far too many lapses to be considered credible.
- Dr. Marty Klein on the recent upsurge in anti-porn hysteria.
- Mass surveillance in Tennessee, because “sex trafficking”.
- This article on the Backpage credit card issue quotes me.
- This jewel of self-contradiction was too good to pass up.
- Backpage’s big “fuck you” to Tom Dart & Swanee Hunt.
- Another small country stands up to American bullying.
- Darwin, tech guys, TSA, government and much more.
- Another example of what real sex slavery looks like.
- The Philippines’ weird crusade against “cybersex”.
- And her police record is important…why, exactly?
- A nice article on the Desiree Alliance conference.
- My two previous columns for Independence Day.
- The California Red-Light Abatement Act, redux.
- How can a new independent escort get started?
- Rapist cops of the week, 2015 and 2016.
- My fifth and sixth anniversary columns.
- Tom Dart’s sleazy attack on Backpage.
- More articles like this, please.
- Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
- A lovely weekend-long gig.
- Canada has a problem.
- Dog bites man.
In the News (#754)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Mound of Filth, A Tale That Grew in the Telling, agency denial, avails laws, Bogeymen, bogus studies, brothels, censorship, Check Your Premises, cops, Florida, Having and Eating Cake, hysteria, illegal aliens, Ireland, Paint By Numbers, porn, prisons, rape, Saving Them from Themselves, Scrupleless in Seattle, sex offender registry, sexting, The Pro-Rape Coalition, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Wisconsin on July 8, 2017| 4 Comments »
In every prospective trial, as the availability of porn increased, rates of sexual assault declined. – Michael Castleman
Do they even think about the words they’re vomiting out?
Three Romanian women are to be deported following the discovery of two brothels…in Swindon…all three…had been advertising sex work online…they were very open about their sex work and confirmed the profiles on Adultworks were their own, which they had set up and paid for…Det Supt Craig Holden…said: “This is a very positive outcome as the women are now safe and away from their clients and are no longer vulnerable to the risks of off-street sex work”…
Yes, this evil moron is actually implying that indoor sex work is more dangerous than street work, that businesspeople need “protection” from their clients and that dragging a person off in chains, caging her and sending her to a place she intentionally left is a “very positive outcome”.
A Tale That Grew in the Telling
And the next time they broaden the definition, it will “grow” even more!
The number of sexual slavery victims in Northern Ireland rose by two thirds last year. But statistics available for those reportedly held against their will are just the tip of the iceberg, as officials [pretend] the true extent of the threat is unknown…the National Crime Agency (NCA)…has…warned that over the next three years there is likely to be an increase in the recruitment and exploitation of victims online…
Just when they’re trying to censor the internet more; what a koinkydink!
Long-time readers already know this:
…longtime science journalist Michael Castleman explains why the studies showing an ostensible link between porn and rape are full of flaws…small…studies might show that violent men tend to watch porn, but other studies show that most men have watched porn at some point and many watch it regularly. Since most men don’t go on to become violent sexual predators, it’s hard to argue that the “link” between porn and predation is one of cause and effect. Alas, this is just the kind of junk science that culture warriors regularly cite to confuse general audiences. In the realm of sex-work research, it’s common for studies to include only data on incarcerated sex workers…or those in court-ordered diversion programs…and then extrapolating from them to the entire population of people who sell sex. As with the studies that purport to show the effects of porn on all consumers by studying convicted criminals, this conflation leads to reports showing drastically more dire consequences of sex work than exist in more general populations…
Teenagers involved in “sexting” could go on to commit offences that would land them on the sex offenders’ register, police have warned…Det Chief Inspt Deborah Oakes…said…“We can’t keep just dealing reactively with the increasing number of registered sex offenders and need to be able to get more proactive to prevent offending…”
Let that sink in. This sow is actually claiming that the problem isn’t the horrible registry & the increasing number of laws that people are condemned to it for, but young people exploring their sexuality in ways prudish authoritarians dislike.
Remember this story the next time you hear pigs oinking about the number of “pimps” they arrested:
…Ms C Norman worked as a cleaner for two days a week at Bunnies Ranch massage parlour. She was not involved in running the premises…On 19 May 2016 Ms Norman was at work when the client collapsed in the reception room. Everyone else…left because they were scared of being arrested. Ms Norman stayed and called the police and ambulance and then did CPR on the man until the paramedics arrived. Sadly, despite their best efforts the man died. Instead of being praised for trying to save a life Ms Norman was arrested and charged with assisting in the running of a brothel…Women who worked at the premises are frightened to come to court to give evidence on Ms Norman’s behalf because of fear of prosecution and exposure…
On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake
Given the outcome of all the lawsuits against strip clubs, this was only a matter of time:
…Tele Pay USA, a nationwide phone sex purveyor, [was] hit with a class-action lawsuit in federal court…alleging it cheated one employee and potentially hundreds of others out of compensation…Anne Cannon filed a complaint on behalf of herself and her counterparts in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She says the company, which is based in Glendale, Calif., engaged in a “pattern of intentional manipulation and exploitation” to siphon off workers’ earnings, paying them as little as $4.20 per hour, in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act…
…Valerie Laperruque and nine others will paddleboard around 12 miles of Pewaukee Lake on July 10 to raise awareness of the dangers of sex trafficking in [rural Wisconsin] and raise support for the Redeem and Restore Center, a local [rescue industry]…profit[eer]…This plan is part of a coordinated effort by the I-94 Human Trafficking Awareness Project, which offers quarterly [propaganda sessions]…about sex trafficking [to terrify] young girls…
“Broken dreams”. “Bad guys”. Seriously, who writes this shit? How old are they, eight?
…The idea of the Restore program is to help broken women have complete lives. The program is the brainchild of the Florida Dream Center…Rev. Bill Losasso…[says] women start by being sexually abused by a parent or other relative. Some are used as prostitutes….Eventually, many of them end up in…prisons. But…bad guys on the outside have women working for them inside to recruit those who are about to get out of prison. And, with no job prospects and no help on the outside, many…return to prostitution…
The “Dream Center” is one of the most loathsome of rescue industry organizations; it’s a fascist collaboration between cops, religious fanatics and profiteers dedicated to censorship, infantilization of women and demonization of sexual behavior.
STOP SAYING “FORMER” COP. He was not a “former” cop when he committed the rape:
A…Leesburg [Florida cop]…has been arrested and charged with sexual battery…Dennis Putnam…[held] a house-warming party…[on] March 5…a…woman…drank alcohol and woke up in the guest bedroom to Putnam fondling her breasts…Putnam then [raped] her…During questioning…[he] denied [raping] the woman…[but his] DNA was found during the rape examination…
The vile filth which infest the police department & prosecutor’s office in Seattle are at it again, destroying lives for their own sexual pleasure & self-aggrandizement: “…[at] a fake massage parlor on Aurora Ave North…From June 24 through July 1, Seattle police arrested 139 people for sexual exploitation, a misdemeanor…”
Value for Value
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged archeofeminism, ethics, pragmatism, sex work is work, yin and yang on July 7, 2017| 14 Comments »
On Monday evening I sent out this tweet, quoting an article someone else had tweeted (CAUTION: loud & obnoxious autoplay video):
People who follow me are mostly used to my hyperbole, but I reckon I touched a nerve because a couple of male internet friends took exception, asking whether I was passing judgment on women who have sex with men because they like them, and questioning whether I thought there was anything wrong with doing things for free that one could charge for, out of principle or affection, such as pro bono legal work or favors for friends. I think my answer deserves a little expansion, and presentation in a more permanent medium than Twitter.
Like most people, I also do things for others I care about or whom I think it’s right to do things for, without asking for direct monetary compensation; however, I don’t deceive myself that those things aren’t labor. I sometimes do have sex with men without cash changing hands, but those guys (or their wives or girlfriends) pay me in other ways; currency is not the only form of payment. The problem isn’t when sexual labor is uncompensated by money, it’s when women buy into the male lie that sexual labor isn’t labor at all, because “mutuality”. Oh, please. I cook for people I love; I give them rides all over the place; I help them do manual labor; I wait on them when they’re sick. And nobody pretends those things aren’t work just because I’m doing them for people I care about; that’s why we have expressions like “labor of love”. But suddenly, when the work is sexual, everybody wants women to buy into the lie of “mutuality” even though I can sell my sexual labor & few men can; because so many men are willing to stick their dicks into anything warm (alive or not), dick is abundant and of low value. It is not in any way an equal or fair trade for pussy, no matter what many men like to believe. Expressed in economic terms, my sexual labor has value & his does not (except to other men); it’s a simple case of supply & demand. So I’ll give sex for “free” (where that means “no direct cash exchange”) if and only if the recipient (note that word, which designates the one who receives a thing of value) recognizes that what I give him is a gift, a precious thing of high value that I choose to bestow upon him for some reason of my own, and not a thing he’s “owed” or, even worse, a thing that his own low-value participation constitutes “payment in kind” for. In the case of a physical gift like jewelry, or a gift of labor like cooking a meal or helping a friend with some task, the recipient recognizes that the gift so conferred has value and expresses gratitude (unless he’s a semi-savage without proper manners). But in the case of sex, men want to pretend that what was given wasn’t a gift but a “mutual experience”, and a woman who disagrees and demands recognition of her value is stigmatized & punished with insults, the threat or infliction of violence and, in barbaric regimes like the United States, organized state persecution, police violence and ostracism. If that last weren’t true, this would be an academic discussion; however, it is true, and the recognition of the value of female sexual labor is not a mere intellectual exercise, but rather a matter of life and death for millions of women all over the world.
Points of Contact
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, blogging, sex work is work on July 6, 2017| 3 Comments »
Though I no longer use different stage names (in fact, virtually nobody except the government uses my legal name any more), I still have different email addresses and different websites for my activism and my sex work. This blog and this email address are for my blogging and activism, while my escort site (Google my name & “Seattle escort” to find it) and this email address are for hiring my professional services as an escort. And if you approach me through Twitter I’ll probably point you to whichever of those seems more appropriate.
Now, I don’t mind getting inquiries about my professional services through my activism address (though I will probably switch the correspondence to the other address when I realize what you want); the activism address is a lot better known and some people who want to hire me don’t know where to find the other one, so it’s all good. However, I find myself rather annoyed when I answer an email to my escort address and find something blog-related. Anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of human psychology, and/or a few months of following my writing, should understand why: when I see an email come in through that account, I naturally expect it means potential income, and that pleases me on both a practical and a sexual level (because money turns me on). So how do you think I feel when I find no money is being offered? Exactly. And I don’t like feeling that way about communications from my readers, so please don’t do that. The other day, some chowderhead made an even worse faux pas; he actually used my escort site booking form to request an (uncompensated) interview. Given that the fraction of booking-form emails which actually turn into paid bills is quite high, I was even more annoyed at this false alert than I would’ve been from a simple email to the wrong address, and when he told me that he used the booking form on purpose because he figured it would get my attention better…well, let’s just say my response was somewhere between “cross” and “I have a good mind to tell you to fuck off”.
But even this irritation is not as powerful as the seriously-pissed-off feeling of opening my escort email to find someone trying to extract money from me by hawking some product or service. Here’s a word of advice on that: Don’t. As in, don’t ever do that. If you want to interest me in your whatever-it-is, send an email offering me a free trial or sample or whatever, and if it sounds good I’ll let you send it to me (with no guarantee I’ll buy it or even like it). But a straight-up sales pitch or begging letter with not even the pretense of a gift or offer? Forget it. And if you’re dumb and rude enough to do that, expect me to immediately install a new filter so future emails from you go straight to the trash.
In the News (#753)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged advertising, agency denial, Australia, brothels, Business As Usual, Check Your Premises, Checklist, cops, First They Came for the Hookers, hysteria, illegal aliens, Iran, language, Life Imitates Artifice, Mars, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, propaganda, rape, scams, stripping, surveillance, The Hooker Vote, The Implosion Begins, The Naked Anthropologist, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, video on July 5, 2017| 1 Comment »
Anti-prostitution crusaders behave as if we were at war over a symbol rather than discussing possible and partial solutions. – Laura Agustín
Yeah, I’m sure they answered the pigs’ fake ads and said, “Hi, I’m interested in buying sex from a potential trafficking victim”. That sounds totally legit: “The FBI and police in St. Louis County…[claim] that [14] men contacted undercover officers….[and] were interested in paying for sex from potential trafficking victims…”
First They Came for the Hookers…
Just in case you think owning a “legal” sex work business protects you:
A brother and sister were sentenced…to two years in federal prison for their schemes to promote prostitution at 10 Portland-area strip clubs and adult video stores. Kandace Desmarias…and her brother, Gilbert “Mace” Desmarais…also were convicted of conspiring to evade paying more than $728,000 in federal income taxes by concealing $2.6 million in income from the clubs’ strip shows and prostitution. The ringleader of the operation, their stepfather Lawrence G. Owen, 75, was sentenced in April to two years and six months in prison…
“Ringleader”? Seriously? Are owners of non-sex related businesses called “ringleaders” when convicted of tax evasion?
[Bahram Qassemi of the foreign ministry of] Iran said…“The root causes of human trafficking lie in unilateral, interventionist and aggressive policies as well as the wars of attrition, terrorism and ethnic cleansing in which the military and security forces of America and some of its allies are involved…the U.S. government…cannot shirk its responsibility for that by playing blame games and leveling unfounded and false accusations against other countries”…
An NYPD cop working undercover prostitution stings in Manhattan…[raped] six women…All of the[m]…illegal immigrants…[Michael] Golden would pay between $40 and $300 for the sex acts, prosecutors said. Then, a field team made up of fellow officers would burst in and…arrest [his victim]…Under the rules, undercover cops can strip down to their underwear, but they aren’t allowed to engage in any sex acts with the sting targets…
Licensed prostitutes in Nevada…are organizing against legislation they say will devastate them, other prostitutes across the nation and their families…dubbing itself “Hookers for Health Care,” this group plans to go “on a political offensive…to stop the Republican effort.” At the helm is Alice Little…who works…at Dennis Hof’s Sagebrush Ranch brothel…About a hundred women working in Hof’s seven brothels have already signed up to be involved with this new movement…
Are these reporters complete dolts? Are they unable to see that a real “movement” would involve prostitutes who didn’t work for Hof as well? Are they oblivious to Hof’s unimaginative naming convention (cf “Hookers for Hillary”, “Tarts for Trump”, “Pimpin’ for Paul”)? Why do these imbeciles keep providing free advertising for this dangerously self-centered jackass, who’s happy to get in bed with prohibitionists against sex workers who aren’t forced to give half of their income to him?
“Forced into a sexual relationship” may be the most convoluted way of saying “raped” I’ve yet seen:
…Melissa Granados sued the Otero County [New Mexico] Sheriff’s Department…Joshua R. Sides and others…Granados [reported] that after Sides and four other [cops] entered her home without a warrant and arrested her as she got out of the shower, naked except for a towel, co-defendant sheriff’s Officer John Emory joked with Sides and others that it was “hard to handcuff her … those tits are distracting me”…The five [thugs from] the Otero County Narcotics Enforcement Unit entered her home “claiming they had an arrest warrant for plaintiff, however never produced any valid warrant to enter her home”…later…Sides told her she had 24 hours to accept his offer to work as an informant. Granados…refused…[then] Sides [coerced] her…in[to] a sexual relationship…She arrived home one day to find him already inside, though he had no key…he…hit her and knocked her…unconscious…
I love watching “authorities” get caught up in their own manufactured moral panic:
A SERIAL conwoman who cost [Ireland] €350,000 in armed garda protection by posing as a child sex trafficking victim is facing up to 10 years in jail after pulling a similar scam in Australia. Samantha Azzopardi…who is now 28…[is] accused of obtaining €13,500 worth of services from the state and charities by pretending to be a 13-year-old Sydney foster child…named Harper Hart…court documents…cite…her “extensive history of providing false documentation, obtaining passports in false names and assuming identities of other persons” in Queensland, Western Australia, Ireland and Canada…
Those who don’t remember the height of the Satanic Panic may be surprised by this level of lunacy:
Alex Jones…interviewed Robert David Steele, a man whose Wikipedia page lists him as “an American activist and former Central Intelligence Agency clandestine services case officer.” Steele laid out a strange theory that suggested NASA not only has secretly sent humans to Mars without anyone knowing about it but that…“There is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space…once they get to Mars, they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony…Pedophilia does not stop with sodomizing children…It goes straight into terrorizing them to adrenalize their blood and then murdering them. It also includes murdering them so that they can have their bone marrow harvested as well as body parts”…
Just in case you didn’t think you were spied on enough in airports:
…the House’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill…would require new mandatory training for all “ticket counter agents, gate agents, and other air carrier workers whose jobs require regular interaction with passengers” on “recognizing and responding to potential human trafficking victims”…federal agents have already been training flight attendants and other airline personnel on how to “detect” human traffickers or trafficking victims on their planes…There is no evidence these efforts have actually yielded any trafficking busts—which shouldn’t surprise anyone not immersed in some Taken-style fantasy…A heightened sensitivity to anything out-of-the-ordinary—which in the United States can still mean interracial families or a child traveling with two fathers—means a propensity to profile passengers based on stereotypes…Airline Ambassadors International, which often works with government officials on sex-trafficking awareness training, suggests that “children and young women traveling alone” should be considered suspect, as should people who say they are adults but have “adolescent features”…
Another interview with Dr. Agustín about The Three-Headed Dog:
Why should acknowledgement of structural inequalities mean victimising those less equal? I’ve never understood that. Unequal in terms of money and power does not mean unequal in agency, connections, street-smarts or guts…The focus on inequality leads logically to self-positioning as a helper – the Rescue Industry. And if helpers believe everyone must want to be in their original homes, it leads to deportation…
Divided We Stand
Posted in History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged Europe, holidays, psychology, Rome on July 4, 2017| 7 Comments »
After the United States dies, the evil of prohibition will (albeit gradually) follow it into Hell. – “Successor”
Four years ago I wrote “The Mills of the Gods”, in which I explained that…
…my perspective on human affairs had undergone a dramatic shift toward the cosmic…my viewpoint…receded, as though I had stepped away from a magnifying lens through which I had always viewed the world…since then I have been unable to view the timescale of any human life as “long”, and in fact often catch myself talking about stretches of many decades as “brief periods in history”…
Though at the time of that writing I imagined the process as a singular shift, I have since come to realize that it was only the beginning of a continuing process which has since gone much further, and will probably continue until I leave this world. Whether the disassociation is merely a part of the original process, a response to the deep emotional trauma of the past few years, a defense mechanism to protect my psyche against the cultural horror show I chronicle every day, an adaptation to make me a more effective activist or some combination of several or all of these, I cannot tell; all I know is that I’ve come to view the present as an historical tableau, a set of events that has already happened, which I observe unfolding as though I were a time traveler from a future age. This isn’t to say I know what’s going to happen; I usually don’t, and even when I do I arrive at the prediction by cognitive processes rather than precognitive ones. At least, I think that’s the case, and if I’m wrong it’s probably better I don’t know about it just yet.
So, while many of my friends are extremely concerned and even frightened by the events of this century so far (and especially recent events), I tend to view them with a sort of detachment. This isn’t to say that I’m not angry or offended by them, but I also tend to burst into tears when watching any depiction of the First World War and a number of other historical events that I’m not aware of having been a part of. Expressed less metaphysically, the political events I’m living through now don’t really feel any more real or personal to me than the events of the Great War, the Roman civil wars or the constantly-shifting political landscape of ancient Mesopotamia, and my tiny part in the events of the present often feels almost inevitable, as though I’m following a script written for me long ago. People call me heroic, but I don’t feel heroic; I usually feel as though what I’m doing is the only possible choice, or at least the only moral one.
And so, unlike most Americans, I have no innate sense of American exceptionalism; I understand that the current American government will soon (on the historical scale of time) fall, just as all bloated, decadent, dying empires do, and that we’re already beyond the point at which future historians will divide the “classical” US from the late-period one. I understand that when the collapse comes, it’s not going to be pretty or nice, and that a lot of innocent blood will be spilled along with that of the tyrants and revolutionaries. I recognize that it’s very unlikely that a new federal government without a clear line of political succession will be able to hold onto all of the states any more than collapsing Rome could hold onto all of her far-flung provinces, and that it’s very likely that in another century the map of North America will look at least as different from the current one as a map of modern Europe looks from an 18th-century one. I understand and accept these things as wholly as you accept the events of the 19th century: as phenomena that, while one might have feelings about them (even very strong feelings), there’s absolutely nothing one can do about them. Call that fatalism if you like; I don’t see it that way. I see it as history, and I see history as a continuously-unfolding process stretching into the far future rather than as a collection of moldering facts about the dead past.
Diary #366
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, archeofeminism, comics, Hollywood, imaginative fiction on July 3, 2017| 2 Comments »
I stayed rather busy last week, from walking with SWOP in the Seattle Pride parade on Sunday (because somebody has to speak up for sex workers, since Gay, Inc won’t), to spending an overnight in Portland with one of my favorite gentlemen (whom I’m going to call Ghost Rider, a nickname that he approves of), to going to see Wonder Woman on Thursday night with Jae. I wasn’t really planning to see it, because as regular readers know I’ve been a major Wonder Woman fan since childhood and DC has been totally fucking up every single superhero film it has made in this century, from a dark, murderous Superman to a clownish Green Lantern, and I just couldn’t bear to see that done to the Amazon princess. But Jae asked me to take her to the movie and I wasn’t about to disappoint her; as it turns out, I’m really glad she asked because I was extremely pleased with the film, which may well be the best DC superhero flick ever (including the justly-beloved Christopher Reeve Superman). I’m not saying it was flawless, but I was easily able to overlook the flaws due to the superlative portrayal of Diana’s personality and character and the skill with which the director depicted her growing from a sheltered princess into a heroic, unstoppable champion of righteousness and compassion. In the sequence where she truly becomes Wonder Woman, a charge across no man’s land (the film takes place in the First World War rather than the Second of the traditional story) to rescue a village whose plight has moved her heart, I literally cried out loud, sobbing at the beauty and power of the scene. It was quite an experience, and I highly recommend the picture to anyone who enjoys superheroes or strong female characters, and especially to anyone who has an adolescent daughter to share the experience with.
Links #365
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged animals, California, cops, disease, drugs, Florida, hysteria, language, Missouri, New Jersey, racism, Turkey, video on July 2, 2017| 1 Comment »
[If] a black [cop is]…shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street…[it’s] a real problem. – Rufus Tate
Sometimes the world gives us moments of pure and perfect joy, and this short little video shared by Girls of DOE is one of them. The links above it were provided by Tim Cushing (“serve” and “do”), Franklin Harris (“nightmare” and “mistake”), Skye (“worship”), Nun Ya (“tense”), and Eddie J Cunningham (“attention”).
- To protect and serve.
- Nightmare of the week.
- No, this wasn’t a “mistake”.
- Do as cops say, not as they do.
- New Jersey wants kids indoctrinated in pig worship.
- Murderous cops, their lies, and the past exonerative tense.
- Maybe if this happens more, “authorities” will pay more attention.
From the Archives
- Witch doctors do magic vs other witch doctors that kings’ magicians dislike.
- What is it about massage parlors that brings puritans out of the woodwork?
- I don’t expect any strip club “contractor” lawsuits to go any other way now.
- The negative reaction to this pogrom must’ve been very surprising to cops.
- Say you’re “fighting sex trafficking” and stupid people will give you money.
- The ludicrosity of small-town police chiefs trying to justify sex work stings.
- Sometimes hiding border control behind “sex trafficking” is very apparent.
- As I’ve often pointed out, “sex trafficking” is often a cover for xenophobia.
- The idea we might be neither is too much for the tiny minds of politicians.
- It’s really gratifying to see sex workers rebel against paternalistic bullshit.
- Just in case you think being a “legal” sex worker protects you. And again.
- What kind of warped mind arrests potential victims to stop a serial killer?
- Though the feminist jargon is a bit too thick, the central tenets are valid.
- In US media, “sex trafficking” is now just a dysphemism for “sex work”.
- Cops are “excited and jazzed up” to trick people and destroy their lives.
- How can anyone be so ignorant about the status of sex work in the US?
- Ladies, please stop putting hotel-room selfies in your ads immediately.
- A megalomaniac politician tries to seize power over the entire internet.
- Others are talking about the War on Whores as the new War on Drugs.
- It’s so funny to watch prudes’ heads explode over something so banal.
- State allows religious fanatics to brainwash women at a remote cabin.
- Rapist cops of the week, 2015 and 2016, and a dishonorable mention.
- Remember when busybodies actually had to spy on people in person?
- A politician caught in a prostitution sting makes a really lame excuse.
- I wonder what % of those who spout this rubbish actually believe it?
- In the US, this reporter would interview cops talking about “pimps”.
- Given his record of persecuting whores as Texas attorney general…
- Cops, Robin Hardy, robots, laws, TSA, propaganda & much more.
- A different kind of “video game” designed to exploit sex workers.
- Using the same-sex marriage ruling to challenge polygamy laws.
- Louisiana decides to create EVEN MORE “children” to “protect”.
- Marin County isn’t really small, but this is still patently absurd.
- Here’s another excellent example of stereotypic conformation.
- A retrospective of my columns from June of 2012 and 2013.
- An article so totally ridiculous I felt compelled to vivisect it.
- An article full of dick-strokingly lurid descriptions of stings.
- “Fighting sex trafficking” by standing on lawns is so passé.
- Why would a woman send mixed sexual signals to a man?
- This campaign has Swanee Hunt’s foul stench all over it.
- Hey, kids! Fight “human trafficking” for fun and profit!
- There aren’t many genuine cases of coercion like this.
- $60 would’ve been a cheap price to pay for a lesson.
- Imagine any other profession in place of “stripper”.
- How can I get established as a booker & screener?
- Cops, France, Axis of Awesome & much more.
- How irrationally stupid are people about sex?
- How many times will we have to say this?
- He’s lucky he didn’t try to pay the pony.
- In which I officially become a celebrity.
- A few thoughts on Pride celebrations.
- This is what “rescue” looks like.
- More of this, please.
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