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Posts Tagged ‘Business Opportunity’

In the News (#1547)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[Modern] ideas about coercion and consent…[a]re…so…arcane…[they] stop…just short of taking astrological signs into account.  –  E. N. Brown

A Broker in Pillage (#1324)

For the complicated backstory of this ongoing travesty, click on the subtitle link above:

A prosecutor who [brazen]ly weaponized the criminal code to retaliate against a man for filing a class-action lawsuit that challenged the notorious [legalized robbery racket] in Wayne County, Michigan, is not entitled to prosecutorial immunity, a state appeals court has ruled…sending the man’s lawsuit against that prosecutor back to the trial court…Suits like Reeves’ are usually doomed before they begin, as prosecutors are protected by absolute immunity for judicial or quasi-judicial functions…[even if they] falsify evidence, introduce perjured testimony, coerce witnesses, or hide exculpatory information from the defense.  But the State of Michigan Court of Appeals…ruled yesterday that Dennis Doherty, the [blatantly-corrupt] prosecutor…was not entitled to that protection, because [he took so many shortcuts his] misconduct did not qualify as quasi-judicial…[unfortunately, he is still] entitled to qualified immunity…[which may still sink] Reeves[‘ case]…

Panopticon (#1470)

If there’s a camera, cops will conscript it for use as a surveillance tool:

[LAPD] obtained video footage from a Waymo driverless car as part of its investigation into a hit-and-run in which a separate, human-driven car hit a pedestrian…[and] published the footage…on its YouTube page to ask the public for help identifying the driver of the vehicle…[demonstrating] that [cops] are now looking at…robotaxis as…[handy] surveillance [tools]…[just like] Teslas, extremely pervasive Ring cameras, and [delivery robots]…Waymo is rapidly expanding…and…the proliferation of Waymo cars also means the proliferation of roving surveillance cameras…

The Prudish Giant (#1513)

Why does anyone still trust Facebook?

Tracking code that [Facebook] and Russia-based Yandex embed into millions of websites is de-anonymizing visitors by abusing legitimate Internet protocols, causing Chrome and other browsers to surreptitiously send unique identifiers to…apps installed on a device…Google says it’s investigating the abuse, which allows [Facebook] and Yandex to…bypass core security and privacy protections provided by both the Android operating system and browsers that run on it.  Android sandboxing, for instance, isolates processes to prevent them from interacting with the OS and any other app installed on the device, cutting off access to sensitive data or privileged system resources.  The bypass…allows the companies to pass cookies or other identifiers from Firefox and Chromium-based browsers to…tie that vast browsing history to the [Facebook or Yandex] account holder…Google said the behavior violates the terms of service for its Play marketplace and the privacy expectations of Android users…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1532)

Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society:

French authorities are seriously considering restricting public access to some of the world’s most popular social media sites [using the excuse of] prevent[ing legal minors] from accessing pornography…President Emmanuel Macron [is also harping on]…the country’s push to ban social media for under-15s…[using the excuse of] the murder of a teaching assistant in a high school…[ARCOM] is considering designating websites such as Bluesky, Mastodon and Reddit — all of which allow the distribution of adult content — as porn platforms, obliging them to implement stringent age verification requirements…

Imaginary Evils (#1539)

Backpage was only the test case for this ethically-bankrupt strategy:

…[in] the OneTaste case…a jury has returned a guilty verdict against Rachel Cherwitz and Nicole Daedone…the larger implications of this case…[a]re not pretty…[institutionalized] ideas about coercion and consent…went from…acknowledging that sexual assault needn’t necessarily involve force or violence…to women getting support for claims of sexual coercion…even when they seemed to willingly go along with sexual activity at the time but later said that they weren’t enthusiastic enough about it and a partner should have known that and stopped…Are sexual partners supposed to be mind readers? Do women have any responsibility for explicitly making their wishes known?…It was a new paradigm…sold, perversely, as empowering to women…We’re uncomfortable as a culture with “assigning women complete sexual responsibility, even though we want them to have complete sexual liberty,” said Kat Rosenfield on a recent…podcast…And once you’re in that mode, you end up with some real mental shenanigans around consent…[which] have now crossed over from…cultural vibes to legal standards adopted by federal prosecutors with the power to…put people in prison…We’re looking at campus kangaroo courts come to a federal courthouse, with U.S. attorneys fully embracing…one more step in the total infantilization of women, negating the gains in sexual and social autonomy that we’ve won...

Business Opportunity (#1539)

This pernicious abuse of power has become more common of late:

For 20 years, Amy Stanford and her sister Carolyn Wilson have run Time for Dinner, a…meal prep business that has served generations of local families in Brentwood, Missouri.  Now she’s one of several local small business owners suing the city over its decision to label their properties “blighted”…[so it can steal them to make way for a] $436 million redevelopment plan…with new office buildings and apartment complexes…[which would] generate [more] tax revenue…a [sloppy and incomplete] 2023 study…commissioned [by the city declared]…the entire corridor blighted…and…no evidence of blight [was] presented [for the majority of buildings]…During the trial, which began in May…the city used…retroactive…justifications…using [a] 2018 survey…and [ignoring]…Missouri’s standards…[requiring “]a predominance of unsafe conditions…or other issues that…endanger public health, safety, or welfare”…Dave Phillips, a Minnesota architect and property inspector…testified that using the city’s blight criteria, virtually any property could be deemed blighted, including 70 percent of Brentwood’s housing stock…

I Spy (#1546)

Elon Musk’s “DOGE” didn’t “fail”; it accomplished exactly what he intended:

Elon Musk’s [“DOGE”] goons…transmitted a large amount of data—all of it undetected—using a Starlink Wi-Fi terminal they installed on top of the White House…in mid-March with the sign-off of Donald Trump’s [regime], but against concerns raised by security officials…[Musk pretended] installing Starlink was intended to address connection “dead zones” on the White House compound…[but in reality] the move was intended to bypass White House systems that track the transmission of data—with names and time stamps—and secure it from spies…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1544)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

If you can do it to them, you can do it to any of us. – Rabbi William Gershon

A Whore in Church

Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me:

Professionally, I now openly represent myself as a Christian dominatrix who uses Christian rituals to heal the connection between sexuality and spirit.  My clients often come to me because I work specifically with the deconditioning of the religious wound that has caused harmful beliefs around their sexuality…Out of the shadow of shame, they are no longer “wicked” or “evil”― they are holy…Jesus…spen[t] time with and perform[ed] miracles for prostitutes…Jesus never cast anyone out, and he never denied anyone the miracles, signs and wonders that flowed through him; he wanted everyone to have a personal relationship with God, free from the constraints of organized religion.  So even though many Christians would view me as “sinful” and even undeserving of a relationship with God, I reject that view, because I know Jesus loves me and wants the best for my life…

Creepy Coppers

[An Illinois cop named Eli Barthel] has been arrested for child pornography offenses…after [he was caught in an] FBI [trap]…

Welcome to the Future (#1265)

New forms of intrusive surveillance are always justified as “safety”:

…[moral imbeciles] have come up with…an electronic tattoo, stuck to the forehead …[to spy on the moods of] pilots, healthcare workers and other professions where managing mental workload is crucial to preventing catastrophes…[by giving bosses] “some warning and alert so that they can [be relieved]…of [duty],” said Dr Nanshu Lu, an author of the research…[ignor]ing the [obvious fact that data from such a] device [would be compiled in]…workers[‘ files and used to judge their performance]…Lu and colleagues describe how using questionnaires to investigate mental workload is problematic, not least as people are poor at objectively judging [whether they should be demoted or fired]…the “e-tattoo” is a lightweight, flexible, wireless device [constantly]…attached to the forehead [during work hours to]…detect…brain activity…and…eye movements…[allowing human beings to be monitored by] a machine-learning algorithm [as though they were machines themselves]…

Click on the subtitle to see the “demoralizing, humiliating, and toxic” abuses already possible with existing employee-monitoring technology.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1391)

This would be hilarious if it were their own money these idiots were throwing away:

The [US] Senate is considering a fentanyl exposure bill that would fund “containment devices”…TruBLOC LLC, a company that manufactures the type of…devices in question, sells 1.5-ounce canisters as a set of 12 for $359.40, or as a set of 48 for $1,437.60…TruBLOC [claims]…“Inhalation is the main route of exposure”…[which] would [not be entirely wrong] if the term were being used to refer to sniffing or snorting fentanyl, but in this context the term is describing passive inhalation — i.e. breathing air while standing somewhere in the vicinity of fentanyl…a…video [lies that]…“Small amounts of opioids can kill an officer”….then shows the gloved hands of a…paid actor awkwardly peeling the orange residue off the seat in a manner that strongly recalls attempting to peel off sour candy that’s melted.  The hands remain gloved, despite the fact that the threat that did not exist to begin with has been contained…


Virtual Imperialism (#1472)

As I’ve explained under this tag before, Beijing’s campaign to silence Chinese people outside China has become far more aggressive.  Rolling Stone published an excerpt from Those Who Should Be Seized Should Be Seized, a new book detailing Chinese surveillance, harassment, intimidation, and sometimes abduction or assassination of activists who flee China.  The excerpt tells the story of Serikzhan Bilash, an ethnic Kazakh human rights activist who was pursued by Chinese agents from Xinjiang to Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan, then to Istanbul, and eventually to Washington DC and New York, always trying to terrorize him into shutting up and dismantling his organization, Atazhurt.  If you don’t know about the extent of China’s terrorism of expatriates and its willingness to violate other countries’ sovereignty, you really should read it in its entirety.

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1524) 

Much more of this, please:

An isolated tribe in the Amazon…[has sued] The New York Times over [yellow journalism] in the newspaper [claim]ing their people’s recent access to the internet…[has led to] members of the tribe…develop[ing] pornography addictions [even though there is no such thing].  The Marubo tribe…filed the defamation lawsuit…seeking $180 million in damages…[over the paper’s] “portray[al of] the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, [and pretending]…that their youth had [developed narcissistic personality disorder as a result]”…After the piece was published, other outlets, including TMZ and Yahoo!, published their own versions of the [accusations], which in many cases…exaggerate the [already-dishonest] claims [even further].  That prompted The Times to run a[n attempt at a semi-retraction en]titled “No, A Remote Amazon Tribe Did Not Get Addicted to Porn”…But it wasn’t enough.  The Marubo [correctly point out] that the original statements were “inflammatory” and conveyed that the tribe “had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access”…

Business Opportunity (#1527)

This sort of NIMBY bullshit is exactly why there are so many homeless people in the first place:

…the town of Toms River, New Jersey is planning to use eminent domain to condemn a church, raze it, and build a park and pickleball courts on the spot.  The planned condemnation [is obviously] motivated by a desire to prevent the church from opening a small homeless shelter on part of its…11 acres of land…the church, which was founded in 1865…[rents space to] an affordable housing nonprofit…[which] asked to create a small homeless shelter [but] the mayor [insists pickleball is more important than housing the needy because local NIMBYs said so]…the town’s interfaith council [are] united in their opposition to the [scam]…and…there is substantial public opposition…[so] the condemnation…will likely be challenged in court under the state and federal constitutions…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1539)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

People…saying nice things about you…cannot be the standard by which we render something criminal coercion.  –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Opting Out (#1336) 

If other big websites followed suit, the damage done by this totalitarian nonsense would be dramatically curtailed:

Wikipedia is challenging the UK’s…Online Safety Act…[because] it is at risk of being subjected to the act’s toughest category 1 duties, which…[would undermine] the safety and privacy of Wikipedia’s army of volunteer editors…its entries could be manipulated and vandalised, and resources would be diverted from protecting and improving the site…if…Wikipedia [chose not to dox its] users and editors, it would [be forced] to allow anonymous [trolls] to block other posters from fixing or removing any content[, including intentional misinformation or vandalism inserted by the same troll.  Doxing]…volunteer editors [to governmental busybodies] would [also]…breach…the foundation’s commitment to collecting minimal data about readers and contributors…volunteer communities working in more than 300 languages could be exposed to “data breaches, stalking, vexatious lawsuits or even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes”…

Torture Chamber (#1457)

A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:

A federal judge [has] stripped control of the Rikers Island jail complex from New York City and ordered the appointment of an independent manager to fix rampant violence and persistent constitutional violations…Judge…Laura Taylor Swain…warned city officials last year that she was inclined to impose a receivership after finding that the city was in contempt of…an agreement it entered in 2015 to settle a lawsuit over brutality at Rikers.  In fact, violence, death…and most other metrics of human misery got demonstrably worse…The loss of direct control of Rikers is…one of the loudest warning sirens so far that something has gone profoundly wrong in American prisons and jails…Last year, a Justice Department investigation found “dehumanizing” filth and violence at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta…The Justice Department found unconstitutional conditions at three Mississippi prisons last year as well…In one Texas county jail, three people died of thirst over a two-year period.  And in Texas state prisons, which lack air conditioning, people are being cooked to death in the summer heat.  On the West Coast, one man lay dying for four hours before jail staff noticed…[and] in Alameda County, California…jail staff ignored [a] corpse for three days…

The Public Eye (#1470)

Much, much, much more of this, please:

A…candidate for [New Jersey] State Assembly is selling photos of her feet on an adult content website…Rebecca Holloway, a former Clementon school board member…has been legally selling photos of her feet in various poses on Feetfinder.com for the last two years…and…[is] a self-employed marketing consultant…

You Were Warned (#1483)

I really wish I were wrong about the Uniparty:

…Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal joined MAGA Republicans to reintroduce the Kids Online Safety Act…a bill that Heritage [Foundation and sponsor Marsha Blackburn have] proudly proclaimed as central to [the] strategy of censoring progressive content around LGBTQ issues and abortion…It raises a huge question of…what the fuck are they thinking?…The Trump administration is systematically implementing every element of Heritage’s Project 2025 censorship playbook.  There’s no more room for wishful thinking about how KOSA might be used.  And yet, Democrats seem to act as if none of that is happening, and we can just assume good faith in how KOSA will be implemented and enforced by an FTC that has loudly proclaimed its willingness to conduct partisan, culture war witch hunts on behalf of Project 2025’s goals…last year, House GOP members actually stopped the bill after realizing it was a censorship tool that could be used against their own speech.  But now that Trump has won (and the GOP acts as though there will never be another free election), that objection may evaporate…

The Mob Rules (#1514)

Wannabe censors team up with ambulance-chasers to capitalize on mob rule laws:

[Morality in Media] has filed lawsuits against four porn websites for allegedly failing to follow a [predator]y…Kansas law that requires porn sites to verify users [sic] age…The suits claim a Kansas [woman] found [her] 14-year-old had been accessing…pornography on [her old laptop, which he found in a closet]…“Kansas law requires pornography companies to [let themselves be pillaged by neglectful prudes who don’t bother to install censorship software on their own computers],” said Dani Pinter…of [Morality in Media]’s Law[fare arm]…

Imaginary Evils (#1516)

Liz Brown on another company the government is trying to destroy with “sex trafficking” myths despite a lack of “sex trafficking” charges:

…in…the OneTaste trial…Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin Farrell a[sked] government witness Rebecca Halpern…[where the] clitoris…is…[as part of questioning about] orgasmic meditation…[which] OneTaste encouraged as a daily practice.  Halpern had been a willing participant in O.M., as a student and later a coach…in the second week of trial, the clitoris isn’t the only thing that the feds seem at a loss to find.  Also missing…has been convincing evidence of coerced or forced labor…four witnesses have testified…that they were able to come and go freely…that they had free access to phones, computers, email, and mail—and that they were free to visit family, friends, and places…Some took vacations. Some had outside jobs…they had other places and skills they could turn to, college degrees, loved ones outside the group.  They also had agency within the organization, accepting and advocating for different positions and conditions, and leaving these positions when they wanted to without threats or backlash…

Business Opportunity (#1527)

If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this:

Honey Meerzon’s parents are Jews from the Soviet Union…Luis Romero’s parents fled Castro’s Cuba when he was eight years old.  The two ended up as neighboring business owners…in Perth Amboy, New Jersey…Romero has…run…his family’s tire shop, Quick Tire, for…20 years.  Meerzon has owned the four-unit rental property next door for…ten.  Now, the…city council of Perth Amboy [has declared] that Meerzon’s and Romero’s properties were not, in fact, comfortable homes or a successful business, but are rather blighted hazards…because their two buildings are too close together, too close to the street, and have…stray cats [nearby]…the city says it is now entitled to [steal] the properties…for…a massive…warehouse project…[by a fascist collaboration] between the city’s redevelopment agency and Denver-based developer Viridian Partners…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1527)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I’ve seen some pretty outrageous exercises of eminent domain powers. Never anything like this.  –  Robert Thomas

Business Opportunity (#1399)

If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this:

…a [federal] judge [in] Rhode Island [has ordered]…the town of Johnston to return the title of a 31-acre property it had quietly [stolen] to its original owners, two LLCs collectively owned by the Santoro family…[and] block[ed] the town, its mayor, and the town council from taking any action to [steal] the property [again] or prevent the Santoro family from accessing it…the…the[ft appears to be motivated by the family’s plan]…to build a 254-unit affordable housing project on the land…[despite politicians’ pretense]…that [the town] needs the land for a new “municipal campus” that would replace Johnston’s existing…town hall and police and fire stations.  The Santoro family challenged the [theft] in federal court, arguing that the…”municipal campus” is a sham project invented to stop the family from proceeding with their planned development…Shortly after the family filed their federal lawsuit, the town quietly transferred the property over to themselves—without notifying the owners or their lawyers.  The family only learned of the [theft] after…the town’s lawyer sent them a letter ordering them to vacate the property or risk a citation for trespassing…

Creepy Coppers (#1460)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

…Robert Farley, who was appointed [boss hog of] North Bergen [New Jersey, is being sued by five cops for a host of bizarre]…behavior[s he seems to think are “pranks”, including]…putting ink on door handles, setting off car alarms…spiking the office coffee pot with Viagra and Adderall…[jabbing] a hypodermic needle through [a cop’s pants] into the tip of [his] penis….shav[ing] his body hair on people’s property, their persons, and their food…scraping fluids from his underwear onto people…[shitting] on the floor in front of his entire office staff…clogging the toilet with paper and other objects…defecating in wastebaskets..[sending] sex toys, intimate lotions and gay pride flags to [cops’] home[s]…placing hot sauce in a microwave, which essentially turned the substance into a pepper spray that permeated the office…put firecrackers under [people’s] chairs…ripp[ing] a television monitor off the wall and smash[ing] it to pieces…

Worse Than I Thought (#1497)

Just because the moral panic is moribund, doesn’t mean politicians aren’t going to keep using sex as an excuse to destroy lives:

[Politicians] across the country seem smitten by the idea that harsher punishments for folks attempting to pay for sex with another consenting adult will somehow “end demand” for paid sex, thereby ensuring…sex workers…will [not] have customers.  It’s a stupid theory that utterly failed when Ronald Reagan pushed a version of it as part of the war on drugs…Making customers harder to find and communicate with makes it harder for sex workers to work independently and increases reliance on pimps and vulnerability to violent or exploitative traffickers…Decriminalize Sex Work…has a handy rundown of many of the state proposals, which include measures in California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1501)

You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article:

Bryan Bailey, [a deeply-corrupt] Mississippi sheriff…under federal investigation for torturing people, staffed his mother’s commercial chicken farm with [prisoners] from the county jail and used taxpayer-purchased equipment to improve the grounds…for most of his 13 years in office…Bailey used his position as the highest paid and most powerful public figure in his…county in ways that financially [or sexually] benefited himself and his family…people [who knew what was going on] kept quiet…out of…fear…But that began to change in 2023, when five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies were charged with civil rights offenses for torturing two Black men in their home and shooting one of them in the mouth…

Cops and Robbers (#1504)

The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people:

…for [over] a decade…[thug]s in the U.S. pose as minors on dating apps and websites, then target the people who message them.  Many of these vigilantes, commonly known as pedophile hunters, were inspired by To Catch a Predator, a popular television series that ran until 2007…in the past two years, a growing number have…[started] violently attack[ing] the targets in their videos…In one of the most brutal cases, a masked man [named Ahmad Wasfi Al-Azzam] who referred to himself online as “realjuujika”…broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania last year, then tied him up…beat him with a hammer…rob[bed him] and film[ed] his credit cards, sharing the information with his thousands of followers…the [victim] was hospitalized…and needed surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain…There have been more than 170 violent vigilante attacks…since 2023…[by] at least 22 individuals and groups…This content is popular in online circles that feature crude…material intended to cater to young men.  Some hunters have hundreds of thousands of followers, and…sell merchandise with their slogans and logos…

Thought Control (#1512)

These psychopaths won’t be satisfied until they can actually start arresting and caging librarians and teachers:

…Texas [is] seeking to [destroy the lives of] school librarians and teachers who provide award-winning works of literature to students…[if any politician decides to point at the book and barf “]sexually explicit[” in the victim’s face]…whether or not [the descriptor has any] merit [in reality].  SB 412 and HB 267 would [declare politicians the only arbiters of]…education[al value].  Many classic works of literature, including The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, have [already been targeted]…Only [pigs] and judges would be exempted un[less an] adult…is married to [a “]child[“], which is legal in Texas, [because the state is entirely run by psychopathic perverts]…

Vulture Watching (#1525)

Texas politicians are so deeply sociopathic, they’re trying to disguise an attack on women as protection for women:

Texas Republicans [have]…convinced Democrats and doctors to support a bill they claim will protect life-saving abortion care and “clarify” the state’s ban. But the rapidly advancing “Life of the Mother” legislation is a Trojan Horse—there’s a 100-year-old ban hiding inside, ready to be revived and used to prosecute abortion funds, helpers, and possibly even patients.  Legal experts…called it “the most dangerous” anti-abortion bill currently before the legislature…At the heart of this deception is a 1925 abortion ban…[which] made it a felony to help someone “procure” an abortion…and…didn’t…protect patients from prosecution…[psychopathic Texas AG] Ken Paxton…[was already trying to enforce] the 1925 ban [when a federal court stopped him in 2023]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1399)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I spent almost a year in a locked-down facility, with a disgusting, horny, grown man that’s supposedly my probation officer.  –  victim statement

I Spy (#1060)

Fascism in action:

A federal inquiry has found that several major pharmacy chains have a policy of turning over customers’ pharmacy records to police without a warrant.  The results [are]…concern[ing]…especially as fights over prescription abortion medication continue nationwide…these [porcine] demands typically come in the form of a subpoena, an order that doesn’t require approval from a judge, unlike a warrant…as debates over controversial medications—from abortion pills to opioid medications—loom large, customers’ ability to keep their prescription history private from [rooting pigs] is paramount…

The Implosion Begins (#1145)

I am deeply amused by mainstream media furiously backpedaling from a hysteria they eagerly promoted for two decades:

Prominent [MAGATs]…are promoting a…[fantasy, founded in the popular “sex trafficking” hysteria,] that pedophiles have been using Etsy to distribute child porn, sold under the guise of wildly expensive digital downloads of images of pizza.  This new [myth] has emerged from the fecund muck of [“child sex trafficking” hysteria, aggressively promoted by cops, politicians, “rescue” profiteers, and the mainstream media since the mid-Oughts, which more recently developed into] QAnon and Pizzagate…The fixation with pizza among [“sex trafficking”] adherents stems from the [constant repetition of the moronic myth] that “[getting a ‘sex trafficking victim’ online is as easy as ordering a pizza]”…or that pizza, generally, can be a veiled reference to pedophilia…[recently, nut cases on] Twitter…began [obsessing about] strange listings on Etsy…[which] purported to sell digital downloads of images of pizza — some of them marketed with images of hungry children — for exorbitant prices, running thousands of dollars…YummyYumPizza…was offering an encrypted “Pizza file” for $4,000.  Another…offered a similar “Pizza Image” for $9,000…These shops are no longer active on the site…because they violate…policies…[against] inflated pricing…

“Sex trafficking” hysterics’ bizarre fixation on pizza is so popular, I have an entire tag dedicated to it.

Eavesdropping (#1152)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen:

A marketing team within…Cox Media Group…claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads…Called “Active Listening,” CMG claims the capability can identify potential customers “based on casual conversations in real time.”  The news signals that what a huge swath of the public has believed for years—that smartphones are listening to people in order to deliver ads—may finally be a reality in certain situations.  Until now, there was no evidence that such a capability actually existed, but its myth permeated due to how sophisticated other ad tracking methods have become.  It is not immediately clear if the capability CMG is advertising…is being used on devices in the market today, but the company [call]s it…“a marketing technique fit for the future. Available today”…

Torture Chamber (#1267)

This will continue as long as sexually-aggressive men are given power over young women:

Faced with roughly 1,500 plaintiffs [su]ing the county [for] tolerating unchecked sexual abuse at its juvenile [jails, Los Angeles]…has spent the last two years removing [serial] sexual abusers from its ranks…[usually by letting them retire or giving them paid vacations]…Courtney Thom, whose [law] firm represents roughly 150 clients suing the county, said…“that number — and I guarantee it’s probably double if not more — it just shows how irresponsible the county is”…In April, the county estimated it will need to spend $1.6 billion to $3 billion to resolve a deluge of lawsuits [result]ing [from the] county [tolerating] staffers…raping and molesting the [legal minors] they were paid to [confine and torture]…officials said at the time that they expected roughly 3,000 people to sue.  But as of early November, the county had seen roughly 3,800 plaintiffs [including the] 1,500 [who were raped or otherwise] sexual[ly] abuse[d] at the probation halls and camps.  Nearly all the rest [were raped or molested by thugs working for] the county’s Department of Children and Family Services…

A little over a year ago, I said of this abuse, “I guarantee you that the number is a lot higher than 70, probably by at least one order of magnitude.”  Of course I was right, as usual.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1378)

Whatever these kids ate wasn’t fentanyl, because these aren’t opioid symptoms:

Two people have been arrested and charged after seven Virginia elementary students ate gummy bears from a plastic baggie that [cops pointed at and oinked “]fentanyl[” after using a notoriously-unreliable]…field test [on] the bag…The students – all fourth-graders – experienced symptoms including nausea, vomiting, headache and muscle spasms…

Field tests used by cops “have an error rate so high that they’re akin to ‘witchcraft, phrenology or simply picking a number out of a hat’.”

Business Opportunity (#1394)

Sometimes, a little light is all it takes to send the cockroaches scurrying:

After over a month of mounting public criticism, the government of Hanover County, North Carolina, has decided to drop its plans to s[teal] the strip club adjacent to its government center building…the county will now explore a voluntary purchase of the club…

To Molest and Rape (#1397)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A [Pennsylvania cop named]…Tyler Humphreys, was charged with rape, statutory sexual assault…[and] other…[offenses against] a 9-year-old boy and two girls [aged]…15…and…11…[he violently] assaulted [the] 9-year-old…[when he] was [only] 12 [himself, but]…rap[ed the] 15-year-old [last December and molested the 11-year-old for years]…

They often use their cop privileges to stalk victims:

A Staten Island cop arrested for sexual…abuse of teen…[boys stalked]…his victims…using an NYPD database…Christopher Terranova…[found one victim] after the boy had been the victim of a robbery…

And sometimes they’re even convicted:

A [typical and representative Louisiana cop named]…Bryan Dawayne Kibodeaux was found guilty of…rap[ing three]…juvenile…victims…from 2016 through 2019…he faces two life sentences…[plus] 125-495 years…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1394)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

She looked like she was mummified.  –  Melinda Bettencourt

Business Opportunity

It’s not like it’s their money, after all:

…in…Wilmington, North Carolina, where the New Hanover County government…is trying to seize the neighboring Cheetah Premier Gentlemen’s Club to build what it [pretend]s is much-needed parking…The county commission voted to authorize eminent domain of the Cheetah Club…on November 6.  The resolution authorized the county to spend $2.36 million acquiring the club…the seizure…wasn’t on the commission’s agenda, and was only introduced in the final minutes of the meeting by [the “county manager”, who] referred to the property only by its tax ID number…The sudden, seemingly surreptitious effort to seize the club has [Michael] Barber[, a lawyer for the owners,] speculating that the eminent domain effort has more to do with public appearances than public facilities…[the property owner] has offered to let the county use the 74 parking spaces on his property…[because] the Cheetah Club doesn’t even open till 6 p.m…

The Scarlet Letter (#520)

“Presumption of innocence” doesn’t apply to whores:

Unlike “simple” police cautions, prostitute cautions don’t require evidence…sex workers don’t have to admit guilt, and there is no right to appeal them.  Without any say, someone can be branded as a criminal, their life forever impacted by her decision of how they provides for themselves and their families…prostitute cautions, and wider criminalisation of sex work, are deliberately used to keep women in poverty by penalising them for using sex work to escape it…In 2009, under the Police and Crime Act, the right of appeal against prostitutes cautions was abolished…and…the caution will stay on a sex worker’s record for life, or until the age of 100…

Blunt Instrument (#728)

Have you noticed that “sex trafficking” is no longer the magic brain-pause spell it was for over a decade?

One Richmond [BC politician] would like to see massage parlours…be denied business licences and…shut down…Kash Heed [tried to justify his puritanical bigotry by barfing the phrases “]human trafficking[“…and “]scantily clad[” at other city politicians, but]…Mayor Malcolm Brodie…[timidly broached the subject of harm reduction, and] Mark Corrado, director of bylaws and licencing…said Richmond is [already] known for having the most “restrictive” licence requirements in the province.  This includes [micromanag]ing clothing, age, locks, insurance bonds, lighting and criminal record checks…

Where Are the Protests? (#945)

Americans are only concerned about how others have sex; they don’t really want to know where their overpriced coffee comes from:

Starbucks…is unable to guarantee that the coffee sold at its stores is not associated with serious labour and human rights crimes such as low wages, harvest workers eating cold meals, inadequate accommodation and even child and slave labour…The cases are portrayed in the report “Behind Starbucks coffee,” published by Repórter Brasil (available in Portuguese and English)…coffee farms…where…inspectors found violations hold…the C.A.F.E. Practices seal, which…is the certification programme that…[supposedly] evaluates suppliers according to more than 200 indicators…It is yet another situation that exposes the limits of the certification market…Labour irregularities in the industry are not limited to Starbucks’ supply chain.  Repórter Brasil has already exposed similar problems among suppliers of Nestlé, McDonald’s and other…major…buyers…

Vulture Watching (#1268)

Idaho apparently wants to chase away as many physicians as possible:

Idaho asked the Supreme Court…to allow its [near-total] abortion ban that imposes [criminal] penalties on doctors who perform abortions to take full effect despite [the fact that it conflicts with]…the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)…a…federal law [which] requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay…

Torture Chamber (#1386)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”:

Melinda Bettencourt…knew her youngest daughter, Amanda Bews, had been struggling [with severe alcoholism and heroin addiction] for years…But…no one could explain what had happened to the rotting body Bettencourt saw at the funeral home.  “She looked like she was mummified,” Bettencourt [said]…describing the “horrible” shock of watching bugs hover around her dead daughter’s face as a foul stench emanated across the room…Bews got arrested…[on] Sept. 7, 2022…for allegedly shoplifting at a BevMo…Before booking, the deputies took her to a nearby hospital, where…she was prescribed medications for anxiety, blood pressure and alcohol withdrawal…But [screws]…decided…not [to give her the] require[d] medications…[and] a little over four hours later, Bews…”died of untreated…effects of withdrawal from alcohol and drugs”…

Dangerous Speech (#1391)

I’ve linked to many of Mark Draughn’s well-researched, well-considered essays over the years; this one is on the aftermath of the Backpage persecution & show trial, and here’s a taste:

The Iron Law of Prohibition says that making something illegal will make it stronger and more dangerous.  Nobody drank bathtub gin in America until the Prohibition laws of 1920 criminalized alcoholic beverages.  Almost nobody smoked crack until law enforcement started a war on cocaine, and we didn’t have much of a fentanyl problem until the government started cracking down on opioids.  Legal alcohol and tobacco distributors didn’t shoot each other in the streets the way drug-smuggling gangsters do.  Criminalizing a good or service necessarily drives it underground.  The need to hide makes it harder to build a good reputation, which makes it less rewarding to have good business practices.  Customer service and attention to product quality fall by the wayside…Thus bad actors enter and thrive in the market, engaging in fraud, theft, and violence, which can often only be countered with more violence…With the success of the Backpage prosecutions, it seems likely that more such prosecutions will follow…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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That Was the Week That Was (#450)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2014| 6 Comments »

It is time for democracies to…take [sex workers] seriously – not just because democratic values mandate it, but because sex workers are the experts on the matter.  –  Sonja Dolinsek

License to Rape 

Predators posing as gardai [Irish police] are preying on sex workers…demanding sex and robbing them…Uglymugs…has appealed to new Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan to direct officers to engage “more sympathetically” with sex workers…organiser…Lucy Smith, said…”many escorts are uncertain if these men are gardai or not…in some cases, these are corrupt gardai”…Kendra Wilkinson

Really Cheap Whores

The phrase “incredibly unprofessional” comes to mind:

Kendra Wilkinson hated having sex with Hugh Hefner so much that she turned to drugs and booze…she [also claimed]…that [she] was unaware sex was required of her when she moved into the Playboy mansion as one of Hefner’s girlfriends in 2003.  At the time she was 18 and he was 78…

Welcome To Our World (February Updates)

Busybodies and the State conspire to punish old people for being sexual:

…Donna Lou Young and Henry V. Rayhons…[were] both in their 70s [when they married]…Today, he’s awaiting trial on a felony charge that he raped Donna at a nursing home where she was living…Iowa [prosecutors claim] Rayhons had intercourse with his wife when she lacked the mental capacity to consent because she had Alzheimer’s.  She died on Aug. 8…One week later…Rayhons…was arrested…Experts in geriatrics say that intimacy…can make dementia sufferers feel less lonely and even prolong their lives…Henry and Donna…were deeply in love…[there is] no evidence…that the couple’s love faded, that Donna failed to recognize her husband or that she asked that he not touch her…prosecutors are likely to portray Rayhons as a sex-hungry man who took advantage of a sweet, confused woman…

The main culprits:  her daughters and prudish nursing home staff.

Gateway

Sometimes the flailing attempts at self-justification are a marvel to behold:

Six women were arrested…in a…[sting] in Birmingham [Alabama]…One…was charged with physical harassment after trying to grope an undercover officer…Lt. Ron Sellers [pretends cops had] complaints about prostitution…and [bloviated]…”It could be they are forced in to it, or they are supporting a drug habit.  [They sell] themselves for money…chasing sporting events and conventions.  A lot of them will be gravitating toward Atlanta for the SEC Championship this weekend…There are a lot of other crimes associated with escorts…They deal in cash.  They don’t trust police”…

Yes, he actually defined dealing in cash and not trusting pigs as “crimes”.Booby Trap

Business Opportunity

It’s not like it’s their money, after all:

A night spot with a…rather “voluptuous” architectural design…could be torn down in a matter of months.  The building…has seen several strip clubs over the span of 40 years.  It’s best known to residents as its original name, The Booby Trap, which also described its domed design…the building’s owner has…[offered] to sell the structure and the land [at more than the market value] to the city of Winter Park, which in turn plans to demolish the building and re-sell it.  No adult-oriented business will be allowed to open at the location…

Forward and Backward

…Hull City Council won a landmark ruling to create Britain’s first “prostitution-free zone”…any sex workers or curb crawlers caught around the…Hessle Road area…can be arrested and [dragged to]…court.  City Councillor Daren Hale said…the zone was created was to give “a positive view of Hull”…the moves will simply create a red light district in another area…[politicians pretend that] a…harm reduction approach…will [somehow] run alongside the injunction…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic 

Paging Dr. David Ley:

A sex addict [was] caught taking photos up women’s skirts…Peter Hooton…served a prison term when convicted of like crimes in the past [but New Zealand] Judge Grant Fraser said the best hope of protecting the community…was to keep him out of jail this time…Hooton’s…attending…twice a week with Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous…

Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark snakeskin pumps

Yet another study proving that the sky is blue:

Scientists from the Universite de Bretagne-Sud conducted experiments that showed that men behave very differently toward high-heeled women…if a woman drops a glove on the street while wearing heels, she’s almost 50 per cent more likely to have a man fetch it for her than if she’s wearing flats…a high-heeled woman in a bar waits half the time to get picked up by a man, compared to when her heel is nearer to the ground…

Against Their Will (TW3 #3)

I’m really not sure which to believe, the copy which claims that sex workers in Mumbai welcome and trust Priti Patkar, who apparently runs a kind of daycare center for them; or the headline which trumpets “She works for the welfare of sex workers by first taking the children away from them“.  I also see too many phrases like “rescued from brothels” and suspicious protests-too-much statements about how much the kids “love” her and her cronies.

The Widening Gyre 

And it all happened without anyone noticing!

…it is suspected that dozens of schoolgirls at Minzu Middle School were drugged and forced into prostitution.  An insider [claimed]…the students were given to government leaders outside of the county as gifts for their use…the…girls…were coerced by a female…surnamed Xu [who]…has done this multiple times…Xu…first bribes several students while the rest who do not obey her are beaten…One government employee insisting on anonymity [said]…the story of over 80 schoolgirls being forcibly taken to a hotel for prostitution is very common, with some versions of the story saying it involves over 80 and others saying over 40…

The Truth About “The Truth About…”

It only took the Washington Post two years to catch up with me:

…The graphic showed a rape reporting rate of 10 percent, but…2013 criminal victimization rates…estimated 35 percent…are reported…the survey’s definitions of rape or “sexual attack” is inconsistent with states’ legal definitions or with standard methodology… “Prosecution” and “arrested” are not terms that can be wrapped under “faced trial”…the rate of incarceration among people convicted of rate is much higher than one-third…46 percent of felony rape convictions resulted in guilty pleas…

Skin To Skin

Checklist

This rather odd story engages in the usual “trafficking” tale tactic by offering a lurid story without names or evidence, but is mainly about how cops are given a checklist of “signs” they can pretend to have observed so as to transform a boring old prostitution case into a sexy “trafficking” one.  The low point: “A majority of women experience [sex work] as paid rape.”  The high point:  “We don’t have a plague of human trafficking”.

Banishment

Residents of…[a] Pretoria [neighborhood] have made it clear they won’t tolerate prostitution openly taking place near their homes.  At the weekend they burnt makeshift beds allegedly used by prostitutes…and forced women they accuse…to walk down the street carrying banners…Resident Paul Masina said they were tired of police [requiring]…evidence to support their complaints…“It’s disgusting and filthy here because of them so we’re destroying their businesses so they won’t come back again”…

Hollow Claims (TW3 #338)

Despite its recent support for “sex trafficking” hysteria, Al Jazeera published an editorial from our strong ally Sonja Dolinsek arguing against imposition of the Swedish model in various countries.  One must wonder if, like the UK’s Guardian or the US’s Washington Post, the network isn’t straddling the fence until it figures out which way the wind is blowing.Elvgren His Life and Art

Remembrance 

…Gil Elvgren was the greatest [pinup artist].  The massive book, Elvgren: His Life & Art, has the artist’s best paintings…His work was familiar to millions of Americans in the mid-20th Century, thanks to calendar publishers who printed his cheesecake paintings for decades…[they] were [often] copied onto fighter planes by paintbrush-wielding World War II soldiers…

Marching Up Their Own Arses (TW3 #349)

About as revolting an idea as I’ve ever heard of:

A&E has greenlit a…new reality series in which a man tries to convince prostitutes to quit their jobs…the network has ordered eight episodes of 8 Minutes (working title), a series featuring cop-turned-pastor Kevin Brown surprising escorts in hotel rooms and offering to rescue them…Brown has eight minutes to make his case…the show was inspired by a 2013 LA Times article about Brown…[who pretends] he can [magically] decode an ad…on the Internet…[to] notice…that this is obviously someone being held against their will…

Despite his Super Savior powers, he claims only a 50% success rate (probably about 10x his true rate) and sets an 8-minute limit because that’s how long it takes demonic pimps to materialize in the room and murder him in front of a whole TV crew.  I am not making this up.  Please sign this petition for A&E to rethink this abomination; Brown will no doubt continue his nonconsensual kinky roleplay anyway, but it doesn’t have to be televised.

Legal Is As Legal Does (TW3 #401)

A law that would have allowed Auckland local bodies to ban prostitution in specified places has been scrapped by a parliamentary select committee…councils have been urged to look at other ways to control street prostitutes…”Many complaints…relate to noise, littering, slow-moving motor vehicles (kerb-crawling) and disorderly behaviour.  These kinds of behaviour can be dealt with by bylaws already in existence”…

Gorged With Meaning (TW3 #422) Laura Pahomova

I am not a vindictive sort, but this man had better hope I never catch him alone anywhere:

A model jumped seven floors to her death…after a spurned lover told her family about her…life as an escort.  Laura Pahomova, 23, scrawled notes in lipstick and eyeliner over the walls, mirrors and furniture of a…13th floor apartment…claiming former client Martin Riley had driven her to suicide…Laura, who described Mr Riley as a “stalker”, had threatened suicide if her family found out what she was doing but…Riley [pretends that] he informed her loved ones to help her…Riley had a previous conviction for the harassment of another escort…In that case…he threatened to tell her family about her work and she threatened to harm herself if he did…

The Law of Averages (Traffic Updates) 

Another example of That Age as cultic totem:

A Horsham charity, which helps women out of escorting and prostitution, has secured funding to produce an education pack for schoolchildren…the Averageage12 [sic] pack [is so] named… “because 12 is average age of trafficked victims…and entry into prostitution…we want to get [this propaganda] into the hands of every 12 year old…to help protect them and their friends from potentially being trafficked or groomed into the sex industry”…

I Saw My Brain (TW3 #433)

They’re “helping” them into cells and coercive “therapy”:

Grady Judd, sheriff of Polk County, announced the arrests of 61 people…to help women who are victims of being exploited as sex workers…they are offering counseling to help the women…

The Public Eye (TW3 #439) face sitting

Around 500 people [descended] on Westminster and [pretended] to have sex…in a…protest against…censorship…#PornProtest plans to…attempt to break the Guinness World Record for…face-sitting…over new restrictions on what pornography can be made and sold in the UK…Charlotte Rose…the woman behind the protest…first became involved in the adult industry as a bondage model…and now works as a sex therapist…she is also a seasoned political campaigner…and was an independent candidate in the recent…by-election…

Think of the Children! (TW3 #445) 

El Paso Children’s Hospital is backing away from its participation in a local fundraiser after learning…that…special guest DJ [Jessie Andrews]…also happens to be an adult film star…One hundred percent of the ticket proceeds were to go to the Children’s Hospital, along with toys collected at the event…

Prudesville (TW3 #448)

This is so over-the-top absurd, I’m beginning to suspect it’s some incredibly elaborate hoax:

…The city of Everett tore down the pink and purple walls of two brothel-esque coffee stands, known notoriously as Java Juggs and Twin Peaks, after its former owner, Carmela Panico, pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and money laundering.  Construction crews [hauled] out junk from the “dilapidated and disgusting” stands into a nearby dump truck…the city [stole] the rundown stands and decided to destroy them as a message that illegal activity would not be tolerated…

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That Was the Week That Was (#32)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2012| 29 Comments »

The reality is that the law has made it more difficult for women in prostitution.  –  Anniken Hauglie

Down Under

You think we should tell this “lobby group” that Australian governments already know they’re lying, or just let them waste their money?  “A sex industry lobby group in Tasmania is pushing for the introduction of laws which penalise the clients of prostitutes…Dr Christy Giselsson from the Nordic Model Australian Coalition, says the group believes changing the focus of the legislation would reduce the demand for sex workers.  ‘For example in Sweden it’s been shown to halve street prostitution’…”  In any case, someone definitely needs to tell this reporter that Swedish Model proponents are NOT “sex industry lobby groups”.

Business Opportunity

Another example of politicians wasting other people’s money to fight a legal sex business:  “Fighting plans for a brothel at Narellan last year came at a cost of almost $60,000 for Camden Council but councillors described the battle as a fight they had to have…Mayor Greg Warren (pictured) said the council’s position to refuse the sex premises reflected the concerns of the community…owner Greg Hall said the money…could have been better spent on community projects.  ‘There are thousands of places it could have been spent than to waste it in court for a decision we all knew was going to get through anyway,’ he said…”

Saving Them From Themselves

Detroit school officials plan to fight the scourge of “sexting” by searching students’ phones and computers:

School officials in a Detroit suburb announced they may search student cell phones and laptops, in an effort to tackle the problem of teenage “sexting”…The rule did not result from any particular incident, but was “just a matter of being proactive,” [said] Rich Machesky, Troy’s assistant superintendent…Students could refuse a search request…in which case the district would contact the child’s parents instead…The ACLU is concerned over how broad the policy is and whether school officials would then hand off students’ phones to the police…While sexting is not illegal…kids who text can be prosecuted under child pornography laws and can be sentenced with 20 years in prison if convicted.  Even having sexually explicit photos on your phone is a four-year felony…

Because obviously nude pictures are far more dangerous to “children’s” lives than spending 20 years in prison.

They All Axed For You

Anyone who’s ever lived in New Orleans knows about Hubig Pies, tasty little treats which come in a large variety of flavors and put other commercial snack pastries to shame.  Unfortunately, their century-old factory burned down before dawn on July 27th and it may be quite some time before it’s rebuilt.  This video may be of interest to my readers because it provides an extended example of the “Yat” dialect spoken by a woman who sounds like a very typical New Orleans character.

Legal Is As Legal Does

Two stories from different Australian states demonstrating the weird situations that arise from legalization.  The first is from Queensland, and updates an item from the original column:  “A sex worker has won an anti-discrimination case against motel owners in a Queensland mining town who refused to rent her a room…[she] had stayed at the motel 17 times in two years until [the] owners…discovered…she was bringing clients to her room…[her] lawyer argued many people used the telephone or internet at the motel for business, and a bed was no different.”  The owners argued that the worker’s activities were “disturbing” other guests, which is of course nonsense if she had been there 17 times before without incident.  Furthermore, how is paid sex any more “disturbing” to other guests than giveaway sex?

The second item is from a town in Victoria, where sex work is legal but “brothels” (the term is defined so loosely it can mean virtually anything police want it to mean) must be licensed:

Police suspect an illegal brothel has been operating in a residential street…[in] Bendigo…[they] raided a house…and took a woman back to the station for questioning…“We believe she’s a sex worker involved in an illegal brothel at that address,” [a detective] said.  “We’re waiting for a Chinese interpreter to come so we can interview her”…[a neighbor] was concerned about the well-being of the [sex worker]…“She’s very friendly – a lovely young lady.”

According to a comment on the story, Bendigo is practically the only city in Victoria without a brothel, which may explain why its government feels the need to harass women on technicalities.

The More the Better

Perhaps one day we’ll arrive at the point where, “He was so desperate to raise money he actually opened a legal business!” sounds as ridiculous to most people as it does to me:

A New Zealander was so desperate to fund his dream to compete in the London 2012 Olympics that he opened a brothel…[after] Logan Campbell…lost his bid for Olympic glory in Beijing in 2008, he was too strapped for cash to take his [taekwondo] career to the next level and train full-time…So…to make the $200,000 he needed to go to London, he opened a 14-room brothel in Auckland.  Campbell…wants to repudiate the perception that he was a pimp selling women on a street corner.  New Zealand decriminalised prostitution in 2003.  “I sold the brothel so I don’t really want to talk about it now, OK?” he said.  “It’s a legal business in New Zealand.  It’s completely different from other countries in the world…No one was forced into the industry, and they’re not doing it because they are in poverty because we have a really good welfare system”…

Above the Law

It’s a start; now we need to work on getting similar sentences for the thousands of real cops who regularly do the same thing.  Note the incredible concluding sentence:  “A man who faked being a Texas law officer and demanded free sex from a prostitute has been sentenced to 35 years in prison…The woman submitted to [Raul Garza III] but later called police when he allegedly wanted suggestive photos of her 10-year-old daughter.  Garza…testified he never committed a crime and just refused to pay the prostitute.”

Finding What Isn’t There

Most of this overblown and sensationalistic article is just repetition of the usual “sex trafficking” myths and exaggerations combined with the characteristic cop-culture strutting and bragging, but it’s notable for the accusation that the Department of Justice is “ignoring child sex trafficking victims” because it isn’t creating enough of them to support the hysterical predictions.  That sound you hear is me clapping quite slowly.

Broken Record

While it’s nice to see an article actually leading off with the truth about sex work around major sporting events, I feel I must comment on this historian’s absurd exaggeration:

…Georgina Perry, who works at Open Doors, a support project…[for] East London prostitutes…says the Olympics are never good for the sex trade.  “All the studies show there’s no increase in sex workers,” she says of past Olympics…Gone, it seems, are the good old days for your average harlot when the best athletes gathered.  “Prostitution was a huge deal in the ancient Games,” says historian Tony Perrottet, author of The Naked Olympics:  The True Story of the Ancient Games.  The original festival attracted 40,000 sports fans — all male — to the remote religious sanctuary.  “Brothel owners … brought in teams of beautiful girls from around Greece, Egypt and Asia Minor.”  Any good prostitute would try to get to the Olympics, and earn in five days what would normally take her a year to make…

This is nothing but another permutation of the stupid “50 clients a night” idiocy.  It is simply not physically possible for any full-time whore to make in 5 days what she could make in 360, unless perhaps she came from some rural district where she usually only got one client a day, managed 12 per day at the Olympics (difficult but doable), and charged six times her usual fee.

Metaupdates

Feminine Pragmatism in TW3 (#13)

Behold the lawhead psychosis in action:

Cash-strapped Nadya Suleman…has turned to various X-rated money-making ventures to help pay the bills – all with the encouragement of Orange County (Calif.) Child Protective Services.  “They’re on my side–they’re supporters,” Suleman [said]…“It’s ironic.  Once I talked with a CPS worker in regards to the adult stuff, she was like, ‘Are you really doing that?’  Well, it’s not illegal.  More power to you!’  So it was almost like a green light–like, ‘Do what you need to do to take care of your family’”…A rep for the Orange County…Social Services Agency…[said] “The law allows a wide latitude in parenting styles and in parenting vocations.  I don’t think that anybody would ever want it any other way.  So as long as children remain free from harm or danger…then the Social Services Agency would not become involved.”

Unless the mother is a whore, of course, which automatically makes her less fit than Octomom.

The Course of a Disease in TW3 (#26)

Norwegian study demonstrates that the Swedish Model causes “sex trafficking”:

Prior to the 2009 Sex Purchase Act, Norway had one of Europe’s smallest and least organized markets for prostitution.  Women…voluntarily…sold sex…without the interference from any pimp.  The introduction of the law has made this process more complicated, according to a report in the Stavanger Aftenblad…”The women are very vulnerable towards the police and to a greater extent on the network and support that pimps can offer,” said [researcher] Guri Tyldum…”The criminalization intended to demonstrate that prostitution is not wanted in Norway.  The risk is that the most dangerous and serious form of prostitution that remains,” she said…Norway’s Ministry of Justice has announced an evaluation of the sex purchase act.

This is not only what we’ve said for over a decade, it’s the inevitable result of putting the desire to “send a message” above the needs of real people.

The Notorious Badge in TW3 (#27)

Upon reading this I was irresistibly reminded of Sarah Woolley’s article:

I felt really exposed.  It didn’t hit me until the first moment where the scene called for me to expose myself, because what came over me was such shame.  Which was weird, because they weren’t my breasts, and it was what I had signed up to do….I started to cry, and if you look closely at those scenes when I’m opening my blouse, I’m smiling, but not in my eyes…I was just feeling really emotional and trying to hide it.

Boo fucking hoo.  Women like this (Jessica Alba is another one) piss me off to no end.  If you’re such a prudish twit you supposedly “cry” from partial nudity with FAKE TITS, I have a suggestion:  restrict yourself to playing nuns, and leave the sex worker parts to grown women.

Prudish Pedants in TW3 (#31)

Good news for Simon Walsh, but I have to wonder how this would have turned out had the same thing happened in America:

A man who was tried this week…for possessing images of “extreme” sexual acts has just been cleared on all counts…David Allen Green, solicitor and legal correspondent for the New Statesman, said:  “This was a shameful and intrusive prosecution which should never have been brought.  It was bad law to begin with, but a good man has had his sex life examined in open court for no good reason.  There are serious questions for the CPS to answer about bringing this prosecution.”

This Week in 2011

The bittersweet experience of “Leaving the Life”; “authorities” using their power to rape whores; “The New Victorianism”; the effects of defining everything as “violence against women” or “human trafficking”; what it looks like when individuals behave as “authorities” do; and the truth about “safe harbor” laws.

This Week in 2010

Cops’ weird anti-condom neurosis; “How To Be a Stupid, Greedy Whore”; why hookers should never let clients turn off the lights; how self-proclaimed “feminists” have been betraying women for 130 years; and a two-part column about regular clients.

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Business Opportunity

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged , , , , , on August 2, 2011| 9 Comments »

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.  –  Thomas Jefferson

In my column of July 5th I described how Jean O’Hara took advantage of the bigotry of the white Honolulu elite by buying houses, letting the neighbors know what she did for a living and then allowing herself to be bought out at a huge profit.  Well, almost 70 years later and a quarter of the way around the globe, the scheme still works…though I doubt either the taxpayers of Fredericton, New Brunswick or the employees of the business in question are very happy about it.  The story appeared in the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal on July 13th and came to my attention via the July 14th “link roundup” on the SWAAY website:

The capital city’s only strip bar will be closed…after city council voted to spend $500,000 of taxpayers’ money to shut it down.  Geoff Pawsey, bartender for the past 16 years at the North Star Sports Bar Pub & Eatery, said Tuesday his head is still spinning after council endorsed the plan to purchase the property and served notice to the bar’s staff, including its exotic dancers.  “I’d say at least 30 of us will be out of work,” Pawsey said in an interview.  “The bar had just been given a facelift – a new stage and new poles and mirrors.  I’m terribly disappointed.  This was a bartender’s dream here.  It’s not the Royal York, but it was a busy, busy bar.”

…Holly Ramsay, 27, day manager at the bar…said between 10 and 14 full and part-time staff, plus the five exotic dancers who work at the establishment [some are moms with children and some are students working their way through university], aren’t happy to be bidding the bar goodbye.  “It’s very sad.  I’ve only been here since January, but I’ve seen the improvements and changes,” said Ramsay.  “It’s very sad to see the business is going so well and for the city to decide to do whatever they want to do with it.”  She said staff members were told Monday by the five children of the late Ken Flinn, who ran the business before his death last October, that the city would be purchasing the property for $500,000…

Mayor Brad Woodside said the decision to buy the bar is in the best interests of the city.  “It’s a non-conforming property and it will certainly result in a lot better neighbourhood for the people who have been calling for so many years, and it’s a progressive move that’s in the best interests in the city of Fredericton.”  While there’s some difference of opinion on council about the decision to purchase the property, development committee chairman…Stephen Chase says it’s a good deal, especially after council learned [from police] that the North Star was being eyed by Hell’s Angels for a headquarters in the Fredericton area…But Pawsey said he has never seen any Hell’s Angels sizing up the bar.  “That’s an urban myth,” he said of the police intelligence reports.

…Marilyn Kerton voted against the $500,000 deal, saying the price is too rich for her blood.  “For us to keep purchasing properties without any long-term plans for them and the investment and the cost, I don’t think we should be doing that,” Kerton said.  “It should be something left to the developers.”  If the city’s intention is to make the bar, exotic dancers and hard-drinking patrons disappear, then Kerton isn’t buying it.  “I guess the question that begs to be asked is, does the city go around and purchase properties because they don’t like what’s taking place there, for example a scrap yard, for example other bars or drug houses or other places in the city that we don’t like,” Kerton said…Deputy Mayor David Kelly [also] said the $500,000 price tag is too steep.  “Where do we draw the line on this?  $500,000?  To my knowledge that thing is overpriced by about $150,000.  Personally, I would rather leave that up to a private developer,” Kelly said. “It’s too much money.”

So, what have we learned, kids?  If you want to make a lot of money off of prudes, just use the O’Hara method!  Step One:  Start a business which, though legal, is hated by bluenoses; even if you have to bribe a few people to get it established you needn’t worry, because you’ll eventually get it back along with a substantial profit.  Step Two:  Run a good, clean business so you’ll attract a lot of customers and avoid any entanglements with municipal code Nazis.  Step Three:  Continue step two until a bunch of irresponsible busybodies who think it’s justifiable to use public money to promote their own moral crusades gets into office.  Step Four:  If they don’t buy you out right away, start an idiotic rumor about the Hell’s Angels or some other legal but unpopular group congregating at your business and make sure the local stool pigeon hears about it.  Step Five:  Charge at least 40% more than your business is actually worth.  Step Six:  Repeat until you are as wealthy as you would like to be.

One Year Ago Today

“Whores and Wives” examines the different ways wives react when they discover their husbands have visited whores.

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