No Difference | The Honest Courtesan

Posts Tagged ‘No Difference’

In the News (#1625)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Woman's Point of View, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, ethics, Illinois, internet, law, LGBT rights, libraries, Massachusetts, No Difference, Opting Out, politicians, robots, Senegal, Shame Shame, Tennessee, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Walled Garden on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I will not comply. – Luanne James

To Molest and Rape (#1177)

Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:

A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the ⁠new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…

Shame, Shame (#1494)

This sleaze is bottomless:

WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…

A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)

As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:

…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians. A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…

Thought Control (#1600)

This is the library whose board chair wanted a snitch list of those who read books he wanted censored:

In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1602)

Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:

[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question. It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths. It’s not a whistleblower. It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply. Ask it scary questions, get scary answers. Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers. It is a mirror, not a source. And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…

Walled Garden (#1611)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act. The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.” This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…

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In the News (#1617)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Above the Law, Alaska, artificial stupidity, California, cell phones, consensual crime, cops, Eavesdropping, ethics, Facebook, fascism, If Men Were Angels, internet, Kentucky, LGBT rights, Mad Libs, No Difference, Panopticon, politicians, porn, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, robots, surveillance, Uganda on March 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

People [can] just tell them politely to fuck off. – Yves Jeanrenaud

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A[n assistant politician in Alaska named]…Craig Scott Valdez…[has been] indicted by a federal grand jury…[for] production of child pornography…he [regularly]…used Snapchat to “groom and entice juvenile [girls]”…The indictment references a specific…15-year-old girl in Anchorage last October, though the FBI has identified at least 11 other…victims…

If Men Were Angels

“Having a sexual relationship” is such a nice way to say “molesting”:

A [typical and representative] pastor at a Western Kentucky church has been arrested for [repeat]edly [molest]ing…a minor [for four to five years, starting when she was 12 or 13]…David Rodgers…was immediately fired and prohibited from participating in church-sponsored functions…he…admitted to the [crime and then killed himself]…after posting a $75,000 bond…

No Difference (#1443)

History will remember the early 21st century as a time of worldwide repression:

Two young women in their early 20s were arrested in Northwestern Uganda…after neighbors r[att]ed [on] them [to cops for] kissing in public and hosting other women in their one-room apartment…Wendy Faith…and Alesa Diana Denise…[had only been] in…the…apartment [for a] week…[when evil monsters sicced the cops on them] on February 18…Human rights activists…condemned the arrests…[explain]ing the “Kill the Gays” law fuels blackmail and extortion against…LGBT…[people. Earlier in the month] a…court rejected the first case brought under the [law because]…the [victim’s health had deteriorated so badly] due to his extended detention in [a filthy cage] between arrest and trial…[and politicians] associated with the [unpopular law, pushed and bankrolled by US evangelical groups including Morality in Media and Family Watch International, have been]…defeated in [recent] reelection bids…

Eavesdropping (#1482)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen thousand:

A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum [cleaner] with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes…Sammy Azdoufal…reverse-engineer[ed] how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers…[and] discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries…[which] could have [allowed cops or spooks]…to [use them as] surveillance tools…without their owners ever knowing…DJI [claim]s…the issue has been “resolved”…[but] experts who have long warned that internet-connected…devices present attractive [opportunities] for [surveillance]…

Mad Libs (#1595)

This was 100% predictable:

Anthropic, the wildly successful [“]AI[” scam outfit] that has cast itself as the most safety-conscious of the top [chatbot makers], is dropping the central pledge of its flagship safety policy…In 2023, Anthropic committed to never train a…[chatbot] unless it could guarantee in advance that the company’s safety measures were adequate…But in recent months the company decided to radically overhaul the [policy by] scrapping the promise to not release [chatbots] if Anthropic can’t guarantee proper risk mitigations in advance…Anthropic’s c[o-found]er Jared Kaplan…[said] “We didn’t really feel, with the rapid [inflation] of [the “]AI[” bubble], that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments…if competitors are [making more money than us]”…When Anthropic introduced the [policy] in 2023, Kaplan…hoped it would encourage rivals to adopt similar measures…But [since they didn’t]…the company [realized that]…“If one [chatbot maker] paused development to implement safety measures while others moved forward [recklessly]…that could result in a world [where we make less money than them]”…

Panopticon (#1614)

A good idea that needs to increase by several orders of magnitude:

…in La Mesa, a small city just east of San Diego, California, observers happened upon a pair of destroyed Flock cameras…just weeks after the city decided, in [spite] of public protest, to continue its contracts with the surveillance company…In recent months, people have been smashing and dismantling the surveillance devices, in incidents reported in at least five states, from coast to coast…reflect[ing] growing anger…over the surveillance technology…Flock…readers…gather not just license plate images, but other identifying data used to ‘fingerprint’ vehicles, their owners, and their movements. This data can be collected, stored, and accessed without a warrant, making it…popular w[ith cop shops, spook houses, and goon squads]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1615)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

A new…app warns if people nearby may be wearing s[urveillance] glasses…which stalkers and harassers have repeatedly used to film people without their knowledge or consent. The app scans for smart glasses’ distinctive Bluetooth signatures and sends a push alert if it detects [one]…in the local area…“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” [said] Yves Jeanrenaud, the…sociologist who made the app…[which] works by looking for Bluetooth “advertising frames”, which are small bits of data devices regularly broadcast as part of their normal operation. Jeanrenaud…decided to make the app after reading [about men]…filming [sex workers and ICE goons wearing them during pogroms. He said]…after identifying a device, a user “may act accordingly”…

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In the News (#1443)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged abortion, agency denial, Canada, censorship, Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish, illegal aliens, internet, law, LGBT rights, libraries, neofeminism, No Difference, Ohio, politicians, prisons, propaganda, serial killers, Surplus Women, Swedish model, Texas, The Course of a Disease, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, transgender, Uganda, United Kingdom, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals on June 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

My own state does not seem to care if I live or die. – Lauren Hall

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

Vancouver police let this maniac run wild for years because “NHI”:

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who took female victims to his pig farm during a crime spree [in] Vancouver in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has died after being assaulted [by another] prison[er on]…May 19…Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2007…after being charged with the murders of 26 women…The remains or DNA of 33 women were found on the farm. Pickton once bragged…that he killed a total of 49 women…Pickton…strangled his victims and fed their remains to his pigs…Vancouver police…[did] not tak[e] the cases seriously because many of the missing were sex workers or users of drugs…

The Course of a Disease (#932)

“Support women’s right to autonomy” ≠ “back paying for sex”:

…more Scots back sex work than are against it despite [the] Government [attempting yet again] to [impose] the so-called “Nordic model” [on] Scotland…a YouGov poll of 1,088 Scottish adults…shows there is little public support for the agenda…47% thought it should be legal to pay [for] sex…compared with 32% who thought it should be an offence. In a massive rejection of the core principle of SNP policy, just 13% agreed that…[women are men’s moral inferiors and need to be “protected” from their own choices by government] violence…79% think the Scottish Government should consult sex workers and sex worker-led groups when considering new laws…Just 1% of those polled think sex work should be a priority for the Scottish Government [at all]…

No Difference (#1334)

US evangelical prohibitionists are a worldwide menace:

A long-standing US [pro-censorship] group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda, including a governing party member who…[has said] gays “should be castrated”, and a virulently homophobic founder of a “militaristic” Christian boys camp. The revelations about [Morality in Media, now DBA under the authoritative-sounding alias “]National Center on Sexual Exploitation[“,] and its spin-offs and affiliates…[clearly demonstrate] its recent disavowals of its history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions [to be lies], and [expose] its [previously hidden] role in Uganda’s passage…of laws on homosexuality which are among the most punitive and restrictive in the world. It also [exposes as li]es NCOSE’s efforts to play down its religious associations…in order to exercise a more authoritative influence on poli[tician]s in the US and around the world…

Vulture Watching (#1395)

Texas’ ruling psychopaths say doctors should just use their medical judgment and hope an aggressive prosecutor doesn’t choose to make an example of them:

The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the most significant challenge to Texas’ new abortion laws yet, ruling…that the medical exceptions in the law [a]re broad enough…[while simultaneously deeming that a] doctor[‘s]…“good faith judgment” [is insufficient]…While the opinion was unanimous, Justice Brett Busby issued a concurring opinion that left the door open to a broader challenge to the law. Zurawski v. Texas was…the first challenge to a state’s abortion bans on behalf of women with complicated pregnancies. At least three other states have followed suit…the court…ruling [basically requires] an abortion…perform[ing physician to be both a]…legal [expert and a seer]…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1410)

Texas seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:

…in the past two years, [Texas attorney general Ken] Paxton has [ab]used consumer protection law more than a dozen times to [harass] a range of entities for activities like offering shelter to immigrants, providing health care to transgender teens or trying to foster a diverse workplace. Not a single one of the investigations was prompted by a consumer complaint…[and] the analysis is possibly an undercount…[because hi]s office…has…fought the release of certain records requested under Texas’ Public Information Act…Paxton…[has] launched the[se specious “]investigations[“] simply to harass [political oppon]ents and to cause a chilling effect among organizations doing similar work…the attorney general’s demands violate the First…and…Fourth Amendment[s, and]…the political weaponization of consumer protection divisions by Paxton and other attorneys general [is] “a core violation” of constitutional laws that runs counter to what these divisions were established to do…when Paxton doesn’t get speedy access to the documents he wants, he often publicizes these typically confidential cases, putting out news releases that draw headlines and build support among his base of [authoritarian sociopaths]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1423)

Useful idiots never see where their idiocy will lead, even when it’s spelled out for them:

Canada’s privacy c[ommissioner is]…warning that a [“monkey see, monkey do” age verification] bill…could apply to streaming services such as Netflix…law professor Michael Geist, who specializes in internet and e-commerce law, say age verification technology is simply not there yet, and the “fundamentally flawed” bill raises major privacy concerns. Proponents of the bill argue its purpose, which is to [give politicians control over the internet], is important enough that it should be passed [regardless of what civil liberties advocates think]…But Geist said policies on how to handle technology should be created based on known capabilities, not on “technological fairy dust.” Privacy lawyer David Fraser agrees…saying “sexually explicit material” as defined could mean it applies to search engines, social-media…e-book publishers and even streaming services…During committee testimony [politician Owen] Ripley confirmed…that as written, the proposed law would make it a rule for services like Netflix to verify the age of their users…Fraser added…it’s likely that companies will…just block Canadian access to the content rather than risk liability…[as] Pornhub [has done in] Texas…“[The bill is] not designed to keep kids safe. It’s not designed to keep adults safe,” said Solomon Friedman…of…Ethical Capital Partners…“It’s designed to impose the morality of a select few ideologically motivated legislators on the rest of Canadians”…

Thought Control (#1430)

I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path:

Ohio [politicians have joined yet another faddish “monkey see, monkey do” parade by concoct]ing a new bill that would charge teachers and librarians with felonies for handing out books and materials [politicians later decide to point at while belching out the magic word] “obscene”…Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro…argues teachers will…abandon their careers rather than face the potential of criminal prosecution under…“This deliberately vague law…which flies in the face of the First Amendment while inviting inconsistent enforcement”…

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In the News (#1359)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged Censor Chic, censorship, cops, drugs, fascism, FBI, Florida, Ghana, internet, Kenya, law, LGBT rights, Mexico, Monsters, No Difference, politicians, prisons, psychology, rescue industry, Schadenfreude, serial killers, Served Cold, Stop faking!, Sudan, Surplus Women, surveillance, Tanzania, Texas, Torture Chamber, Uganda, Utah, violence vs. sex workers, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals, You Were Warned on July 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[An FBI] suggestion…is not a suggestion. It is in fact effectively an order. – Darrell Issa

Surplus Women

Cops love awkward, overcomplicated language:

Three women [have been] found dead near the Trinity River in [Dallas, and]…Oscar Sanchez Garcia…is being charged with th[e]…murder[s]. The body of 60-year-old Limberly Robinson was found in late April. 25-year-old Cherish Gibson was found dead in the same area two months later. The third woman was found [July 15th and] has not yet been identified. Police believe at least two of the victims have possible ties to prostitution…

Would it have been too difficult to say, “at least two of the victims may have been sex workers”?

No Difference (#889)

Will this be another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists?

Kenya is…introducing legislation that would criminalise openly identifying with, or supporting, the LGBTQ+ community…including openly identifying as LGBTQ+ or wearing Pride emblems. Those found in breach of the law would face a minimum of 10 years in jail while those found guilty of performing same-sex acts would face a minimum of 14 years…anyone found guilty under a clause for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as engaging in “homosexual acts with a minor or disabled person and transmitting a terminal disease through sexual means”, could be executed. The bill heavily mirrors Uganda’s…which was signed into law earlier this year. Similar bills are also being proposed in Tanzania…South Sudan…[and] Ghana…

You Were Warned (#1344)

“This bill is not about kids’ safety, because it will put their safety at risk”:

With…KOSA…be[ing] debated in…Congress…Joe Biden [has] come out [to] give a full throated endorsement of the horrible, dangerous, bill that will damage privacy and harm children…the Republicans have been quite vocal about how they support KOSA because they know they can use it to suppress LGBTQ voices. They flat out said that they believe that “keeping trans content away from children is protecting kids”…KOSA….[is] not about “protecting” kids privacy at all. It’s about giving the government more control over kids. The nature of the bill will require more data collection…[and] create serious 1st Amendment concerns by holding companies potentially liable if kids face harm that…an [ambulance-chaser can pretend was somehow related]…to anything they found online…

Now would be the time to call your congresscritter to scare it away from being associated with this police-state garbage.

Torture Chamber (#1344)

I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away:

By the time he died alone in his Miami-Dade jail cell in the summer of 2021, (5’10”) Randy Heath weighed just 113 pounds…[because] guards…allowed [him]…to languish [for 9 months] in the jail’s mental health unit…[and] did not properly feed, monitor, or administer…medication…the…Medical Examiner’s Office…[claims] Heath…died from “food asphyxia” after a large piece of orange blocked his airway, with the contributory cause being pica, an eating disorder in which people compulsively eat things that aren’t food…Heath…had been in and out of…jail since 2002 on various charges…[but the most recent arrest] in April 2020 [was on the pretext that he touched] his ankle monitor [in a manner disallowed by The State]…He would remain on the floor of his cell unattended for hours…in his own urine and feces…Although he was regularly prescribed medication for his mental illnesses, his toxicology report detected no medicine in his system at the time of death…

Censor Chic (#1354)

Partisans deny this when it’s their side making “suggestions”:

…based on current evidence, the FBI has not explicitly demanded that social media companies censor any specific posts or news stories. But…[as] the Supreme Court [said] nearly 60 years ago: Americans “do not lightly disregard public officers’ thinly veiled threats to institute criminal proceedings against them if they do not come around.” Much is said in our current discourse about…power imbalances…When your boss asks if you can stay late or come in on the weekend, you can say no. But in the back of your mind, you know there may be consequences…It’s…a similar dynamic when the government sends “suggestions” to private individuals or companies over which it exercises…authority…When the FBI floods social media platforms with “alerts” about content it obviously wants taken down, it doesn’t deserve a pass just because it didn’t say out loud: “or else”…The FBI uses the weight and authority of its office to lean on platforms in an attempt to do what the First Amendment forbids it from doing directly: suppress protected speech. This tactic is called “jawboning,” and is not something we should blithely accept in a society committed to free expression as a fundamental value…

Served Cold (#1357)

Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics have apparently upset his partners in profiteering:

Tim Ballard, the celebrity [“sex] trafficking[” profiteer] whose heavily fictionalized exploits served as the inspiration for the [fak]e box-office hit Sound of Freedom, is no longer CEO of the Nazarene Fund, the Glenn Beck-backed [rescue industry] organization…a letter is circulating in Utah’s philanthropic community, which claims that Ballard left OUR following an internal investigation…[after] an employee filed an HR complaint after returning from a mission with Ballard…

Elsewhere, Kaytlin Bailey uses Ballard’s fanciful story as a springboard for discussion of why “rescue” narratives are not only nonsense, but distracting from measures that really help sex workers.

Torture Chamber (#1358)

It does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”:

…inside…the…largest juvenile [prison]…in…New Mexico…[young people] between the ages of 12 and 17 are routinely subjected to strip searches, held for weeks in cells without toilets, and left with only a thin plastic sheet to block out the glare of hallway lights that never turn off. Girls face particularly harsh conditions, often placed in…solitary confinement…chronic understaffing…[is used to excuse holding prisoners] for weeks, in temporary booking cells with no toilets or sinks…[yet somehow there are enough staff for weekly sexual assaults euphemized as “]strip searches[“. Girls who]…refuse…to [submit are]…locked in…cell[s] until [they “]consent[“]…

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In the News (#1334)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, California, censorship, consensual crime, cops, Devil's Advocate, internet, language, law, LGBT rights, New York, No Difference, Pennsylvania, politicians, psychology, rape, sex toys, South Carolina, Stalkers in Blue, To Molest and Rape, Uganda, You Were Warned on April 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

It would be bizarre for the state to create another category of illegal product that could lead to more conflict between law enforcement and the community. – Kent Sopris

Devil’s Advocate (#832)

Dr.David Ley, with your periodic reminder that a child-shaped toaster is still a toaster:

In August of 2022…Harper and Lievesley published [a study]…of persons sexually attracted to children who owned child sex dolls…The researchers recruited online and found 85 individuals who owned such dolls, whose results they then compared to 120 individuals who did not. All of these individuals self-reported sexual interest in children…But…the owners of such dolls were found to be less antisocial and reported less arousal at the idea of actually sexually abusing a child, compared to those who did not own such dolls. Given that antisocial traits are a high predictor of contact sex offending against children, and that the owners of such dolls appear to have a high level of emotional and relational connection to the dolls, it suggests that owning such dolls may not significantly predict a higher risk of offending against children…When researchers examined the intentions, and past offending behaviors of the child doll owners, they found no results suggesting such individuals were at higher risk of future sexual offending against children…

To Molest and Rape

“Sexual misconduct” sounds so much nicer than “forcible rape”:

South Carolina [cop]…Gerard James Hildebrandt…was [arrested and] charged…[for forcibly raping a woman while wearing his magical clown costume]…

You Were Warned (#1224)

You just can’t keep a bad law down:

Some politicians never learn. Congress has been trying to shove through the EARN IT Act for the past two sessions, and thankfully it’s failed both times. But, now it’s back…and…it’s got all the same problems as the bill from last session…includ[ing]…nearly identical misleading language…regarding encryption…under EARN IT, encrypting content and messages is a liability…it’s kinda funny that they still even include the language pretending this doesn’t touch encryption, considering that sponsor Senator Richard Blumenthal admitted in an interview last year that the point of the bill was totally to target services that use encryption…

A Moral Cancer (#1227)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

[New York governor Kathy] Hochul…is quietly trying to fire up support for a complete ban on the sale of tobacco products in New York…despite [her] failure to secure support from state legislators to include a ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products in the yet-to-be-approved state budget…Kent Sopris, president of the New York Association of Convenience Store Owners, p[ointed out that] a ban would put many stores out of business but wouldn’t stop tobacco use because smokers would just buy cigarettes out of state, online, or…on the black market…

Unfortunately, I must disagree with Mr. Sopris’ quote at the top of today’s column; providing new excuses for police violence is exactly the point of new prohibitions.

Stalkers in Blue (#1301)

Cops are sexual predators who often specifically target traumatized women:

First, the detective sent unusual emails — asking the mother of a Philadelphia homicide victim to send him photos of herself…or suggesting that they go out together. [W]hen…the woman…me[t] the detective, Donald Suchinsky, for an interview about her son’s case…he groped her, put his hand down her pants, and digitally penetrated her…Suchinsky…has since been fired over the [2020] assault…and…prosecutors…believe…[he] may have victimized other women…

No Difference (#1325)

Don’t think this was an unintended consequence:

…[LGBT] people from…Uganda…began leaving after Uganda’s Parliament passed a sweeping anti-gay bill in late March that threatens punishment as severe as death for some perceived offenses, and calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations….Mbajjwe Nimiro Wilson…fled with a single backpack…after a hostile crowd…cornered him a[t a]…grocer[y]…“They kept saying, ‘We will hunt you. You gays should be killed. We will slaughter you,’” he said…The latest move to target L.G.B.T.Q. people in Uganda has drawn support from local Christian and Muslim groups, and for years the financial and logistical backing of some conservative evangelical groups in the United States. One of the key organizers of the parliamentary conference in Uganda last month was Family Watch International, an Arizona-based organization that spreads anti-L.G.B.T.Q. and anti-abortion [propaganda]…

To Molest and Rape (#1333)

They’re trying to pretend this one isn’t typical and representative by calling him a “rookie”:

A rookie Los Angeles [cop]…was arrested…[for] rape of a child under 14…[swineherds are distancing] Diego Jose Miranda Lopez…[from other cops not only by stressing his]…probationary [status, but also by implying that the rape occurring] before Lopez joined the department [signifies anything at all about the kind of people who become cops]…

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In the News (#1325)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged cell phones, censorship, cops, Florida, hysteria, Idaho, If Men Were Angels, internet, Iowa, law, LGBT rights, libraries, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Morality Lessons, New York, No Difference, politicians, porn, propaganda, rape, Safe Position, scams, South Carolina, Swedish model, Tennessee, Texas, The Puritan Recrudescence, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, Uganda, Utah, violence vs. sex workers on March 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Discussions and debates [about sex work are] happening in the absence of those who are most affected by it. – Solomon Friedman

If Men Were Angels

“Youth pastor”, “youth leader”, “youth director”…can’t y’all settle on one term for preachy molesters?

A [typical and representative] youth director at a[n Iowa] church…[named] Travis Albers…has been charged with [sexual abuse of] a child…Trinity Reformed Church in Pella…[did not] fire…him [until] after his arrest March 5…

No Difference (#431)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Uganda’s parliament has passed a bill which would criminalise people who identify as gay, or a[ny] sexual minority…Under the proposed legislation, friends, family and [busybody strangers]…would have a duty to r[a]t [out] individuals in same-sex relationships…Homosexual acts are already illegal in the east African country. But the bill seeks to go further and criminalise people on the basis of their sexual identity…Individuals or institutions which support or fund LGBT rights’ activities or organisations, or publish, broadcast and distribute pro-gay media material and literature, also face prosecution and imprisonment…In 2014, Uganda’s constitutional court nullified a similar act…because it had been passed by parliament without the required quorum…

Safe Position (#1123)

Katz is doing exactly what Swedish criminalization proponents do: lying and harming women:

[After] sex worker Yang Song fell to her death [as the direct result of] an NYPD raid on [her workplace]…New York elected officials…[made their usual empty] promise[s]…Melinda Katz…assured voters that she would not prosecute sex workers, [but since she is a proponent of]…the…[evi]l Nordic Model…sex workers [knew she was lying]…Katz’s record reveals she has…continu[ed] to prosecute most of the prostitution arrests that are made…Queens continues to have the highest prostitution arrest rate in the city…and…Katz has…only declin[ed] to prosecute one case in her whole term. She has maintained the highest rates of prosecution for prostitution…in the city…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1247)

A decent article despite the usual journalistic credulity about prohibitionist claims:

In the heat of a [prohibitionist crusade to censor the internet], Mindgeek, owner of Pornhub, [has been] acquired…by the private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. Pornhub…has faced intense [persecution despite]…hosting [far fewer] videos that depict…child sexual abuse [than platforms such as Facebook]. After a[rch-prohibitionist Nick Kristof provided a platform for the evidence-free claims of anti-sex worker activists], Visa and Mastercard suspended services from the site…in 2021 it took Pornhub [dramatical]ly less time to remove reported child sex abuse material…than other platforms…Pornhub responded to…notifications…from NCMEC in less than five hours on average, compared to the total average from…websites, which was [five times longer,] more than 24 hours…Out of 30 million reports of child exploitation to NCMEC in 2021, Pornhub submitted just over 9,000 reports…Ethical Capital Partners plans to support and center sex workers and sexually explicit content creators in discussions about legislation and regulation, including what payment processors like Visa and Mastercard do and don’t allow from sex workers and pornography websites…

To Molest and Rape (#1253)

Cops really believe they’re above the law:

Rick Duncan, the [typical and representative Minnesota] sheriff previously convicted of harassing and stalking an employee, is being sued by another woman…[because] he used nearly identical means to coerce her into sex around the same time…Prosecutors last year also charged Duncan in a new case with five counts of criminal sexual conduct over [rapes] dating back to 2017…Duncan fabricated evidence to [threaten the woman into submitting to rape, but made] it appear as though the [threats] were [somehow coming from an anonymous third party]…Duncan [simultaneous]ly [confused] the woman [by claiming] he would keep her safe…A federal jury last year awarded more than $1.1 million to th[e employee], who[m]…Duncan [tried to rape with similar bizarre tactics]…Duncan was also charged criminally [but merely]…sentenced to four years of probation. At his sentencing, he [blamed his rapist behavior on members of the public being mean to poor widdle piggies]…

Thought Control (#1268)

My first profession is becoming almost as much a target for authoritarians as my second:

Local police have been called out to Texas public libraries to [forcibly censor] books…in at least five instances….Adam Steinbaugh…[of FIRE said]…“They are treating librarians as suspects. That should be concerning for everyone”…No librarians have [yet] been charged with a crime. But in recent months Texas [politician]s have proposed a dozen bills that would change state law to make it easier to prosecute them for obscenity…

Morality Lessons (#1285)

Once Utah passed this unconstitutional bill, it became another case of “monkey see, monkey do”:

Eight states are weighing [censorship] bills that would force phone and tablet manufacturers…to automatically enable…censor[ship software whether the customer wants that or not]…The only way to disable the [automatic censor]…would be through passcodes. Providing such a passcode to a [legal minor] would be forbidden, except when done by a parent…Many device manufacturers already have adult content [censorship software] available for use, though it is not the norm to have them turned on by default…In recent years, some phone makers have added [more aggressive censorship software] that use[s error-prone algorithms of the type used by Facebook to censor artwork and pictures of plastic dolls] to censor individual images on certain applications. One of these…bills was passed…in Utah but cannot go into effect unless five additional states pass similar laws — a provision included to prevent Big Tech companies from isolating the state a[s it deserves]…This year, Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, Iowa, Idaho, Texas and Montana [politician]s are all considering versions of the bill…

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In the News (#1164)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, agency denial, Australia, censorship, consensual crime, cops, Déjà Vu, disease, drugs, Here We Go Again, homosexuality, hysteria, law, Legal Is as Legal Does, Minnesota, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, No Difference, porn, propaganda, psychology, racism, Robocops, surveillance, The Pro-Rape Coalition, Traffic Jam, Uganda, Welcome to the Future on August 21, 2021| 4 Comments »

The myth of sex addiction is a pathological view of male sexuality, sexual diversity, non-monogamy, and non-normative sexual desire. – David Ley

Here We Go Again

Prohibitionism never, ever changes:

…in the early 20th century…prostitution became seen [by busybodies] as a social evil that concerned a wide range of [people who were completely univolved in it]…evangelical Christians, feminists, business leaders and medical experts demanded immediate and unrelenting repression of [sex work]…self-styled “abolitionists” in both the United States and the United Kingdom gained public support for their efforts by [spreading propaganda about a fantasized epidemic] of “white slavery”…the legislation they produced was antithetical to prostitutes’ interests…policies that sanctioned state control and punishment of prostitutes flourished…[but] rather than eliminating prostitution, the anti-prostitution movement simply changed the nature of the sex trade…and…subjected [all women] to increased state control. During World War I, the “American Plan” authorized the arrest, inspection and detention of women suspected of carrying venereal disease…surveillance of women in the name of public health increasingly committed the U.S. to a “neo-regulationist” prostitution policy that controlled women’s bodies…

The article has some interesting information, but if you notice the faint reek of Swedish thinking (as if some cretin had stuffed used toilet paper down between the sofa cushions), it’s not your imagination.

Traffic Jam (#619)

You may remember that I called this as bullshit ten years ago:

St. Paul [Minnesota sow] Heather Weyker…[fabricated] an interstate sex trafficking ring run by Somali refugees…result[ing] in 30 indictments, 9 trials, and 0 convictions. Hamdi Mohamud, then a 16-year-old refugee from Somalia, found herself caught up in that scheme in 2011, when one of Weyker’s witnesses, Muna Abdulkadir, tried to attack her and her friends at knifepoint. Mohamud called the police…Weyker…arrested Mohamud and her friends for allegedly tampering with a federal witness, and Mohamud subsequently spent two years in jail before the trumped-up charges were dismissed…but…since [Weyker framed all those victims]…as part of a federal task force, she is entitled to absolute immunity and cannot be sued…Mohamud hopes to change that…by asking the Supreme Court to hear her case, which she made official last week…

No Difference (#888)

American puritanism is a pox on the entire world:

One of the world’s most restrictive “anti-pornography” laws, the indecency statute passed by Uganda in 2014, has been struck by the nation’s Constitutional Court as unconstitutional…the law was “quashed” following pressure from women’s rights groups, with a panel of five judges unanimously ruling “that sections of the law that defined pornographic offenses, including a ban on ‘indecent’ clothing, were unconstitutional”…the…law…was [typically]…used for morality policing and led to…song lyrics and music videos…be[ing] labeled pornographic…[with] the…artists criminally liable…the [censorship law and an anti-LGBT law were passed due to lobbying by]…American evangelicals…[especially] the…International House of Prayer…the parent ministry of Exodus Cry…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1033)

It’s always a pleasure to watch experts trash harmful sex myths:

…it’s important to recognize that the concept of sex addiction was introduced…in the 1980’s during the HIV/AIDS crisis. As…a society, we were terrified of sexual excess, of non-monogamy, of casual sex, of sex outside relationships, and of gay male sex…It is not by accident…that gay men get diagnosed as sex addicts…around three times more than anybody else. The second very large group…are people struggling with a moral conflict over their sexual desires…[due to growing] up in religious household or communities where they were taught that any sex other than hetero sex within marriage is a sin…the third group…[consists of] men who get in trouble for sexual behavior…who self-identify as sex addicts to avoid responsibility for those behaviors…going to sex workers is…literally a diagnostic criterion in the sex addiction screening test that many therapists use…sex workers are [therefore] framed as analogous to either a drug or a drug dealer…self-destructive things that help people destroy their lives…

Welcome to the Future (#1052)

Prohibition by human idiots is bad enough:

Over the past two decades, the US…has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into developing and maintaining state-level prescription drug databases…In the past few years…a single [fascist collusion] called Appriss has…merg[ed] the[se] into…a…national prescription drug registry…[managed by] algorithms to generate “data insights” and…[accessing] huge reservoirs of data outside state drug registries to arrive at them. NarxCare…is Appriss’…“analytics tool”…that purports to instantly and automatically identify a patient’s risk of misusing opioids…the software mines state registries for [so-called] red flags indicating that she has engaged in “drug shopping” behavior…the[n]…assigns each patient a unique, comprehensive Overdose Risk Score…Appriss is adamant that a NarxCare score is not meant to supplant a doctor’s diagnosis. But physicians ignore these numbers at their peril. Nearly every state now uses Appriss software…and most legally require physicians and pharmacists to consult them…on penalty of losing their license. In some states, p[igs]…can also [root in this database]…without a warrant…to prosecute both doctors and patients…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1096)

Sex workers and allies speak out about Nick Kristof’s latest anti-sex crusade:

Kristof’s “The Children of Pornhub” — a…[propaganda screed] dropped as 2020 was winding to a close…triggered the removal of millions of videos from Pornhub and led to both Mastercard and Visa cutting ties with the adult industry giant…protecting…l[egal minor]s [ca]n’t [be accomplished with] sweeping legislation and widespread content moderation, which endanger the safety and income of sex workers [and the civil liberties of everyone]…“Treating child sexual abuse as a moral failing is the wrong approach and is harmful to sex workers,” [says] Jeremy Malcolm, director of the child protection organization Prostasia Foundation…“dealing with [child sexual abuse] through a harm reduction lens is far more effective and less likely to [be used to cloak]…intended [attacks] on marginalized communities”…

Legal Is as Legal Does (#1151)

It looks like Victoria is about to become the world’s fourth jurisdiction to achieve decriminalization:

Victoria will join a growing number of states by decriminalising sex work…the…government announced it would begin a two-year legislative overhaul, starting with the removal of offences and criminal penalties for consensual sex work, with the aim of having it passed by Parliament by the end of the year…sex work will be regulated through existing government agencies and…laws will be updated to support a decriminalised system…Victoria will join New Zealand, the Northern Territory and NSW…

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In the News (#889)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Mound of Filth, Above the Law, agency denial, Arizona, bogus studies, censorship, cops, Count the Idiocies, Forward and Backward, homosexuality, hysteria, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, Ireland, left-right myth, No Difference, Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs, porn, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, rape, red-light districts, rescue industry, See No Evil, shame, South Dakota, statistics, streetwalkers, surveillance, Swedish model, Tanzania, Texas, Thailand, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Puritan Recrudescence, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), Welcome to the Future, Why I Wait, Wisconsin on November 21, 2018| 1 Comment »

With all the legitimately pressing problems facing America today, it’s astonishing that anyone could earnestly advocate for more obscenity prosecutions. – Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Above the Law

We’re so lucky to have these brave heroes to protect us from refugees:

Police in Alpine, Texas, have charged a National Guardsman stationed near the Mexico border with sexual assault after…he drunkenly tried to rape a woman in a hotel. Luis Ontiveros…is accused of assaulting…[another] member of the National Guard…[who] had…thrown up from drinking too much…He took her clothes off before she was able to get out of the hotel room…and knocked on the hotel room door next to hers, telling the man who answered that Ontiveros had tried to rape her…

A Mound of Filth (#506)

More “sex slave” fantasies from Dominique “Body Fluids” Roe-Sepowitz:

The latest numbers from the FBI show in 2017 Arizona was third in the nation for human trafficking offenses…[Ignorant prohibitionists fantasize] it is impacting people from all walks of life. “It is anybody. Businessmen, junkies from the street, anybody looking for sex,” said an [anonymous prohibitionist]…Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is an associate professor [who makes a living stoking “sex trafficking” hysteria by making up fake statistics.]…”In Arizona, we [claim] we have about 250 kids a year and about 800 adults a year [involved in sex trafficking],” [she] said…She [moaned and put her hand down her pants while fantasizing that]…traffickers are creative and calculating when targeting their victims…It happens through social media, in public buildings and parks and even in front of schools. “They’re going to find that child wherever they are”…

Forward and Backward (#604)

UK politicians don’t like policies that oppose their harm magnification agenda:

…Leeds Council [is considering]…closure of the Leeds ‘managed zone’, in which sex workers are able to solicit for business in a designated area without fear of arrest…Regulation via zoning is not ideal but any solution which increases safety for sex workers, allows them to report crimes and brings down the number of arrests is important. Working without fear of arrest means sex workers aren’t running from the police are more able to use basic safety measures like working in close proximity to each other and sharing information about clients…outreach charity Basis Yorkshire [says]…97% of sex workers are now willing to report crimes to the police, compared with just 7% before the scheme launched. There has been a dramatic uptake in engagement with health and support services…

For over a year now, the Leeds red light district has been the subject of a smear campaign by prohibitionists, with the help of the BBC.

Welcome to the Future (#607)

“Immigrant Council of Ireland” is the deceptive name of one of the most vile prohibitionist organizations in Europe:

Police across Europe should be given the resources to spy on…sex workers’ homes to prevent prostitution, a report has said. The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) was one of six organisations to examine laws on sex work and trafficking across Europe. The group’s Disrupt Demand report called for more [police violence vs. sex workers and clients]…and [more] “surveillance operations on indoor locations”…

Most news coverage of this “report” tries to make it sound like a study, when in fact it’s just a collection of prohibitionist fantasies and demands with no new material of any kind.

The Puritan Recrudescence

The natural result of widespread kowtowing to the heckler’s veto:

…Nina Hartley went to University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to give an optional lecture to students…about STI testing, the importance of consent, and the potential pitfalls of learning about sex from porn. The talk was soberly titled, “Fantasy vs. Reality: A critical view of adult media.” There were no explicit images or videos, just an informational Powerpoint slide. And yet, of course, conservative media outlets are losing their shit over it, because a porn star (who is also a sex educator and activist) spoke with our kids (who are actually legal adults) about fucking (but really much more). Hartley was invited to speak by Joe Gow, the chancellor of the university…with…$5,000 from Gow’s office fund, as opposed to with state tax dollars…sensationalistic headlines…desperately attempted to turn it into a tawdry sex scandal…Then Fox News jumped into the fray. The outcry was such that Gow felt the need to pen an op-ed in the La Crosse Tribune…in [which]…he…agreed to personally compensate the university for Hartley’s $5,000 appearance fee…[and] book…a speaker from Fight the New Drug, a [Mormon-backed prohibitionist organization]…infamous for using bad science, shoddy data, and alarmist first-person stories to demonize pornography…

Count the Idiocies

Since this is suburban Seattle, I could’ve done this one stoned:

Sex trafficking is happening in plain sight in Snohomish County¹, according to nurse practitioner Paula Newman-Skomski². “It’s most visible is along Highway 99,” she said.³ This past weekend [Operation Cross-Country] found 13 female victims of sex trafficking – two of the victims are juveniles⁴. No arrests were made. The FBI said the victims were offered referrals to a variety of resources.⁵…”Every year we identify 40 to 45 juveniles involved in the trafficking trade here in Snohomish County,” said Newman-Skomski.⁶…”…easily transported up and down the I-5 corridor.”⁷ It is the kind of illegal activity the FBI focused on when it shut down Backpage.com⁸…Peoria Home in Everett…is a two-year, residential recovery program for women 18 and over who have been exploited through sex trafficking and prostitution. It opened in April⁹…

¹ No, it isn’t. If it were cops would be crowing about it.
² Whom nobody around here has ever heard of before.
³ No, Those are street workers.
⁴ No, they got 13 bites in a sting; the fact that they didn’t arrest them could mean several different things.
⁵ Such as finger-painting classes and the number of the welfare office.
⁶ No, they don’t; that would represent some 20% of all sex workers in Greater Seattle. Underage sex workers represent only about 3-4% of all sex workers.
⁷ Interstates cause sex trafficking!
⁸ No, it isn’t.
⁹ “Rescue” profiteers are utterly shameless.

Why I Wait (#812)

Most of this article is the usual garbage: equating dating with sex, pointedly ignoring commercial sex, pretending that people answer surveys on stigmatized subjects honestly, etc. But there was one paragraph which contained some possible clues to the reasons any actual decrease (however small) might exist:

…it might be a consequence of…surging anxiety rates, of psychological frailty, of widespread antidepressant use…of environmental estrogens leaked by plastics [and soy products], of dropping testosterone levels…of helicopter parents…of sleep deprivation, of obesity…

In my estimation, the most likely candidate for this supposed decline is the ongoing culture war on sex, which discourages people from being honest about their sexuality (especially activity involving sex workers). In other words they aren’t really having less sex; they’re just admitting it less.

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#815)

Regular readers will recognize Alberta’s article as completely unmoored from reality:

There’s been a “total abandonment of pornography as a battleground in America’s culture war,” writes Politico reporter Tim Alberta in “How the GOP Gave Up on Porn“. He couldn’t be more wrong. The flashpoints have shifted certainly since the 1970s and ’80s, when Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority teamed with second-wave feminists to take on Playboy and Hustler. And social conservatives’ embrace of President Donald Trump does present a stark contrast to earlier eras…But such hypocrisy should not be mistaken for a radical repositioning of Republican dogma on “obscenity”…it was just two years ago that Republicans added language to their official party platform that declared porn “has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions“…Last year, Republicans in at least a dozen state legislatures introduced measures to ban porn access for anyone who wouldn’t pay a $20 fine…But never mind reality. Fresh from declaring that there’s been no recent Republican action against porn because he doesn’t personally remember it, Alberta gets right to theorizing about why…

See No Evil (#854)

Prosecutors want to cage a man for twenty years for drawings of fictional characters:

…a Rapid City, South Dakota, man was charged in federal district court with…Possession of Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children…Andrew Hallock…pleaded not guilty to the charges…[which carry] a mandatory minimum of 5 years up to 20 years in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine…The charges [derive from] Hallock…possessing…sexually explicit drawings and cartoons of minors…The investigation is being conducted by the I[maginary] Crimes Against [Imaginary] Children Taskforce…

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#885)

Politicians send thugs to violently assault women to advance vain Disnification campaign:

Police and military personnel [brutalized] and detained 53 Laotians–50 women and three girls who were allegedly employed as sex workers–during raids on karaoke bars in southern Thailand’s Narathiwat province…Authorities could not find and arrest the bar owners during the raids, but they were…[threatening] the…sex workers…[with] prosecut[ion] for prostitution [to intimidate as many of them as possible into claiming to be “trafficking victims”]…

No Difference (#886)

Tanzania ramps up its pogroms against gay men:

International human rights organisations have condemned…the harassment and arrest of gay men in Tanzania, following comments from a government official on plans to establish a task force to identify, track down and arrest people suspected of being gay…ten men were arrested on suspicion of being gay on…Zanzibar after members of the public [ratted] them [out] to police. They are being held…with[out] charge…for allegedly conducting a same-sex marriage ceremony, and the police reported they found the men sitting in pairs “two by two”…

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In the News (#888)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, brothels, California, Cambodia, Canada, censorship, China, escort review sites, Full of Themselves, harm reduction, Ireland, No Difference, North Carolina, politicians, porn, pregnancy, Profound Ignorance, prohibitionist myths, Pyrrhic Victory, robots, sex rays, streetwalkers, surveillance, Swedish model, Traffic in Nonsense, Uganda, video, Virtual Unreality, Washington (state), Welcome to Our Updates, welcome to our world, Where Are the Victims?, Whither Canada?, With Friends Like These, yellow journalism on November 17, 2018| 5 Comments »

Even those who mean well are often operating with bullshit information when it comes to figuring out how to help sex workers. – Tristan Greene

Where Are the Victims?

In which renting rooms to people in a legal trade is pretended to be a “crime”:

Paul McGrory…sub-let a three bedroom house to prostitutes over a nine month period in 2016…McGrory…charged the women £350 per week for each room…the prosecution [admitted] McGrory was not involved in human trafficking and had not coerced the prostitutes, taken a cut of their earnings or…obtain[ed] clients for the[m, but felt compelled to pontificate that]…”You were not a pimp, but by your activities you have upset the good law abiding people of Argyle Street”…The judge…imposed [60 hours of community service and] three year[s of]…probation…

With Friends Like These…

What kind of warped mind quotes prohibitionist myths while claiming it wants to “help” sex workers?

A recent report from KIRO 7 on sex workers on Seattle’s…Aurora Ave….[gave lip service to] the increased dangers in the profession [created by prohibitionists]. But is there a way the city could actually help?…“Women who experience prostitution have a rate of PTSD that’s twice that of returning war veterans,” [lied prohibitionist] Alisa Bernard…“In a city where we’re going to have safe injection sites, there are not safe places for [street workers] to go to exchange money for sex,” said The Ron and Don Show’s Don O’Neill on KIRO Radio…“I know that kids sometimes become sex slaves. I know those stories…The johns want to be left alone, and the prostitutes want to be left alone, so why not tax it?…Why not make sure that they are safe? If they want a way out, why not help them with a way out?”…

The popular myth that sex workers don’t pay taxes is probably one of the most subtly damaging ones.

No Difference

Statists tell us that the slippery slope is a “fallacy”:

[Ugandan] model and socialite Judith Heard was asked to pay $3,000 in blackmail money to stop her stolen nude selfies being published online…she…didn’t pay up and…her…photos…were [published]…followed by a warrant for her arrest…under Uganda’s Anti-Pornography Act…the Ugandan…Pornography Control Committee (PCC)…issue[s] arrest warrants for…women who[se]…nude pictures and sex tapes [a]re shared online without their consent…PCC chair Annette Kezaabu…[bloviated] “We know that she took this photo privately, but…why did she take it in the first place?…Where do we want to see Uganda in the next 50 years? Do we want to be led by perverts?”…She said the government’s “eventual aim is to have no footage of sex or nudity on TV whatsoever,” and that the committee intends to “go after” pop stars who wear revealing clothing…

Traffic in Nonsense

Since Quickel’s “Vigilante Truckers” got out-competed by “Truckers Against Trafficking”, he apparently decided to rebrand:

The organization Vigilante Truth [cl]aims…sex trafficking…is a growing epidemic in Charlotte…North Carolina…“We’re not law enforcement,” said Bo Quickel, the owner of Vigilante Truth, “we’re just citizens out here trying to [profit from] the [hysteria by spreading myths to] the public”…Quickel…explained [that women are so stupid we can’t take selfies or run a business on our own, so]…“there’s somebody else there taking the picture…and that person’s always going to be a pimp, a trafficker, a handler…none of them get any of the money, so it’s all about forced coercion, fraud, blackmail”…

Even by “sex trafficking” standards, Quickel’s misogyny is outrageous; all of his propaganda presents women as inert vegetables. Once he even compared us to bottles of laundry detergent.

Virtual Unreality

Why do “futurists” prefer to make ignorant statements about sex work rather than consulting sex workers?

A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Surrey and the University of Oxford [fantasizes] that autonomous cars will usher in…a new paradigm for sex workers…within a few years – a decade, tops…they could provide a safe place for people to be alone in public…there are obvious reasons why sex workers shouldn’t visit client’s homes under most circumstances, or allow them to visit theirs…Driverless cars provide a solution…both the non-participating public and those engaging in sex work could benefit from a paradigm that keeps prostitutes out of seedy motels and off the sidewalks by putting them on the streets, inside warm cars full of security features and snacks…

Though the writer clearly means well (and even quotes yours truly), he’s too caught up in this silly fantasy to see the gaping holes in it. First, there’s the typical belief that street workers are common, when in fact less than 10% of us work that way (and that number was shrinking before the US government started intentionally destroying advertising venues). The “obvious reasons” why we “shouldn’t” do outcalls or incalls aren’t “obvious” to either me or the very large number of escorts in the developed world, making this a solution in search of a problem for us. Robot cars have 27% higher rates of rider motion sickness than human-piloted vehicles, meaning some 6-10% of riders, and there would be no way to be sure that their insides were not full of hidden surveillance devices; in any regime where sex work was not 100% decriminalized, robot cars could lock their doors and transport both sex worker and client to the nearest pigpen. And though these futurists tout such vehicles as “safer” for sex workers, imagine trying to escape a violent client in an area too small to get out of his grip which is also going at 100 kph down a motorway. It’s rare that an epigram I choose is so correct, yet so ironic in context.

Full of Themselves (#807)

As I predicted, it looks like Rubmaps may become the new prohibitionist bogeyman to replace Backpage:

Many San Diego Massage parlors are offering [happy endings]…and [yellow journalists] found [what wasn’t hidden:] a public website…[named] “RubMaps” [which] publishes reviews for massage parlors…[there are] 243…listed in San Diego County and, according to the reviews on the website, 173 of those parlors offer sex services…An online company statement [reeks of terror that it will be targeted, parrots “sex trafficking” hysteria and obsequiously promises to lick cop boots]…16 of the 173 parlors that are allegedly offering sex services…are within 1,000 feet of a public school…

Sex rays! Pearl-clutching! Bootlicking! Pretending reviews are a new thing! So much filth in so few words.

Pyrrhic Victory (#814)

Another step toward the end of privacy, everywhere:

Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool: “gait recognition” software that uses people’s body shapes and how they walk to identify them, even when their faces are hidden from cameras. Already used by police on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, “gait recognition” is part of a push across China to develop artificial-intelligence and data-driven surveillance that is [not] raising [anywhere near enough] concern about how far the technology will go. Huang Yongzhen, the CEO of Watrix, said that its system can identify people from up to 50 meters…away, even with their back turned or face covered…“Gait analysis can’t be fooled by simply limping, walking with splayed feet or hunching over, because we’re analyzing all the features of an entire body”…Security officials in China’s far-western province of Xinjiang, a region whose Muslim population is already subject to intense surveillance and control, have expressed interest in the software…

Welcome To Our World (#853)

Locking pregnant women in cages for “trafficking” themselves. Had enough yet?

The Phnom Penh Municipal Police arrested 15 people related to surrogacy who were together in a house in Sen Sok district. Eleven of the persons…are surrogate mothers, two cooks for the ladies, and two unspecified men…the detainees were sent to the Anti-Human Trafficking Office for [interrogation]…

Whither Canada? (#860)

Why do journalists with the facts in front of them feel compelled to cede ground to prohibitionist lies? Why do they keep repeating the blatant lie that Canada’s Swedish Model Plus was “meant to protect sex workers” when we have reams of data, including the clear and on-the-record statements of politicians, that exactly the opposite is true? This law was not intended to “protect” sex workers; it was intended to exterminate us:

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In the News (#886)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Australia, Backpage, bad customers, BDSM, bogus studies, brothels, California, censorship, cops, cosmetic surgery, Damned Lies, drugs, Full of Themselves, Hawaii, holidays, Hollywood, homosexuality, hotels, hysteria, imaginative fiction, language, LGBT rights, License To Rape, Louisiana, Minnesota, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New York, No Difference, Not To Be Taken Internally, Pennsylvania, politicians, porn, pragmatism, prisons, propaganda, psychology, rape, Real People, scams, Signs, Somewhere in the Middle, Tanzania, Texas, The Clueless Leading the Hysterical, The Notorious Badge, The Punitive Mindset, Traffic Jam, Washington (state) on November 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »

There is no “[sex trafficking] marketplace”, but rather all sorts of people selling and buying sex for their own reasons, some of them miserable. – Laura Agustín

License to Rape

Police states define the bodies of all citizens as “crime scenes” which can be violated by “authorities” at will:

San Diego County may not remove children from their homes and subject them to highly intrusive physical examinations without parental permission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled…The case stems from an April 2010 incident involving Michael and Melissa Mann and their four young children. The Manns had apparently spanked at least one of the kids with a wooden spoon as a form of punishment…The county [abducted] the children…and [held] them in [custody]…while the parents went to court to regain custody…a doctor performed a 22-step medical exam requiring “blood samples and a gynecological and rectal exam…[including] separat[ing] the labia and look[ing] at the hymen”…County officials did not obtain a court order authorizing these examinations, nor did the parents sign off. Indeed, the Manns didn’t even know [that]…their kids [had been molested] until one of them said something about it later…

Real People

Universities are very slowly beginning to turn toward sex worker rights:

…Lady Lola Lightning…a 23-year-old [NYU] sophomore and Salem, Massachusetts native started playing with Periscope just five months ago….[and has] gathered a loyal following as a webcam model…she doesn’t use toys or do too many tricks; she just strips down and has a raw chat with viewers…along with her new job as a stripper in Brooklyn, she is able to pay for her entire tuition and living expenses without support from her family…

Not To Be Taken Internally (First Updates of the Year)

Please, y’all, do NOT let non-doctors inject liquid silicone into your bodies, unless you want to die:

On October 15, 2018, a 28-year-old Australian-born Seattle resident named Jack Chapman, also known as Pup Tank, died…he…was…romantically linked to Dylan Ray Hafertepen, a well-known member of the Dom/sub pup play communities in San Francisco and, later, Seattle…Hafertepen[‘s]…Tumblr (as well as the Tumblr accounts of several of his pups) contained numerous images of their engorged scrotums, dramatically increased in size due to liquid silicone injections. In one picture, Tank’s testicles dangle outside of his basketball shorts, his nuts roughly the size of two dodgeballs…Since World War II, cosmetic surgeons and back-alley “pumpers” have offered liquid silicone injections as a quick and dirty form of plastic surgery…But such injections aren’t approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for cosmetic procedures because of adverse reactions. Sometimes they harden into painful masses that appear like wormy tumors under the skin. Sometimes the surrounding tissue gets infected…Other times, stray bits can travel through the bloodstream, causing [fatal] embolisms…Numerous articles have discussed trans women who end up disfigured or dead because of silicone injections by unlicensed pumpers. But few mention the pumpers who offer silicone injections for gay men…Tank died from “silicone embolism syndrome”…[which] led to “pneumonitis”…bleeding in the lungs…and eventually…death…

The article is very long and very detailed, and describes what looks to me like a very abusive BDSM relationship. But it wasn’t the emotional & psychological abuse which killed Chapman/Tank; it was misuse of a substance which has caused the deaths of many seeking quick, cheap body modification without proper medical safeguards.

The Notorious Badge

Looks like I’m not the only sex worker writing horror with sex worker characters:

Award-winning screenwriter Isa Mazzei did not have a welcoming introduction to the movie industry. “I’ve…never been more sexually harassed than trying to sell this film in Hollywood,” she [said]…Mazzei, a former cam girl, has written one of the hottest horror movies on this year’s genre festival circuit. Cam, which will debut on Netflix later this month, drags the audience inside the paranoia and perils of being an internet star. Her success in creating a believable yet terrifying online dystopia was bolstered by its roots in Mazzei’s real fears, including the risks of being harassed, hacked, doxxed or assaulted…Mazzei had to endure the sleaze of movie execs who believed they could harass and belittle her because of her previous sex work. Lots of them asked her to share details from her past life, some suggested she was only credited as the screenwriter as a gimmick to help the pitch, while one owner of a Hollywood agency went so far as to write an alternate ending to the semi-biographical movie that included himself and Mazzei inserted into the script…

No Difference

African campaigns against homosexuality are a lot like US campaigns against sex work:

The governor of…Dar es Salaam…launched an anti-gay crackdown…calling on [collaborators] to begin reporting homosexuals for round-ups to begin next week…homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania, with same-sex acts between men punishable by a maximum life sentence. “These homosexuals boast on social networks,” said [governor Paul] Makonda, a fervent Christian and loyal ally of President John Magufuli. “Give me their names,” he demanded. “My ad hoc team will begin to get their hands on them”…Anti-homosexual sentiment is rife in Tanzania…and…has increased since Magufuli’s 2015 election…AIDS clinics have also been shut down under Magafuli, accused of “promoting” homosexuality, while he has encouraged women to abandon birth control and have more babies…

Somewhere in the Middle (#425)

Kate Iselin on myths about clients:

…Films and television shows cast clients as either sinister perverts who slither around in the darkness…or drug-addled millionaires looking for more Barbie-lookalikes to fill their yachts with for the weekend…Sure, not every client is perfect. Some are far from it. I could share a horror story or two about some who…disregard [hygiene or] boundaries…But clients like these are, thankfully, rare. The majority of people who visit sex workers — whether they visit strip clubs, brothels, see private workers, or simply download some good, old-fashioned porn — are as normal and average as you and me. They have jobs, and hobbies, and families, and social lives, just like anyone else…I believe it’s the heavy stigma around sex work that carries over to our clients, too: it makes sense that someone who thinks sex workers are immoral and disgusting would also feel the same about the people who pay to spend time with us…the belief that our clients are bad people is damaging not only to our clients themselves, but to the sex industry as a whole…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#687)

This is what a moral panic looks like:

The Drug Enforcement Administration [worked to drum up hysteria over] candy laced with marijuana and methamphetamine this Halloween. The DEA St. Louis Division says there has been no [actual] threat, but [authoritarians are using the existence] of drug-laced edibles [in states where cannabis is legal to frighten the ignorant]…signs of marijuana or meth-laced candy include unusual wrapping, appearance, unusual colors, odd smell…candy…that is unwrapped or unmarked…

There has literally never been a case of a kid getting drugged candy in his trick-or-treat bag. Not a single one. Every time the claim has been made, it turns out to be either an intentional hoax or some nefarious shit by the parents.

Full of Themselves (#787)

Puritanical language is an intrinsic part of any story about cops raiding massage parlors:

Police have posted notices at 18 massage parlors in Kent [Washington] saying that they will be shut down…after a monthslong [escapade involving vice cops getting happy endings at] businesses that they say were fronts for prostitution…some of the massage-parlor owners and employees have been charged with crimes and…[prosecutors] plan…to bring charges against any customers who engaged in prostitution…many of the businesses…were not licensed by the state and failed to follow regulations to protect the health and privacy of patrons…

“Fronts”. “Prostitution”. “Crimes”. “Engaged in prostitution”. “Regulations”. And it’s pretty hilarious to see thugs pretending to give a shit about people’s privacy while simultaneously plotting to destroy their lives.

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#792)

It’s good to see “sex addiction” collapsing as an excuse for bad behavior:

A former WAFB employee who secretly recorded two female station employees using the restroom in 2017 was sentenced to four months in prison…Morgan McDermitt…must also register as a sex offender for 15 years. His wife, upon hearing the sentence…ran from the courtroom sobbing…Judge Beau Higginbotham initially sentenced McDermitt…to four years in prison…but then suspended all but four months of the sentence. In July, Higginbotham refused to accept a proposed plea bargain in the case that would have only placed McDermitt on probation…The judge asked McDermitt, who sought sex addiction therapy after his arrest, why he did not seek help before he was caught…

Damned Lies (#866)

It’s good to see fact checkers demolishing politicians’ grandiose claims about Backpage:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton…[claimed to have] “shut down the world’s largest human trafficking marketplace”…The Texas attorney general’s office helped shut down the Backpage website, which is what another Paxton ad says. However, the federal government led the shutdown and officials in other states pitched in. Significantly too, we otherwise landed no confirmation that the Backpage site, which profited from ads about sex, also was the world’s largest trafficking marketplace–a classification that experts found dubious and unverifiable. All told, we rate this statement Mostly False…

Suppression

This is especially important because other states are trying the same scam:

…Pennsylvania [prisons will]…allow…book orders to resume through a new centralized processing center…The [censorship plan] was…[pretended] to eliminate drug smuggling into the prisons, [when in actuality all contraband comes in via screws]…[Chief Screw] John Wetzel said the new procedure was a response to criticisms by book-donation groups…The new policy…allows family and friends to order books to be shipped directly from publishers or bookstores to a secure processing center in Bellefonte, Pa., where staff will screen books five days per week. It also enables inmates to place orders directly from a hard-copy catalog…the book-donation groups still have concerns about how the new process will play out, including how the [prison system] will ensure the packages reach the inmates who requested them, intact with all supplemental materials…Sean Damon of Amistad Law Project, which led protests over the book prohibition…[is] not satisfied, as other new security measures — including the scanning and surveillance of incoming mail, and the photocopying of inmate legal mail — remain in place…

Traffic Jam (#877)

Remember that “threat” a Hawaiian prohibitionist claimed to have received from “pimps”?

The recent publication of a hyperbolic study that purported to show an “astronomical” level of demand for sex workers in the Hawaii was punctuated by…Police…respond[ing] to a call regarding a purported threat of physical violence against [prohibitionist politician] Khara Jabola-Carolus…police concluded that there had been no physical threat…[what actually happened was that during] a conference call…one [prohibitionist claimed to]…hav[e] received a…text message [from Dominique Roe-Sepowitz which in turn claimed] that…some person or persons were “trying to get Jabola-Carolus fired”…

Signs (#878)

Another state mandates indoctrinating hotel workers into being anti-whore snitches:

A state mandate now aims to [harass] sex [workers] in Minnesota through the state’s hotel industry. The law requires all hotel and motel employees to be [indoctrinated] in [anti-whore propaganda]. The training must be completed by Nov. 28. After that date, all new employees must be [indoctrinated] within 90 days of hire…the signs to look for [include] guest[s traveling light]…or [with their children]…“There might be signs in the room – for example, that they…request extra sheets and extra towels, [and enjoy their privacy]” said Minnesota [prohibitionist]…Beatriz Menanteau…

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