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Posts Tagged ‘Size Matters’

In the News (#1651)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged abortion, artificial stupidity, censorship, Censorship Ascendant, cops, dehumanization, drugs, fascism, internet, law, Louisiana, Mad Libs, Monsters, New York, Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs, politicians, porn, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, Russia, Size Matters, sporting events, surveillance, The Last Shall Be First, The Vultures Descend, transgender, Utah, Walled Garden, You Were Warned on July 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

If there are no punishments for violating someone’s rights, they’re not really rights at all. – Hemant Mehta

Size Matters

The only religion which it’s actually free to practice in the US is Christianity:

The Supreme Court has made it official: Religious freedom only applies if you’re a conservative Christian…[by] rul[ing] 6-3…that a Rastafarian man whose hair was cut off against his will—violating his religious beliefs—had no legal remedies available to him…Damon Landor…hadn’t cut his hair in decades because he follows the Nazarite vow—which includes a reference to Numbers 6:5: “… No razor may be used on their head… they must let their hair grow long.” He continued that vow even after entering two Louisiana jails in 2020, for a five-month sentence…[but] when he was transferred to a third [dungeon]…Landor worried they might try to cut his hair to fit in with [victim subjugation] policies, so he showed [screws] paperwork [of]…The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000…[which] says prisons that receive federal funding can’t violate someone’s religious beliefs unless there’s a really good reason for it…They threw his paperwork in the trash, handcuffed him to a chair, and shaved off his hair. He later sued…both the prison and the individual [screw]s for violating his rights…[but] writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said [because the screws didn’t want to follow the law]…they couldn’t be held accountable…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1301)

This is only the beginning:

Madison Square Garden compiled a list of activists who have publicly criticized [its] use of facial recognition…in…a document…accessible to [anyon]e in…the company…MSG[‘s owner] Jim Dolan[, who also owns Radio City Music Hall]…has…a reputation for being pernicious against his perceived enemies, [and] is…keeping track of specific people who take issue with [his creepy surveillance]…The…list…[includes] three people who have criticized MSG’s use of facial recognition: Evan Greer…of…Fight for the Future; Albert Fox Cahn…of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project…and…[Adam] Schwartz…of [EFF, and]…includes background information…social media handles and…screenshots of [criticism]…“The fact that MSG is creating dossiers on activists who say things they don’t like shows exactly why private companies should not be allowed to use dangerous surveillance technologies like facial recognition,” [said] Greer…“Given their recent treatment of a trans woman trying to use the bathroom…I’m also not surprised they misgendered me”…

Censorship Ascendant (#1529)

Goons are now being dispatched to intimidate people for wrongthink:

Two…[ICE goons threaten]ed…a Syracuse [New York] woman…[in an attempt] to [censor her] social media account[, claiming she was mean to them]…PaigeLynne Gonyea said she believes they [we]re referring to a January post where she named the [goon] who [murdered] protester Renee Good. Gonyea was working as a poll worker…at the Central Library…when [the goons showed up]. She…invited them in[side because]…she did not want to meet them outside alone…The [goons] handed [her] a form letter [full of Trumpist] threats…[of] prosecution…“They tried to scare me into signing it”…she said…she does not intend to delete her post…[but instead contacted] the attorney general’s office…[her US representative, the] Mayor [of Syracuse] and the New York Civil Liberties Union…

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#1532)

Never forget that this started with censorship of internet porn:

Anastasia Ovsyannikova…has been detained [in Russia for being] on [OnlyFans]…She gained fame through her collaborations with Diana Shurygina, wh[o]…was [also] arrested in Moscow earlier this month [when cops staged a theatrical raid] on her apartment and [stole] cameras and [other] filming equipment…the…p[er]secution is part of a growing wave of cases targeting women over online adult content. In a separate case, a woman named Anastasia F. was detained in Yekaterinburg on similar charges [for] posting explicit content on OnlyFans…The Kremlin has for several years sought to position the country as more [puritanical]…But this stance hardened a[s part of its propaganda campaign to draw attention away from its disastrous] invasion of Ukraine in February 2022…

Walled Garden (#1595)

Western nations are competing to out-China China:

[Politicians have]…unveil[ed] a [uniparty collaboration] on [the massive internet surveillance and censorship bill named]…KOSA…[which] now…includes age verification for [any website that any politician points at while belching “]sexually explicit[“, plus provisians allowing the government to control the design of] video game[s] and…social media…platforms…[plus threats to attack]…platforms [which refuse] to silence users [enough for politicians’ tastes]…

The Vultures Descend (#1645)

This was always the endgame, regardless of claims to the contrary:

In its quest to outlaw abortion across the country, the [forced birth] movement has [long courted the wishy-washy by claiming they want]…women who get the procedure…spared punishment, while doctors and others who make it available should be p[ersecuted]…But a growing number of [forced-birth fanatics] are starting to [drop the mask,] argu[ing] that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies [is] to arrest them. The [unmasking] is coming as [forced-birth fanatics] express frustration that the number of abortions happening now is higher than [before] Roe v. Wade was overturned, largely because [women don’t want fanatical strangers controlling their bodies]…

Mad Libs (#1649)

Reason needs to be far more skeptical of the outlandish claims of chatbot pushers:

…Utah has passed several laws and initiatives to [funnel]…healthcare [money into the hands of chatbot purveyors], including a[n ill-considered scheme] launched earlier this year to allow…chatbots to fill prescriptions…[via a fascist collaboration named] Doctronic…[so far] the project [only allows algorithmic refills of ongoing]…prescriptions and medication for asthma, diabetes, and other c[hronic] health conditions. Patients still need to visit a[n actual] doctor for new prescriptions…but…[as AMA executive John Whyte points out] “It’s really a concern about a slippery slope. Do we start here with prescriptions, then all of a sudden, is it going to lead to diagnostic tests?”…Doctronic [claims] its platform is guided by the opinions of board-certified physicians[, but the exact same statement is made by insurance companies about the medical washouts whom they employ to deny claims]…

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In the News (#1648)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Broken Record, California, cell phones, cops, Europe, fascism, Florida, games, hysteria, Imaginary Evils, LGBT rights, Nebraska, Panopticon, politicians, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, restaurants, robots, Size Matters, sporting events, surveillance, Time Warp, Welcome to the Future on June 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Academics who have studied human trafficking at big sporting events…say that it is all hokum. – Dave Mastio

Time Warp

Nebraska politicians recently held a bizarrely-anachronistic press conference during which they spouted the kind of “sex trafficking” fantasies which were popular at the height of the hysteria 14 years ago; the panic is so moribund that even a journalist in a largely-rural state feels comfortable calling these politicians liars and debunking a boss hog’s nonsense “statistics”. It took far too long, but it’s still good to see; contrast with “Broken Record” below.

Pyrrhic Victory (#1578)

Promoters of dystopia love to vomit words like “security” and “accountability” into the faces of useful idiots:

…At least three gay bars in [San Francisco] have started using Patronscan…a [facial recognition system sold as] intended to flag fake IDs…[and] the experience of having a camera turned on every person entering the venues, often without warning, has left many [justifiably] outraged…Management at Mix, Badlands, and Toad Hall [refus]ed to speak to the Gazetteer about the issue, though…the Patronscan website…admits…the [scan] goes beyond simple document checks to…include…third-party checks…[to betray] people [to cops, spooks, and goons]…a…bouncer [also admitted]…facial scans would be stored [indefinitely on a bouncer’s say-so]…The company [justified jumping off a bridge by saying]…more than 700 [other kids have already done it]…But it has already become the subject of…a class-action lawsuit in Illinois…

Imaginary Evils (#1597)

This is a very unusual development:

A European religious freedom group is slamming the prosecution of OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone and former executive Rachel Cherwitz…Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience…has United Nations consultative status, which means it’s accredited by the U.N. to submit written statements and make oral arguments before the U.N. Human Rights Council…prosecutors seemed intent on putting the group’s beliefs and practices on trial…”The legal theory used…marks a major departure from established constitutional principles…The defendants were convicted…based solely on psychological influence, without evidence of threats, violence, or physical coercion.” You can see how this theory might apply to a wide range of religious groups, philosophical movements, political movements, self-improvement programs, health regimens, lifestyle groups, and so on. If the federal statute against human trafficking [can be used thus]…we risk turning all sorts of influence and ordinary business into a crime. All authorities have to do is label something a cult, and voila—any of the group’s instructions, practices, and marketing tactics become sinister…

Panopticon (#1611)

The only way to keep data from being abused or leaked is not to collect it:

…ALPR…company Flock exposed the reasons cops conducted searches, and sometimes the specific searched license plates, in common search engines like DuckDuckGo and Bing, according to tests by…the NoCo Privacy Coalition…“Flock appears to be leaking tons of law enforcement vehicle queries and possible user data. Data publicly visible in search result URLs includes: license plate state and numbers, make, model, color, identifiers such as ‘window stickers’ and ‘top rack,’ case number, and more,” the organization said…Flock’s [response was to absurdly belch that] “Protecting customer data is a top priority for Flock” [when their entire business model is to enable cops to conduct unconstitutional warrantless searches]…

Welcome to the Future (#1619)

When an internet service is “free”, you are the product:

Hundreds of millions of Pokémon Go players spent years filming the streets, parks, and buildings around them to earn [make-believe] rewards. Those roughly 30 billion environmental scans are now owned by Niantic Spatial, and [were sold to] train a camera-based navigation model that a [fascist] contractor is preparing to put into drones and other military robots…[so they can] locate…by sight when satellite signals fail…Niantic Spatial CTO Brian McClendon, who previously led the team behind Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View, has said the approach suits robots operating where GPS regularly drops out, such as dense cities, and where signals are deliberately blocked, such as war zones…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1622)

Government thugs don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their evil:

Police arrested a man in Florida for attempted child abduction in a town he had never visited, [ignoring all evidence other than a]…facial recognition [false positive]. Represented by the…ACLU…he is now suing the [pig]s and [cop shop]s who put him through it. In November 2023, police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, responded to a call about an attempted child abduction at a McDonald’s…In August 2024, deputies arrested Dillon at his home in Fort Myers, Florida—hundreds of miles away…More than two months later, prosecutors dropped the charges after his attorney provided evidence that he was at work on the day in question. But [cops ignored]…mobile ordering records, payment data…online account information from McDonald’s…the [fact that the] manager recognized the assailant as a “regular customer”…and…his cell phone’s GPS data, showing…he was…300 miles away…on the night in question…

Broken Record (#1638)

Given that this misogynistic masturbatory myth started with the World Cup, it’s fitting that its dying days are spent there as well:

[Even] sex worker platform[s sometimes buy into ridiculous myths, as demonstrated by the platform] Erobella, [which moronically claims] that…9,000 [European sex workers are “]planning[” travel to North American for the World Cup], while 22,000 others are [“]considering[“] it…[given that] Erobella [claims it] is…committed to combating stigma around sex work, [it seems especially bizarre that it is promoting the nonsensical propaganda]…that major sporting events like the World Cup have historically been really lucrative periods for the sex industry, [given that any sex worker who has ever actually worked during one of these events knows better]…

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In the News (#1627)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, abortion, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, Dirty Amateurs, disease, Divination, Do As I Say, drugs, ethics, Indiana, law, libraries, Mad Libs, Minnesota, New York, scams, sex work is work, Size Matters, Tennessee, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control on April 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Librarians should not be used as a filter for political agendas.
– Luanne James

The Vultures Descend (#1430)

Two years later, this decision is still standing:

…Indiana’s…Religious Freedom Restoration Act…[of] 2015….was one of many such state laws passed [by]…evangelical Christians to [privilege]…their beliefs [above those of other religions]…Hoosier Jews for Choice saw an opening for Jews to…[use] the same law…to [protect Jews’] access to abortion…[and] Judge Christina Klineman [recently] upheld a 2024 decision…permanently blocking enforcement of the state’s abortion ban for plaintiffs with sincere religious objections…the case is [now] headed to the Indiana Supreme Court…[Naturally, forced-birth fanatics are angry.] “Indiana’s religious freedom laws were passed for the purpose of [enshrining Christian] religious practice [in law], not to protect the [beliefs] of [others from laws justified by Christian dogma],” [said] Alexander Mingus…of the Indiana Catholic Conference, [absurdly declaring Judaism a] “Religion…that preach[es] violence [which is] not protected by religious freedom claims”…Jews [view] the fetus as “potential life,” gaining the legal status of nefesh, or personhood, at birth…

Dirty Amateurs (#1445)

This is the second article I’ve seen on this fungus in two years:

Infectious disease experts…are working to educate doctors about a new…STI…which recently caused an outbreak of at least 30 cases in Minnesota…the fungus Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMvii)…spreads through intimate contact and has predominately been seen among…gay men. It causes painful, coin-sized rashes on the arms, buttocks, trunk, legs and genitals. While infections can be treated with oral antifungal medications, treatment can take several weeks [and]…TMvii can resemble other skin conditions…so proper evaluation is important…TMvii [was first] identified in 2023 in Europe among men who had recently traveled in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. case was reported in New York in 2024…[and] the Minnesota outbreak…began [last] July…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1463)

It’s heartwarming to see goons snitching on each other:

The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to [hire] sex w[orkers in places where it is legal, such as]…Colombia and Thailand[, instead of simply raping them in the US as CBP policy demands]…Kristi Noem [covered for him, but once she got the sack the snitches got loose. One said,] “If you have the character where you’re going to go [hire consenting] third-world country women [instead of deceiving, raping, and robbing migrant women right here in the US and then deporting them], it’s just not cool in my book”…

A Moral Cancer (#1520)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

By pushing a 75 percent wholesale tax on nicotine pouches, New York…Gov. Kathy Hochul [claims she’s] address[ing] “a public health concern.” That rationale is absurd on its face, since this tax would sharply raise the cost of a nicotine product that is far less hazardous than cigarettes, perversely discouraging smokers from making a switch that could save their lives…tobacco smoke…contains myriad toxins and carcinogens, and…the Biden [FDA]…authorized the marketing of Zyn nicotine pouches [because]…”nicotine pouch products…benefit…adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products”…the Royal College of Physicians estimates that “the hazard to health” from e-cigarettes, which likewise do not contain tobacco or burn anything…”is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco”…

Due to its absurdly-high taxes, 55% of cigarettes smoked in New York are black market. But I guess Hochul wants that to also be true of smoking-replacement products, and to give the NYPD another excuse for violence against citizens.

Divination (#1530)

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

Colorado recently enacted a law protecting [citizens from wrongful] arrest…due to [cops’ misuse of unreliable] roadside tests for drugs…police can no longer make arrests solely for misdemeanor drug possession based on the results of colorimetric field drug tests and instead must issue suspects a summons to appear in court. The act also requires courts, before a defendant enters a plea in a case where a field test was used, to inform defendants of the known error rates for the tests and their right to request testing from a forensics laboratory…[cop]s’ use of unverified drug field tests…result[s] in [an estimated 30,000] innocent people being arrested, jailed, and prosecuted…[every year. Cop]s around the country have jailed innocent people…[for] “presumptive positive” results on bird poop, donut glaze, cotton candy, and sand from inside a stress ball…

Field tests are exclusionary tests; in other words, they are designed to tell whether something is not X substance. A positive result does not mean “This substance is X”; it means “this substance might or might not be X”. But cops are too stupid to understand the difference, and wouldn’t care if they could.

Mad Libs (#1595)

We are now in the early days of a dark age:

[Lazy, dishonest] researchers are increasingly using…LLMs…to…conduct literature searches, write manuscripts and format bibliographies…[resulting in a flood of] non-existent academic references…One analysis of nearly 18,000 papers…found a sharp increase in [fake] references…tens of thousands of 2025 publications, including journal papers and books, as well as conference proceedings, probably contain [incorrect or fake] references generated by [chatbots]…researchers are concerned that the problem will soon get out of hand…[and academic publishers are trying to] decid[e]what to do about hallucinated citations that make it into the published literature…

Thought Control (#1625)

They’re going to have trouble finding a competent professional willing to play their “What books will we censor today?” game:

A Tennessee library board has fired the county’s top librarian for refusing to comply with its [demand] to [hid]e more than 100 LGBT…books f[or juveniles in]…the adult section…Luanne James…said that [hid]ing the books would violate…residents’ First Amendment rights and compromise her professional obligation against government-mandated [censorship]…Last fall, a…Wyoming library director w[as awarded] $700,000 to settle a lawsuit after her firing [but wannabe censors]…Cody York…and…Caleb Tidwell [don’t care because it isn’t their money James will get when she wins a similar lawsuit]…

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In the News (#1600)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Obituary, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, Aphrodite, Arizona, censorship, domestic violence, drugs, If Men Were Angels, Illinois, Indiana, internet, libraries, Missouri, Oklahoma, politicians, porn, rape, scams, Size Matters, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, Tennessee, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, transgender, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals on December 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[Public libraries]…exist so that no one—not a church, not a politician, not a board—gets to decide who deserves access to the truth. – Keri Lambert

R.I.P. Tracy Elise

Tracy Elise Johnson…died on Nov. 17, 2025…[of] glioblastoma…In the 1990s…she developed a framework she called “female-led sacred healing through the body-temple,” eventually founding spiritual communities in Seattle and later Arizona devoted to…tantra-informed teachings…and ancient feminine-centered traditions. She envisioned her ministry as a modern revival of global goddess temples, grounded in the belief that women’s bodies are inherently sacred and healing. [From 2012 to] 2016, her spiritual work [was used as an excuse for years of persecution by the State]. She chose integrity over convenience, enduring years of hardship, incarceration, and supervision without renouncing her beliefs. Her story, later covered internationally, became…evidence of how our culture still struggles to honor the sacred feminine without fear…

If Men Were Angels (#1455)

“Ministered to” is a hell of a euphemism for “molested”:

Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher who for half a century ministered to thousands of children across four states, has been arrested on child sex abuse charges…in Elkland, Missouri…where he [now awaits extradition] to Oklahoma…[and possible] life in prison…[for multiple cases of rape and other] sexual…abuse…in the 1970s and ’80s when he was an Assemblies of God minister…one of th[e first to accuse him was] Kerri…Jackson, now 53, [whom] he molested…for years in Tulsa in the early 1980s, beginning when she was around 9…some of the [victims have] pursued [justice] for most of their lives…Past attempts…in Oklahoma and Missouri failed [due to stonewalling by] police and prosecutors…But the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office…[is now] applying a frontier-era statute that pauses the statute of limitations for suspects who flee…elsewhere. Prosecutors recently used the same legal theory [against typical and representative] megachurch pastor Robert Morris…Oklahoma…authorities[‘ change of heart was motivated by an]…NBC News [investigation] published…in May…children [were taught by] their parents…to [see]…Campbell as an almost mythical figure…with [magical] power to…cast out demons and heal the sick. He gr[oomed]…girls from broken homes…and…was…[at first protected by] Assemblies of God officials…[until] 1988…Around 1990, he founded a nondenominational church [which]…became a refuge for…convicted sex offenders…

Thought Control (#1491)

Surely you didn’t think they’d be satisfied with only threatening librarians and teachers:

…[Luanne James, the] newly hired library director [of Rutherford County, Tennessee]…asked [the library board] for whistleblower protection….[after] board chair [Cody York] direct[ed] her to [censor books at his sole say-so] and to…produce a spreadsheet listing [the] names, home addresses…and [other information about any patron who had checked out one of the forbidden] books[, presumably for targeting by official or unofficial violence]…he [also]…showed her books he had [stolen from the library to unofficially censor them]…the Rutherford County Library Board [has endured] repeated battles over [demands for censorship by anti-intellectual authoritarians who have no place on a library board]…A motion to remove York followed James’s [report of his] misconduct…[but] the [censor-dominated] board declined to do so…the…developments mark…a new and dangerous phase in…[the] Rutherford County [culture war that] now threatens to become a national test case for how far government power can [undermine] public libraries…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…re[cently demanded a purge of thousands of books from]…Tennessee…libraries…in [a show of obeisance to the mad emperor]…

The Cop Myth (#1566)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do, even if she’s a cop herself:

A…[former] Chicago [cop is suing her former cop shop because they intentionally and repeatedly] ignored complaints that [her ex-boyfriend cop] had “repeatedly physically, mentally, and sexually abused” [her]. The [victim is] identif[ied]…as Jane Doe…[and psychotic cop] Marco Torres viciously abused her and threatened her life…[while] high-ranking officials, including then-chief of the Bureau of Internal Affairs…Yolanda Talley, not only failed to protect Doe, but also retaliated against her for reporting the abuse…Torres relentlessly tried to find Doe’s new home address despite an order of protection against him…he [told another cop]…that he needed her address because he has a “guy from gangs” who “can get rid of her” for “a grand”…[the boss hog]s were aware of the…message, which the recipient sent to in[ternal affairs], but they never warned Doe…or [did anything else]…Doe [later] found a GPS tracking device on her car which…Torres used to stalk her…he was [finally] convicted of assault in December 2024 over his previous threats to kill Doe…[but] she had [been] report[ing] Torres’ abuse…[since] November 2022…and…at least two other [cops had] rep[ea]tedly submitted written reports…describ[ing] violence and stalking against a different female [cop] years earlier…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1578)

States now routinely use nuisance lawsuits as a way to circumvent the Constitution:

Indiana[‘s Trumpist] Attorney General Todd Rokita…[has] announced…that his office sued Aylo…for [suppos]edly violating the state’s age verification laws due to [not attempting] to block users using…VPNs…all IP addresses in Indiana are still blocked, as the company chose to withdraw from the state’s digital space to comply with [Indiana law]…But…Rokita is proposing…that…Aylo…is…to…blam[e for]…the existence of VPNs…Corey Silverstein, an attorney who represents adult industry clients…[said] this [is]…”a dangerous concept…because what’s next? Power companies? Landlords that lease data center space?”…[David Greene of the EFF said,] “What the state’s lawsuit seems to be doing is saying that Aylo deceived Indiana consumers when it said it was geoblocking Indiana users…[because] it knew that…VPNs [exist]…It essentially bases liability on the failure to accomplish impossibilities”…

The Vultures Descend (#1580)

Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of which substance is prohibited:

[Due to] abortion…[being] criminalized…an increasing number of women [worldwide] are accessing abortion pills outside of the formal medical system…Women Help Women [is] a global telehealth…service that supports self-managed abortion by providing abortion pills and information about how to use them…After a decade of relying on pharmaceutical companies to supply them…Women Help Women…recently announced they have begun working directly with drugmakers in India to produce their own innovative combipack of mifepristone and misoprostol for distribution around the world…the…pack…includes one mifepristone tablet and eight misoprostol tablets…[because] some women want extra misoprostol to ensure a complete abortion…Its smaller packaging also requires less postage [so it] is easier to mail discreetly…

The Last Shall Be First (#1587)

“Protecting children” is an all-purpose excuse:

…the Trump [regime has] announced…a…[de facto] ban…[on] gender-affirming care for transgender young people, even in states where it is still legal…[against the advice of] the American Academy of Pediatrics…[one] new…rule…prohibits doctors and hospitals from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to transgender patients younger than…18…The second…blocks all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. Virtually every hospital in the country takes Medicare…The American Civil Liberties Union has announced plans to sue to stop the rules; other legal action is also expected…[Secretary of Pestilence Robert] Kennedy…insisted that [all doctors]…are wrong [and presented a trained parrot which absurdly squawked about]…God…[then Trump stooge] Dr. Marty Makary, who [mismanage]s the Food and Drug Administration, announced that the FDA would be sending warning letters to businesses that manufacture chest binders…

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In the News (#1534)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, adolescence, agency denial, Alabama, bogus studies, cell phones, censorship, Censorship Ascendant, disease, drugs, Florida, Frequently Told Lies, Germany, internet, law, Morality Lessons, politicians, porn, pregnancy, Profound Ignorance, Russia, sex offender registry, Size Matters, statistics, Texas, The End of the Beginning, The Immunity Syndrome, The Vultures Descend, video, Virginia on May 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The law offers no escape hatch whatsoever. – Judge Robin Rosenbaum

Profound Ignorance (#405)

Prohibitionists are still citing the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study:
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The End of the Beginning (#915)

Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:

After being convicted of one count of possession of child pornography in 2013 and serving his sentence for the crime, Bruce Henry married and his wife gave birth to a son, but [Alabama] law prohibits [people condemned to the “]sex offender[” registry]…from residing together or conducting overnight visits with minors, even if it is their own child. In his resulting lawsuit, Henry said the law was unconstitutional and the [11th Circuit]…agreed, concluding that the statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children…

The Immunity Syndrome (#1059)

The dogma that young people are owned like slaves by their parents is a metastasizing evil:

[An increasing number of] Americans…[want] parents [to have] ultimate control over all aspects of their [offspring]’s lives, even when the[y]…are…on the cusp of adulthood. [They] want parents to have to approve the books and ideas they’re exposed to in school, the apps they can download, and the social media platforms they join. Now, Florida wants to require parental consent before a minor can be treated for an STI…no one seems to even pretend that this is about helping minors…proponents of the bill keep talking about parental rights…to…[deny any and all] autonomy…to…[even] older minors…[one] version of the bill would also let parents [preemptively] opt [their offspring] out of…any survey or questionnaire that may reveal…sexual [abuse by]…any family member…[and ban] doctors [from providing] contraceptive services to minors without their parent’s consent…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

[German] politician…Nancy Faeser…has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media…other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive[ly censorious]…Robert Habeck…of the Green Party…has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since…2021…[sending] police [on predawn] raid[s in which they steal people’s electronics]…and [abduct them]…Germany’s limits on…speech have long been shockingly restrictive….[but] over the past decade…new laws…[such as] the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz [NetzDG]…[have] imposed such steep fines on social media networks…that they need…to err on the side of censor[ship]…in order to keep operating in the country. When Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his ability to marginalize the political opposition in Russia, he cleverly translated key passages of the German law into Russian, deflecting criticisms of his crackdown…by [truthfully] pointing out that he was merely emulating Western democracies…even countries that have long prided themselves on their liberal traditions have now followed the [Germany’s censorious] lead…

Morality Lessons (#1325)

After a two-year hiatus, “porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda:

Alabama [politicians] passed a bill that would [demand] makers of cellphones and tablets…[encumber] the devices with [censorship software] to block [not just] pornography[, but also anything Alabama politicians point at while barfing the word “obscenity”. Bill sponsor]…Chris Sells…has [repeatedly] sponsored similar bills since 2019…

Vulture Watching (#1517)

Oh look, the totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening just as sane people said they would:

A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans…Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%. One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since the state passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%…and…Black women living in banned states…[are] over three times more likely to die in pregnancy as their white counterparts. While death rates skyrocket…Republicans are hard at work trying to dismantle maternal mortality committees to hide the impact of their policies…

Size Matters (#1525)

This is the second case this year to challenge the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy:

A…U.S. Army…[helicopter] pilot [named] Kyle Norton Riester [has] claimed in a civil lawsuit that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed him to sell and take…LSD…as part of a communal…religious exercise…he has admitted to selling LSD over the internet and has asked for injunctive relief from [government] accus[ations] of drug trafficking…The Virginia-based first lieutenant…has argued that he “is a sincere religious practitioner”…but…[prosecutors claim] that Riester only claimed religious freedom grounds eight months after finding out about his drug trafficking investigation…

Even if Riester’s religious claims derive more from expediency than sincere belief, the same could be said of the government’s claims to protecting all religious liberty when in practice this is just cover for post-Christians to practice open bigotry.

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In the News (#1525)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Arkansas, California, cops, Creepy Coppers, drugs, Enablers, Facebook, fascism, Feudalism Redux, law, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, politicians, porn, Pyrrhic Victory, Shame Shame, Size Matters, surveillance, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, The Mob Rules, The Vultures Descend, transgender, Utah on March 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[If a state]’s commitment to religious freedom…is to mean anything…[it must protect] unpopular or unfamiliar religious groups [as well as] popular or familiar ones. – Judge Jill Parrish

Size Matters

An interesting development in these repressive times:

When Bridger Lee Jensen opened a spiritual center in Provo, Utah, he contacted city officials to…[explain that] the religious group he had founded, Singularism, would be conducting ceremonies involving a tea made from psilocybin mushrooms…Jensen…said he would be happy to answer their questions and invited them to visit the center…The city did not respond…until more than a year later, when Provo police [raided] the Singularism center and [stole] its sacrament: about 450 grams of “mushrooms and mushroom-like material” that the group kept inside a locked safe…That raid happened on November 11, 2024, less than eight months after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had signed the state’s version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act…[which] protects Singularism’s psychedelic rituals, a federal judge ruled last month…

Creepy Coppers

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

Federal authorities arrested a San Diego State University [cop] for possession of child pornography [but are hiding his]…identi[ty. Boss hog]…Gregory Murphy…and [another cop made lugubrious displays of distress about the crime, yet are still making excuses to hide the name and picture of the offending cop]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1232)

There won’t be any shortcut to stopping Clearview:

Clearview AI attempted to purchase hundreds of millions of arrest records including social security numbers, mugshots, and even email addresses to incorporate into its product…Clearview AI spent nearly a million dollars in a bid to purchase “690 million arrest records and 390 million arrest photos” from all 50 states from…Investigative Consultant, Inc. (ICI) which billed itself as an intelligence company with access to tens of thousands of databases…The contract was signed in mid-2019, at a time when Clearview AI was…relatively unknown…Ultimately, the entire deal fell apart after Clearview and ICI clashed about the utility of the data with each company filing breach of contract claims…

The Last Shall Be First (#1351)

Just how defective are these political vermin?

Arkansas [politician] Mary Bentley…introduced H.B. 1668…Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors was already struck down by a federal judge in 2023…[but] H.B. 1668 “weaponizes civil enforcement by permitting lawsuits against any person who…help[s]…young people in [gender] transition…[authoritarian] parents can sue for minimum damages of $10,000 and up to $10 million in punitive damages for certain forms of medical care…”including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name”…if enacted, H.B. 1668 could lead to frivolous lawsuits against “hairdressers who cut a trans teen’s hair, teachers who use a student’s chosen name, and nonprofits that offer support.” Such lawsuits…would be unlikely to hold up in court, as the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and free expression. However, the law is clearly meant to chill support for trans and gender-nonconforming young people with the threat of costly lawsuits…

Shame, Shame (#1493)

The sleaziness has no bottom:

A network of Instagram accounts is using [computers] to steal content from human creators and deepfake their faces to make them look like they have Down syndrome…the accounts…reuse Instagram bios, videos, and in some cases link to the same OnlyFans competitors pages where they monetize these videos…What started as just a few accounts quickly evolved into an entire industry with specialized tools, advertising strategies, and influencers who sell courses on how to create these fake[s]…to get rich quick through what they call “AI pimping.” Newer accounts in recent months have started catering to increasingly specific niches and fetishes, including accounts of [CGI] women with amputated limbs. The…Down syndrome accounts are the latest and newest low for [Facebook-owned] Instagram, which allows the rampant content theft that enables this practice and is now fueling a non-consensual fetishization and monetization of (fake) people with disabilities…

Feudalism Redux (#1511)

Since politicians have no spines, it’s good to see some physicians still do:

Organizations like the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (MAP) are responding to the demand for remote care…During 2024, the MAP says they were mailing abortion medications to nearly 500 patients a month. In the new year, the monthly average has grown to 3,000 prescriptions a month…80%…[to patients] in Texas or states in the Southeast…the recent indictment from Louisiana will not change the MAP’s plans…state shield laws can’t protect doctors when they leave the state. If they move or even travel elsewhere, they lose the first state’s protection and risk arrest in the destination state, and maybe extradition to a third state…Physicians doing this type of work accept there are parts of the U.S. that they should no longer go…Any visits, even for a relative’s illness or death, would be too risky…Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill [absurdly barfed the word “fentanyl” at reporters]…but…the U.S. Constitution requires extradition only for those who commit crimes in one state and then flee to another stat…Telemedicine abortion providers aren’t located in states with abortion bans and have not fled from those states — therefore they aren’t required to be extradited back to those states…

Vulture Watching (#1517)

Texas is finally beginning to realize how bad it looks to keep killing pregnant women:

Texas [politici]ans…have filed a bill that aims to make it more clear when a doctor can intervene to save a pregnant patient’s life, despite the state’s near-total abortion ban…the vague language and strict penalties leave [doctors and their lawyers] uncertain of when they are actually free to intervene…Until recently, [politicians pretend]ed that the laws are clear…but at least three women have died, and dozens have reported medical care delayed or denied due to their doctors’ [understandable] hesitation to act…

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In the News (#740)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, asset seizure, Bad Girls, Check Your Premises, Coming Out, Cosmopolitan, dating, dirty, disability, diversion programs, Feminine Pragmatism, Ireland, Missouri, North Carolina, oral sex, pragmatism, propaganda, psychology, robots, scams, sex offender registry, sex rays, sex work is work, Size Matters, surveillance, Tennessee, The End of the Beginning, The Pygmalion Fallacy, They Still Don't Get It, United Kingdom, Washington (state), Welcome to Our Updates, Where Are the Victims? on May 20, 2017| 2 Comments »

Just because someone can’t love you…doesn’t mean that you’re unlovable. – Kaytlin Bailey

Check Your Premises

This man has repeatedly said Seattle is not interested in prosecuting us:

For five years, the city of Seattle has touted its [faddish] approach in [persecuting] the buyers of sex rather than the prostitutes themselves. While the number of cases filed against prostitutes dropped dramatically in 2012 and 2013, it has increased again slightly in recent years…City Attorney Pete Holmes…said the increase in prostitution cases in 2014 through 2016 came after his office realized many women were not [submitting to] the [brainwashing] program called LEAD, or Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion…Holmes said he therefore pivoted to use the real possibility of prosecution, as a way of encouraging people to take advantage of LEAD instead…

“Pivoted” is such a banal way to say “lied with prohibitionist propaganda while threatening women with violence for peacefully earning a living”.

Feminine Pragmatism

This needs to be repeated until it’s inextricably hammered into the faces of prohibitionists:

…When I began sex work there were aspects that were exhilarating. Being my own boss and setting my own schedule was something I’d never had the luxury of. My manager at the bar, who knew she could shop me for benefit fraud at any moment, didn’t care when men…threatened to follow me home because I didn’t want their numbers…I worked 12 hour shifts, with no breaks, and at the end she would hand me an envelope with barely £70 in…escorting [clients] sometimes reminded me of the pub customers…[but] at the end of a three hour booking I would tuck a few hundred pounds in the lining of my handbag, and go home to a bath and some posh beers…This isn’t to say sex work was a utopia where I could take six months off when my health was bad…However, contrary to popular view…it is not a one way ticket to a breakdown. The difference between us and workers in other industries is that when we seek help we are asked to look at the ways we’ve kept ourselves out of poverty as shameful…

Where Are the Victims?

The poor widdle sheriff “had no alternative” because sex is bad:

A “normal family man” who cared for his sick wife…in Edinburgh has been jailed for 29 months. Emil Wakulicz…recruited women from Poland to offer sexual services…Sheriff Ross said he had no other alternative but to send Wakulicz to prison as he had exploited the women who had worked for him. Det Insp Arron Clinkscales…[bragged]: “We…[locked] this man [up]…and [stole] his assets.”

Naturally, the story lists no evidence whatsoever of “exploitation”. I’m sure his wife will be much better off on the dole, and her depression will improve while her husband sits in a cage for two years. Justice!

They Still Don’t Get It

The headline writer inadvertently got it right: “prostitution investigations” (ie stings) are indeed part of a larger problem, the one called prohibition.

…Winston-Salem police…arrested…John Richard Hernandez and…Amanda Dawn Moser in connection to the armed robbery of a 67-year-old man…the pair lured [the victim]…to Hernandez’s home…by posting [a fake escort] ad…on…backpage.com…Hernandez [hit him with a hammer and] and robbed [him] of his money, ATM card and vehicle…a [pig too chickenshit to give his name bloviated a whole pile of ignorant nonsense]…“when it does happen in homes, those are usually offenders that have been caught multiple times at the hotel, and now they’ve moved their modus operandi to a residential home…Many of those, obviously, are minors that are…easily manipulated – into performing sexual acts for someone that’s controlling them…We located needles, various drug paraphernalia, spoons, that are indicative of heroin use”…The department also works with different counseling services and the health department to help victims of human trafficking…“It is a criminal act,” the [cowardly, ignorant pig oinked]…

Prohibition forces a peaceful activity into the shadows, where criminals then use it as a cover because they know their victims are less likely to report. Then cops use the result of criminalization as an excuse for more criminalization while mixing in rhetoric that contradicts the entire “whore as criminal” trope. I know basic logic & a triple-digit IQ aren’t requirements for being a brutal thug mindlessly enforcing arbitrary rules via violence, but this is like watching a self important pig masturbating until he shoots into his own eye, then tripping over the pants around his ankles & falling flat on his face.

Coming Out

Kaytlin Bailey on coming out to a lover:

…Maybe you’ve taken the position that everyone you have sex with has to know beforehand, because the last time you told someone you were already in love with, he hit you. Maybe you’re coming out, as a political statement, trying to erode the delusion that someone doesn’t know “any girls like that” by being one of those girls. Maybe you have to tell your lover because you keep having cold sweat anxiety dreams about it. Maybe living the nightmare won’t be as scary as having the same one every night. Maybe you’ve been in a relationship for awhile, and you think you can trust them. Or maybe you know you can’t, but you just can’t stand them saying one more dumb thing about “whores” without knowing. Or maybe you’re scared, and you want your partner’s support…

My personal way of dealing with this: I haven’t been romantically involved with anyone who isn’t a whore or client since 1995. But I understand that won’t work for everybody.

Welcome To Our World (#43)

This is good; too bad they still criminalize having sex for the “wrong” reason:

[The Republic of Ireland] is to repeal a law which made it a criminal offence for a person with an intellectual disability to have a sexual relationship…The [new] law will consider whether a person with an intellectual disability has capacity to consent…rather than just outlawing such relationships because they have a disability…a new category of “protected person” has been created. This will be defined as someone who lacks the capacity to consent to a sexual act by reason of a mental or intellectual disability, or a mental illness…It will now be illegal for a person to have a sexual relationship with a protected person…

I Really Shouldn’t Even LOOK at an Issue of Cosmopolitan (#346)

A) Is this dude gay? B) WTF, Cosmo? C) I know it’s two years old.

We’re going to shake things up, aren’t we? And by “shake things up” I mean you’re going to sit on my face…I need a signal for you to give me some air that isn’t me throwing you off me in a panic…My eye is basically in her butt…is this how all adults get pink eye?…I have no choice but to make her orgasm…I can’t even see anymore. It’s just pitch black and vibrations, like an earthquake in a cave.

Size Matters (#532)

I told y’all that this wasn’t gonna work, but of course y’all didn’t listen:

[Deceitful busybodies] in Tennessee have determined that a building registered as a church was being operated as a sex club…the city of Nashville has filed a complaint against the owners for “maintaining a public nuisance by permitting acts of lewd conduct” and violating a state law banning sex clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of a school. The longtime downtown swingers club…in 2015…relocated to a run-down office park…calling itself a church because the new location is near the back of the private Goodpasture Christian School. Two [voyeurs] paid $40 to enter the facility…and filed [porn narratives] detailing sex acts they witnessed within…

The End of the Beginning (#677)

This clear constitutional violation persists due to the egregious lie that the “sex offender” registry isn’t a punishment:

A sex offender…thought he had moved on with his life after successfully completing five years of probation for sending webcam photographs of his genitals to a [pervert cop pretending to be]…a 13-year-old girl. Now he’s among hundreds of people in Missouri who are learning they must attach GPS monitoring systems to their ankles for life, even though such a requirement wasn’t part of their sentencing agreement…The retroactive [punishment is] part of a revised state criminal code that went into effect Jan. 1…several sex offenders…are suing…the state…“I don’t think a lawyer can make a straight-faced argument that it’s constitutional,” said…attorney Matt Fry…

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#724)

This is what robo-fetishists want you to believe will take my job soon:

…Matt McMullen, the chief executive of Abyss Creations, which makes RealDoll…says…”Many people who may buy a RealDoll because it is sexually capable come to realise it is much more than a sex toy…It has a presence in their house and they imagine a personality for her. AI gives people the tools to create that personality.” This is done via an app, which can be used with the doll or independently, existing as a virtual person on a smartphone or similar device. Users can choose from a variety of personality options, including moody, angry and loving…The app…is already available to buy, although only directly from the Realbotix website…Neither Google’s nor Apple’s official stores will carry it because of the explicit content. The doll will go on sale later this year and there will be two versions – one with computer vision that enables it to recognise faces, which will cost $10,000…and a…version without vision for $5,000…

Bonus: sociopathic prude Kathleen Richardson of the “Campaign Against Sex Robots” has apparently decided in the past two months that “dolls aren’t really the problem”. Why does anyone take prohibitionists seriously?

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In the News (#706)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Tale That Grew in the Telling, A Woman's Point of View, advertising, animals, Backpage, Canada, censorship, Choke Point, cops, Do As I Say, Elephant in the Parlor, end demand, End Demand (updates), Georgia, internet, law, License To Rape, New Hampshire, New York, Permanent Record, politicians, porn, prisons, prohibitionist myths, rape, sacred prostitutes, Scapegoats, Size Matters, Sold Out, Texas, The War Goes On, To Molest and Rape, Washington (state) on January 21, 2017| 1 Comment »

If all the little black books in the world were opened, far more than golden showers would trickle out. – Brooke Magnanti

License to Rape

Another excuse to justify rape:

…Inmate visit procedures for Rikers Island state visitors are subject to search at any time. Before anyone is allowed to visit an inmate, he or she must pass through a metal detector and have items such as handbags pass through a fluoroscope machine. If the metal detector sounds an alarm, prospective visitors might face a “pat frisk” search…Jasmine Quattlebaum…was led to a private area by a female [screw] who asked her during the pat frisk to unbutton her pants…“Once I put my hands back up, she pulled my panties out, takes her two fingers, and just jams it in between my crotch…I slapped her hand away a little bit”…When she objected…the [screw] “tried to pull both of my hands together with one hand, and she tried to still put her fingers into my crotch”…her experience is one many female Rikers visitors experience, according to information from 311 complaint calls obtained by The Intercept…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

After arresting one of their own, pigs oink a lot of nonsense about how the families they damage in stings were magically damaged before (but presumably didn’t know it):

Dunwoody [Georgia] Police say a months-long [violation of peaceful citizens’ private lives] has netted nearly 60 arrests…Police Chief Billy Grogan [bloviated that sex work]…“damages families” [yet somehow arresting fathers doesn’t]…DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said the arrests should send a strong message…“Both supply and demand must be eradicated if we are to stop…consensual sex”…Among the accused customers arrested is Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Chris Quinn…

A Tale That Grew in the Telling

My friend Cris Sardina of Desiree Alliance on the ridiculous “statistics” spouted by prohibitionists:

…If you look at any leading anti-trafficking organizational rhetoric…hundreds of thousands of sexually exploited people…are held captive by hundreds of thousands of pimps…[Norma Jean] Almodovar satirically makes a valid point in questioning Polaris’ statement as to why neighbors wouldn’t take notice of the lines of men waiting outside to be sexually serviced in the approximate 15 minutes they would have from the door to the sexual act itself? In truth, these much cited numbers would entail victims to service 25 to 48 men daily during a 12 hour shift, with no time to take care of daily functions such as using the bathroom, eating, sleeping, or texting the Polaris BeFree Textline…

Scapegoats

Presented without comment:

A [Houston, Texas] sheriff’s deputy is out of a job after a [not remotely] shocking allegation…[involving] production of obscene material that includes sexual contact with a dog…Andrew Sustaita Jr…was relieved of duty after his arrest…

End Demand

On what planet is “end demand” anti-client bullshit “disregarded” in “sex trafficking” propaganda?

[New Hampshire’s] Trafficking in Persons Council announced its new “End Demand” campaign…“Conversations about sex trafficking almost exclusively disregard the role of the individual buying sex — the ‘john,’” TIPC Chairwoman Jillian Gilchrest said [moronically]…

Sold Out

“Pride Toronto has voted to ban police from having any official presence at future parades, making good on a demand made by Black Lives Matter Toronto last year…”

Size Matters (#566)

If Rainbow is “notorious”, I’d hate to see what adjective they use for me:

Seattle-area madam Rainbow Love has again avoided prison time for operating a string of Seattle-area “temples”…Love, 51, pleaded guilty to pimping- and drug-related crimes…[and] was sentenced…to inpatient drug treatment, rather than jail…

Choke Point (#593)

Think you’re safe being a sexual minority just because money isn’t involved?

Recent censorship enacted at FetLife is the result of financial discrimination by multiple credit card processors who have ceased business with FetLife for what the processors claim are “Illegal or Immoral” reasons. It began for users one week ago when FetLife announced changes to content guidelines, stating “We can no longer allow FetLifers to publicly share sexual pics and vids containing blood visible in them.” Then without warning, Fetlife deleted hundreds of groups and literally thousands of fetish categories that represented a range of kinky communities (like ones with hypnosis, blood, and humiliation in the name). This was in response to to significant pressure from FetLife’s credit card processor…

A Woman’s Point of View

Given all the “sex trafficking” rhetoric and agency denial, I smell a whiff of Swedish rot here rather than actual decriminalization:

Four female [New Hampshire] representatives have sponsored a bill that proposes establishing a committee to study decriminalizing…sex work…[yet] one of the bill’s sponsors…Kate Murray…said…”I have no interest in legalizing prostitution…this is about…human trafficking with the goal of protecting the victim”…the committee would study reports about sex work and human trafficking by Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Foundation and Anti-Slavery International…and…would also study prostitution laws in Germany, Great Britain and New Zealand where it is legal…

To Molest and Rape

Your regular reminder that rapist cops aren’t solely an American aberration:

…a garda detective has been suspended after a woman accused him of demanding sexual favours…this…is the third garda from the same district to be suspended, transferred or disciplined over separate sexual assault cases…the Garda Ombudsman (GSOC)…shows 70 allegations of sexual offences were made between 2010 and 2015. However, so far, only one of these cases has resulted in the DPP directing there be a criminal prosecution…

Permanent Record

The prohibitionist Seattle Times once again prints a story containing the typical libel against sex workers without consulting any sex workers for the story, despite the fact that this particular reporter knows several of us and has our phone numbers:

[New and awful Washington state] legislation would extend the statute of limitations from three to 10 years for the crimes of human trafficking, commercial sex abuse of a minor and promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor. “For victims of human trafficking, the very nature of that relationship is that they’re under the control of their trafficker,” [attorney general] Ferguson [fantasized while touching himself]…Many victims are reluctant to go to police and are so traumatized by their exploitation that by the time they come forward, “three years has gone by and there’s no justice for that victim”…Embedded in the bill to extend the statute of limitations is a request to alter the legal definition of commercial sex…[to] change “fee” to “anything of value,” which could mean drugs, food or even a bed for the night…

The War Goes On

Lawheaded idiots are amazed that their persecution of Backpage didn’t magically make sex work go away:

Backpage.com…shut down its erotic services section where most prostitution ads were posted. But in New Orleans, people posting ads for prostitution have found an easy workaround: Just post them in the section reserved for people looking for dates. At least 60 ads had been posted in the “Women seeking men” section of the website…Jan. 17…Some of those ads contained emojis that [fetishists fantasize]…the prostitute may be underage…the volume of ads began rising significantly on Jan. 10, the day after Backpage announced it was shuttering its adult services section…

Elephant in the Parlor (#705)

My friend Brooke Magnanti on politicians & whores, including a quote from me:

The rich are jaded souls. Kinks that we otherwise associate strictly with lifestyle BDSM seem to litter stories about wealthy men caught in compromising positions…For some sex workers, golden showers are bread-and-butter work. Dominatrix friends admit to chugging diet cola by the litre in preparation for such dates…Nearly every sex worker has at some time met someone powerful and famous. Because it isn’t just about the kink, it’s about the discretion…Maggie McNeill, an escort in Seattle, remarks: “I personally could wreck the careers of a dozen politicians. And there are roughly half a million [sex workers] in the US”…

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In the News (#640)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Arizona, avails laws, Backlash, Blunt Instrument, bogus studies, brothels, cell phones, cops, dating, Do As I Say, Florida, hysteria, Indiana, law, Louisiana, Monsters, Morality Lessons, Most Uptight Nerd Ever, New Zealand, Paint By Numbers, porn, pregnancy, prisons, Property of the State, sacred prostitutes, Size Matters, South Africa, streetwalkers, Surplus Women, The More the Better, The Pro-Rape Coalition, transgender, Turning Point, Under Every Bed, Utah, violence vs. sex workers on May 25, 2016| 2 Comments »

This is what a sex panic looks like. – Mireille Miller-Young

Backlash

Whenever South African sex workers make some advance toward rights, you can be sure the cops will soon arrive to “teach them a lesson”:

Last week…police arrived at a field in Pretoria West known as “The Bush” and told sex workers they were there to get rid of them…Sex workers said about 100…cops arrived in two buses and told them that they “were a disgrace to schoolchildren” and they were there to “clean up” the area…This harassment has been going on since November…despite Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa saying in March that sex workers were “entitled to dignity”…[last] Wednesday the shacks in which they entertain their clients were burned down and condoms destroyed…SWEAT and Sisonke alleged that the metro police were ordered by Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa to “clean up the site”. Blessing Manale, the mayor’s spokesman, did not respond to requests for comment…

Surplus Women

The [New Zealand] Prostitutes Collective will increase its presence in Christchurch…after the body of a sex worker was found…Renee Duckmanton, who was 22, was found…on…[the] night [of May 15^th…it [is] not yet known if Ms Duckmanton’s work is connected to her death…[she] suffered burns and her death is being treated as a homicide…

The More the Better

This is a cute article on sex workers’ ideas of what a perfect brothel would look like. But what makes it most interesting to me isn’t the content of the suggestions, but rather the fact that articles like this are seeing the light of day. Hey, prohibitionists: We’re winning. And there ain’t a damned thing you can do about it.

Blunt Instrument

Another asinine “crackdown” on massage parlors, using the usual excuse:

The Salt Lake County Council amended a business ordinance recently in the hopes of cracking down on the illegal sex trade…Under the old ordinance, if a contractor was found in violation of a criminal act, like prostitution, their license would be revoked. Now, under the new amendment, authorities also revoke the business owner’s license…therapists, and the businesses they work for, can also be cited if they’re not licensed…[cops also] say they’re hoping the legislature [increases criminal penalties for sex workers]…

Under Every Bed

These articles aren’t even funny any more; they’re just pathetically stupid:

…sex trafficking…[is] happening in Louisiana — on a much larger scale than most people realize — and Caddo is among the parishes with the highest number of…victims recovered…according to Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services…only East Baton Rouge parish…and Orleans parish…had more…The state serves as a hub for sex trafficking mainly because of its interstates — particularly I-20 and I-49, according to FBI Senior Resident Agent Chris Cantrell…

Among other idiocies: a “child advocacy center” un-ironically calling itself “Gingerbread House“, as if completely oblivious to the meaning of the phrase.

Monsters

…another trans woman [has] been murdered and…misgendered in death. And again, it’s a Black trans woman who’s been murdered. This time it was 32-year-old…Mercedes Successful, who was found shot to death on [May 15^th] in a [Florida] parking lot…

Paint By Numbers

Why just stand around, when you can HIKE to “raise awareness”?

On May 29, those who are hiking can also help a great cause by taking part in the fourth annual Tread on Trafficking hosted by Love 146…from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., the group will have a table set up where hikers can come and register or even just ask questions about what Love 146 is all about. Love 146 is an organization…that cares for survivors of child sex trafficking, and protects youth all around the globe…

Property of the State (#527)

This case horrifies me more than almost any other of this century:

…Purvi Patel was…the first woman in the U.S. to be convicted and sentenced on “feticide” charges for ending her own pregnancy. Patel says she had a miscarriage. When she arrived, bleeding, at a hospital near South Bend, her doctor called the police on her. The state of Indiana charged her with both feticide for allegedly inducing an abortion, and child neglect for allegedly having a premature baby and then allowing the baby to die — an inconsistent and contradictory set of charges. On May 23, Ms. Patel’s case [came] up for an appeal. And all of us who care about reproductive rights had better be paying attention, because…permitting a person to be charged based on the outcome of the pregnancy could mean requiring people to prove that a miscarriage or a stillbirth was unintentional. This is a terribly slippery slope…

Quite Possibly the Most Uptight Nerd Ever (#611)

I’m going to cut straight to the meat of this article about whether escorting will survive dating apps:

…even with the rise of Tinder, and readily available casual sex, escorting isn’t likely to go anywhere. Sex work isn’t solely about paying for sexual experiences; it’s about paying for a clearly defined relationship where the boundaries and expectations are out on the table. Articles about the “dating apocalypse” supposedly fueled by Tinder and the like offer an argument for the continued appeal of escorting. Though hookup culture superficially achieves the same goal, at least on the demand side, it brings with it a potential for emotional messiness and mismatched expectations that truly transactional sex work neatly avoids…

Size Matters (#619)

On the sentencing of Tracy Elise:

Her sentence is 4.5 years and she is receiving credit for the time she has already served…which is roughly 10 months. She is not receiving credit for the year and a half she was on house arrest…With programs and “early kick-out” she will serve between 2-2.5 years. We will know what her estimated release date is in about a month. We are filing appeals, and will be filing a sentence of stay to get Tracy out for appeals, but this process takes time (6 months to a year)…

Morality Lessons

A powerful takedown of “porn is a public health crisis” nonsense:

Is pornography a public-health crisis? Of course not. While it is not surprising to see the Utah legislature unanimously declare it one…what remains shocking is the perceived legitimacy of anti-porn activists, despite the profound unreliability and inconsistency of their hyperbolic claims…How has a movement based on such shaky theoretical ground succeeded in a massive campaign to convince the public that sexually explicit media is responsible for an epidemic of sexualized violence against women and children; the rise of a zombie army of emotionally robbed and sexually desensitized men; and the explosion of an underworld of prostitutes trafficked directly from porn sets to street corners across the nation? This is not real…Gail Dines…and her…claims are not just far-reaching, they are dangerous…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#633)

Letting cops get away with rape is OK, but we just CAN’T let them have consensual sex!

…Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office sergeant let a Boynton Beach police officer caught on camera soliciting sex from an undercover officer go free…Oscar Cardenas told deputies…to let…Vintyre Finney…go free — even after deputies had handcuffed and detained him…

Turning Point

In which NSWP counters the absurd prohibitionist arguments which have appeared in response to the New York Times Magazine piece:

…Branding the decriminalisation of third parties as an attempt to “legalise pimps and brothel keeping” undermines sex workers in their struggle for labour rights and justice…sex workers can be employees, employers, or independent workers and participate in a range of other work-related relationships with third parties, for example paying someone to drive them to appointments or do their advertising. Third party laws…increase…sex workers vulnerability to HIV transmission…[and] expose…sex workers to unsafe working environments…The police use third party laws to harass sex workers and limit their access to services and support by targeting other parties, such as landlords…Sex workers themselves can be prosecuted if they work together using third party laws…The children or partners of sex workers can be prosecuted as third parties, for living of the earnings of a sex worker…

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In the News (#631)

Posted in Call types, Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Above the Law, advertising, agency denial, All-Purpose Excuse, Arizona, Australia, Backpage, Big Sister, Broken Record, brothels, Business As Usual, cops, Couples, disability, evidence, Germany, hysteria, Iceland, Ireland, It Looks Good On Paper, Kentucky, Lack of Evidence, law, Louisiana, Madonna/whore, Massachusetts, Middle East, Nebraska, Ohio, prohibitionist myths, rape, sacred prostitutes, Size Matters, Skin To Skin, slavery, South Carolina, Swedish model, The Face of Trafficking, The Last Shall Be First, Traffic in Nonsense, transgender, Under Every Bed, underage, video, Virginia, Washington (state), Where Are the Victims?, Wisconsin on April 20, 2016| 7 Comments »

Tracy’s community…turned away from her in an inane focus on protecting the look of the gates rather than the garden that thrives beyond them. – Maya Yonika

Couples

A disabled Australian couple gets help from a sex worker:

…a…fall had long-lasting consequences on Jenni’s health generally and on our sex lives. Her prolonged and mostly unsuccessful recovery resulted in Jen having further reduced mobility in and out of bed. It meant we had to take extreme care not to touch or bump her foot…We tried different toys and different positions without joy. Two years after the fall we were at a point where we had to make a decision to either give up on enjoying sex or to investigate the possibility of allowing a third person into our bed…we arranged for sex worker, Joanne, to begin working with us. With each visit we had to remind ourselves that she wasn’t there to make “love” to us. Rather, in the same way that our support staff ensure that we remain in good physical health – by showering, feeding, and dressing us – Joanne helps us to maintain good sexual health…we successfully approached the ACT government to extend the funding of our disability care support to cover these conjugal support services. In December 2015, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) agreed that, in our situation, a modest allowance for conjugal support service would be reasonable and necessary…

Lack of Evidence

It appears to me that the cops have no actual evidence:

A North Augusta [South Carolina] woman has been arrested on multiple charges of Prostitution. Kristen Perry…was arrested [April 6th and]…is facing 21 charges of Sex/Prostitution 1st Offense. She is accused of placing ads on Backpage.com between December 2015 and February 2016 offering sex for money…The ads contained sexually suggestive photos and language…The ads were accompanied by a phone number confirmed to belong to Perry…The IP address from which the ads were posted was traced back to her residence…

A good lawyer should be able to beat this easily; if anyone knows her please ask her to call me (email me for the number). I definitely want to help her if possible. Arresting escorts based solely on ads is an extremely dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to stand.

Where Are the Victims?

There weren’t any actual victims, but we just have to cage people, because SEEWEEUSS UFFENSE!

Chunjie Wang…of…Dublin…organised four brothels…for seven months..[in] 2011…Judge Melanie Greally noted the case did not involve the trafficking or exploitation of prostitutes…but…said the seriousness of the offence meant a custodial sentence was unavoidable and sentenced Wang to 18 months imprisonment…

It Looks Good On Paper

“Adult sex trafficking victims who get caught working as prostitutes could receive immunity from prostitution under a new Nebraska law…Nebraska already provides legal immunity to juvenile sex trafficking victims…” Except that as I’ve explained many times, these laws are nothing but Potemkin villages, empty legal husks designed to please the ignorant while actually sparing virtually nobody from the injustice system:

…Wisconsin…advocacy groups…want to pass what is known as “safe harbor” legislation, which prohibits prosecuting individuals under 18 for prostitution…Republican legislators who fear it will hinder law enforcement’s ability to intervene and help trafficking victims…Minors can complete a program or other requirements in exchange for a dismissal of the charge, or they can admit to charges but assert they were being trafficked at the time…Proponents believe that by refusing to prosecute minors, law enforcement will be able to establish trust and gain access to information that will allow them to more successfully prosecute traffickers…Custody may also be necessary to ensure the child does not return to his or her trafficker…

Translation of that last part: “Authorities” want to be able to lock up minors indefinitely and subject them to coercive interrogation tactics in order to prosecute others in their place.

Big Sister

The Swedish model is based in xenophobia, and it shows in rhetoric designed to rationalize its failure:

Ever greater numbers of tourists in Iceland…are feeding into the market for prostitution…Snorri Birgisson of the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police [pretends] “It is usually foreigners visiting Iceland for a short time”…It is [fantasized] that prostitutes who come to Iceland are “managed” by somebody and transported from country to country…

The Last Shall Be First

One battle in the bathroom wars has just ended. Or maybe a truce has been hammered out for the time being. The U.S. 4th Circuit Court has ruled in favor of a female-to-male trans student who was banned from using his school’s boys bathroom…the…Court, whose rulings also cover North Carolina (site of a contentious new law covering similar issues)…has ordered the lower court to hear his discrimination lawsuit…Go here to read recent Reason musings on North Carolina’s new bathroom law…I’m willing to bet the farm that even within a few years, if not sooner, we will all look back on the absolute panic evinced over the issue of unisex bathrooms and wonder just what the fuck we were all smoking…

Above the Law

“Roanoke [Virginia cop Francisco Alberto Duarte] is awaiting trial on a felony count of forcible sodomy“, and in Louisiana, “A Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s deputy has been fired [and criminally charged] after he was accused of inappropriately touching a woman…Cody Onxley…called the woman and went to her house under false pretenses.”

Broken Record

Farm machinery causes “sex trafficking”!

…[cops] have also found victims at this year’s National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville and expect to find others at the Kentucky Derby…traffickers…stay mobile, moving victims from city to city to major sporting and entertainment events…truckers are getting the word out through the national campaign Truckers Against Trafficking, with an event this weekend at the Kentucky Exposition Center…the truckers…are in a position to spot victims at convenience stores and truck stops, popular spots for traffickers…

Under Every Bed

It’s weirdly fascinating to watch small cities insist that they’re just as infested with bogeymen and imaginary victims as cities with much larger populations:

…slavery…still exists. Even in Spokane. The reasons for this, [prohibitionists pretend], include Washington having an international border and a large seaport [and] many diverse immigrant communities…Because of the I-90 corridor, Spokane gets a lot of traffic and homeless in the area…former madam Cheryl Larson [lied that]…one girl could make $10,000 in a weekend during Bloomsday…

Note the racism, interstate highway nonsense and outlandish claims about income. That article ends with an appeal for amateur surveillance, as does this one:

…[Cops] in Springfield say the western Massachusetts city is beginning to see a noticeable rise in human trafficking…Jamie Bruno spoke before the Springfield Violence Prevention Task Force…to [pretend] that human trafficking has become a problem in the city and is expanding…Bruno says it’s pivotal that parents are aware of what their children are doing with friends…

Business As Usual

I smell a rat. What probably happened here is that some cop raped a sex worker in a particularly violent and/or loathsome way and they’re trying to paper it over with a “policy”:

…Cleveland Police have been told to temporarily stop making prostitution arrests…[because] the Department is suddenly developing a new policy. The memo says, “All prostitution (sex for money) related Vice enforcement shall cease immediately…Advise your Detectives under no circumstances shall they have a suspected prostitute get into a vehicle with them or have any physical contact with…Police…We are formulating a policy that will cover procedures for these types of details”…

Remember, the actual policies don’t make a difference because even when raping whores is expressly forbidden, cops just do it anyway and then claim they didn’t.

All-Purpose Excuse

It’s especially good for money grabs:

Nine hundred police officers have taken part in a raid on one of Germany’s biggest brothels in Berlin, making six arrests over alleged human trafficking and tax fraud. The operation follows months of investigation into the Artemis brothel…[whose] managers are accused of evading some €17.5m (£14m; $19.7m) in social security payments since 2006. Prosecutors allege that staff at Artemis were forced to pretend to be self-employed to avoid the payments…

In case you’re bad at math, that’s 150 cops per arrest, ten times the number NOPD used to arrest me.

The Face of Trafficking

What a large-scale, organized forced prostitution scheme actually looks like:

In a case involving 75 female victims, Syrian women who were promised well-paid jobs in restaurants and hotels in Lebanon were locked up upon arrival in two hotels north of Beirut and forced into prostitution. Some of the women reported being forced to have sex with up to 20 clients a day, and those that refused to work as prostitutes were repeatedly raped and tortured until they submitted…On March 27, Lebanese security forces raided the hotels, detaining eight guards and setting the women free from the Chez Maurice and Silver Hotel in Maamelteine. The three-story Chez Maurice had the look of a prison, with bars on the balconies and windows, and a whip lying visible on one of the guards’ tables. The health ministry has also sealed a clinic belonging to gynecologist Riad al-Alam, who authorities say performed abortions for the trafficked women who got pregnant. The women have said they were not allowed to leave the clinic except to have an abortion…

Remember, fetishists pretend this sort of thing is common worldwide, even where there isn’t social chaos precipitated by war.

Size Matters (#619)

An excellent essay on the Tracy Elise case:

…Five years ago, Tracy was…the [focus] of a six-month long undercover prostitution investigation of what was then known as the Tantric Temple of Phoenix Arizona. [Cops] fully armed with riot gear and machine guns, raided the space and arrested Elise along with several other women…Tracy was thrown into jail without trial for the following two years, her bail set at a million dollars…Tracy’s case is inexorably woven into some of the most pressing and cutthroat social biases of our day when it come to sex and relationship. These biases hold us so powerfully within their grip that if one so much appears to cross the line, we’re perfectly content to quietly dismiss a woman like Tracy while she faces a potentially lifelong jail sentence…the…need to belong innately necessitates an “other”… that thing that separates “me” from “them”…as news of the Phoenix raids came to light, the bulk of western Tantrics, in order to uphold their personal ideals and image, turned away from Tracy and her case. A woman who calls herself a “Tantric master” even spoke out against Tracy on a major news channel in her effort to “protect Tantra’s name”…

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