Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding. – Louis D. Brandeis
Our monthly collection of short articles hearkening back to previous columns.
The Camel’s Nose (October 2nd)
Al Franken may not know much about intellectual freedom, but…
Back in October I told you about the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act,” (COICA), a proposed law which would have allowed the government to censor wide swaths of the internet; less than two months later I reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee (including “internet freedom champion” Al Franken) had unanimously voted to allow the bill to move one step closer to becoming law. Fortunately, as this January 18th article from CNET reports, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon single-handedly kept the bill from the Senate floor; unfortunately, according to this May 12th article from the same source, the bill’s sponsor has reintroduced it under a new name:
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced a revised version of a controversial bill that would give the Department of Justice and individuals new powers to enforce copyright and trademark law against “rogue” and “pirate” Web sites that offer unlicensed copies of protected content or which sell illegal knock-offs of brand-name goods. The new bill was long expected. A late draft leaked out last week. The proposed law, “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property” or Protect IP, includes several revisions to a draft introduced last year, known then as “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act,” or COICA. The drafters of Protect IP have tried to respond to some of the most severe criticisms of COICA, which was seen as dangerously vague on its definition of the kinds of Web sites that, under the proposal…Registries and other Internet infrastructure providers were especially concerned with provisions that could have required any provider of domain name look-up services to comply with court orders to block access to the underlying IP address of a condemned domain name…
But critics have already condemned the new version, noting that it not only failed to remove some of the most dangerous features of COICA, but has also added expansive provisions that the earlier draft didn’t include. TechDirt‘s Mike Masnick, for example, notes that the narrower definition of an “Internet site dedicated to infringing activities” in Protect IP is still both broad and vague. And the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Abigail Phillips wrote…that “Despite some salient differences…in the new version, we are no less dismayed by this most recent incarnation than we were with last year’s draft”…Like COICA, Protect IP expands the web of enforcement techniques by requiring advertising networks and financial transaction providers to cut ties to domains found to violate the law. But the new version now adds search engines and others to the list of providers who can be conscripted into complying with court orders. Protect IP would require “information location tools” to “take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as possible,” to remove or disable access to the site associated with a condemned domain, including blocking hypertext links to the site…Perhaps most worrisome of all, Protect IP adds a provision that allows copyright and trademark holders to sue the owner/operator of a domain directly. Again, the provision applies only to nondomestically-registered domains, but it allows the private party, like the government, to sue the domain name itself if the registrant does not have a U.S. address. That’s important because in all cases, once a suit is initiated, the plaintiff can ask the court to issue an injunction or restraining order effectively shutting the site down…Thus, with minimal court proceedings and perhaps without any opportunity for the defendant to respond or participate, the draft law would enable the Department of Justice or a private party to effectively shut down a nondomestic Web site, putting the burden on the owner/operator to prove that the site is not “dedicated to infringing activities” as defined in the law…
The “guilty until proven innocent” mechanism of the law, not to mention its “breaking an egg with a sledgehammer” philosophy, are all too familiar to whores; perhaps I should’ve filed this under “Welcome To Our World” instead.
No Other Option (October 17th)
On May 18th Svenska Dagbladet carried this article about German “sex assistants”, whores who minister specifically to the elderly and disabled. Since few of my readers read Swedish (I certainly can’t!) and some may lack access to translation software, I’ll paraphrase the entire article herein. IMHO the most interesting thing about the article is its positive, accepting tone despite the fact that it was published in a Swedish newspaper, which I think you’ll agree tends to support my May 22nd statements about the true opinion of the Swedish public on the subject of sex work.
In Sweden, Catharina König would be guilty of prostitution, but in Germany she receives calls from health professionals and desperate parents. “When people ask what I do, I usually say that I work with people with disabilities, and add that it’s sensual and erotic work. And then they look at me with big eyes,” she laughs. Five years ago (at the age of 47) she became unemployed, then stumbled across an article on “sex assistants”, people who help the disabled or elderly people to experience sex. “I felt that it could be something for me, but I didn’t know if I could pull it off. In my head, I had images of drooling and disfigured people,” she says.
Catharina König went to the Institute for Autonomy for the Disabled, a college which trains sex assistants. Her clients are mostly elderly men in retirement homes or younger disabled men. Sometimes, she says, they just want to see a female body, or caress it; sometimes they need help getting an orgasm. And often they just want to lie in bed holding someone. Many of her calls come from nursing home staff; they see that the elderly or disabled are suffering, depressed or aggressive but cannot help them. In the case of younger people who live at home, it’s usually the mother who calls. “Recently I was at home with a 40-year-old man who had never been with a woman, Catharina said; “At first he was terrified. But then it became so soft and nice.”
One of Catharina König’s regulars is 58-year-old Peter, who has a spastic paralysis of the limbs. “I am not an Adonis whom women turn to look at, but like most other men I yearn for a woman and her body,” says Peter, who wished to remain anonymous. “In principle, I think that one should not pay for sex, but the disabled have so many disadvantages in society I claim my right to do so.” When asked what he thought about the fact that in Sweden he would be labeled a criminal, Peter said he considers that an insulting idea.
Christina König agrees. “Sure I’m a sex worker; I sell sexual services. But it’s so much more than that; I’m trying to give people the feeling that they are beautiful. It’s wrong to try to punish that. Besides, in Germany prostitution is permitted since January 2002; the law considers the buying and selling of sexual services to be a commercial transaction, provided they are done voluntarily. Brothels are permissible, and prostitutes pay taxes and the same charges as other self-employed people.”
Today there are many brothels which advertise that they are accessible to the disabled; their amenities include ramps for wheelchairs and staff who understand and can help. The Association for Sexual Services, a German sex worker organization, estimates that half of the country’s nursing homes for the elderly or disabled allow prostitutes to visit their residents. Many prostitutes have discovered this as a niche; most are a little older and have life experience, says Marion Detlef, a social worker at Hydra (an organization which provides services to sex workers in Berlin). Detlef said that there is good cooperation with the old people’s homes, and more recently with nursing homes for the disabled as well. “It’s still a big taboo for many people. But even in church-based institutions, there is a growing understanding that all people have sexual needs. As it says in the Bible, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’”
What a sensible, enlightened view! And what a contrast from the monstrous, asinine official attitudes toward sex work we see in nearly every story coming out of the U.S. these days.
What’s funny Maggie is I was *just* thinking about this, and the article reflects so many truths about the male need to “just see a naked woman.” Because that is so damn true, and I know that wives often don’t understand that.
What I was also doing was mentally reviewing the scriptures about sex prohibitions & comparing and contrasting that with practical human experiences. My conclusions are basically that we’re screwed, and not in the good way.
I was also talking to a young friend about the differences between males & females, and she said that her boyfriend had also been honest enough with her to tell her that he loved her & wanted to marry her, but he STILL had a desire to sleep with other girls.
She then went on to tell me that she was glad that at least he had some porn, because she gets tired of doing it with him, especially after she’s had a long day at work.
I really don’t understand why on the one hand we’re wired a certain way, as is the rest of nature, but on the other hand, the way we’re wired & the way we think screws up our relationships….and today’s column makes me realize yet again how there’s even MORE complications if you’re poor, older, or disabled.
I commend Germany for making this legal.
Women don’t know this, but for a sick man, talking to a pretty woman is a lift. I firmly believe that patients who have failure to thrive (won’t eat anything), would be helped by being breast fed. I also believe that veterans could unwind and cool down much faster from the burdens of military life if women would demonstrate naked tender loving care with sex if that’s part of the deal.
War brutalizes people. Treatment like this might take the brute out of the suffering vet.
If you haven’t read my columns about working after Hurricane Katrina, I think you’ll find them interesting. 🙂
This article was almost beautiful.
Seems so logical and sensible.
Must be misogynist somehow.
This is one of the things that brought me around on the prostitution “issue”. When you think about it, anti-prostitution laws are a form of discrimination. If you’re handsome or wealthy or powerful — and let’s note that politicians are usually at least two of those three — it is much easier to get sex. But paying for it may be he only way for someone who is disabled or elderly or even just really really shy.
I find it very arrogant for people at whom interns are throwing themselves to issue rules under which less successful men can get laid.
This is how life works tho, Mike.
The rich & the powerful want it all for themselves, and will crush anyone else that thinks that they actually have a right to freedom & privilege. When has it ever been any different?
It doesn’t matter what current term they’re using, “real Americans,” “normal people,” they have always meant US, not YOU.
Arrogant, but alas typical. Since the beginning of human civilization the “leaders” have time and again made efforts to get and keep as much of the available supply of women for themselves as is possible without provoking open revolt.
This woman is doing good work. Germany is doing a much better job on this issue than either Sweden or we are.
Maggie, I’m afraid it’s more complex than this. I read a lot about the latest sex research and both from a biological perspective and sociological perspective, women prefer successful men, the ‘alpha’ males. Look at rock stars – they don’t force women to throw themselves at them, neither do they hold on to them very well.
A research project had women look at photos of men and judge them for attractiveness. When an invented salary was posted as a short bio, preferences quickly changed. Then it was the men with the most money who were attractive.
Lots of men sense this about women and believe that because of it women are shallow. Women look at men’s preference for beauty and think men are shallow. Actually each gender is acting in its own best interest, which is to pass on healthy, strong (successful) and beautiful traits to the next generation.
source http://www.livescience.com and google alerts
You’re absolutely right, Gawaine, but different women view different characteristics as “successful”. It’s not only salary that determines this; some women prefer fame, some physical presence, some political power. And what most women (or men) tend to do cannot and should not be forced on all others by a repressive government, nor by members of that government seeking to further their own personal and reproductive interests. In other words, politicians making laws to limit middle-class men’s access to sex would be wrong even if we lived in a strongly polygamous society in which 90% of the women chose to be with those politicians of their own free will.
Yes, ‘success’ is relative. Once it meant being the best hunter or the tribal shaman. It also depends upon the woman’s values. If she is literary herself she’d probably think a Nobel Prize winner in poetry as more successful and desirable than an English teacher. Capitalism has hypnotized us into believing that people with more money are worth more. It’s a strange world we live in.
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