Don’t worry about the price tag! – Erin McDonald
I suspect this will be the last Links column this year in which Christmas things are not a large proportion of items (whether that’s a good thing or a bad one in your view). Our top contributors were the guys from Popehat, with both videos and the two items before the first video. That one requires a bit of information to appreciate: it seems our increasingly-totalitarian government held a contest for the best propaganda song touting one of its massive government programs, and though the winner isn’t actually entitled “Don’t Think, Just Obey“, it might as well be. Well, Patrick Non-White created this video parody by dubbing the winning song over a clip from a cult movie which had an intriguing premise, but IMHO would have been dramatically better had it been exactly six minutes and twenty seconds shorter. The links between the videos were provided by Radley Balko (“headline” and “truth”), Jesse Walker (“mesmerism”), Jason Kuznicki (“welcome”), Violet Blue (“website” & “Microsoft”), Mike Siegel (“superheroes”), Grace (“singing”), Laura Lee (“naughty”), Furry Girl (“1%”), Molly Crabapple (“solitary”), Mike Riggs (“warrant”), Cop Block (“isolated”), Jack Shafer (“FBI”), PWW (“assault”), and Mistress Matisse (“Xmas”).
- Headline of the week.
- Slow murder by mesmerism.
- Welcome to our world, little girl.
- This is a motherfucking website.
- Text messages from superheroes.
- Cops murder man for chewing gum.
- Cop threatens to arrest children for singing.
- Have you been naughty or nice online this year?
- Most of you reading this are probably in the top 1%.
- Maybe she should’ve just called them “Jughead” instead.
- To the state, “truth” is whatever any state actor claims it is.
- 73-year-old woman put in solitary confinement for letter writing.
- “If we have to get a warrant…we’re gonna shoot and kill your dogs.”
- Isolated incident: cop convicted for shooting unarmed boy in the back.
- The FBI can spy on you through your webcam, even if you think it’s off.
- Unarmed man charged with assault ’cause cops shot at him, hit others.
- Microsoft classifies US government as dangerous organized crime gang.
- Politician asks voters give him money intended for their kids’ Xmas gifts.
From the Archives
- Cops, prisons, castration, The Onion, religious nuts, neofeminism, shit, censorship, astronomy, frogs, Yoko Ono, monsters & dumb ways to die.
- Satanic Panic victims are still in prison for “crimes” that never happened.
- Credulity and sloppy scholarship aren’t Sudhir Venkatesh’s only flaws.
- Under Swedish law, animals can consent to sex while women can’t.
- One can never have too many scathing critiques of Melissa Farley.
- Nobody cares when criminals use Craigslist for non-sexual crimes.
- The difference between sad, rude, immoral, illegal and criminal.
- How “sex trafficking victims” can magically regain their agency.
- Maharashtra consults sex workers on affairs concerning them.
- Pearl-clutching Brits just can’t let this two-year-old study go.
- Why you shouldn’t give money to Salvation Army Santas.
- Advice to a young man who wants to “rescue” a hooker.
- The “Sponsor a Scholar” scammer/rapist is unmasked.
- When horrible people misuse Santa’s image for evil.
- Another example of what real sex slavery looks like.
- Buried lust doesn’t go away; it just rots in the dark.
- A whore with a certificate and title is still a whore.
- Israeli prostitution op-ed inverts myths and facts.
- On the simultaneous having and eating of cake.
- Federal drug prosecutor arrested for child porn.
- Flexibeast presents a clever sex/food satire.
- Jessie Nicole reviews American Courtesans.
- Dr. Brooke Magnanti vs. MSP Rhoda Grant.
- There is no such thing as “sex addiction”.
- Weird adults obsessing about kids’ toys.
- The news about DSM-V is mostly bad.
- Fiji moves toward decriminalization.
- My favorite bands and albums.
- Ignorance really is bliss.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- Melissa Petro is broke.
Over at Cato Unbound, the anti-sex work essay by Dianne Post is taking quite a beating in the comments section. Pretty gratifying reading.
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2013/12/06/dianne-post/prostitution-cannot-be-squared-human-rights-or-equality-women#disqus_thread
So, I’m one of the top 0.64% of the wealthy. I can’t say it feels like it. But then I only swore 9 times, so it’s not all bad news.
Memo to self: must try harder next year.
From the Cato Unbound article:
>Much evidence shows that the vast majority (89%) of prostituted women want out if they had an exit path.
The study referenced was of street workers, in drop in centers. But guess what? Ask any group of workers engaged in a tough, often dangerous business with terrible working conditions if they’d quit if they had an exit path, like winning the lottery, and you’ll find that over 89%, close to 100% will say yes. Hell, ask fast food workers.
>The evidence also shows that women in prostitution have the highest rates of rape and homicide (50%) of any group of women ever studied, and that they will suffer injury equivalent to victims of state-sponsored torture.[1]
That’s because of the illegality. In fact, thanks to cops and jailers, sex workers often do get to experience state-sponsored torture.
>The average age of death for prostituted persons is thirty-four; the practice has a “workplace” homicide rate nearly seven times higher than that of the next most vulnerable group – male taxi drivers.
WTF? I’ve known a hell of a lot of sex workers over 34 years old. Again, the danger is due to the legal oppression.
>Research indicates that pimps typically take all or most of the money and, far from protecting or managing their “stable” of girls, they force women and children to earn nightly monetary quotas to avoid beatings. Pimps even “brand” those under their control with tattoos of their names or symbols such as bar codes to demonstrate “ownership” of the girls they control.
Yes, and it’s also clear that capitalists take most of the money from the labor of their workers, force the workers to perform to a quota, or be sacked, and “brand” workers with uniforms, name tags, badges to demonstrate ownership.
The writer shows her position right away by saying “if we lived in an idea; world.” We don’t.
Not living in an ideal world, I, like many women, examined my situation, and decided that sex work paid more, allowed me a better life, better working conditions, more freedom than the job I had. I’m glad I could make that choice.
If you want to really take on an issue, then the thing to address is why my alternatives were so bad.
“Research indicates that pimps typically take all or most of the money and, far from protecting or managing their ‘stable’ of girls, they force women and children to earn nightly monetary quotas to avoid beatings. ”
Mmm… hmm. Here’s what I think about the above: the author is lying or quoting someone who is lying. This is a fantasy story, I expect the “research” was watching a few hours of Special Victims Unit.
Oh, this is not to say no SWs ever find themselves in domestic violence situations, but that story described above being typical doesn’t make sense. (I expect its more typical domestic violence scenarios, rather than being all focused on making money as above.)
What do you say Maggie? Am I wrong? (I defer to your experience.)
Anecdotal experience tells me that “pimps” (i.e. boyfriends) are more likely to say, “Whatever you say dear,” and probably not be the ones in charge of the money in the relationship.
A pimp is a man that sends a woman out to earn enough cash to take the bus to somewhere a thousand miles away, and expects her to come back with it. That just doesn’t fit in well with abuse.
Yes, but you’re forgetting their maaaaagical pimp powers, such as their ability to reach through phones & computer screens, the Barcode of Control and the mysterious Philter of Prostitution.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Independent again shows the world that it leads where the factual reporting of current events is concerned. Its lead story today:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/stumped-by-a-tricky-banana-try-one-of-amazons-handy-reviews-8990863.html
No links are provided. Try this at your own peril. Never mind the details, just read the reviews of this product.
Alas, poor iPhone. Its autocorrect is the product of much hilarity. If you haven’t seen it, try:
http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/13608/top-50-funniest-autocorrects-of-dyacs-first-year-part-1/
Hi Maggie. On the Cato Unbound debate, are the essay writers moderating their own comments sections? I commented on Post’s essay, but haven’t made it through moderation. I just wondered if she’s censoring opposing viewpoints. (My comment was critical, but it wasn’t profane or abusive.)
Not that I know of; I was given no ability to do so, so I can’t imagine the others were either. The editor probably just took Sunday afternoon off. 🙂
Its a very slow process; mine took two days to show up; then I made the mistake of editing one sentence and its disappeared again!
Thanks! I should be more patient and less suspicious I guess.