Links #445

If your dog gets aggressive, I’m going to shoot it.  –  “Officer” Keenan Wallace, referencing a 9# animal

Lovecraft-inspired pop culture stuff is often very gimmicky, but I quite enjoyed this little concerto inspired by “The Call of Cthulhu” (which was called to my attention by The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, natch).  The links above it were provided by Tim Cushing, Scott Greenfield, Brooke Magnanti, Popehat, Mistress Matisse, and Jesse Walker.

• But for video.
• MUCH more of this, please.
• How a wealthy Florida man behaves.
• A primitive form of Keynesian economics.
• Disembodied feet of the Pacific Northwest.
• And now for something completely different: New Jersey man.

From the Archives

• “Rescuers” invariably want to push sex workers into menial crafting work.
• “Ally” parrots Swedish propaganda, pretends human rights are debatable.
• Amateurs: a menace to public health who should be licensed & regulated.
• I don’t think I‘ve ever seen the word “molest” used in this context before.
• Always good to see a sex worker run for office, especially when she wins.
• This will continue until people recognize that “filtering” is just censorship.
• How many fakumentaries there will be before “trafficking” hysteria ends?
• Florida “authorities” don’t think their magic posters cage enough people.
• Mistress Matisse offers advice on the “how do I find an escort” question.
• “We did not believe it should be legal for adults to have consensual sex.”
• Another court continues the trend of classifying strippers as employees.
• Fascism, futurism, progressivism, Florida, cops, celibacy & much more.
• It’s always “gangs”; women are too stupid to use AirBnB for ourselves.
• Pompous men taking it upon themselves to “disrupt” women’s income.
• Declare anything a “public health crisis” and it can be harassed at will.
• To hear these yo-yos ranting, you’d swear this film had magic powers.
• India eliminated high-denomination currency; guess who it hurt most?
• Gentrification is a common motivation for persecution of sex workers.
• 80% of all violence vs sex workers in Hong Kong is inflicted by cops.
• Is anything narrower and meaner than the mind of a prison official?
• The “sex trafficking” myth is rooted in Protestant Christian dogma.
• Pigs harass migrant sex workers no matter how they’re portrayed.
• “People who need money do lucrative work to get it!” is not news.
• The subjects of moral panics continually grow “worse than ever”.
• Propaganda for the rebranded “Operation Northern Spotlight”.
• My two previous columns for Epiphany (AKA Little Christmas).
• The primary customers for male sex robots will also be male.
• How many moronic prohibitionist plays can the market bear?
• I’m sure useful idiots will cheer this expansion of censorship.
• Cops, dates, partisans, childhood, rainbows and much more.
• If only amateurs realized how common this sort of thing is.
• In the US, she would’ve been arrested if she reported this.
• “Sex trafficking” hysteria is now almost pure self-parody.
• Losers try to cash in with debunked bullshit a year early.
• Enterprising pervert invents a spooge-squirting system.
• Slowly but surely, public opinion is turning in our favor.
• It’s so nice to watch them feeding on their own.
• Facebook can’t even follow its own “standards”.
• Tit-for-tat non-monogamy can never work.
• I’m afraid this might be too little, too late.
• Rapist cops of the week, 2017 and 2018.
• I meet a pro-decriminalization politician.
• What wonderful company the US is in!
• I head for Mexico with Lorelei Rivers.
• Hypocrisy, thy name is Washington.
• I’m sure he did it to “protect” them.
• In which I leave for my 2017 tour.
• A list of alternatives to Backpage.
• Another setback for due process.
• Cows still cause “sex trafficking”!
• The end of my annual reviews.
• Rapist judge of the week.
• Preparing for FOSTA.
• Whores of Yore.
• 2016 in review.

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Links #438

Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Two days before the last Links column posted, author and screenwriter William Goldman, best known for The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid passed away.  But I wasn’t about to elbow that news into the same column as Stan Lee’s obituary; losing two master storytellers in one week was already bad enough without cheating one of them of his proper respect.  The links above the video (which I think you’ll agree is an appropriate choice) were provided by Mike Siegel, Phoenix Calida, Franklin Harris, Thaddeus Russell, David Ley, and Kevin Wilson, in that order.

• As one does.
• Florida woman.
• Ban Spaghetti-Os!
• STOP CALLING THE FUCKING COPS!
• Don’t let an algorithm call them on you, either.
• A previously-unknown branch of the Tree of Life.

From the Archives

• The “generous cop” scam isn’t “nice”; it’s a threatening consent violation.
• Unless the unit deposits $400 into my bank, I’m not remotely interested.
• Naturally, the bootlicking media doesn’t report the cost to sex workers.
• The Swedish model especially increases violence vs trans sex workers.
• It’s disturbing to get even a whiff of the Swedish filth in Latin America.
• Brave hero cops save The Children!^TM from desperately-needy people.
• The more out sex workers there are, the harder it will be to ignore us.
• It’s satisfying when the mask of concern for “trafficking victims” slips.
• It’s satisfying watching the “sex addiction” myth implode in real time.
• A disgusting hypocrite, but not a “child sex trafficker” by any stretch.
• Any call for more laws policing sexuality is authoritarian propaganda.
• The “most dangerously delusional ‘sex trafficking’ propaganda” race.
• Finally, a US court finds something it isn’t willing to call “trafficking”.
• I just love the pictures of the little animal whores holding their cash.
• Convicted of “sex trafficking” for running an ordinary escort service.
• The “Facebook pimps” myth is one of the silliest of the whole panic.
• If sex work weren’t illegal laws like this would be easily overturned.
• Another look at Nevada’s deeply-oppressive crony brothel system.
• Netflix produces another lurid wanking fantasy about teenagers.
• If you think this as a positive development, read more carefully.
• Ron Jeremy’s bad behavior has been an open secret for a while.
• Cops, isolation, Catholicism, goats, John Cage and much more.
• Quite possibly the stupidest “sex trafficking” propaganda ever.
• Politicians work to get sex workers evicted & enrich the state.
• Cops, fascism, skunks, The Partridge Family and much more.
• Dianne Feinstein never met a police-state law she didn’t like.
• Why I hate “Black Friday” and too-early Christmas displays.
• It looks like Samantha Azzopardi is back to her usual tricks.
• The beginning of my Doctor Who dates with Lorelei Rivers.
• Another argument in favor of sex workers for the disabled.
• Really, guys?  Is it really so hard to just hire an escort?
• Note that this kind of abuse is also typical in the US.
• Once again, prudishness trumps the Constitution.
• A nice look at the religious beliefs of sex workers.
• Who could have possibly predicted this outcome?
• We need to keep protesting every damned sting.
• SWOP’s annual fundraiser is going on right now!
• “A few critics call it a form of human trafficking.”
• It’s good to have Grace nearby for the holidays.
• The 100^th anniversary of Mata Hari’s execution.
• Because laws are more important than people.
• The McNeill Rule, like its namesake, is a bitch.
• The bioethicists are now on our side as well.
• Young-relative-molesting cops of the week.
• A rare decision in favor of self-ownership.
• November 2013 and 2014 in retrospect.
• Very little has changed for James Deen.
• That’ll teach them dirty “sex offenders”!
• My last two columns for Thanksgiving.
• Sweden, the feminist Utopia.
• Are these people for real?
• Rapist cop of the week.
• SCIENCE!

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In the News (#889)

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

Above the Law  …

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

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

A Mound of Filth (#506)

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

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

Forward and Backward (#604)

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

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

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

Welcome to the Future (#607)

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

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

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

The Puritan Recrudescence

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

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

Count the Idiocies

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

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

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

Why I Wait (#812)

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

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

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

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#815) 

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

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

See No Evil (#854) 

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

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

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#885)

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

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

No Difference (#886)

Tanzania ramps up its pogroms against gay men:

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

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Links #437

Excelsior!

The big news this week was of course the death of Stan Lee, the face of Marvel Comics for 6 decades.  This video is slightly outdated because it doesn’t contain the cameos from this year’s Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Infinity War, but you can see those here (without sound) if you like.  The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Phoenix Calida, Scott Greenfield, Tim Cushing, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, and Tim Cushing again, in that order.

• Song map of the USA.
• Not. For. Any. Reason. WHATSOEVER.
• Protecting and serving all across the west.
• Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.
• Politicians claim permits magically destroy bacteria.
• Cops beat up old lady with terminal cancer for knowing her rights.

From the Archives

• When government stops prohibiting things & treats prisoners like humans.
• Assume anything that connects to the internet can be used to spy on you.
• Even when cops want to tell the truth, their bosses may force them to lie.
• A cop’s masturbatory fantasy of omnipresent “pimps” with magic powers.
• Cop faces longer sentence for texting than others face for rape & murder.
• Don’t want to worry about neighbors? Buy yourself a country house, twit.
• “Christian” politician has a thing for underage girls. Gee, what a surprise.
• Cops threaten & harass sex workers, then disclaim responsibility for this.
• Talk about serial killers targeting whores; don’t mention criminalization.
• Palantir is the same company which is helping cops spy on sex workers.
• “Establishing a committee to study decriminalizing sex work“; we’ll see.
• Because giving free sex to boorish, penniless young men is “feminism”.
• Defense attorneys should know it’s not cops’ job to “protect” anybody.
• Fashion designers profit from whores’ images while giving us nothing.
• Media in the British Isles are much more critical of anti-porn hysteria.
• None of my friends know her, but the “oral sex” thing is total bullshit.
• Authoritarians imagine a link between sex work and barroom brawls.
• Really, guys, just hire actual pros; it’s much cheaper in the long run.
• Not the first time Weinstein’s been accused of financial shenanigans.
• It’s great to see so many physicians coming out against prohibition.
•  What exactly is the rationale behind destroying two women’s lives?
• Cops, nightmares, monsters, parasites, prisons and much more.
• The quaint non-“law enforcement” term for this is “blackmail”.
• This is the kind of sick mind that believes in “porn addiction”.
• I think my car will soon be able to get to the airport by itself.
• The crypto-moralists have been relatively quiet for a while.
• Cops make up creative excuses for brutalizing gay men.
• Cornpone cop spins sexual fantasies of raped teen girls.
• Prudes will turn anything related to sex into a problem.
• Are reporters actually paid to be clueless ignoramuses?
• Cops, alchemy, Steve Ditko, Medusa and much more.
• Judge is intimidated into backing down from a ruling.
• The problem with criminalizing sex workers’ clients.
• Once in a while a rapist cop gets his comeuppance.
• Another probable casualty of the War on Whores.
• Screwdriver-wielding anal rapist cop of the week.
• Rapist cops of the week.  Lots and lots of them.
• Facebook can’t even follow its own “standards”.
• What should I do about intense social anxiety?
• Desmond Ravenstone introduces CoSWAC.
• Exposing a fake-reviews-for-pay scam.
• Nope, this isn’t sex work, no sirree.
• Sex rays contaminate buildings!
• Thoughts on a difficult autumn.
• Do as they say, not as they do.
• Watch what you say, comrade.
• Can a client be an ally?

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In the News (#886)

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

License to Rape

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

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

Real People 

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Notorious Badge

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

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

No Difference

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

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

Somewhere in the Middle (#425)

Kate Iselin on myths about clients:

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

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#687) 

This is what a moral panic looks like:

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

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

Full of Themselves (#787)

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

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

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

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#792) 

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

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

Damned Lies (#866)

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

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

Suppression

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

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

Traffic Jam (#877)

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

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

Signs (#878) 

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

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

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Diary #435

Though it took longer than usual, my brain has now downshifted into autumn mode and I’m enjoying the lovely cool, dark, rainy Seattle weather. I’ve done two duos with Lorelei in the past week and we have another set up; I published a new story, have some friends coming over for my birthday tomorrow, and in a few days Daylight Mismanagement Time will be over and I won’t have to endure the sun while I’m eating dinner.  Paul Johnson is in the final stages of editing The War on Whores, and we’ll be shooting a cover image pretty soon; I think I have the energy to finally get The Essential Maggie McNeill out; and I’ll be announcing another big project pretty soon.  The “authorities” want sex workers to shut up and play the part of damsels in distress for their melodramatic morality play, starring cops and politicians as the heroes; instead, I’m going to proclaim the truth even more loudly, and pretty soon I’ll be asking for the help of all my readers to do it.

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Wheels

This story is an exploration of some ideas that have haunted me since the year in which the story takes place, and have occupied an important place in my consciousness for most of this year.  As with “Bird of Prey”, I’m just going to tease you with a selection; if you want a copy, you can either buy it on Kindle or get a PDF copy by becoming a patron of my blog.  If you’re already a patron, you should’ve received a copy over the weekend; if you didn’t, please let me know.

The windows in the mural room faced west and south, and the reddish hue of the sunlight accentuated the predominant crimson, amber and bronze hues of the painting, making it look almost as though it were on fire.  He saw many more faces than he had on the first visit, and the feathers of the multiplicity of wings seemed to rustle and shimmer; he also saw hands where he hadn’t before, peeking out from the wings and juxtaposed with legs and horns and teeth.  In this light the eyes – hundreds of them of every shape and size, peering or glaring or watching from every part of the mural – seemed to all be looking back at him, glinting in various colors like gemstones.  But of all the odd features of the design, the most horrifying were the wheels.  Every other recognizable part of the painting was part of some living creature or another, whether bird or beast or human, but except for the eyes all around their rims, the wheels were most definitely not.  And while the way in which the various biological features related to each other made little anatomical sense, the way the wheels were depicted made no sense at all.  They were like things from an Escher woodcut, objects which could not have existed in three-dimensional reality, with spokes and rims that turned at crazy angles to one another and sometimes seemed to project outward from the wall.  Their perspective was maddening; from some angles they seemed close to the living figures, while from others they seemed far away, and when viewed obliquely they were both at the same time.  And somehow, at least in this hazy light shining through dingy windowpanes across dusty air, the ones in his peripheral vision seemed to be turning on themselves, rotating out of the plane of the design entirely.

A few minutes in that room was more than enough, and though he was a sophisticated and urbane man Bert decided to head back to the motel and to stay away from this room until he had both human company and the psychological comfort of full morning sun.  He locked the door and returned the key to its hiding place in the woodshed as the caretaker had instructed, then drove back to the motel at a rather higher rate of speed than was strictly prudent on a rutty backroad in a pine barrens.  He then proceeded to drink most of a bottle of cheap bourbon over the next few hours while not really paying attention to the television, and fell into a fitful sleep haunted by nightmares of huge wheels covered in eyes, slowly rotating toward him…

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