When we see people jumping from a…window to escape a fire, our response should not be to stop them by boarding up the window!
– Mark Draughn
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
The schadenfreude is always especially sweet when the cop who gets in trouble works for Montgomery County:
A police sex-sting operation in Northern Virginia…has nabbed a [cop from] Maryland…Christopher Dunkes…[of] the Montgomery County Police Department, answered a Craigslist advertisement posted by an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl…Dunkes twice proposed a specific act and suggested that they meet in his car…
The Pro-Rape Coalition
Study shows kids believe stupid shit. Researchers next plan to study the religious beliefs of popes:
The majority of boys who view online pornography believe it provides a realistic depiction of sex, according to the most extensive survey of British secondary school pupils undertaken…most [students] – 94% – who have seen online pornography have been exposed to it by the age of 14. But the study also found that almost half of the 1,000 11- to 16-year-olds questioned had never seen internet pornography – findings that are in contrast to many other studies. It also revealed that [young people] have a [proper] understanding of sexting [unlike] policymakers…sexting [is] the sending of intimate messages, [not necessarily accompanied by] images, and the vast majority…questioned did not report having taken naked images of themselves…53%…said they had viewed online pornography, and while some chose to seek it out, they were as likely to have come across it by accident, often via pop-up ads…Of those who had viewed the material, 53% of boys said they believed it presented a realistic depiction of sex, while 39% of girls thought the images were realistic. Approximately 41%…felt “curious” the first time they viewed it, which was the most common response. However, more negative feelings such as being shocked (27%), confused (24%) or disgusted (23%) were also experienced…
My Readers Write
It’s especially pleasing for me when my friends write about each other:
…I’ll leave the validity of the 90% statistic (and the prevalence and causes of PTSD among sex workers) to someone more qualified. Worrying too much about the details could make us miss a more important point: Why should Lorelei Rivers give a shit what other sex worker want? There is certainly nothing wrong if Lorelei Rivers wants to know the needs and desires of other sex workers. Maybe she’s just a good person who has empathy for others. But…her right to go about her business should not depend on how other people feel about it, and that includes other sex workers. If 99.9999% of sex workers want to quit and find a different line of work, but Lorelei Rivers prefers to keep doing what she’s doing, what possible justification can there be to stop her?…the desires of the majority are a distraction from the real issue, which is personal choice…we have to make collective decisions…when making different individual choices would cause irreconcilable conflicts — so we depend on majority rule to tell us that…we should drive on the right side of the road. But…choice of employment, including employment as a sex worker, is a Pepsi or Coke kind of thing. In a free society, if some women want to be sex workers and others don’t, there’s no reason they can’t both get what they want…
I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now
…a 73-year-old man in [Nova Scotia] charged with soliciting…a [cop] pretending to be a prostitute, went before a judge to argue that he had been entrapped. There’s a lot to be outraged about when it comes to this type of lurid deception but let’s start with the underhanded funding of coercive repressive state interests. At a starting salary of $75,000 a year (and more than six figures for many more when you factor in overtime), it is unquestionable that female police officers posing as street-based sex workers make more money than many street based sex workers do…they are allowed to approach potential clients. Our street-based sisters have no such legal right; real street-based sex workers are constrained from making bold sales pitches. But [cops]…suffer no legal risk…given the allegation inscribed in our current prostitution laws that witnessing sex transactions in public is damaging to communities…how [do cops] posing as sex workers in public rationalize their presence…If they are dressed exactly like sex workers and acting even more obviously “for sale,” wouldn’t their presence engender the same unwholesome effect?…
The Notorious Badge
At least this is one actress who won’t be vomiting out anti-whore propaganda:
An actress who played a prostitute in Game of Thrones is actually a real-life hooker…Saeeda Vorajee…starred…as a prostitute called Armeca…However she…also…offers her services…under the name of Sahara Knite…Saeeda…admitted she has picked up a lot of fans from Game of Thrones but said she never gets recognised in the street…she…advertises herself as a “porn star, masseuse, mistress and session wrestler”…
Bottleneck
If this dude clutched his pearls any more tightly, he’d strangle himself:
Sections of Springfield [Massachusetts’] decades-old strip club regulations appear to routinely go unenforced, even as Mayor Domenic Sarno has promised a crackdown on clubs he [fantasizes] as a haven for violence and gang activity. The city’s strip clubs again came under scrutiny last week when police alleged that Showbar…had hired a 17-year-old dancer…[who] left the club after her mother intervened…the girl had used a false ID when applying for work…according to the city’s strip club regulations, last amended in 1992, clubs are required to register the names, ages and addresses of their dancers with City Hall…while the clubs would comply with that regulation if asked to do so, [club lawyer Daniel] Kelly said, the rules as written could endanger the privacy of workers by having their addresses listed for public review…The regulations also describe detailed restrictions on the attire and conduct of strippers, including bans on the simulation of sex acts, the touching of “breasts, buttocks, or genitals” and having employees “mingle” with customers while unclothed. And another requirement appears to be unenforced: A prohibition on the use of “back rooms”…
King of the Hill
We’ve seen claims of “Top 13” and “Top 20” cities before, but this is the first pretense that there is an “FBI list” of top 15 states:
The online selling of children and teenagers for sex is skyrocketing in communities throughout…Minnesota. The FBI says Minnesota is one of the top 15 states in which sex trafficking is a major problem…Washington County Attorney Pete Orput [fantasized]…“I could do them all day for the rest of my life and not put a dent in it”…former U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose [argued for internet censorship while describing a masturbatory fantasy involving “Younger and younger victims, which is not surprising given the role of social media and its role in human trafficking”…
Original Sin (#321)
Methinks those behind this train wreck need to consult theologian Benjamin Corey:
…The U.S. State Department…reveals 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year…there are 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today…The University of Pennsylvania’s Richard Estes and Neil Weiner conducted a case study revealing the most common age of entry into prostitution…Exodus Cry…created the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls to educate viewers about the evils of the commercial sex industry…Today’s slave trade shares many parallels with the African slave trade in centuries past…Exodus Cry’s intervention team has hit the streets and strip clubs with gift bags or roses and a message of love and hope…pornography feeds the sex trafficking industry—and many Christians are feeding the slavery beast…
Bread and Circuses
Pigs and prosecutors destroy yet another board sex workers use to stay safe, vomiting out “trafficking” lies in the process:
Investigators have dismantled what they described as the first members-only Internet prostitution ring of its kind in San Diego…San Diego police Capt. Brian Ahearn…called the [internet message board a] “sex ring”…the website operator personally vetted every man and woman seeking to become a member in an effort to “wall off” the site from [pigs]…But…[one] member…[was threatened into ratting] to police about a year ago…The case wrapped up with the arrests of Dale Vinzant…and Christian Koalani…[they were] charged with pimping, pandering, soliciting for prostitution and money laundering…Both have pleaded not guilty…
False Witness
No, this decision doesn’t “correct” shit. An innocent young man sat in a cage for nine years because cops lied and tortured him into a false confession:
A young Detroit man who wrongfully pleaded guilty to killing four people when he was 14 will soon be released from prison…Judge Brian Sullivan…vacated the 2008 conviction of Davontae Sanford who had been serving a 37- to 90-year sentence…Sanford, who is now 23, [was coerced to] confess…[and] plead guilty to four counts of second degree homicide on the advice of an attorney, who is now suspended from the practice of law…[just] two weeks after Sanford’s sentencing, a professional hit man, Vincent Smothers, confessed to the…homicide…and made clear that Sanford was not involved. But the case languished for years as the boy grew from a teenager to a man while incarcerated…“The court’s decision today corrects a grave injustice,” said Heidi Naasko, Sanford’s attorney…
As if the lies and coercion weren’t bad enough, everybody involved sat on their hands for eight years after they all knew he was innocent. This is what we call the “justice system”.
They Still Don’t Get It (#616)
Recycling 140-year-old myths to justify the same old violent pogroms against consensual sex doesn’t remotely qualify as a “sea change”:
…The new approach championed by [Nebraska] Attorney General Doug Peterson focuses on helping survivors, stopping traffickers and shrinking the market by going after customers instead of victims who are coerced into working as prostitutes…”We have to let this industry know that to operate in Nebraska, you’re going to place yourself at great risk”…Survivors frequently suffer from mental health and substance abuse problems, as well as developmental disabilities that impair their judgment…”A 16-year-old girl typically doesn’t get into prostitution by herself. Someone is most likely profiting significantly off of her”…Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks…is working with the attorney general’s office on legislation to increase criminal penalties for human traffickers and customers…Pansing Brooks said most prostitutes have been trafficking victims at some point, and the state is only now starting to treat them differently. “It’s a huge sea change,” she said.
So now we’re not only mentally ill and delusional, but also mentally retarded.
Traffic Circle (#645)
When even USA Today rags are reporting debunkings of “sex trafficking” myths, you know the panic’s days are numbered:
Have you seen the anti-sex trafficking billboards saying 13 is the average age kids are first used in the sex trade?…one of the most influential anti-trafficking organizations says the statistic is not supported by the data, The Washington Post Fact Checker recently reported…The statistic…makes little sense, Kessler wrote. If 13 is the average age for entering the sex trade, then there have to be children under age 11 offsetting those becoming sex workers at age 16 or 17…A 2008 study of sexually exploited kids in New York City found the average entry age [for underage workers] is about 15, but the researchers warned that the data is fuzzy…Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller…[pretended] he wants to be as accurate as possible. Even if the average entry age is 15, Zoeller wrote, it underscores the fact that children and teens are targeted…
Of course, the politicians still try to distort the facts to their advantage, pretending that the average age of entry for underage workers is the average for all of us.
The Pygmalion Fallacy (#646)
Leave it to moralistic control freaks to clutch their pearls about something that not only doesn’t exist, but never actually will as they envision it:
…Sharkey points out that porn has changed…male expectations, of real-life sexual partners…Is it possible that young women of the near future will feel pressure not just to look like porn stars but also to perform like robots, ever available and always eager to please?…sexual objectification is…an act that reduces a woman to nothing more than a sexual vessel…The problem is not that sex robots are available: it’s that they are wanted…of the sale of sex robots is to be allowed at all, it must be highly regulated…people who want to buy sex robots need to present the agreement of a couple of doctors, before they are judged emotionally restricted enough to need to retreat to such an inhuman fantasy. Or maybe, out of respect for women, this technology should just be rejected.