Gloria's Oversexed Mind

Needless to say, the uproar over the Mosley case has -- depending on your point of view -- either opened a frank and exciting new public dialogue about sadomasochism or given vanilla people an opportunity to try and rut around in our psyches.

Some people, like the very admirable British activists Deborah Hyde (not to be confused with American SM author, Debra Hyde), believe Mosley's case is positive news for SMers.

from....

Whatever turns them on? Inside the minds of the sadomasochists

This trial is a good thing,' said Deborah Hyde, spokeswoman for Backlash, which campaigns for BDSM rights. 'We're finally getting the chance to talk to the media, who have ignored us for years. In Max Mosley we've got a man who says: "This is who I am." He's got expensive lawyers who can fight his case, but many others end up being dragged through the family courts or in front of their employers. In Mosley, we have someone who is fighting our corner.'

It's probably fair to say that Mosley, 67, was not intent on championing a sexual subculture when he launched his invasion of privacy action over the paper's publication in April of his predilection for S&M.

Hmmm....I agree with her, philosophically. But then when I think about people who don't even know that much about human sexuality in the first place trying to impress with titles like "Inside the Minds of Sadomasochists," I cringe. Talking to media is great, it's wonderful to know they are willing to listen. But what exactly are they hearing? More importantly, how much do they understand and what message are they sending?

For example, the title of the above story suggests that there is some kind of giant consolidated SM mind or attitude that can be penetrated to reveal what makes us all tick. Bah. That's a one-dimensional approach. You can't get "inside the mind" of all SMers anymore than you can get inside the mind of all Catholics or Jews. See (whispering a big secret): people are individuals! Even sadomasochistic people. SHHHH! Don't tell anyone. We wouldn't want to scare vanillas by making them actually consider SMers as diverse human beings instead of widgets whose specs can be published on the web.

Also, note how the reporter felt compelled to include information about how SM causes psychic stress for some people and becomes an "addiction." Oy fucking vey. Please note: "Sexual addiction" is not a clinical diagnosis; it is not listed in the APA; it is a theory developed in large part by a shrink of dubious standing (Patrick Carnes); it appeals to people who think sex is bad therefore a lot of sex is even worse. So why did the reporter feel the need to dredge up a negative angle on SM? If he was writing about the joys of married sex would he feel compelled to find a marriage counselor to tell him about all the husbands and wives who credit marriage with destroying their lives? Of course not: because vanillas assume that married sex is a good thing and that sex problems in a marriage are unusual events; whereas they assume that SM is a questionable practice and that problems in SM are therefore, if not the norm, certainly a reasonable expectation.

Or how about this next article, whose title suggests that SM is all about pain (and thus suggesting its opposite, that you're not an SMer if you don't like pain). Holy crap. Didn't we all cover this in SM workshops years ago? If not, well I KNOW I covered it in my books.

Adventures in the world of pain

The orgy at the heart of the Max Mosley case wasn't just any orgy. It was an S&M orgy. Are sadomasochistic activities an 'affront to civilisation'? Or just part of a wide spectrum of acceptable sexual activity?

The latter.

And so this is why I always prefer reading about SM *by* SMers. We own our sexuality in ways no vanillas can begin to comprehend. We live it. We get it. It should our truths that tell the story of SM.

I'm not saying we should shut off this dialogue: I love the fact that people are now being forced to consider that even famous racing bosses from rich families shamelessly enjoy the slap-and-tickle, alongside rent-boys in leather chaps and the proper wives of British spies. I'm delighted Mosley's smashing stereotypes and demanding the right to do whatever-the-fuck-he-wants with consenting adults.

But unless and until we get media to quit promoting prejudice by writing from a base of ignorance about WIITWD and instead bring abroad people who actually know what they are talking about, people who are clueful to the breadth, depth, scope, diversity, and all-around infinity of permutations of SM personalities, I fear this dialogue will stumble along and re-enforce old prejudices for years to come.

July 23, 2008 in Science and Culture, Sex and History, Sex and Sadomasochism, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been following the strange tale of Max Mosley, the F1 racing boss allegedly caught doing Nazi play in an SM dungeon. The alleged part refers to the Nazi play; Mosley himself has openly admitted he engages in SM. In fact, I blogged a while back about how I admired his courage in choosing to openly admit to being a sadomasochist, not apologizing for it or making the vaguest attempt to deny his proclivities, instead fighting to keep his job (successfully) and suing the paper which published the story.

Mosley is particularly piqued about the claim that Nazi play was involved. Mosley -- the son of a notorious Nazi sympathizer -- clearly has an emotional stake in all this and seems determined to prove several points. First, that the paper had no right to violate his privacy; that their story contained lies; that consensual SM is acceptable; and, perhaps, that as the child of a fascist, he is pretty damn pissed off about being tarred with his father's sins.

Meanwhile, as if all the above wasn't wild enough, the story is filled with more twists than a corkscrew.

For one, turns out, Mosley was set up. For another, he was set up by one of the professional dommes who was there. For yet another, that prodomme happens to be married to a British spy. Leading to a whole LOT gossip about conspiracies and why a spy's wife worked as a dominatrix....leading to statements from the spy about how this scandal has destroyed his career and his life.

The MI5 officer who quit after his wife was exposed as a prostitute in a sadomasochistic orgy with Max Mosley has told for the first time how the affair has ruined their lives.

The spy was forced to resign after confessing he was married to the ‘professional dominatrix’, who secretly videoed the sex session with the F1 motor racing boss and sold details to a newspaper.

The former £30,000-a-year mobile surveillance officer – who tracked terror suspects – said he quit to spare his bosses embarrassment.

He would not discuss how much he knew about his wife’s involvement in setting up the sting against Mosley, or if he played any part.

MI5 officer whose wife was exposed as a prostitute in Max Mosley orgy says the ordeal has devastated their lives

But wait! There's more! It now appears his wife has either gone mad, or was mad in the first place, because she's just been declared too mentally unstable to testify.

The Max Mosley privacy case took a dramatic turn yesterday as the star witness failed to appear.

Woman E, a dominatrix, took part in a sado-masochistic session with the motorsport boss and four other women and secretly filmed it for the News of the World.

But yesterday the paper's QC told the High Court her 'emotional and mental state is such that it would not be fair or reasonable to call her to give evidence'.

Dominatrix who secretly filmed Mosley sex party is declared 'unfit' to face court

July 23, 2008 in Post-Modern Pop Culture, Sex and Culture, Sex and History, Sex and Sadomasochism, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Perhaps the most ridiculous and too-stupid-to-take-seriously lawsuit everin the news comes from Greece, where three people who live on the island of Lesbos tried to get local courts to make it illegal for lesbians to call themselves lesbians.

Court rules lesbians are not just from Lesbos

A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.

Three residents of Lesbos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho whose love poems inspired the term lesbian, brought a case last month arguing the use of the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.

In a July 18 decision, the Athens court said the word did not define the identity of the residents of the island, and so it could be validly used by gay groups in Greece and abroad.

In other world news, three lesbians from the Isle of Man are petitioning the World Court to make it illegal for men to call themselves men.

July 23, 2008 in Sex and Culture, Sex and History, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

OMG. An actual breath of sanity from the federal courts.

(Thanks to nightheron for this)

Court tosses FCC 'wardrobe malfunction' fine

A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction."

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.

July 21, 2008 in Sex and Culture, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

We all know BDSM can be therapeutic.

But confusing BDSM *for* therapy or using it as a form of psychological therapy is always an unmitigated disaster.

This story about an Australian therapist who tried to treat a client's bulimia with BDSM is incredible. He was awfully lucky to be acquitted with all that evidence.

Bondage psych fights bid to discipline him

A former Fremantle psychologist who used bondage and discipline role-playing to treat a 22-year-old bulimic woman has been ordered to see a psychiatrist after arguing he should not face disciplinary proceedings because he had post traumatic stress disorder since being cleared of sexually assaulting the client.

Bruce Alistair Beaton was acquitted last year of unlawful and indecent assault, and aggravated sexual penetration of the young woman, who also claimed the psychologist whipped her with a homemade cat-o’-nine-tails while treating her between January and March 2005.

During Mr Beaton’s highly publicised trial, the District Court was shown hidden camera recordings in which the then-64-year-old called the woman his “submissive”, describing her as “delicious” and telling her he was going to “enjoy” her and “have a taste” of her. The woman, who wore a dog collar in the footage, was told to “kneel” before reading an oath pledging her body and mind to her “master”.

He told the court he had tried common methods to treat bulimia before deciding to work towards BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism).

Mr Beaton was cleared of the sex and assault charges but convicted of contempt for failing to name in court the colleague who advised him on treating clients with violent sexual tendencies.

What's even richer is that he is now claiming to be the victim here -- by pursuing charges against him, they've caused him PTSD. Talk about NOT taking responsibility!

July 18, 2008 in Sex and Sadomasochism, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had no idea that driving while gay is a crime in Italy.

Fortunately, Italian courts agree that it isn't.

Thanks to Mike for the link to this bizarre story.

Italian wins damages over gay driving test retake

An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros (79,981 pounds) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his licence withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his licence for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

July 18, 2008 in Sex and Culture, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can see the letter of apology now.

"Dear Saratoga Springs,

Sorry I acted like such a dick."

Judge: NY man in offensive costume must apologize

A judge has ordered a 19-year-old man to write an apology to a the city of Saratoga Springs in New York for dressing in an offensive costume at a high school graduation.

Calvin Morett had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for dressing in a 6-foot penis costume at the graduation at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. A video of his visit last month has appeared on YouTube.

And here it is:

July 17, 2008 in Sex and Culture, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know what's more disturbing here: his bizarre antics or his mugshot. He looks like a cross between Charles Manson and Howdy Doody.

Here's Howdy:

Here's Charlie:

Here's Andy:

And here's the story:

Police were called to the Buffalo Wild Wings in Murrieta at about 1:13 a.m. to investigate a report of "an intoxicated male" urinating outside the bar and causing a disturbance, according to a police statement.

When they arrived, a 17-year-old girl told police that she was outside when Dick left the bar, walked up, "grabbed her tank top and bra and pulled them down and exposed her breasts," the statement said.

Marijuana and the drug Xanax were found his pants pockets during a search and he appeared "extremely intoxicated," police said.

Comedian Andy Dick arrested in drug, sex cases

Sounds like a real pearl of a guy. And proving yet again that celebs get special treatment, this isn't the first time he's done stuff that would brand most people as sex criminals.

Dick has a reputation for crude behavior. He has been reported to have exposed himself to audiences at least twice. He was forcibly removed from the set of the show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last year after he repeatedly touched guest Ivanka Trump without her permission.

Also last year, Dick was cited in Columbus, Ohio, for urinating on the sidewalk. A comedy club owner in the city said the actor also made inappropriate comments while onstage, groped patrons, took women into the men's room and urinated on the floor and on at least one person.

July 16, 2008 in Post-Traumatic Tabloid Disorder, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thanks to T-Rex for this one. It's a very interesting story about some pagans in North Carolina who were recently arrested on charges of kidnapping and rape. Some quarters now question if the cops correctly perceived what was going on. Were the individuals involved in Satanism or New Age paganism? And were the alleged acts of violence actually consensual acts of SM?

from The Wild Hunt Blog: A modern Pagan perspective

...another story I've read, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me. It involves five people, the local Democratic party, accusations of kidnapping and rape, and Satanism. The more you dig into it, the more it seems like the beginnings of a witch-hunt. continued in: Satanic Panic Alive and Well in North Carolina

July 15, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to agree with commentators on a post about Google data being used in court -- in that case, the cause was good.

But what worries me is that so many lawyers are hauling Google into courts and forcing them to release data of all kinds. One day it seems harmless...and the next day it could translate into witch-hunts.

Judge Orders YouTube to Hand Over User Data

In a potentially huge blow to the fight for privacy on the Internet,a judge has ordered that Google must hand over data about every video viewed by YouTube users to Viacom, including usernames and IP addresses. Viacom is suing Google for allowing its copyrighted content to be posted to YouTube, and hopes to use this data to prove that copyrighted material is more popular than user-generated content on the site.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has already called the decision a violation of the Video Privacy Protection act, and you can bet Google will fight the ruling tooth and nail.

I think and hope that Google attorneys can figure out a way to protect the data. Sure, it's great when it can be used to help people for the right reasons. But the US Courts' belief that the data is a treasure-trove of American secrets scares me.

July 5, 2008 in Sex and Technology, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sex On-Line, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've been reading the news at all, you probably have been noticing that busts for child-sex criminals of all types have been on the rise. Yesterday, for example, a nation-wide operation arrested 345 alleged child predators, all accused of pimping/prostituting minors. As is always the case with these massive busts, the high number of arrests seldom leads to a similarly number of successful prosecutions. Sometimes it's because the law is blurry, or the kids involved won't cooperate, or the evidence was destroyed. Most times, though, it's because these large-scale operations tend to sweep up a lot of people who were either innocent, and more often, whose rights were violated (so the cases get kicked out before trial).

The fact is that child molestation and abuse of minors is and always has been a pervasive evil in the world. The concept of "age of consent" is actually something of a late-comer to human history. In former centuries, there were no laws to protect children and, in some cultures, tribes, and family groups, children were not only routinely sexually abused but, of course, were married or sold to the highest bidder. Many crimes we perceive to be examples of the evils of modern and progressive thinking are historic cultural institutions -- such as the child brothels that continue to operate in third world nations. Some -- such as arranged marriages for minors -- are religious ones. Western society has endorsed child-sex or at the very least closed a very blind eye to it, depending on period, place, and shifting morals. Only now are we finally beginning to seriously attempt to rule out sex with children, and we have been undertaking this effort by going after the worst of the worst, criminals who exploit children for financial gain.

Yet for all the commercial exploitation of children by predators and pimps, I think most therapists and doctors would have to agree that the single greatest risk for any child, and the single-most under-reported crime, is incest. The vast majority of abuses against children do not occur when they go into the world and encounter strangers: it's when they are in their own home, at the mercy of a relative or other trusted caretaker and authority figure.

I applaud everyone who is honestly trying to work to improve children's rights and to protect children from sex with adults, but writing a new law which makes child rape punishable by death is crazy.

Unbowed, politicians vow to execute child rapists

When Texas' leading politicians called loudly for the death penalty for repeat child rapists last year, they knew there was a good chance the U.S. Supreme Court might find the provision unconstitutional. Legal experts told them so – repeatedly.

...on Wednesday the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision in a Louisiana case, did just that, ruling that "the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child."

Had the law gone through, it would have, in my opinion, harmed far more children then it helped. I agree with a statement issued by the the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault:

"We join sexual assault coalitions across the country in applauding the Supreme Court's step toward ensuring that prosecutions of child sexual assault across our nation remain victim-centered and child-friendly in their approach," said a prepared statement released by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.

Some organizations had warned legislators the law could result in victims being unwilling to prosecute or perpetrators less likely to leave their victims alive.

"Most child sexual abuse victims are abused by a family member or close family friend," the statement from the Texas association said. "The reality is that child victims and their families don't want to be responsible for sending a grandparent, cousin or long time family friend to death row."

Exactly.

I can hear all the depraved relatives telling their victims, "If you tell anyone, they'll kill me." How likely is it that any normal child would want that responsibility? Children who are molested by the people close to them would be less likely than ever to step forward, much less to testify in court. Even if the children wanted to, how much do you want to bet that other adults in the family would now make SURE that secret was safe?

We all want to protect children. But we can't protect them by creating an environment in which they're even more frightened to speak up when they're being hurt.

(BTW -- both John McCain and Barack Obama expressed disappointment that the legislation failed. IOW, both presidential candidates continue to prove they don't really believe in the Constitution. Lovely.)

June 26, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thanks to 5crows for submitting an update on "To Catch a Predator," a show whose motives I once questioned and whose tactics led to tragedy.

Settlement in NY lawsuit over NBC's 'Predator'

NBC Universal has settled a $105 million lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed a televised sex sting by "Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator" drove her brother to kill himself.

"The matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties," said a statement released by both sides. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Lawyers put pretty faces on things but, gee, I wonder just how satisfied a sister could be knowing her brother died as a result of reporters trying to exploit people's worst instincts to create news.

Fom that you may infer just how amicable and satisfied I'd be feeling if anything like that ever happened to someone I loved. By now I would probably have hired every PI in America to dig into the dirt in Chris Hansen's life -- because everybody's got some, of that one can be sure. But God bless the woman who can forgive.

Patricia Conradt's lawsuit had claimed her brother, a suburban Dallas prosecutor, fatally shot himself after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy...

If you can remember back to Mark Foley, the politician caught doing the very same thing...you might also remember that the charge against the Dallas attorney was the result of the legislation Foley himself underwrote. Can anyone doubt that the worst enemies of gays and lesbians are the self-hating closet cases?

Luckily for the plaintiffs, a judge saw through NBC's defense.

In February, a federal judge issued a scathing ruling in the case, saying a jury might conclude the network "crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement."

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the lawsuit contained sufficient facts to make it plausible that the suicide was foreseeable, that police had a duty to protect Conradt from killing himself and that the officers and NBC acted with deliberate indifference.

Meanwhile, if you have derived a sick thrill from watching Americans entrap other Americans into committing crimes against children, surf on.

New episodes of "To Catch A Predator" ended in December, with the future of the series uncertain.

June 26, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

FYI, I blogged this when the guy got caught. And may I say...the sentence seems a bit stiff....

Man caught having sex with table gets 6 months

Police say a man was arrested after admitting to, and being caught on DVD having sex with his picnic table repeatedly.

Investigators say they received a tip that Art Price Jr., 40, of 146 Brinker St. in Bellevue was having sex with a picnic table while outside on the deck. The incidents occurred between January and March 2008.

Police say on March 13, the tipster dropped off three DVDs which showed Price in the act. On four occasions, Price is seen naked and masturbating in the rear room near the open doorway; he then comes out to the deck. He tilts the metal round picnic table on its side and lays up against it and has sexual intercourse with the table. Afterwards he cleans the table and the deck.

June 26, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Only in America.

The $6 million lawsuit filed by the New York City street performer known as The Naked Cowboy against M&Ms candy maker Mars Inc can go forward on grounds of trademark infringement, a judge ruled on Monday.

Robert Burck -- for 10 years a fixture in Times Square, who strums a white guitar while dressed only in white cowboy boots and hat and skimpy white underwear -- filed the suit in February over video billboards depicting a blue M&M dressed in his signature outfit.

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that Burck may proceed with his false endorsement claim, "for he plausibly alleges that consumers seeing defendants' advertisements would conclude -- incorrectly -- that he had endorsed M&M candy."

LINK

OK, impromptu poll: who would you rather have melt in your mouth?

June 25, 2008 in Post-Modern Pop Culture, Post-Traumatic Tabloid Disorder, Sex and Culture, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's just amazing how many crazy crimes against children seem to go on in that state. Also amazing that a story like this hasn't received a lot of national press, Horrible disgusting story that it is you'd think talking heads would be screaming about it.

Obviously I'm late finding it myself (since a couple of the perpetrators are already in jail), and now a tad frustrated. This report/update on the case is confusing. WAS this a real swingers' group that lost its damn mind -- or was it a pedophile ring all along, pretending to be swingers?

I'll see what else I can dig up on it. Meanwhile, OMG, I feel so sorry for those poor poor little girls.

Texas town reels from horrific abuse in its midst

In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.

Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.

In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.

Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.

June 23, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

The trial has just begun in Florida's Broward County of one of the two men charged in the murder of Alan Shalleck. One of the most tragic and cautionary tales about playing with strangers you can find.

south florida: Opening arguments set in Curious George case

Opening arguments will be heard this morning in the death penalty case against one of two men who allegedly brutalized and robbed the collaborator of the Curious George children's books.

Vincent Puglisi, 56, is accused in the 2006 stabbing death of 76-year-old Alan Shalleck, who was beaten and stabbed more than 100 times and nearly had his genitals severed during a sadomasochistic three-way sexual tryst at Shalleck's Boynton Beach mobile home.

So let's review a key safety rule, folks. Unless you are in a safe setting, i.e., a club or party setting with trusted friends, dungeon monitors or others who will intervene if things get too wild, do NOT count on strangers to know, understand or care what kind of safe words you use. EVER. As exciting as someone may seem, as sincere as he or she may act when you first meet, unless the person (or people, in this case) have been vetted by people you trust or you can be guaranteed a safe exit should things go wrong, the next stranger you naively trust could be the one who -- intentionally or accidentally -- causes permanent damage or death.

I realize lots of people love the rush of anonymous enounters...and that perhaps, at age 76, Mr. Shalleck felt his options might be limited....but consensual BDSM comes with rules, and rule number one is....never ever allow yourself to be at the mercy of people who have NOT proven themselves trustworthy. There are indeed predators and psychopaths out there who target folks like us. Never forget that.

My heart goes out to poor Mr. Shalleck and his grieving loved ones.

June 18, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Punishment by cane in Singapore is NO laughing matter. A horrible punishment, doled out for offenses that one might think could more respectably dealt with by fines. But who are we to judge other countries when our own prison and legal system routinely subjects alleged sex criminals to horrible punishments? Still, this bizarre news item and the truly Draconian punishment for the fetishist's misbehaviors caught my eye. Frankly, it sounds like a scene that could be played out in a pro-dom's dungeon....except the caning wouldn't be nearly as painful, the jail would be a hot little cage and the whole ordeal would be over in an hour.

Armpit sniffer gets jail and cane

A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women's armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims...

He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes, the paper said....

The court meted out the jail term, normally reserved for hardcore criminals, saying the man was likely to commit crimes again, the paper reported.

The paper also reported the poor fetishist was mentally ill. Obviously rehabilitation is a foreign concept in Singapore.

So what would be a fairer way to deal with people who are mad or severely mentally challenged and commit crimes which are petty but nonetheless may be deeply disturbing to the victims? I am completely opposed to placing the insane in standard prisons alongside hardcore criminals: psychologically, and perhaps physically, it IS a death sentence. Yet we do it all the time, essentially locking away problems that seem too complex and expensive for the system to deal with. Much more humane, of course, would be providing opportunities for them to be helped and rehabilitated. Many mentally ill people would have a chance at a productive life IF they had proper treatment: they are not as doomed as popular sentiment might lead you to believe. I am not opposed to separating them from society -- but being forced to live among brutal thugs can only make them sicker than they've ever been before.

June 16, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does anyone else love this story as much as I do?

Judge's Internet sex photos halts obscenity trial

A long-awaited obscenity trial opened and was promptly put on hold, after revelations that the top federal judge hearing the case had posted sexually explicit material on the Internet.

Judge Alex Kozinski agreed to the prosecution's request for a 48-hour delay so the Justice Department could look into possible issues of prejudice in the case, in view of the judge's actions

June 14, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (3)

R. Kelly was just acquitted -- but I got interviewed while the trial was underway.

Funny, isn't it, what reporters choose to excerpt from an hour long interview...dear me.

from the Chicago Tribune:

A case of discomfort

The elephant in the room at the ongoing child pornography trial of R&B icon R. Kelly is the fact that the man shown in the amateur sex video—the prosecution's key piece of evidence—seems to take pleasure in urinating on his sex partner.

Tearing away from the heinous possibility that the girl in the video may be underage, a question on the minds of many who have followed Kelly's case is: Who on earth would want to urinate on someone else, or be urinated on themselves?

The question might not make for polite dinner conversation, or even a topic normally discussed in a family newspaper. But that has not stopped people from talking about it.

The act performed in the video has gained widespread notoriety in the realm of popular culture. An episode of "Sex and the City" once explored the practice. Comedian Dave Chappelle brought the issue into millions of homes in 2003 with a mock music video in which he dresses and croons likes R. Kelly, guzzling a gallon bottle of water, spraying dancers with a garden hose and singing a song titled "[I Wanna] Pee on You."

The intermingling of sex and urine—known by the euphemism "watersports"—has been around for centuries, but it still makes most people cringe.

Lawyers in the Kelly case warned prospective jurors that they would have to witness "acts you've never seen before." Journalists reporting on the case have had to tiptoe gently around what is often viewed—some would argue incorrectly—as a deviant act.

Sex therapists say that while watersports are not a common practice, plenty of healthy, consenting adults engage in them for an array of reasons.

"There are indeed people who do it as an act of anger," said Gloria Brame, a Georgia-based licensed therapist and author of the book "Different Loving." "But there are a lot of people who think it's groovy. . . . It's a breaking of taboo."

June 13, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Jen for spotting this one. Wheee!

Alex Kozinski, 9th Circuit chief judge, posted sexually explicit matter on his website

An obscenity trial in Los Angeles federal court was suspended today after The Times reported that the judge presiding over the case has maintained his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded, although he defended other sexually explicit content as "funny."

Gee, I wonder if he would accept that defense from the people he's judging. I mean, humor is so subjective. What if the defendant said, "But judge, when I saw that woman peeing into the guy's mouth I about fell out of my chair laughing!" Would that work? How about "Bondage?? That just cracks me up! Seriously! All those ropes and people trussed up like turkeys? HAR HAR HAR, I am holding my sides right now just thinking about it, Judge!"

Yes, a fine complement to the "twinkie defense," the all-new "ha-ha" defense.

The story also goes on to list some of the stuff the judge found "inappropriate" and "funny" enough to save to disk and post on his site.

...The sexually explicit material on Kozinski's site earlier this week was extensive, including images of masturbation, public sex and contortionist sex. There was a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, and a folder that contained a series of photos of women's crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear. There were also themes of defecation and urination, though they are not presented in a sexual context.....

Uhh...wha? Sez who? Is that the judge or the reporter making the assessment that images of people pooping and peeing is non-sexual? Ahahahaha.

Kozinki's claiming that he didn't realize he had saved these files (using the old "people send me stuff, I didn't even realize I had it, and, who me, post them on a site? did I do that? OHH, I had no idea!"), and also that he didn't realize anyone else could find it because he didn't offer visible links to the subdirectory. Which means only one of two things. Either (a) he has no concept of how the Internet or google work, and therefore is the last person to be judging Internet porn sites or (b) he's an arrogant, lying SOB who thinks the very laws he uses to prosecute others do not apply to him.

June 12, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, fellow pervs, what do you think? She had to hide the jewelry SOMEWHERE, right?

Nude maid accused of really cleaning up

TAMPA - A nude maid is accused of really cleaning up at a Florida man's home. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said a 50-year-old man hired the maid from the Internet on Friday to clean his Tampa home.

Authorities said the woman arrived at the home in a one-piece, light colored dress. She took off the dress and cleaned the house for $100-per-hour. Sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said the man told deputies he left the maid alone in the bedroom to clean.

When the man's wife came home from vacation, she discovered $40,000 in jewelry missing from their bedroom.

Police are investigating.

Let's just hope they don't waste time pussy-footing around.

May 28, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Meanwhile, on our own shores, politicians in Indiana have created a law that will force anyone who sells sexually-explicit material to register with the state as a vendor of adult materials. You read that right. If a store carries books with sexual content, the state will now view that store as a smut merchant.

The law was announced back in March. Here are the salient details.

Sexual content law irks booksellers

A new state law that requires sellers of adult material to register with the state has Hoosier bookstore owners fuming about government censorship and threatening a legal challenge.

“This lumps us in with businesses that sell things that you can’t even mention in a family newspaper,” said Ernie Ford, owner of Fine Print Book Store in Greencastle.

Ford was talking about HEA 1042, which Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law last week. He was one of 15 independent Indiana booksellers who signed a letter last week urging Daniels to veto the legislation.

The new law that takes effect July 1 requires businesses that sell sexually explicit material to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state, which would then pass the information to municipal or county officials so they can monitor the businesses for potential violations of local ordinances.

The only thing more bizarre than this new law (I'm speechless at its insanity) is how hard it is to find reporting about it. Considering its legal and economic implications for booksellers and buyers throughout Indiana, you'd think there would be lots of hot debate raging in their media. Certainly the new law's draconian attitude towards sexual literature and its not-so-subtle pressure on booksellers and, by extention, publishers, to keep sexually-related material out of books is an act of censorship. Why aren't national media paying attention to this little sex-literature Taliban operating in Indiana?

Think about it. How can this be anything but disastrous? Will the chain store at your local mall have to register if they carry the works of, say, Flaubert, Henry Miller or Ann Rice? Will a mom-and-pop shop now have to identify as an adult vendor because they carry sex advice manuals, romance novels, and pot-boilers? Will bookstore owners have to read every new book they stock to be sure there are no accidental erections? What the flying fuck is going on in Indiana?

One glimmer of hope: the ACLU's fighting back. I found this little update on a legal forum:

dated: May 7, 2008

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and attorneys for several national organizations representing booksellers filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court today seeking an injunction barring enforcement of a new state law which requires businesses that sell sexually explicit material to register with the state....

Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana, said the law is overly broad, too vague as to who must register and violates the First Amendment.

Falk stressed the groups filing the suit do not represent adult bookstores. They include businesses that sell popular books for children and adults, as well as others that deal in arts, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association.

Anyone with more info on this legislation or better interpretations of how it will impact Indiana booksellers, please comment or email. I'd really like to keep an eye on what happens here.

May 22, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (4)

If trends continue, your right to read porn, and the type of porn you are permitted to look at, is going to be so compromised as to turn everyone with kinky interests into a criminal.

Censorship seems to be on the rise both in the US and the UK, with yet more legislation to, once again, try and legislate morality. What a waste of time and tax-payer money, what a hollow gesture and what a nasty way to perpetuate ignorance and prejudice against sexual minorities. We all know censorship does not work. We all know that trying to curtail sex does not stop anything but sends it further underground. We also know that there is nothing wrong with kinky material in the first place, except in the minds of sanctimonious twats who equate sex with sin.

As far as I'm concerned, this is nothing more than politicians pandering to the lowest common denominators -- mass hysteria, public shame, and the need for scapegoats -- to gain popularity. There's no doubt in my mind that some of the people writing and pushing this legislation are themselves consumers of the very stuff they are outlawing. We've seen it happen too many times already in the US to be fooled by the moralists with boy scout faces who say "do as I say, not as I do." Mark Foley. Elliot Spitzer. Inter way too many alia.

I blogged this story a while back, but Mike sent me a link to an update. This legislation is certain to case a big, icy chill upon all publishers of, and audiences for, so-called deviant/perverse sexual materials, both in the UK and perhaps beyond its shores.

When does kinky porn become illegal?

A bill outlawing the possession of "extreme pornography" is set to become law next week. But many fear it has been rushed through and will criminalise innocent people with a harmless taste for unconventional sex.

Under the new rules, criminal responsibility shifts from the producer - who is responsible under the OPA - to the consumer.

But campaigners say the new law risks criminalising thousands of people who use violent pornographic images as part of consensual sexual relationships.

Here's a list of what kind of porn will now be explicitly outlawed by this legislation:

As defined by the new Criminal Justice Bill:

An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person's life
An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals
An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal

First off -- don't you just love the way people always group SMers with the people who molest corpses and abuse animals? Such an attractive comparison, isn't it, with its underlying implication that if you like it rough or fetishy in bed you are, by nature, a criminal. Are these people really living in the 21st century or did they pass through some time warp on the Victorian Sex Time/Space Continuum? The fact that SM occurs between two consenting adults, while necrophilia and bestiality involve partners who cannot give consent, doesn't even seem to register on their consciences.

Next, notice that nothing has to actually cause harm: they only have to "appear" to do so. Which, I think, makes this bill an utter joke that will tie up the British courts with ludicrous testimony. There are undoubtedly those who would swear by the Bible that a spanking could result in serious injury. Then there are those who are sane. Oh, who, who will win? The hysterics or the voices of reason? Stay tuned for a test case of this stupidly crazy new law.

May 22, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (4)

This article should explain why I nominate this couple as perhaps the world's skankiest BDSM couple. One wonders whether any of the people who visited the underage dominatrix realized they were subbing to a minor.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors on Monday unsealed an indictment against a man and woman accused of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her services and photographing some of the acts.

U.S. Attorney John Wood said the case is the first in which a parent of the victim has been charged with the commercial sex trafficking of his or her own minor child.

Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York, and the 44-year-old mother were charged in the seven-count indictment. Both used to live in Blue Springs, Mo. in the same household.

From Jan. 1, 2002, until Feb. 20, 2005, Barkau created a venture to entice the minor to engage in commercial sex acts, according to the indictment.

"The court filings allege that Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix..."

LINK

May 13, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (5)

Strange but true (to those whose vanilla perspective precludes the reality v. the fiction about consensual SM), sometimes male doms are the victims of weird masochistic female predators.

BDSMers occasionally talk about the "dangerous" subs out there -- most especially femsubs who either consent to BDSM only to change their minds later and complain to the police, claiming they were forced into it. This Australian case is a bit different -- a mad, lusty SM teen who apparently tried mind-fucking a dom guy into doing her and then set out to destroy him when he balked at sex because she was underage.

That the idiot agreed to whip her in the first place is inexcusable. But that it ended up in a public trial is sad. FORTUNATELY he was acquitted. I can't help wondering though if he would've been treated nearly as fairly in the U.S. where underage-sex-hysteria and discrimination against BDSMers run rampant.

Man acquitted of sex with underage 'pain junkie'

A South Australian District Court jury took four hours today to find Warwick Acott, 39, of Seaton, not guilty of one count of having unlawful sex with a teenager he met on vampirefreaks.com, and two counts of assaulting her.

The girl said he stalked her for years with sexually violent messages before pushing his way into her house on June 18, 2006 - when she was 16 - biting her breast, whipping her with a cat o' nine tails and forcing her to perform fellatio.

But Mr Acott said the girl pursued him, telling him he was gorgeous and she wanted to be his slave, after finding his photograph on the vampire website.

He said he was flattered and fascinated when she told him she was a "pain junkie" and wanted to be his whore.

He told the jury he'd broken off contact with the girl twice after finding out she had lied about her age.

But he was happy to see her again when she tapped him on the shoulder in a sex shop, and asked him to buy her a whip for her 16th birthday.

He said she invited him home, where he admitted he whipped and bit her - at the girl's request.

But he denied the fellatio occurred, saying he pushed her away when she revealed sex would be unlawful due to her age....

Mr Acott said that, after he unleashed a tirade of abuse at her, she warned him she would make him suffer.

"She looked me dead in the eye said: 'no one f..s me over, you will pay for this'," he told the court.

There's a sentence no consensual sadist ever wants to hear.

What's particularly interesting to me about the story though is that it turns all conventional thinking about male/female, dom/sub, adult/teen on its head. The usual narrative is that an adult dominant male is always in control and should therefore always be held responsible if/when a scene goes bad or toxic. Usually that is how it plays out. But this case reminds me that no sex-role generalization can ever hold true for all people all the time. A determined, hormonally-crazed teenage submissive girl can indeed psychologically overpower an adult male dominant and make him do things he would ordinarily never dream of doing. This case is the proof.

May 12, 2008 in Sex and Sadomasochism, Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wonder sometimes if the world will EVER evolve to a point where people don't feel the need to apologize for being kinky. This story about a Brazilian athlete really got my hackles up.

'I'm Sorry and Ashamed'

Brazil striker Ronaldo says he's sorry, embarrassed and ashamed about his highly publicized encounter a week ago with three cross-dressing prostitutes, calling it the biggest mistake of his life....

I think we all know what he's he really sorry and embarrassed and ashamed about: getting caught.

Isn't that always the case? Whether it's Ted Haggard with his male escorts, Elliot Spitzer with his high-priced hookers, or this guy, it's blindingly obvious they needed, wanted and enjoyed what they were doing when they were doing it. They would've kept right on doing it too, if they hadn't gotten caught.

How many BDSMers, cross-dressers and fetishists do you know who feel the same way: happy to do their thing in private but utterly humiliated if/when other people find out. It isn't that they think what they're doing is horrible. I've talked to plenty of people who lead secret sex lives and enjoy the hell out of what they do--that is, as long as no one vanilla finds out. Exposure changes everything. They cave like wet cardboard: the pressure of knowing that straights disapprove completely unhinges them. Before you know it, people who, only last night, were happily writhing in bonds and slurping peepee from the source, start kowtowing to public opinions, even when they know full well that those opinions are ignorant and prudish and wrong....that those opinions are, indeed, what limits their options, chokes their happiness, smothers their potential for sexual fulfillment, and drives them to secrecy in the first place.

Making his apology even more laughable was this feeble explanation,

In a halting voice, Ronaldo said he wasn't aware the prostitutes were cross-dressers until he got to a motel with them, discovered they were men and decided not to have sex with them because he is heterosexual....

I can see how one cross-dresser might fool you. There are some superhot m-t-f's out there who can totally pass even under bright lights. But THREE? What's the likelihood of three cross-dressers being able to totally bamboozle you into believing all three are gender-girls? As someone who's spent a fair amount of time around tv's, I will boldly say -- what a total crock of poopoo-berries. Of course he knew. If he didn't know for sure, he had to suspect. If he didn't suspect, he was raised and is still residing in a convent. Internationally famous athletes are not naive about sex and sexuality. Internationally famous athletes who pay for THREE hookers to come up to a hotel room are not choir boys. Unless, of course, he was paying them to play Old Maid and drink weak tea with him.

Which brings me to the bit about "decided not to have sex...because he is heterosexual." That's like getting caught with your hand in a cookie jar, chocolate crumbs all over your mouth, and saying, "MOI? Why, I would not eat cookies because I'm diabetic."

In my not inconsiderable experience in this matter, clinically and otherwise, I've often noted that heterosexuality has never really prevented anyone from having bisexual and homosexual encounters.

Except for his girlfriend (to whom he may or may not have promised fidelity), his sleeping with a gang of TV's is his own business. If he can't deal with the consequences of his sexual needs and choices, then he shouldn't take the risk of fulfilling them. Or in simple American terms: if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

But if you're going to take the chance of being true to your sexuality, please do not crawl and beg for forgiveness from your oppressors. You hurt yourself; you hurt other kinky people; and, worst of all, you uphold the Big Lie about sexual diversity being unnatural or immoral. How about saying, "I'm sorry if people are disappointed in me because I'm more sexually complicated than they expected, but that's their problem. I myself enjoy a gay old time now and again."

Will that day ever come, when people don't feel they have to cringe, grovel and humiliate themselves further by acting as if they did something wrong because they enjoy a little wholesome kinky sex?

Which reminds me of Walter Mosely, who got caught doing Nazi play? One thing I admire about him is that, to my knowledge, he NEVER apologized for his sexual fetishes. I give him major props for his courage in shrugging off the criticism about being kinky and identifying the real villains of that story: people who use sexuality as a weapon to break someone down.

May 7, 2008 in Sex and Sadomasochism, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

I guess today's meme is "sexual civil liberties," because this is another story about a situation where what people want, and what doctors/lawyers believe is appropriate for them, clash.

It's a strange little ruling about a very peculiar case. Pervs may enjoy the nonconsensual SM medical scene twist to it, but the ethics of this case bothers me a tad.

N.Y. jury rejects lawsuit over rectal exam man didn't want

A hospital did nothing wrong when it tried to examine the rectum of a construction worker who had been hit on the head by a falling wooden beam, a jury found Monday....

Marrone said Persaud, 38, was injured while working at a construction site in midtown Manhattan on May 20, 2003. Persaud received eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow at the hospital, but denied emergency room staffers' request to examine his rectum, the lawyer said. He said doctors told Persaud the exam could help determine whether the accident caused spinal damage.

When Persaud resisted, staffers held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that," Marrone said. Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around, so the staffers gave him a powerful sedative and performed the rectal exam, he said.

Hospital witnesses testified at trial that the exam was never completed, but Marrone said that when Persaud woke up he was handcuffed to a bed and had an oxygen tube down his throat and lubricant in his rectum.

My first reaction to this story was that it sounded like an episode of House, where a patient is forced to undergo a test or treatment s/he doesn't want because brilliant diagnostician House knows what's best and will act accordingly, in the name of science. It makes for a very entertaining premise on a TV show -- and clearly it stands up in court. But ethically? Morally? I think there are some open questions here.

I'm guessing that hospital staff saw a head injury, assumed that someone with a head injury might be raving or delusional from said injury, particularly when he started flailing and trying to stop them from saving his life, and would then knock him out and do the test anyway, knowing it was the standard medical care for anyone with a head injury. No doubt they were in line with hospital guidelines and my guess is the jury believed the docs behaved ethically as well.

BUT. Who really owns your ass? I mean, once you step into a hospital setting, do you also automatically cede your right to your ass (or balls, vagina, penis, breasts)? Should doctors sedate you to perform a test you explicitly said you didn't want? Perhaps this guy had some kind of homophobic complex. Perhaps he had horrible hemmorhoids. Or maybe he had some other, more traumatic association with anal penetration that doesn't make sense to other people but does to him. In fact -- what if he'd rather die than have anyone anally examine him?

It may sound nutty but it isn't. We all have our emotional quirks, our crosses to bear, our hidden traumas. I know from clinical experience that people do develop phobias and traumatic associations with intimate areas of their body; for some the trauma of undergoing certain tests or procedures is more frightening to them than the risk to their life if they don't. It isn't logical but that doesn't make it any less legitimate: human emotions matter. Or they should. As do individual liberties and the right to decide what happens to your body.

In the end, this guy was anally raped twice: by a medical staff which plainly needs a lot more training in bedside manner; and by the courts which apparently did not take his emotional suffering seriously. I hope the poor guy gets some sympathetic counseling and can get on with his life, without feeling too scarred by the experience. My fear is that if he's ever in an accident again, he will refuse to go to a hospital altogether.

April 24, 2008 in Post-Modern Pop Culture, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Science and Medicine | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you missed this story, well....in my heart, I feel this explains a lot about Bill Clinton somehow....you know, like....the lights are on but no one's home?

Toddlers can no longer marry in Ark.

Arkansas' marriage-age crisis is over. A law that mistakenly allowed anyone — even toddlers — to marry with parental permission was repealed by a measure signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mike Beebe, ending months of embarrassment for the state and confusion for county clerks.

Lawmakers didn't realize until after the end of last year's regular session that a law they approved, intended to establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, instead removed the minimum age to marry entirely.

April 10, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, this should be a fascinating case. I congratulate Hayes for his chutzpah in single-handedly forcing a Canadian court to establish whether or not BDSMers deserve equal protection under BC's human rights code. Fantastic courage and if the courts decide in his favor, a victory for BDSMers everywhere.

Panel may rule if sex practices protected

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian man who claims he was discriminated against as a pagan who practices a form of sadomasochism will get to take his complaint to a human rights tribunal.

An appeals court rejected a bid by Vancouver police on Tuesday to block a hearing on whether Peter Hayes' rights were violated when an officer refused to grant him the permit he needed to get a chauffeur's job.

Hayes complained to British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal that he was discriminated against because he is a pagan who practices a "BDSM lifestyle" and deserves protection under the human rights code, based on sexual orientation.

BDSM refers to bondage, discipline and submission and sadism and masochism, according to the court documents.

Police went to the courts, arguing the tribunal and a lower court judge erred in agreeing to hear Hayes' complaint because the laws designed to protect the sexual orientation of gays and lesbians did not extend to protecting types of sexual practices.

A B.C. Court of Appeal panel ruled unanimously that the police motion was premature since the tribunal's hearing was to decide what, if any, sexual practices deserved legal protection, and even the tribunal's chairwoman was unsure if the human rights code did that.

"How can the tribunal determine if BDSM falls within the meaning of 'sexual orientation' if it does not have a full understanding of what BDSM means?" Justice Anne Rowles wrote for the three-judge panel.

April 10, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

So imagine if one day you open the news to read that a cult of wealthy gay men have built an isolated compound in some rural area somewhere, and that in this cult, they took all their sons and sons of friends, and essentially groomed them to be sex partners, starting when they were around 10 or 12?

Or, perhaps slightly more analogously, that a group of swingers had done this: built their own private community, cut off from the rest of the world, and recruited all the children, from age 12 on, into a swing lifestyle where they were forced to provide sex to adults, whether they liked the adults or not?

How many FOX news reporters and talking heads, how many politicians, how many preachers would be commandeering mass media to issue screamingly vicious denunciations of the corruption and depravity of people who would do something so horrible to children as to subject them to lives of brainwashing, abuse, and sexual slavery? How many Christian leaders would step forward to say that this depravity is why God punished us with 9/11 and Katrina?

Well maybe I'm missing something but I have not heard one fracking WORD of invective launched at the fracking dangerous, criminal Mormon sect which has been subjecting girls and women to their psychopathic belief system. Crazier still, no one is coming out to say what is so blindingly obvious: this is a pedophilic cult! They are PEDOPHILES. They like YOUNG girls. They think they OWN young girls. More specifically, they think they own the vaginas of children. Children!

Say all you want about these people who claim this is what God wants -- seems to me awfully convenient when God tells you to rape and molest children in His name. Using that kind of logic, any crack whore can (and perhaps should) form her own religion so she can claim that God wants her to turn tricks so she can smoke more crack.

Documents: Sect married girls at puberty

"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.

McFadden said the girls were spiritually married to the men as soon as they reached puberty and were required to produce children.

I hope prosecutors charge them all as child-rapists and sentence them to hard time. And charge the mothers as accomplices too. It's one thing for adults to agree to polygamy. I have no problem with that. Mormons want to return to the old belief of marrying four wives, who cares: as long as the wives are OLD ENOUGH TO GIVE LEGAL CONSENT.

This story outrages me because I don't believe that anyone will treat them for what and who they are -- moral carbuncles on God's ass. Any and all cults which exploit children should be taken down and taken down hard. There is no excuse for pedophilia, and hiding it behind the veil of "spiritual purpose," is a sham, a perversity, and a lie.

April 9, 2008 in Sex and Spirituality, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

Speaking of outrageously controversial subjects.

A couple of years ago the international media seized on the very sad story of a brother and sister who were raised completely apart and got married as adults (she was actually only 15 at the time, but their marriage was legal). They met and turned to one another for comfort, and as so often happens between two lonely, desperate, emotionally wounded people, one thing led to another.

LINK

....They are a loving couple, who have been together for seven years and want to be with no one else. They have had four children. Beyond these details, however, the story gets more troubling. Patrick and Susan Stübing, who live in Zwenkau, near Leipzig, are brother and sister. Two of their four children have developmental problems, and all four have been taken into care. Patrick, 30, has served more than two years of a prison sentence for incest. Asked if she felt guilty about this breach of one of the last taboos, Susan, 22, simply shook her head and said: "No, I just want us to be able to live together."

Their case is raising much prurient speculation in Germany, not least because their reaction to the threat of further imprisonment for him has not been apology and shame, but defiance - an attempt to overturn paragraph 173 of the German legal code, which forbids sex with a close relative.

Pretty fascinating case. The great tragedy that has befallen their children is the best defense of incest laws. To ignore the genetic reality that children of incest are likely to have numerous physical and psychiatric disorders directly resulting from inbreeding is or should be a crime.

Unfortunately, it appears that the couple in question are simple. As the article presents them, they seem incapable of managing their own lives, much less of grasping the medical, legal and moral ramifications of their choices. And, one might well ask, where were the social workers and doctors all this time, as they continued to bear one disabled child after another?

Meanwhile, consider this research on incest which suggests that GSA (or genetic sexual attraction) is a known physiological phenomenon.

What has been discussed less, is that the Stübings seem to be a textbook example of a phenomenon called genetic sexual attraction (GSA). It occurs between blood relatives who have been separated for most of their lives, and meet in adulthood; it has been known to happen in all sorts of permutations - father/daughter, birth mother/son, siblings - even, occasionally, same-sex relationships between people who would not otherwise identify themselves as homosexual.

I don't think Germany will change its laws regarding incest to accommodate this troubled couple, even though science proves that GSA is a known phenomonen. But this case raises yet another interesting question. The husband has recently and voluntarily undergone sterilization. If adults were willing to undergo sterilization in order to marry a sibling, cousin, or other family member, and therefore no real harm to others could come of their relationship -- should incest in such cases still be a crime?

March 31, 2008 in Sex and Relationships, Sex Laws and Crimes, Sexual Health, Sexual Science and Medicine | Permalink | Comments (0)

An interestingly oddball piece on the state of prostitution in Sweden. What detracts from the point (which I'll address below the clip) is this reporter's bizarre need to inject anti-Swedish biases. (Calling Swedes bland is sort of, uh, racist, and describing them as self-appointed "moral guardians" makes me question not just the idea but the quotation marks: did any Swedes claim that or did the reporter make it up? These pointless barbs throw the analytic portions of this piece into question.) Nonetheless, I'll assume the facts about Sweden targeting johns instead of hookers are true, and will comment on that. First, some excerpts.

This land of the blond and the bland is largely credited with launching the sexual revolution of the '60s with their liberal attitudes toward loving and lusting. Groundbreaking blue cinema, erotic literature and live sex shows in Stockholm stoked a "Swedish Sin" culture of permissiveness teetering – to the morally outraged – on promiscuous.

But nearly a half-century on, there are precious few prostitutes left in the country. That's what the police claim, anyway, though reliable statistics are hard to come by.

Somewhere along the line, Swedes apparently got to feeling a bit abashed about their society's carnal excess. This is still, after all, a country that has long appointed itself as "moral guardian" to the world, superior about its political neutrality and inventor of cradle-to-grave state welfare.

It is also vigorously gender-neutral, with alliances in government – and ideology – between the family-values right and feminist-grim left. Thus was born the view, accepted now by all parties, that prostitutes are always victims of a societal order that makes women subordinate to men.

This sounds nearly like Andrea Dworkin cant – a radical concept, heavy on the lesbian tilt, whereby intercourse is always and innately invasive to the female, intrinsically unequal.

Sweden hasn't gone quite that far, as the sexual pendulum swings back. They remain, as far as a visitor can tell, hardy and unrestrained in their attitudes toward delights of the human body, while progressive and non-judgmental about most personal choices, 50 per cent of children born outside marriage, gays allowed to adopt.

But you can't buy a sex-trade worker anymore, as even a Supreme Court judge found out a couple of years ago, when he was charged with purchasing the services of a male prostitute.

"We don't have a problem with prostitutes," Kajsa Wahlberg, of the human trafficking unit at Sweden's national police board, told the International Herald Tribune last week. "We have a problem with men who buy sex."

The Sex Purchase Law, passed in 1999 – largely on the advocacy efforts of hard-core feminist politicians, weirdly aligning themselves with the Mrs. Grundy faction – regards all prostitution as an aspect of male violence against women and children. Government literature about the law makes clear that legislators believe gender equality will remain "unobtainable" as long as men buy, sell and exploit women for sex.

It is not illegal to be a prostitute in Sweden. They are never charged. It is presumed their "victimhood" is not their fault and the decision to trade in flesh not a reasonably considered choice. To this end, prostitutes are always treated as, well, children or an abused and traumatized minority, with tons of money thrown at programs and public education, to "counteract the historical male bias that has long stultified thinking on prostitution."

from Sweden's sex law tough on johns

It's always troubled me that governments punish prostitutes while allowing johns to walk free. It's become almost commonplace in the US for "famous madams" to get busted but Eliot Spitzer is one of the few johns whose identity has been confirmed and who may face prosecution for this sex crime.

I respect Sweden's attempt to rectify that wrong and to inject a strong dose of feminist theory into the debate about how to prosecute sex crimes.

There's only one problem.

There shouldn't be laws against prostitution in the first place. Against involuntary prostitution, yes, absolutely. But the idea of eradicating consensual adult sexuality of any kind, including the capitalistic kind, smacks of ass-backwards Puritanism.

People will always need sex. And there will always be people for whom access to sex will require a trade or barter or payment. More than that, by their very human nature, humans will always be turned on by the transactional nature of sex. It's in our genes. And the genes of most other species too. Lovers lure the beloved with the promise of something tangible. Whether it's the male sparrow who keeps building bigger and better nests until the object of his avian affection consents to bear his babies in the one she likes best; or the male seahorse who takes on the job of incubating and bearing the fruit of his and his seahorsie girlfriend's spiny loins. We humans ritualize and condone transactional sex through the social construct of marriage. To vastly oversimplify: "he" provides financial/economic stability, "she" provides pussy. Prostitution is just another twist on the same biological impulse that leads mothers to tell their daughters "It's just as easy to love a rich man as a poor man."

You cannot eradicate transactional sex, even if you outlaw a particular form of its expression. It isn't truly IMHO feministic even to argue for the end to it. It's a hollow, intellectual game to reduce sex into two camps: the "what's sexually okay" camp and the "what's sexually wrong" camp. Unless they've been coerced into prostitution, a sex-worker is no more a victim of the system than a waitress who works at Waffle House.

Truly progressive politics argue for the legalization of prostitution, not new ways to oppress people who are doing what our bodies and minds were programmed to do.

What bugs me most of all, though, is this: prostitution has been around as long as civilization and people have never been able to eradicate it. Can't they learn a lesson from history? It's a part of human behavior. Laws can't change biological destiny.

March 26, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Earlier, the first stories about Gov. Spitzer being "involved with" a high-priced call-girl ring reminded me so much of The Wire - and particularly the ironies that always piled up behind the political scenes. Last night was the series's (awesome!) finale but when I saw the Spitzer headlines, it was as if The Wire was magically dribbling into today's news.

Now it turns out that Spitzer - a Democrat who swept to office on his do-gooder agenda of rooting out corruption - was CAUGHT BY A WIRE the Feds had rigged to catch the owners of the prostitution ring. (Also his "involvement" was as a client, not an operator. )

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation. Link

In itself the allegations (that he visited expensive hookers) is a big fat yawn. What makes this scandal delicious, though, is that Spitzer went AFTER hookers as a prosecutor. I love when sexual hypocrites are exposed.

As attorney general, [Mr. Spitzer] prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

Link

Now you've gotta wonder - was he angry and revolted because they didn't send any girls to HIM?

BTW, one news source says the pro's who worked for this service charged up to $5k for an hour. Holy humming vibrators. What kind of perks or special services does the service offer that would make anyone pay that kind of money?

March 10, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (5)

Stay tuned for a major media frenzy as NY's governor tries to dig himself out of this one. No details yet.

NY governor linked to prostitution ring

The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

March 10, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Debbie Nathan offers an interesting and researched perspective on the Bernie Ward's Sex Tapes, including more and better information about his relationship with the dominatrix who ultimately reported him to the cops.

February 20, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Contrary to the many hysterical rumors floating around that there are hordes of people on-line who target young children to lure them into sex, a new Study rejects the Internet sex predator stereotype. The study shows that the most likely victim of a child predator is a teen-age girl who knowingly gets involved with men who are openly seeking sex.

The typical online sexual predator is not someone posing as a teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Rather, they tend to be adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain to vulnerable young teens who often believe they are in love with the predator, they said.

Well okaaaaay.

While I think there is a value in clearing up some misapprehensions about which population is really most vulnerable - and more accurately portraying the typical predator more as a clueless SOB who goes after vulnerable teens and not the sinister baby-molester parents have nightmares about - what really is the value of such a study?

The truth is always important. Yes of course. Good to know just what we're dealing with; good to alleviate some exaggerated stereotypes. Still, this study is right on the edge of providing rationalizations to the above-mentioned clueless ones, that somehow because the girls are a little older than expected, and perhaps equally engaged in pursuing the relationship, that such predators aren't quite as "bad" as thought.

Remember the bottom line of SSC: if someone can't *legally* give consent in the first place, it doesn't matter if they are willing or even eager to have sex. It's the adult's responsibility to back off or to explain that it is an inappropriate relationship. If you don't have the moral fiber to turn down the advances of a 13, 14 or 15 year old, the problem isn't the law: the problem is your own lack of maturity and impulse control.

I've often blogged that I think the age of consent (18 in most parts of the US) is mad high. But whether a kid is 5 or 15, a kid is a kid and having sex with a kid is and should remain a crime, and for good reason. Taking advantage of a teen risks messing that kid up for life. Adolescent sexuality is VERY different from, and very fragile as compared to, adult sexuality. Tamper with the sexuality of any kid, male or female, who has not yet reached maturity, and that kid will simply never be the same person ever again. (And, despite the lies predators tell themselves, that kid is by no means "improved" or somehow bettered by the experience.) I know this not only from years of working with the adult victims of child molesters; I know it from personal experience too.

As I see it, if a man or woman can't have exciting sex with someone their own age, they need help dealing. Maybe they need to grow up themselves. Maybe, in fact, they themselves were victims of predators and are repeating the cycle. Whatever the root cause, anyone who goes after minors is in denial about what they are really doing.

Studies like this only provide additional ammo to the people who need it the LEAST: the predators who end up saying, "but, your Honor, she wanted it."

February 19, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes, Sex On-Line, Sexual Science and Medicine | Permalink | Comments (2)

For a change it's a liberal being charged with loathsome stupidity. Talk-radio show host Bernie Ward was just arrest ed for suspected child sex and is under indictment for being, well, a SKANK.

Curiously, his arrest has somehow made him the liberal poster boy for depravity -- which has made a bunch of political progressive verrrry defensive. For example, in the commentary section of the above piece, someone thought to enumerate all the Republicans who've been charged with or convicted of child sex.

- Republican't executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper was arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.
- Republican't chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
- Republican't County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
- Republican't judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
- Republican't Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
- Republican't petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
- Republican't County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl....

and the list goes ON and ON. (I put the whole thing behind the cut.) I don't know if it's accurate - anyone remember all these guys (and the dozens more listed)? Wish he'd included a time-line, because I have no idea how old some of those charges are and whether they all stuck (since being charged with or arrested for something is not anything like being convicted).

For a more germane angle on the story, though, read the coverage in Gawker which notes that it was an on-line dominatrix who dropped the dime on Ward after he blithely typed to her about how he'd had sex with children. GEEZ. Why not just go down to the corner bar, ring a bell, and when you have everyone's attention, announce that you're a child molester?

To read the complete list of Republicans that allegedly have been involved in child sex scandals, go behind the cut.

via Drudge Retort:

- Republican't executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper was arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.
- Republican't chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
- Republican't County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
- Republican't judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
- Republican't Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
- Republican't petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
- Republican't County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.

- Republican't teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.
- Republican't campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
- Republican't Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
- Republican't Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the internet.
- Republican't Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
- Republican't County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
- Republican't legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
- Republican't Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
- Republican't anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
- Republican't zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.

- Republican't anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
- Republican't campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
- Republican't racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
- Republican't pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
- Republican't legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
- Republican't advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting two 8-year old girls, one of whom appeared in an anti-Gore television commercial.
- Republican't activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

- Republican't lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
- Republican't Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
- Republican't fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
- Republican't activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
- Republican't campaign chairman Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child and was arrested again five years later on the same charge.
- Republican't Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
- Republican't activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.
- Republican't Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.
- Republican't congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
- Republican't Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
- Republican't activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican't Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

- Republican't Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.
- Republican't congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
- Republican't Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
- Republican't activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican't Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
- Republican't legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
- Republican't Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
- Republican't preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
- Republican't talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
- Republican't anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

- Republican't Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
- Republican't election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
- Republican't politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
- Republican't legislator Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
- Republican't anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.
- Republican't County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
- Republican't activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
- Republican't candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
- Republican't Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

- Republican't County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
- Republican't City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
- Republican't activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
- Republican't parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
- Republican't strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
- Republican't city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- Republican't businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
- Republican't campaign worker, police officer and self-proclaimed reverend Steve Aiken was convicted of having sex with two underage girls.
- Republican't director of the "Young Republican't Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
- Republican't president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.
- Republican't benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
- Republican't Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency.

February 18, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes, Sex On-Line, Sexual Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm going to catch up today on a bunch of sex news stories that have piled up in my files, including a batch submitted by very thoughtful readers (thanks guys!) -- starting with a big victory in Texas for those of us who enjoy, uh, ORGASMS. (Thanks to Mitch for sending this.)

A federal appeals court has overturned a Texas statute outlawing sex toy sales, leaving Alabama as the state with the strictest ban on such devices.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment on the right to privacy.

Will orgasms be coming to Alabama anytime soon?

Noel, here's looking at you, kid. :)

February 17, 2008 in Sex Laws and C