Jesus Christ on Burnt Toast

No this post does not have anything to do with the image of a deity on breakfast food. It was one of my first thoughts when reading the following news story:

PHOENIX, Sept. 9 (UPI) — The founder of an Arizona sex church and 17 others have been arrested on a variety of prostitution-related charges, officials said.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said the Phoenix Goddess Temple raided by police “was no more a church than Cuba is Fantasy Island,” The Arizona Republic of Phoenix reported Friday.

Well that kind of depends on your perspective and attitude doesn’t it? Have you been to Cuba? I haven’t but I did google some images.

Kinda looks like an island fantasy to me. Sure, maybe the government is corrupt *coughcough* but if I’m sipping a pina colada in that chair with that view…

The temple’s religious tenets connect spirituality and sexuality, its Web site says.

Online ads for the temple offered “sensual worship” for $204 an hour and promoted the “Very Erotic Priestess Sophia.”

Founder Tracy Elise, 50, who called herself the temple’s “Mystic Mother,” faces charges of prostitution, illegal control of an enterprise, pandering and operating a house of prostitution.

Acting Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner said it is “particularly disheartening that some would attempt to disguise their crimes as religious freedom.”

Disheartening? You wanna know what is disheartening? Armed tax collectors arresting people who have done no harm whatsoever to anyone. If children in cages were found you bet we would have heard about it. But no, consenting adults went there for mutual pleasure and benefits – in private, and weren’t messing with anybody. Whats disheartening is that people aren’t allowed to live their own life without government intrusion in cases where no harm, foul play, or fraud is present.

Montgomery said his office worked with vice squad detectives from Phoenix for six months to indict 33 people associated with the temple.

Sacred sexuality is a part of religion. Maybe not your religion but a belief system itself. Which is what constitutes a religion isn’t it? Pagans practice it, some Wiccans practice it, there are temple prostitutes and sacred whores. In ancient times women were set up in temples for society to worship. Their belief was that orgasms brought a person closer to God(ess).

Per wikipedia – “Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a practice of worship that includes hieros gamos or sacred marriage performed as a fertility rite and part of sacred sexual ritual.” and “Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ἱερὸς γάμος, ἱερογαμία “holy marriage”) refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between agod and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites.” and in this modern era of neo-Pagans, Wicca, and Magick – “Sex magic is a term for various types of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result. A premise of sex magic is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that can be harnessed to transcend one’s normally perceived reality.”

So I don’t want to hear your crap. There is, has, and always will be a belief system that includes sexual rites and it should not be confused with a simple base desire to “get off”. Granted in ancient times, those who sought to worship did not get charged a fee of $200.00 per hour but an offering was required. Back then it could have been a goat, a chicken, produce, or copper and silver.

Now some may say fine, practice your sacred sex or whatever just don’t get paid for it. Really? Is that how we treat ministers, pastors, and preachers? Of course not. They are paid by the members/congregation of the church. They are allowed to do fundraisers to pay for the church and the utilities it uses as well as donate money to charities. The church staff gets paid by the patrons it serves. One statement I found when looking at pastor salaries was this:

• The pastor’s salary is both the congregation’s responsibility and its privilege.
• Salary is determined in part by what the church can afford. However, I feel I need to say that the New Testament churches in Macedonia gave beyond their ability – they supported others even when it meant they might go without (2 Corinthians 8:1-3). That passage in particular teaches us that giving should be generous – even sacrificial at times, and joyful – counting it a privilege to help others. So, determine what you can give and also what you shouldgive. There needs to be balance.
• Paying a pastor salary frees a pastor to be more involved in ministry. This is why you give your pastor compensation. The greater his freedom, the more he is able to help you and your congregation.
• A clergy compensation package should include provisions for both the immediate and long-term needs of your pastor.

So a religious man can prostitute his knowledge of God and his interpretation of the Bible and ask for donations so that he may readily be available to his congregation. His religion is a belief system, one that says if you are “saved” you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Sacred sexuality is a belief system and one that is paid for by the members it serves. The belief being that the pleasure brought about by physical intimacy can bring you closer to becoming one with the universe and nature as it intended.

Sure, some people may go just to “get off”. Some may go to church and pray only because they need a raise at their job. In either case true believers will be mixed in with those who go for their own personal reasons.

Get over it.

No sex divorce

Interesting news tidbit. French man forced to pay ex-wife a settlement for lack of sex.

The payoff in this case: an award of nearly $14,000 to the ex-wife whose needs were apparently not met. It just goes to show that it never hurts to try.

Under France’s civil code, married couples are supposed to live a “shared communal life.” A judge has now ruled that this implies that “sexual relations must form part of a marriage.”

The woman filed for divorce two years ago, citing lack of bedroom activity as the reason. A judge in Nice, France, agreed with her argument, granting the split and placing the husband solely at fault.

The 47-year-old ex-wife then sued him for not having enough sex over 21 years of marriage. Not surprisingly, her former husband, 51, said it was because of “tiredness and health problems.” A judge in the south of France’s highest court again sided with the woman in this case.

The judge ruled that “a sexual relationship between husband and wife is the expression of affection they have for each other, and in this case it was absent. By getting married, couples agree to sharing their life and this clearly implies they will have sex with each other.”

Think this would fly in the US? Would it apply to men seeking a settlement from their wives due to lack of sex? I doubt it. Seems like here a woman has every right to say no to sex no matter the reason or circumstance (she just doesn’t have the right to say yes if it involves money).

Naturally I read the reactions to hear what people are saying. One comment read:

“A judge has now ruled that this implies that “sexual relations must form part of a marriage.”” – So what if a spouse says no and is then forced by their partner, this could be interpreted as saying marital rape is ok.  Needs to be rethought.

Seriously? Having the right and expectation to have sex with your spouse does not equate the forcing of said person to do something against their will. It may give you the right to seek a divorce, you may see it as an excuse to seek comfort elsewhere, but it should never be used as an excuse to commit violence, force, or fraud.

 

Brandyslist.wordpress.com

You know… I have to have some kind of project and feeling of moving forward and helping in some capacity to feel I have a purpose.

My latest project, as in the title of this post, involves backpage.com (and really any other sites as well).

It’s intended as a way for those users to pass along information yet still be anonymous without the knowledge of escort discussion boards or the technical know how to research via tineye. Y’all know I’ve advertised on backpage before, have met some wonderful people (and yea, some not so wonderful) but a lot of them simply had no clue. Some were just new, had heard of backpage through various news reports, etc.

To those hobby guys who know the system and depend on the discussion boards and know how to research and are thinking “Bah, I don’t need this” well, this isn’t for you dummy (I say with affection of course).

 

Something Funny…

Just humor me. I need a laugh. Some of my favorite sketches from YouTube. None of these are intended to offend those of you who can’t take a fucking joke.

Rowan Atkinson cracks me up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbUOXOmlayI – Couldn’t imbed this one but it does make me laugh.

One of my most favorite shows EVER was Whose Line Is It Anyway. I missed this episode when it first aired but I was laughing so hard I was crying and belly aching when I found it.

Of course there is always classic Monty Python.

Ok, I feel better now 🙂

Case dismissed…

Remember the Village Voice article “Real men get their facts straight?”

Remember Ashton Kutcher losing it on Twitter after the above article came out? One of his many tweets was “hey @villagevoice, hows the lawsuit from the 15 year old victim who alleges you helped enslave them going?” Well now we know how it ended. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Backpage.com immune from liability for human sex trafficking ads

Judge dismisses case against internet service provider

A federal court judge in Missouri dismissed the claims against Backpage.com and Village Voice Media Holdings on August 15. In the 31-page decision, United States Magistrate Judge Tomas C. Mummert, held that the defendant companies were immune from the claims, because they were passive internet service providers, entitled to immunity under the Communications Decency Act.

The claims alleged that in 2009 and 2010, Backpage.com, a website company, aided in the sexual trafficking of a 14-year-old, because it posted advertisements which included explicit nude photographs of the minor. The advertisements were created and submitted to Backpage.com by Latasha Jewell McFarland who plead guilty to one count of sexual trafficking of children in September 2010.

The court held that the defendants merely operated the website, but did not have active control over the images in the advertisements submitted by McFarland. Under the Communications Decency Act and the case law interpreting the immunity sections of the statute, service providers are not liable for harmful content provided by third parties. Because McFarland created the content, the defendants are immune from the harm they caused.

Furthermore, the court held, immunity applies to the defendants, even if the Backpage.com website had search engines that allowed keyword searched of postings in its “adult categories.” Furthermore, case law has established precedent that even where interactive service providers have an “active, even aggressive role in making available content provided by others,” immunity applies to website operators.

Ultimately, this court followed prior decisions, holding that “Congress has decided that the parties to be punished and deterred are not the internet service providers but rather are those who created and posted the illegal material.”

In light of this precedent, Judge Mummert wrote the plaintiff “may still pursue a civil remedy against McFarland.”

Elsewhere in a similar story:

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 recognized that the very nature of the Internet meant that vast traffic depended on the ability of citizens to post directly onto websites like Backpage.com, Facebook, MySpace or eBay, or to have search engines like Google and Yahoo find postings without pre-screening or censorship. The responsibility, under the law, rests with the person supplying the post.

Exactly. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Classified ads don’t traffic children. Asshole motherfuckers traffic children. We use ballistic forensics to match a gun as a murder weapon to the owner of the gun who used it to murder someone. We do not put the gun in jail, we put the person who used the gun in jail. We need to find the people who use backpage to traffic minors and put them away.

At this time my Google-Fu is broken, I cannot find the initial report of the arrest. However, I can imagine how it went down as a typical backpage sting. The pimp posted the ad, the cops used the ad to set up a meeting, and BAM child victim is rescued and one less pimp on the street. Just as ballistics are used to find murderers, backpage can be used to find pimps.

 

Why nothing gets done…

Before I start in on the upcoming post I would like to apologize for being away so long. My muse went missing. Nothing held my interest enough for me to blog about. I could have blogged about the Newsweek article that came out this week but everything I had to say about it ended up as comments at the end of the article. If interested in what I had to say about it, just look up the comments there by “Mona Stangley” – that was me.

So I came across this lovely piece on this page which makes me want to bang my head on the desk. This is why we will never find solutions or fix problems, because the “problems” that may exist are not addressed. You will see what  mean as you read on….

SAWB: What action do you recommend that brothel owners should take, beyond the current legislative and licensing requirements, to ensure that only safe sex occurs on their premises?

CN: “Brothel owners are currently commissioning violence against women by operating prostitution businesses.  Prostitution is inherently a practice of violence against women, and can’t be made ‘safe’ for women by any action by pimps.  In fact, brothel owners have a financial conflict of interest with regards to ensuring the safety of women in their venues, because clients will pay more for unprotected sex acts, violent sex, body punishing sex acts like anal penetration, sex with younger women, etc.”

What the hell kind of answer is that? They are asking “Look, what can we do?” An answer isn’t given, an opinion is. Does anyone have a real, practical answer? So, I’m assuming that the question regarding ensuring that only safe sex occurs means ensuring the use of a condom during all interactions. Aside from the invasion of privacy that videotaping and personal monitoring of each appointment which would just be wrong or having a chaperone in each session, you have to trust your girls. Educate them, fire them if it is discovered that they are allowing sex without a condom. Let the girls have rights, the right to refuse any dipshit that wants sex without a condom, the right to call security into the room if Mr. Dumbass wants to give the girl crap about it. *Please note – I have never worked n a brothel but have studied the models and have my own ideas on how to run one. I apologize if I am mistaken on how they are currently operated.

SAWB: Are there additional control measures that owners should apply to prevent clients entering brothels with guns or other weapons, such as knives?

CN: ”Brothel owners should be required by government to employ expensive security guards, buy high-quality monitoring technology, and take other measures that will make their businesses unviable.  The currently viability of prostitution businesses rests wholly on women’s sexual insecurity.”

Not just any security guards, EXPENSIVE security guards. Not just any monitoring technology, HIGH-QUALITY (i.e. expensive). And anything else expensive so that it would be to expensive to operate a brothel. This probably came about due to a sex worker who is suing a brothel because a client pulled a gun on her. Now I don’t know how often these type of incidences occur. 1 in every 10,000? If it is a problem, hell have the client go into a changing room with a locker and put on a robe before going private with a girl. Or have them empty all their pockets and walk through a metal detector. There are other security measures that can be taken to ensure this type of crap doesn’t happen.

SAWB: What safety measures would you recommend brothel owners install within the rooms?

CN: ”No physical contact should take place between women and clients–just like an any other workplace where sexual harassment is outlawed.”

This absurd comment just makes me laugh. I don’t even know where to begin…

SAWB: What training would you recommend for women choosing to enter sex work in licensed brothels?

CN: ”Re-training for alternative income generating activity that values their inherent dignity and worth as full human beings. Training in self-defence, assertiveness and self-confidence so that women might evade the predatory behaviour of ‘brothel owners’ or pimps.”

Well she has this one partly right. Self defense, assertiveness, and confidence training are very good points along with training classes as to what do in “x” situation. Give the girls the confidence they need by letting them know that you have their back and let them know that their safety and security are your utmost concern.

SAWB: What safety lessons could Australian brothels learn from comparable licensed sex industries in other countries, such as those in Nevada?

CN: ”Melissa Farley has documented the violence of the Nevada brothels, which is perhaps even worse than here.”

Do I really need to address this ridiculous statement by an abolitionist whose agenda is to shut down brothels and anything else having to do with prostitution? I think not. Ask the prostitutes who work their yourself instead of relying on an abolitionist’s hearsay.

We need practical ideas and implementation, not ideologies.

ALERT for CC friends

Let someone know if you come across this girl.
http://www.caller.com/news/2011/jul/08/missing-florida-teen-may-be-in-corpus-christi/?partner=yahoo_feeds

Thanks

S-WATCH.org take two.

So I opened up S-WATCH.org again.

It’s not the vision I have for an org yet. See this post. Right now it is a typical discussion forum type style board. A place to discuss questions, issues, answers in regards to sex work for anyone who cares to comment about the industry. It’s not a hooker board, it’s not set up for advertising or looking for an escort. It’s a place for the public to interview and ask questions of actual sex workers. It’s a place to bring together news stories and comments into one place. It’s not a place to act like a child and say stupid shit like “Oh yea? Well you’re just a WHORE!” when we may disagree with you.

Take a look, you’ll see what I mean.

Eventually I want to work the vision in but not until I get my panel together so mine is not the only input.

http://s-watch.org/index.php

 

THIS!

Had to reprint it here:

While we are on this general topic, I would like to point out a closely related, widespread myth, namely urban legend that the average age of entry into sex work is 13 years.

By definition of average that means that if the ages of all beginning sex workers are summed and then that sum is divided by the total number of beginners, the resulting number would be 13.  Even a small bit of reflection reveals this figure to be absurd.

This implies that for everyone who starts sex work at age 14, another will start at age 12.  If someone begins sex work at the advanced age of 18, then someone else begins at the age of 8, or 5 begin at the age of 12.  Do no sex workers begin in their late 20s or 30s?  How many people under the age of 13 would it take to balance them, so as to average out to 13?  A lot.

The police should be finding great numbers of sex workers under the age of 13.  But that hardly ever happens.  If you Google “prostitution” and “arrested”, you will see that the average age is in the late 20s or early 30s.  If these people have been doing sex work since they were 13, how come they only start getting arrested about 15 years later?  Are 13-year-olds better at evading the authorities than 30-year-olds?  If a cop sees a 30-year-old hooker and a 10-year-old hooker, which one is he going to investigate?

I understand the newspapers are not going to publish the name of a minor involved in sex work, but they will publish the fact that a minor has been found doing sex work.

The article alluded to a study that said 800 underage sex workers were found in the USA.  I am assuming that “underage” means under 18.  So there is no way to tell how many of those 800 were under 13 (I suspect not many).  Regardless, there are far more than 800 sex workers in the USA.  One article in Wikipedia says there are 23 full time sex workers in the USA for every 100,000 people.  That comes out to a little over 70,000 full time sex workers.  Since it is unlikely that all do it full time, there are even more if you include part-timers.  If the average starting age really were 13, the police should be encountering vast numbers of elementary school sex workers.  Obviously they aren’t. – By user name cypriot.

Here is the link to the story where I found the above in the comments. The above emphasis is my own. Made me laugh. Might I also say that “Sanctimonious American Fuckwit” has now been added to my vocabulary as an insult I will find a way to use someday. You’ll have to read the other comments also to see where that came from.

Hindsight. A teen runaway story.

This isn’t going to be easy. Please keep in mind that this was about 25 years ago. Amid the current hysteria hype lies questions. Should we continue to make people aware of the child/teenage prostitution problem? Should we donate to awareness campaigns or to actual shelters? Can we truly end the bullshit? As long as we continue to have sorry excuses for parents out in the world and teenagers who think that life would be better on the streets rather than home, I highly doubt it. Not all teen runaways turn to prostitution because some man forced them to. Here is my humble story. It’s not special, it’s typical from what I remember of other runaways I had met during that time.

Looking back, I ran away from home because I was a selfish little twit. My parents didn’t understand me, they were to strict, they didn’t like my friends, whine whine whine. A friend of mine said “Hey, I’m going to Houston to live with my brother. Want to come?” What the hell, I went. Grand new adventure and all that.

Fast forward two weeks (or thereabouts). His prickhead of a brother got tired of supporting his little lazy ass and some chick he didn’t know who was obviously a runaway. Out into the streets we go. Lost him. Said he was going to go try and find us a place to stay, left me at the mall, and I never saw him again.

I hung out at the mall for days, weeks. I didn’t know where else to go. Time was broken down into when the mall opened, when the food court filled up, when it got crowded after people got off of work, and when it closed. I could tell it was the weekend by the amount of younger kids showing up during the day.

Eventually security ran me off. I mean come on, same girl, same clothes, all the freaking time. Let me tell you, it’s not easy trying to wash your clothes and your armpits so you don’t smell too bad in a bathroom sink. I bothered their shoppers by asking for handouts and I’d watch what people threw away at the food court to see what I could grab when no one was looking. I can’t even begin to tell you how much candy and snacks I shoplifted.

So some of you at this point are probably thinking I should have went to the police. Yea right. The cops as far as I knew, would arrest me or worse – send me home to parents who I believe would have been pissed at me. I was more afraid of that than living on the streets (remember, teenage thinking here. Not always rational.)

I didn’t go back after security made me leave (still afraid of cops) so I walked. And walked, and walked. I discovered a part of town where there were other bums, young and old. There was a titty bar in the neighborhood, and I can’t remember exactly how I met this one woman who worked there but she took pity on me I guess. She let me shower and get cleaned up at her place and told me she thought she might could get me a job at the place where she worked (I had learned to tell people I was 18 by this point). She did. It didn’t last long at all though. We had given her manager a story about why I didn’t have an ID but eventually he made me leave when I couldn’t ever produce one. He also fired her. That was the end of that relationship.

Back on the streets. Met a man who had seen me dance and he offered me a hot shower, a bed to sleep on, and a meal. I was too stupid to realize or think to ask what it might cost me. Honestly at that point I didn’t care. I smelled bad, I was hungry, and my little cardboard pallet didn’t allow a good nights sleep.

Was he a pimp? I didn’t think so. He was a middle aged man with a kind face. He frequently traveled to Houston on business and stayed at nice hotels. He sat next to me on the bed and made small talk. I was so grateful for what he had done for me but there was only one thing I had that was of any worth in which to show him my appreciation. So yes, I had sex with him. Perhaps it is what he expected all along, perhaps not, but I’m the one who took the initiative. This was the beginning of giving men what they wanted in exchange for something I needed.

“Chuck” (because I can’t remember his real name) was not always around. Weeks would go by without me seeing him and the money he gave me didn’t last long enough until he came back. So I solicited, generally within a block of or so of the titty bar. I tried to hit up the guys who looked like they may have been from out of town in the hopes that they had a motel room I could sleep in and take a shower. Didn’t always work so there were a few backseat encounters. I couldn’t get a room of my own, no ID remember?

It all ended when me and a few other people were in a 7-11 at night and the clerk got scared. Next think I know I’m up against a wall being patted down by a cop, handcuffed, and thrown into the backseat of a cop car. Parents were called, I was picked up by them, and the rest is fairly normal. (No they weren’t pissed, they were happy I was okay)

Now I know that this story is full of holes, I can’t remember timelines, and there are even some parts that I tried to fill in but am still very vague on. 25 years ago, teenage brain in survival mode. What do you expect?

Looking back on what I do remember and what would have helped? A safe house. A house where I felt safe, that had a bed, a shower, and food. A place where others in my situation also went so that I could feel not so alone. Knowledge of where that shelter was. Non-judgmental social workers – not the religious types – that went around and posted fliers advertising places I could go for my immediate needs. I didn’t care about counseling or mentoring or services other than what I mentioned. I didn’t care that these people thought they could “save” me. My long term goal was my next meal. Offer me that without looking down your nose at me. (In a teenagers mind, one of the last things I wanted was to be lectured.)

I remember being bored and going by the electronics sections of stores to watch television. I didn’t care if it was news, sports, or soaps on the television – it was something to do. Commercials advertising the nearest safe house would have helped, the anti-trafficking campaigns – not so much. If “Chuck” hadn’t of helped me out I would be dead from tetanus from scraping my fingers on a rusted can of half eaten chili found by a dumpster.

Is this story the exception or the rule? I don’t know. Is JillB’s story the exception or the rule? I don’t know that either. I met many other street kids who were in the same situation and were not picked up by violent pimps. I also know JillB who was picked up by a violent pimp who used her as a sex slave. Both situations do exist. What JillB and I have in common is that we were both street kids. She started out (left home) for different reasons than I did and her fate ended up being much different than mine. However, we both got hungry, cold, and were alone which helped set us on our (albeit different) paths.

Awareness is great and all, but it didn’t feed me or give me something besides cardboard to sleep on. Building a shelter in Austin wouldn’t have done diddley for me either as I would have no way to get there (aside from trying to hitch hike. Yea, can’t see that not turning out bad. Nor would I have left my -by then – comfort zone.) I’m not saying that whatever “Chuck” was thinking in his head was right at the time either. As far as he knew I was 18 though obviously vulnerable due to my situation. Did he take advantage of me or did I take advantage of him?

Answers aren’t easy, solutions aren’t either. Perhaps my story will make you think, perhaps you will read and forget. Either way, there it is.

*You can read about JillB here  and view the follow up questions and answers here or see http://sexworkerswithoutborders.org/