Click and Read: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/turns-out-por-1.html
Jul
21
Sex toys as safe as a carrot
by Sea Stachura
Feb 1st 2008 @ 11:40AM
Filed under: Health, Shopping Guide, Natural Body Care
Now that I’ve scared the bejeezus out of you about the sex toys you’re using, let me remind you that Valentine’s Day is shortly upon us. It’s a mere 14 days away.
Do you know what you have enough time for? Enough time to visit a couple retailers that will sell you an environmentally and personally safe new toy. And one for your friend, of course.
Earth Erotics is an online shop that considers itself, “the natural food store of adult boutiques.” While that might make some of you think bad thoughts about drums full of molasses and honey and flour… wait. I’ve gotten sidetracked. The shop has plenty of goodies for the boys and girls, organic cotton sheets and completely natural lubes.
There’s also Smitten Kitten, in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. It’s a stone’s throw from a great gay club and a less eco-friendly Sex World shop. The shop has everything from “cock slings” to a non-toxic version of the Rabbit.
One more site, just in case those don’t have the toy you want: Holistic Wisdom, a sex ed and product shop.
And then there are the homemade toys that keep you and the earth as safe as you’d like to be. Paddles made of wood, harnesses made of leather and oblong vegetables that have been thoroughly washed.
Happy Valentine’s. (yes the article is old but the message is not!)
A GREAT PLACE TO SHOP! EARTHEROTICS.COM
Jul
21
The bondage community hopes Max Mosley’s lawsuit will stop them being seen as perverts on the fringe of society
Jamie Doward
Sunday July 13, 2008
The Observer
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Max Mosley, the son of the fascist leader Sir Oswald, father of two, husband to Jean of 48 years and Formula 1 eminence grise, has a new role: unlikely poster boy for Britain’s BDSM community.
For the uninitiated, BDSM stands for ‘Bondage, Discipline and Sadomasochism’, a clumsy umbrella term for a vast range of sexual practices usually dismissed under the generic label ‘kinky’.
Its enthusiasts complain they are stigmatised by society to the point that some of their activities, while consensual, can see them sent to prison. Worse, according to many on the scene, is the way their activities, which usually feature the use of restraints, whips and role-play involving positions of power, are chronically misunderstood by wider society. Armchair psychologists dismiss BDSM as an unnatural, unhealthy desire for humiliation, while much of the general public regard its practitioners as perverts.
But the high-profile reporting of Mosley’s participation in a sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes in a Chelsea flat, with, according to the News of the World, a Nazi theme, has given the BDSM community the chance to come out of its dungeons.
‘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.
Nor is it likely that the multimillionaire president of the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, Formula 1’s governing body, intended to start a national debate about what the French have for centuries dismissed as ‘the English disease’. But Mosley’s high-profile case, apart from providing one of the most titillating legal actions in recent history, may one day be seen as a watershed in the history of Britain’s sexual mores, say those in the BDSM community.
‘BDSM is increasingly recognised as a sexuality, like homosexuality,’ said Hyde. ‘Yet, despite this, it is illegal to practise certain S&M activities.’ Indeed, many people may not know that they are breaking the law in their own bedrooms.
Technically, it is illegal for a person to engage in S&M activities that leave a lasting mark on someone else’s body - as in the case of Mosley whose buttocks bled after being caned by one of the women involved in the orgy, a prostitute who went by the exotic monicker ‘Mistress Switch’. This - the raw and, arguably, illegal state of Mosley’s buttocks following his thrashing - is one reason the News of the World is attempting to justify its story as being in the public interest, but lawyers admit the definition of what constitutes a lasting mark is open to interpretation.
‘If you drag your fingernails down someone’s back and draw blood, you are breaking the law,’ said John Lovatt, a solicitor who advises the Spanner Trust, a group set up to defend the rights of sadomasochists. ‘If you leave a mark on someone, it’s really anyone’s guess.’
There have been at least four prosecutions of S&M practitioners in the UK since 1990, the most high-profile being the Spanner Case - which spawned the Spanner trust - when five men were jailed for giving each other consensual beatings, lacerations and genital abrasions. The case caused a furore and prompted calls for a change in the law.
The ‘hardcore’ element of the BDSM scene is practised only by a tiny minority, according to its supporters. ‘The S&M element of the scene is much more about getting an endorphin high,’ said Hyde. ‘People get high from giving and receiving pain.’ They also deny the popular belief that the world of S&M is split into two camps: ’subs’ (submissives) and ‘doms’ (dominators). ‘You find all sorts,’ Hyde said. ‘Many people enjoy both.’
Certainly Mosley does, or at least did. When not being whipped by prostitutes, some of whom were wearing German military outfits, he enjoyed spanking them with leather straps while barking orders in German, a language, he claims, felt suitably ‘bossy’ for the role. After an epic five-hour session Mosley and the prostitutes relaxed with a cup of tea.
The internet has played its part in promoting what was once a very underground scene. Inevitably, retail has followed the cultural shift and aspects of the BDSM scene have migrated to the High Street. Ann Summers, the chain of high-street sex shops, says its Bondage Starter Kits are one of its most popular products, selling in their hundreds every week. ‘They are a great way of introducing the starter to the softer aspect of bondage,’ according to a spokeswoman for the chain. At the start of the year, Ann Summers extended its popular cuffs range with fur ankle cuffs and under-bed restraints. An Ann Summers dominatrix kit, due out in September, includes a whip, blindfold and cuffs.
The growing desire to engage in aspects of BDSM is part of a wider trend, according to those at the vanguard. ‘People are exploring more,’ said Tuppy Owens, chair of the Sexual Freedom Coalition. ‘Women aren’t prepared to put up with a crap sex life any longer and men are exploring their inner self more.’
Owens believes the emergence of BDSM is the result of a society’s increasingly nuanced approach to sex. ‘It’s a very sophisticated form of sex play because it involves complete trust in other people,’ she said.
Owens claims the bondage scene became popular in the early 1990s as women developed a greater sense of confidence. ‘Women could get dressed up in really sexy corsets and leather and be in control,’ Owens said. ‘They could be goddesses and men would fall at their feet.’ Today, Owens claims, no town is without some form of BDSM club.
But, as with all sexual predilections, some can end up being damaged by their desires. For a small segment of the population, S&M has ceased to be about empowerment or even pleasure. The Portman Clinic, a specialist psychotherapy unit that treats people with sexual problems, regularly sees those for whom S&M has become a worrying addiction.
The patients, many of whom have suffered emotional difficulties in childhood due to parental deprivation, misunderstanding or repeated experiences of emotional humiliation, have often become alarmed about how their S&M acts have ended up consuming them.
‘The people we tend to see are those for whom the practices are a problem either because they sense they are taking over their lives or because it comes to a point when these activities frighten them,’ said Carlos Fishman, a consultant at the clinic. ‘Those who engage in sadomasochistic activities want, in an unconscious and silent way, to control and dominate the other, so as to manage feelings of intense anxiety. People who engage in sadomasochistic acts can’t tolerate mental pain. They replace mental pain with physical pain and in so doing feel triumphant over emotional suffering. They find it difficult to tolerate sadness, hurt, rejection, and other ordinary painful human feelings, and rid themselves of them by inflicting them, so to speak, on the body of the “other”.’
Those who seek help from the Portman Clinic are told there is no easy cure. ‘We tell our patients it takes years rather than months,’ Fishman said.
Mosley makes no apologies. ‘I’ve been doing [S&M] for 45 years and there’s never been the slightest hint of that coming out,’ he said last week. ‘If it hadn’t been for bribery and illegal acts, this wouldn’t have come out.’
Different strokes: Bondage toys and moves
Abrasion Any form of sensation play involving stroking or brushing the skin with rough, textured objects such as sandpaper.
Ball gag A gag consisting of a ball, usually rubber, which is attached to a strap. The ball is placed in the mouth and the strap is placed around the head to hold it in place.
Catherine’s wheel A large, upright wheel, usually made of wood, to which a person may be bound and then rotated to any position.
Electrical play Any of a variety of different practices involving the use of electrical current or electricity to stimulate a person.
Frog tie A specific form of bondage in which one person kneels and their ankles are bound to the thighs.
Pony play An activity in which the submissive takes on the role of a pony; for example, by walking on all fours, sometimes wearing a bridle.
Top One who administers some form of stimulation, but does not have psychological control or power over that person.
Zip strip: An arrangement of clothes pegs along a length of cord or twine, which can be clipped on the body and then yanked off one by one or all at once.
Jul
17
Great Goddess! No Words are Worthy of you
May your Priestess be your divine hands
Like with many arms and many knives
Shall our Ristualistic Dance begin
May my screams of orgasmic agony sing like mighty odes to you
As my tears and blood soak your body
I am yours forever…
By: slaveheartquest 2008
Jul
10
Please feel free to leave RESPECTFUL comments about any of my blog entries. Or I even dare you to call Me! I love men who are thinkers and not mindless bimbos. Dont get me wrong, I love pure nastiness but I am also more than that. You will find that the most accomplished Mistresses are mentally acute and devious.
So call me, if you can muster the balls to submit to a real woman.
Its Simple. Call 1-800-TO-FLIRT and dial my extension: 0306455.
I keep my rate at 99 cents per minute so you will not feel hurried. Allow yourself to Surrender.
MISTRESS EVA LORDES
www.PhoneBDSM.com
www.domina.ms/EvaLordes
Jul
10
(A special friend of mine sent me this article from 2006. Its funny as hell but it is still being researched. BTW, I have four cats. lol)
A COMMON parasite can increase a women’s attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says.
About 40 per cent of the world’s population is infected with Toxoplasma gondii, including about eight million Australians.
Human infection generally occurs when people eat raw or undercooked meat that has cysts containing the parasite, or accidentally ingest some of the parasite’s eggs excreted by an infected cat.
The parasite is known to be dangerous to pregnant women as it can cause disability or abortion of the unborn child, and can also kill people whose immune systems are weakened.
Until recently it was thought to be an insignificant disease in healthy people, Sydney University of Technology infectious disease researcher Nicky Boulter said, but new research has revealed its mind-altering properties.
“Interestingly, the effect of infection is different between men and women,'’ Dr Boulter writes in the latest issue of Australasian Science magazine.
“Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women.
“On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls.
“In short, it can make men behave like alley cats and women behave like sex kittens'’.
Dr Boulter said the recent Czech Republic research was not conclusive, but was backed up by animal studies that found infection also changes the behaviour of mice.
The mice were more likely to take risks that increased their chance of being eaten by cats, which would allow the parasite to continue its life cycle.
Rodents treated with drugs that killed the parasites reversed their behaviour, Dr Boulter said.
Another study showed people who were infected but not showing symptoms were 2.7 times more likely than uninfected people to be involved in a car accident as a driver or pedestrian, while other research has linked the parasite to higher incidences of schizophrenia.
“The increasing body of evidence connecting Toxoplasma infection with changes in personality and mental state, combined with the extremely high incidence of human infection in both developing and developed countries, warrants increased government funding and research, in particular to find safe and effective treatments or vaccines,'’ Dr Boulter said.
Link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20975555-29277,00.html
Jul
10
LINK: http://lambiek.net/comics/erotic_comics.htm
I enjoy fetish art including erotic comics. the site gives a overview of some of the best known comic artists.
Excerpt: In this overview, we will try to give a general survey of comics with adult, sexual and erotic content. We have carefully chosen the graphic material, but apologize for anyone, including Google, who might feel offended by pictures used for erotic illustration. If you are under the age of eighteen, or feel in any way that explicit sexual material might upset you, we advise you instead to browse through some of the thousands of other innocuous pages on this site. In today’s advertising-driven world, it is unfortunate that many prominent Internet search engines feel they must ‘protect’ you from seeing depictions of basic human sexuality, except when selling consumer products.
Jul
10
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom — Media Update
July 7, 2008
www.ncsfreedom.org
media@ncsfreedom.org
1. Max Mosley Tells Court Sex Video Had No Nazi Elements
2. Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
3. Swingtown, California Judges Break Rules on Marriage and Civility
4. In Madison, It’s Easy to Be Kinky: The Community
5. Stuff so raunchy, it’s illegal
6. Porn peddlers guilty
7. I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single From Portland to Portland: Episode One
8. Whatbs Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer
NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.
These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.
NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.
Max Mosley Tells Court Sex Video Had No Nazi Elements
by Caroline Byrne
Bloomberg News Service
July 7, 2008
Max Mosley, president of Formula One’s ruling body, told a London court
today there were no Nazi overtones in excerpts of a sex video he appears
in published by the U.K. News of the World newspaper.
Mosley, 68, is suing the British tabloid for saying he and the women in
the video were dressed as concentration camp guards and prisoners. Mosley
testified on the first day of the trial today in London that there weren’t
any Nazi elements during the sadomasochistic sex depicted on the tape.
“Never. Absolutely not,'’ Mosley said. “I can think of few things more
un-erotic than Nazi role play.'’
A lawyer for News of the World, Mark Warby, said the story was legitimate
and in the public interest given that whipping or beating a person is a
criminal offense regardless of whether they consent. Mosley said he was
whipped until he bled.
Society “draws a line at causing people injury for the purpose of sexual
gratification,'’ Warby said. “S&M doesn’t promote human dignity, it
demeans it.'’
Just because the sexual activity was behind closed doors doesn’t guarantee
it was a private act under the European Convention on Human Rights, Warby
said. Under questioning this afternoon, Mosley agreed that the group were
dressed up as prisoners and that one woman wore a uniform. He denied the
uniform was German military.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a3hU7Xpd2XxM&refer=germany
To respond, write to: the author at cbyrne12@bloomberg.net or the
editors at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/fbk
Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
by Daniel Rifkin
Metromix - Baltimore
July 5, 2008
Former porn stars, sex gurus, belly dancers and performers make an
appearance at this event, filled with drag and burlesque shows, orgasm
workshops, fetishism and more. The festival also includes an erotic arts
exhibit at Load Of Fun Studios, running through July.
Friday is dedicated to “before the edge” art: Things that are more
playful, teasing and implicitly sexual. This includes drag and burlesque
shows, as well as body painting and a human buffet. (To clarify, food is
served on humans, not made of humans.)
Saturday, aims to go “after the edge,” with events leaning toward more
sexually explicit topics, such as fetishism and BDSM. Special guests such
as bondage and fetish model Klawdya Rothschild, pornography director and
photographer Julie Simone and others will be on hand.
“My goal was not to redraw the boundaries between sexual differences, [or]
decide what belongs [in eroticism] and what doesn’t,” said festival
sponsor and Load Of Fun Studios curator Suzannah Gerber. “My standpoint
was just to make this festival as erotic and eclectic as possible.”
[continued]
To read this article, go to:
http://baltimore.metromix.com/events/performance/baltimore-erotic-arts-festival-station-north/398120/content
To respond, write to: baltimore@metromix.com
Swingtown, California Judges Break Rules on Marriage and Civility
by Richard Nelson (appears to be opinion, listed as “News”)
WKYX AM Paducah KY/WNGO AM Mayfield, KY
July 3, 2008
When CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said in late 2006 that the
network was “going to throw out the rule book,” she wasn’t kidding. In
case anybody was wondering just what rules she was talking about, the wait
is over. On June 5, CBS officially joined the marriage deconstruction
movement when it premiered Swingtown-an edgy sitcom that eviscerates
marriage in our postmodern culture.
Swingtown, named in part for the wife-swapping that occurs, features open
marriage and group sex as normal. Today’s cultural elite hope Swingtown,
which also refers to the mid-70s as a watershed when the cultural and
moral tide turned, serves as a catalyst to turn the tide again.
Gay marriage revolutionaries, vangards of marriage deconstruction, claim
they’re not attacking marriage but rather just seeking the same freedom
that everyone else has. Perhaps Swingtown could serve as the poster city
for that idea. It’s no coincidence that in a scene of a wild July 4th
party, complete with drugs and group sex, one woman extols the grandiosity
of open marriage trying to convince her newfound friend that “opening our
relationship was the best thing that ever happened.” Partygoers sang the
National Anthem, and then acted as though lavishing the marital benefits
of one’s spouse to another is just as American as apple pie.
Swingtown is made-up. But the legal fiction recently imposed by the
California high court that marriage is whatever you want it to be has real
consequences for our culture. Without the opposite sex requirement of
marriage, there’s no longer a logical basis against the number of
participants (polygamy,) open marriage (polyamory), and blood restrictions
(adult incest).
California’s Supreme Four steamrolled the democratic process and, along
with it, the self-evident truths that gender differences matter and
contribute to healthy marriage; that children deserve to have their
biological mothers and fathers raising them in the same home; and that
man-woman marriage is foundational to social stability.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.wkyx.com/local-news-details.asp?NewsID=6394
To respond, write to: news@wkyx.com and dunker@wkyx.com
In Madison, It’s Easy to Be Kinky: The Community
by John Mendelssohn
Dane101.com
July 2, 2008
Women wanting to be owned by men occupy only one of innumerable niches in
the world of kink, of course. For every woman who shares Frances’s and
Hannah’s predilection, there’s a man who wants no less avidly to surrender
completely to a woman, or at least be “forced” to put on an item of her
intimate apparel and then cruelly ridiculed for having done so, or one who
wants to be spanked or flogged. There are men who ask only that their
lovers wear seamed stockings and high heels in the bedroom for them, and
others who require girdles, opera gloves, garish red lipstick, and false
eyelashes too, and others who ask that their lovers also regulate their
intake of oxygen. Just as there are women who… are thrilled to be
treated almost like pets, there are other women who delight in slipping
into gleaming latex catsuits and imperiously leading their naked spouses,
forbidden to address them as anything other than Goddess, or at all,
around on leashes.
How, if these people are telling the truth, does it make sense to condemn
as sordid or even pathological their erotic interactions while respecting
the homosexuality of their siblings or neighbors, as every enlightened
person has come to the past 30 years?
Having earlier lived in Iowa and Mexico, among less picturesque locales,
Mistress Jade — Madison’s go-to gal for submissive men whose wives or
girlfriends won’t or can’t play ball — came to Madison seven years ago
because Chicago was too big and Madison was where her mother had grown up.
A virgin until age 19, if a scoffer at erotic taboos from earliest
pubescence, she is the co-proprietress, according to her Website, of The
Madison Dungeon, though such a place exists only in imagination. Local
fire and safety law preclude running an establishment in which clients are
routinely tied up; there are zoning laws to consider.
In a typical month, she’ll do eight outcall sessions in the homes or motel
rooms of a clientele that, notwithstanding the classic conception of
submissive men as captains of industry yearning to relinquish power,
comprises a vast array of walks of life. “Put them all in the same small
town,” she muses, “and only a couple would ever run into each other.”
Along with movers and shakers, she also sees Joe Sixpacks who service
furnaces, who recondition carburetors. All they have in common is having
filled out a detailed questionnaire, the details of which Her Nibs
entrusts to an attorney for safekeeping.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dane101.com/current/2008/07/01/in_madison_its_easy_to_be_kinky_the_scene_part_two_of_a_three_part_series
To respond, write to: info@dane101.com
Stuff so raunchy, it’s illegal
by Barry McDonald and John Stagliano (published debate)
Los Angeles Times
June 30, 2008
Barry:
Today’s question focuses on whether obscenity laws should continue to
exist in modern American society. To put this question in its proper
perspective, one must understand the relatively narrow scope of these
laws. Under a 1st Amendment test established by the U.S. Supreme Court
known as the Miller test (from the 1973 case Miller vs. California), only
sexually explicit materials that are designed to appeal to a morbid
interest in things sexual and are depicted in an extremely offensive way
– all as determined by an “average” person of a given community — can be
made illegal by obscenity laws. Moreover, even works that meet these
criteria but also possess serious artistic or literary value cannot be
deemed obscene (such as a sex magazine with articles). Finally, works that
qualify for obscene treatment cannot be criminalized in the home (private
possession is legal). It is mainly the public sale, distribution or
exhibition of such materials that can be prohibited.
In short, obscenity laws generally target commercial distributors of
extreme pornography. And even there, obscenity prosecutions are rare
because of the difficulties prosecutors encounter in proving that
materials meet the Miller standards. One study found that materials that
have been deemed obscene by juries or judges usually contain explicit
depictions of sex acts involving human excretion, sex with human corpses
or live animals, acts of incest or violent, forced sex.
Because today’s question asks us to assume that such extreme materials are
made without violating any laws (an assumption that would probably falter
in the real world), we must inquire whether even simulated depictions of
such acts should qualify for illegal treatment when they are publicly
distributed or exhibited. In other words, the standard way of putting the
question usually asks: “If no one is harmed by this stuff and someone
wants it, who is the government to say that he or she can’t have it?”
John:
It does not matter to you that pornography is now almost exclusively
consumed in the privacy of one’s own home. In fact, to me this is not the
issue. The issue is about porn that is “extremely offensive.” Some
individuals do not take offense to extreme porn, and those individuals are
protected by the Constitution. No one should be subject to the whims of a
group or “community” that does not like what you look at. And what is
wrong with being extreme? In today’s culture, being extreme is revered. It
is the people on the extreme who move the world forward, who experiment
and find new ways of living. Technology has made extreme changes in our
lives. If we are not open-minded to change, we stagnate and wallow in
sanctimonious righteousness about the world.
>From a legal standpoint, this comes down to your view of human nature and
society. Is it right, ethical or moral for one group of people to control
the thoughts of another group? Indeed, it is the thoughts that erotic
images arouse in the viewer’s mind that those who would assume the power
to control others have a problem with. Just remember that if you would
assume such power, Barry, you personally are responsible for arresting me
because I sold images you didn’t like. This is exactly what you allowed to
happen when I was indicted on nine counts of obscenity by the Department
of Justice last April.
Barry, your point is that people must be forced to not think things that
you don’t like, and for that you’d have me put in jail. Your comment that
it “seems” to you that viewing images “to obtain sexual pleasure cannot be
the healthiest way of experiencing sex” seems not a good enough reason to
imprison me for 39 years. In fact, using a proper concept of morality
based on individual rights, it is you and those who would put me in jail
when I did not infringe on anyone’s rights who are behaving immorally.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-op-mcdonald-stagliano30-2008jun30,0,2034954.story
To respond, write to: letters@latimes.com or comment at bottom of article
Porn peddlers guilty:
4 men avoid trial in case of X-rated Web site run out of Pensacola area
by Kris Wernowsky
Pensacola News Journal
June 25, 2008
The final curtain dropped Tuesday on a multimillion-dollar adult
entertainment enterprise B- featuring X-rated movies shot in Pensacola and
Pace - as its key players pleaded guilty in court.
- Clinton Raymond McCowen, 47, of Navarre, also known as Ray Guhn, pleaded
guilty to unlawful financial transactions.
McCowen will be sentenced to from three to five years in state prison.
- Andrew Craft, 40, of Pensacola, and Kevin Patrick Stevens, 38, of
Pensacola each pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering. They face two
to four years in state prison.
- Thomas Dwyer, 41, pleaded guilty to wholesale promotion of obscene
materials.
All four men remain free on bond until their Aug. 11 sentencing hearing
before Circuit Judge Ron Swanson. Each defendant left the courthouse
without comment.
“Ray Guhn Productions” featured a Web site with more than 5,000
subscribers who could view films featuring group sex and other acts for
$30 a month.
The company made $10 million in its five years of operation, prosecutors
said.
The films were made at homes throughout Pensacola and Pace; at least five
hotels in Pensacola; along Interstate 10 and Interstate 110; in wooded
areas and in other public places.
Tuesday’s pleas helped attorneys avoid a three-week obscenity trial that
was expected to begin Monday with jury selection at the Santa Rosa County
Courthouse.
Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar prosecuted the two-year-old case that
began with arrests in summer 2006.
The veteran prosecutor heralded Tuesday’s pleas as a major victory against
obscenity in the Panhandle and the state of Florida.
“We have this problem statewide. I hope prosecutors will take our lead and
enforce our law,” he said.
But McCowen’s attorney thought otherwise.
Altamonte Springs attorney Lawrence Walters, one of McCowen’s three
attorneys, is known for representing clients in the adult-entertainment
industry. He said that he doesn’t expect Tuesday’s outcome to result in a
rash of charges filed by Florida prosecutors.
“There was no finding of obscenity by a jury,” Walters said. “The majority
of the state attorneys in this state have come to recognize that the
communities don’t want publishers sent to jail for sexual expression.”
To prove that material is obscene, and not protected by the First
Amendment, it has to fall below the community standards. In this case,
that standard is defined by the 1st Judicial Circuit of Florida.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/NEWS01/806250347
To respond, write to: the author at kwernowsky@phj.com or comment at
bottom of the article
I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single From Portland to Portland: Episode One
by Paul Goebel
TV Squad.com
June 23, 2008
The good thing about this new series is that you know in the first two
minutes whether or not you are the audience the show is looking for. All
you have to do is ask yourself, “Am I interested in seeing a man forced to
go down on a dildo being worn by a dominatrix?” If the answer is yes, keep
reading.
The premise of the show is quite simple. Eric Schaeffer wrote a book about
being single and trying to find love. When he went on his book tour he
decided to make stops along the way, talk to different people about love
and relationships and film it all for this documentary.
The show is rife with too much information. I’m sure Schaeffer finds a lot
of humor in his stories about masturbation and being anally violated but
for me it’s sort of like having a friend who you’ve known for a short
while tell you something personal you never wanted to know, like he enjoys
being anally violated.
Another annoying part of the show are the multiple interviews Eric has
with his longtime dominatrix. I suppose if I had an interest in S&M, I
might like hearing her talk about their activities but while I enjoy many
colors of the sexual rainbow, that particular shade doesn’t appeal to me,
Moreover, I don’t have much interest in the sexual habits of a guy as
desperate as Eric Schaeffer, therefore those conversations are of no value
to me.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/06/23/i-cant-believe-im-still-single-from-portland-to-portland-epis/
To respond, write to: comment at bottom of article
What’s Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer
by Matt Richtel
New York Times
June 23, 2008
Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is
obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate
community standards?
That is often a tricky question because there is no simple, concrete way
to gauge a community’s tastes and values.
The Internet may be changing that. In a novel approach, the defense in an
obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search
data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests
than they might have thought.
In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to
show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search
for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” or “watermelon”. The publicly
accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are
searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the
defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is
sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds
that of more mainstream topics b and that by extension, the sexual
material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.
It is not clear that the approach will succeed. The Florida state
prosecutor in the case, which is scheduled for trial July 1, said the
search data may not be relevant because the volume of Internet searches is
not necessarily an indication of, or proxy for, a community’s values.
But the tactic is another example of the value of data collected by
Internet companies like Google, both from a commercial standpoint and as a
window into the thoughts, interests and desires of their users.
“Time and time again you’ll have jurors sitting on a jury panel who will
condemn material that they routinely consume in private”, said Mr.
Walters, the defense lawyer. Using the Internet data, “we can show how
people really think and feel and act in their own homes, which,
parenthetically, is where this material was intended to be viewed”, he
added.
Mr. Walters last week also served Google with a subpoena seeking more
specific search data, including the number of searches for certain sexual
topics done by local residents. A Google spokesman said the company was
reviewing the subpoena.
Mr. Walters is defending Clinton Raymond McCowen, who is facing charges
that he created and distributed obscene material through a Web site based
in Florida. The charges include racketeering and prostitution, but Mr.
Walters said the prosecution’s case fundamentally relies on proving that
the material on the site is obscene.
Such cases are a relative rarity this decade. In the last eight years, the
Justice Department has brought roughly 15 obscenity cases that have not
involved child pornography, compared with 75 during the Reagan and first
Bush administrations, according to Jeffrey J. Douglas, chairman emeritus
of the First Amendment Lawyers Association. (There have been hundreds
involving child pornography.) Prosecutions at the state level have
followed a similar arc.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/technology/24obscene.html?hp
To respond, write to: letters@nytimes.com or comment at bottom of
the article
HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.
Generally, for a letter to be published, it’s important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
http://www.ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm
Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at media@ncsfreedom.org. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to keith@ncsfreedom.org.
###
A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) is a national organization
committed to altering the political, legal, and social environment in the
U.S. in order to guarantee equal rights for consenting adults who practice
forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the
rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory
communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual
expression.
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
410-539-4824
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org
Jul
10
But I have to admit, I LOVED the equipment!
xoxox,
Mistress Eva Lordes
Jul
8
Revised prayer of St Francis
Goddess, I AM an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, I AM Love.
Where there is injury, I AM Healing.
Where there is Doubt, I AM Faithful, and
Where there is Darkness, I AM Light.
Creator, through Unconditional Love,
I choose to be Compassionate,
I choose to be Understanding,
I choose Love,
I choose to See You in All Others and Myself,
I choose to Give, Trusting in my replenishment.
I choose to Allow, Knowing that all is in Divine Order, and
I choose to Surrender, Knowing that this truly is the path of freedom
