This latest WikiLeaks is a huge one huh? Here’s what I’ve been reading:
From Democracy Now!:
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: “Transparent Government Tends to Produce Just Government”
“We spend the hour with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, talking about the biggest leak in US history: the release of more than 91,000 classified military records on the war in Afghanistan. As the Pentagon announces it is launching a criminal probe into who leaked the documents, Assange asks what about investigating the “war crimes” revealed in the leaked military records? He also talks about the media, why he isn’t coming to the US anytime soon, and what gives him hope. “What keeps us going is our sources. These are the people, presumably, who are inside these organizations, who want change,” Assange says. “They are both heroic figures taking much greater risks than I ever do, and they are pushing and showing that they want change in, in fact, an extremely effective way.”"
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From Truthdig:
WikiLeaks’ Afghan War Diary
“Wikileaks.org has done it again, publishing thousands of classified documents about the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The website provides a secure platform for whistle-blowers to deliver documents, videos and other electronic media while maintaining anonymity. Last March it released a video shot from a U.S. military helicopter over Baghdad, exposing the Army’s indiscriminate killing of at least 12 people, two of whom worked for the Reuters news agency. This week, WikiLeaks, along with three mainstream media partners—The New York Times, The Guardian of London and Der Spiegel in Germany—released 91,000 classified reports from the United States military in Afghanistan. The reports, mostly written by soldiers on the ground immediately after military actions, represent a true diary of the war from 2004 to 2009, detailing everything from the killing of civilians, including children, to the growing strength of the Taliban insurgency, to Pakistan’s support for the Taliban.”
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From WikiLeaks:
Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010
“Summary
25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details.
The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage.
The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces’ activities. The reports do not generally cover top secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations.
We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.
The data is provided in HTML (web), CSV (comma-separated values) and SQL (database) formats, and was rendered into KML (Keyhole Markup Language) mapping data that can be used with Google Earth. Please note that the checksums will change.”
Posted by Vixen as News at 11:39 PM CDT
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My Bon Bon Vibe contest ends July 31st. Want to win it? Buy a day on the Sex Blogger Calendar. Details here.
Posted by Vixen as Musings at 11:14 AM CDT
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From this gallery. This is such a cool dress! I want one.
Posted by Vixen as Sexy Sensations at 11:57 PM CDT
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“I’d lick your…you know the Oreo thing. I can’t pronounce the other word.”
-regular client
Posted by Vixen as Quote Book at 2:25 AM CDT
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I wrote about my original encounter with SC in my post A Shitty Session.
He called me a week later and asked for another session. This was a surprise because he’s my friend J’s client. Wouldn’t he be calling her? I asked if he wanted to do another double. He said he just wanted to see me. Inwardly I groaned.
I do more single session than doubles. But with a client like SC it’s better to have someone else around. I don’t think he’d attack me. And certainly he’s old and frail enough that I’m sure I’d win in a fight. But his roaming hands and boundary pushing were easier to deal with because J was there. As I was mulling all this over in my head, SC demanded a session the next day.
When I say demand that’s just it. SC said-”Meet me tomorrow in (city) at (time).” There was no question. It was a statement on what I “should” do. Normally I like a week’s notice and said so. This didn’t faze him. I’ll double your fee he said dismissively.
Double your fee. That phrase is tricksy. It’s the middle of summer slowdown so of course I said yes. It’d be a pain but I could rearrange my day. But I was also worried. Wouldn’t SC expect more out of the session? I tried to check in with him-”You just want to do a repeat of our last session?” He doesn’t like to be questioned. His answer of “sure, sure” sounded more like a brush off. I wonder if he used to be a manager or something similar. His tone is one of barking orders.
Mr. Radical and I made our plans for the next day. He’d drop me off and wait nearby. We’d do a safe call. I checked in with my sex worker instincts. I didn’t think SC would hurt me. But I had a strong feeling that the roaming hands would be worse and he’s be a major dick with the time.
The next day I was having my morning coffee when SC called. He never says hello or asks how you’re doing. It’s just him telling you what he wants. “I have to cancel. My business trip has moved a day early.” As I was wrapping my head around all this (I’m not a morning person) SC said “I’ll call you next week” and hung up.
What the hell? Did he really have a change in business plans? Did he just not want to fork out the fee? Who knows. He didn’t call back the next week. My friend J hasn’t heard from him either.
I didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. I suppose a little of both.
Posted by Vixen as PSO Confessions at 1:30 PM CDT
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There’s a lot of different giveaways for the NYC Sex Blogger Calendar. You can check out the full list of prizes here.
“Remember you can combine codes, getting signed photos of Sexie Sadie and Dangerous Lilly, a mixtape from Matthew Lawrence, 15% off your order at MauiKink.com and a chance to win the Sexy NYC Nightlife Tour with me and Diva that even includes a goodie bag from Pleasure Chest thanks to calendar model, Brandon B.”
Wednesday I was the featured model. That post is here. It was a lovely write up which made me go Squeeee!
The calendar release party is October 1st in NYC. I’ll be there. Will you? If so drop me a line at radicalvixenatgmaildotcom
Posted by Vixen as Sexy Sensations at 11:52 PM CDT
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see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Posted by Vixen as Musings at 10:39 PM CDT
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From the Washington Post:
U.S. District judge drops porn charges against video producer John A. Stagliano
“A federal judge dismissed the first obscenity prosecution brought in the nation’s capital in a quarter-century on technical grounds Friday, tossing out charges against John A. Stagliano and two companies associated with the adult video producer based in Van Nuys, Calif.
Acquitting Stagliano, John Stagliano Inc. and Evil Angel Productions Inc. before they began their defense, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon said evidence presented by the Justice Department’s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in the four-day trial was “woefully insufficient” to link defendants to the production and distribution of two DVD videos at the heart of the case.”
Reason.tv has several videos on the Stagliano case but this one stood out to me:
Feminist Constance Penley on porn, obscenity, and John Stagliano
“Constance Penley is a professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California at Santa Barbara and co-director of the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media. Penley specializes in film history and theory, feminist theory, and cultural studies. She is especially well-known on campus for her controversial classes on pornography, where she analyzes the ways in which blue movies play with moral and social taboos.”
A great quote from Penley-”Since when did women exchanging bodily fluids and a little light bondage become the most obscene thing in the land?”
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From the Guardian:
Vatican makes attempted ordination of women a grave crime
“The Vatican today made the “attempted ordination” of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.
The new rules, which have been sent to bishops around the world, apply equally to Catholic women who agree to a ceremony of ordination and to the bishop who conducts it. Both would be excommunicated. Since the Vatican does not accept that women can become priests, it does not recognise the outcome of any such ceremony.”
So the church is seriously saying that women priests are in the same category as the child abuse scandals? That is pretty fucked up.
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Found via Viviane’s Sex Carnival:
The New Abortion Providers
On a clear and mild March day in 1993, the Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry spoke at a rally in southern “Florida against abortion. “We’ve found the weak link is the doctor,” he told the crowd. “We’re going to expose them. We’re going to humiliate them.” A few days later, Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider, was shot and killed outside his clinic in Pensacola, Fla., about 500 miles away. It was the first of eight such murders, the extreme edge of what has become an anti-abortion strategy of confrontation.
(snip)
There’s another side of the story, however — a deliberate and concerted counteroffensive that has gone largely unremarked. Over the last decade, abortion-rights advocates have quietly worked to reverse the marginalization encouraged by activists like Randall Terry. Abortion-rights proponents are fighting back on precisely the same turf that Terry demarcated: the place of abortion within mainstream medicine. This abortion-rights campaign, led by physicians themselves, is trying to recast doctors, changing them from a weak link of abortion to a strong one. Its leaders have built residency programs and fellowships at university hospitals, with the hope that, eventually, more and more doctors will use their training to bring abortion into their practices. The bold idea at the heart of this effort is to integrate abortion so that it’s a seamless part of health care for women — embraced rather than shunned.”
What an excellent idea. I’ve often thought it strange that a woman couldn’t just get an abortion at her normal doctor’s office.
Posted by Vixen as News at 10:57 PM CDT
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Found via The Advocate:
Mike Jones on Clergy Clients
“As a former gay male escort and the man who exposed the hypocrisy of Pastor Ted Haggard, I’m probably less stunned than most about the sensational case of the allegedly corrupt priest, Father Kevin J. Gray.
(snip)
Why am I not shocked? During the 1990s, when I worked as an escort in Denver, Colorado, I estimate at least 15 percent of my clientele were clergy or connected with the church in some way. There were one-timers and there were guys who came back again and again and again, and they were all the same: positively giddy when the encounter began, unable to look you in the eye as they left. The excitement that initially animated them was wholly overshadowed by the despondency and guilt that would overcome them as soon as it was over.”
Great article. I agree with him. While I don’t have as high a percentage as Jones, I’ve had a few clergy clients. Reading this makes me want to write another post for my Sex Work And Religion Series.
The snippet below makes me want to read his book.
“When I attended Haggard’s New Life Church after the scandal broke, I was amazed to see all the explicitly homoerotic statues and paintings—sculptures of nude, muscular men all over the place. I also noticed that all the people on stage where Ted would preach were young men—not a female in sight. I was later told that Ted picked out all the art work and the final decision as to who was on stage lay with him.”
I wonder if nude, muscular male statues will be part of Haggard’s new church?
Posted by Vixen as News, Sex Workers at 10:27 PM CDT
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From this gallery. When I look at this pic I hear the top model saying “I will massage you with my buttocks” in a silly voice.
Posted by Vixen as Sexy Sensations at 1:00 PM CDT
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Breathe a sigh of relief because the oil leak is over. Or is it really? The skeptic in me isn’t convinced. How about you?
From Info Wars:
Gulf Oil Gusher: No Reason to Believe It’s Over
“On Friday, the corporate media heralded the capping of BP’s Macondo well after 88 days of environmental disaster.
(snip)
But is BP’s latest fix holding steady? Much of the Gulf of Mexico is a no-go zone off limits to journalists, even corporate media journalists who are usually trusted assets of the banker and corporate state. This lock-down on information is enforced by the U.S. Coast Guard, and BP contractors and corporate goons. Even local cops in the Gulf do BP’s bidding. Do you trust BP and the government to tell the truth after months of preventing media coverage and telling lies about the severity of the oil gusher?”
I don’t trust BP or the government to tell the truth about the spill.
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From Florida Oil Spill:
*UPDATED* CNN Expert: BP “double checking” possible “FAULT — a crack in the earth” with new sonar (VIDEO)
“And they’re even getting additional vessels with the side scan sonars to scan even larger areas just to make sure there’s not a leak somewhere else around perhaps if there’s a fault, a crack in the earth, that they know about from their previous seismic that could be leaking.
They’re double checking this.
(snip)
Video is choppy but the seeps are apparent.”
A crack in the earth? *Shudder*
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From CBS News:
Scientists Fret Over Oil Well’s Low Pressure
“In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers struggled to make sense of puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the sea Friday, trying to determine whether BP’s capped oil well was holding tight or in danger of springing a new leak.
No immediate leaks were spotted, which was encouraging. But midway through the testing period on the new temporary cap that was bottling up the crude inside the well, the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the crisis.
Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower than expected three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.”
Lots more studies should be done before the leak is declared fixed.
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From WKRG:
BP Will Open Capped Wellhead Sunday
“The federal government announced Saturday that BP will open up its capped wellhead on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and pipe oil into ships on the surface. The collection will begin after a testing period for the cap ends, which was extended to Sunday.
(snip)
The decision to collect the oil likely means releasing crude back into the water temporarily to relieve pressure. It still would not be gushing at the rate it had been before BP’s latest fix.”
Profits before proper clean up? Opening up the well before assessing if the earth is cracked nearby?! This situation is dangerous and disgusting.
Posted by Vixen as News at 11:22 PM CDT
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“I’m just preoccupied with sex when I’m horny.”
-regular client
Posted by Vixen as Quote Book at 8:45 PM CDT
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Babeland sent me their BonBon vibe to review.
From the vibe’s page:
“Hold it easily against your clit or tuck it in your underwear — either way, the contoured BonBon is sure to cause quite the stir. Candida Royalle, a Babeland favorite porn director, brings us the latest in her Natural Contours toy line: a compact, adorable, and powerful clit vibe that has all the makings of a customer favorite. A simple push-button control takes you through three speeds, while the splash-proof exterior makes the BonBon ideal for shower fun. Enjoy a 90-day warranty with Babeland; beyond that, Natural Contours offers a lifetime warranty on this well-made little vibe!”
It comes with a cute carry bag:
This is a nice vibe. It’s light weight and small which would make it great for travel. The curve fits nicely in the hand. The vibes are ok but they’re not as strong as my Pocket Rocket vibe. There’s actually four speeds-the last one is a on and off pulse.
My one complaint is you have to click all the speeds to turn it off. Well not if you’re at the last speed but if you’re at the first one you would have to. Not a deal killer but personally I like an on/off switch better. Still though, like I said it’s a nice vibe. If you’re in the mood for a more sensual masturbation session I’d say go with the BonBon vibe.
What’s this about a contest? The NYC Sex Blogger Calendar is selling calendars and calendar dates. To drum up sales I’ve decided to give away the BonBon vibe. How to enter?
Buy a calendar and use the code VIXEN when you pay with Paypal. Or buy a day on the calendar (or promote your business and buy 5 days for $100) and put the code VIXEN. Tess and Diva will pass on the entrants’ emails to me and I’ll randomly pick a winner. This contest will end July 31st. Good luck!
Posted by Vixen as Sex Toys, Reviews at 1:35 PM CDT
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From the Miami New Times blog:
Before He Hired an Escort, Rekers Tried to Spank the Gay Away
“What do you do with a little boy who likes cross-dressing and playing with dolls? If you’re George Alan Rekers, you “extinguish” the boy’s feminine behavior with a sometimes violent Pavlovian regimen while your scientific team observes through a one-way mirror.
That’s what the Baptist minister — who made international headlines when he was exposed by Miami New Times this month for hiring a gay escort — did in the early 1970s at a clinic he opened at UCLA called the Feminine Boy Project.”
When I was searching for an update on Rekers I didn’t expect a story like this. The methods used to force the “correct” gender on these children certainly had an impact-one of the boys attempted suicide years later.
I originally blogged about Rekers here.
Posted by Vixen as News at 3:04 PM CDT
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