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LadyTantalize -> RE: Another Raid - #2257 & Obscenity laws at work (12/5/2005 12:01:58 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Padriag
I have a slight problem with all this folks... the entire report is entirely unsubstantiated.
Here's what I mean. This article originally appeared on Ynot.com, by a "Darklady" who is listed as living in Portland, Oregon. It reports a supposed police raid that happened in Enfield, CT and the events which supposedly took place.
I did several web searches to see if I could find some more information on it, other news articles, but I could not find any. All I could find were listings of the original article which had simply been reposted on various blogs and such... but not one news article from a news agency of any kind.
This "Darklady" is not a journalist affiliated with any news agency... she's just some dominatrix living in Portland Oregon apparently (at least so far as I could find out about her, frankly I couldn't prove she even actually a woman if you asked me too... she does have a web site though, which of course proves nothing).
The Harford Courant, a newpaper for the Enfield, CT area (the town of Enfield is in Harford County, CT) has online archives of news stories going back more than a decade. After serching their archive as far back as Nov 12th, 2005, I could find no mention of the reported events. In fact, the only mention of a Michelle Silva was a high school student who made the honor roll at her high school.
So here's my problem with all this. There's been lots of gnashing of the teeth over this "event", two threads generated over it, lots of references to the US government and police as "jack booted thugs", nazi's and fascist... but there's not one shred of independantly verifiable information to confirm that the raid actually even happened or that the people talked about even exist, much less evidence to support the claims made by the article regarding the raid, what happened, etc.. The only source you have is a dominatrix living in Portland Oregon... and ya gotta wonder, or at least I do, how does a dominatrix in Porland Oregon happen to know what happens in some town 3,000 miles away??? (Sure its possible, maybe her mother lives there for all I know... but you gotta wonder.)
So before you go ranting, donating to various organizations or organizing protest marches... maybe you folks ought to do a little fact checking. Cause I did, and so far I can't actually find any verifiable facts.
What I do know is that in the US the police can't just raid your house, they have to have a warrant. If they do force their way into your home without a warrant and without probable cause, then they are possibly liable themselves for charges of criminal trespass, breaking and entering, destruction of private property, illegal search and seizure, etc. Even if you were actually guilty of a crime, it would end up thrown out of court because of so many violations of the law and procedure... so police have a vested interest in NOT doing such stupid things. You don't need to stop them from what they are doing, stand back and quietly (and smugly) watch and then you sue the town after the fact and likely settle out of court for a large chunk of cash.
BTW, most police officers in the US are not jack booted thugs. They're decent people who live in the communities they serve and really are trying to "serve and protect." I think its flatly shameful to take one unsubstantiated article posted by an unknown individual on a web site as an excuse to start referring to the police department of an entire town as jack booted thugs, nazi's and fascist. Do you know these people? Did you check out the story? Did you bother to find out just who it was you were slandering?
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ORIGINAL: Mercnbeth
As far as the right wing / left wing. Back in the day, the right wing was for less not more government. That "less" included a lot less government intervention into peoples personal business. The problem occurred when religion was able to infiltrate and "Borg-like" assimilated the right.
Blame/Credit (depends on how you look at it) Clinton's victories over Bush I, and Dole which caused the right, aka Republicans, to get in bed with the conservative religious voting block. It won't be over until the religious block loses. As bad as this situation is for the people involved, and the others who are also under scrutiny, it helps. Who reading this story does not see the comparison to Nazism? A lot more people than the government would like to admit periodically coat their "vanilla" with some sort of flavoring. Surely it isn't just us BDSM "perverts" buying all the leather goods on eBay, or keeping those "adult "Toy Stores" stores open.
I love how folks around here always assume its always the "right's" fault and assume any such thing is the fault of the Republicans, and always seem to assume that the "liberals" and Democrats are defending their rights. Fact is, both sides have things to answer for. Keep in mind for example that the CDA, in all its forms including the one that finally did stick, was sponsored by some of those liberal Democrats. This is a problem because the CDA pretty much set the grounds on which all these other obscenity laws are based. So far as I am aware it where all the rhetoric of "obscene material" and "offensive to community standards" being used in federal legistalture first appeared. Funny part was it was mostly those nasty Republicans who fought against the CDA and that very kind of language in it as bad law and struck it down no less than three times. Supposedly the CDA was to protect children by "making the internet safe for children" and make possible to prosecute child pornography... never mind the fact that child pornography was already illegal in the US and there were plenty of laws which made prosecuting it possible, and as far as making the internet "safe for children" how is a piece of US legislature going to govern something that is now an international phenomenon??? Which raised the question why the need for the CDA? When it was eventually passed it became the basis for prosecuting not child porn, but the adult entertainment industry online. This didn't start with Bush (not that he hasn't enthusiastically used it) it started with Clinton. So you can't blame this on the right or the left... its both of them.
My personal opinion is that it has a whole lot less to to do with left or right politics and a whole lot to do with politicians using whatever they think will keep them in office, regardless of whether it is right or wrong.
quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyTantalize
Related story....a few years ago I attended a Leather History Class given by Viola Johnson and it was incredible. The memorphilia from our leather history was revealing and touching - items to be saved and cherished, especially since so many zealots want that history destroyed. During the class, Viola talked of a bidding war the erupted on a certain auction site over out-of-print copies of one of her books and then learning that one of the other bidders also was bidding on various other kinky works, hence I beleive communication started (I imagine she assumed she was chatting with a fellow kinkster with an appreciation for erotica and BDSM education) - no, a religious zealot who promoted the fact of being affiliated with a grass-roots campaign to purchase and destroy "obscene materials". That's right, they were buying her book to destroy it. Now I have no proof of such and my relaying the story is heresay, but as dedicated to the leather cause that I know Viola to be, and knowing the fanatical mindset of some over this matter - I believe the story!! Now that's SCARY!
Why is this story, assuming its true, scary?
Its not scary, its an example of someone being a moron.
Follow me on this... I write a book about kink and publish said book.
Some group... we'll say Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority for example... decide to buy up every copy published so they can destroy them.
Fine... by all means Mr Falwell, I encourage you to do so... and I'll laugh all the way to the bank.
First of all if the book is published and nationally marketed through say... Barnes & Noble for example... there's very little chance they will be able to buy all the books... if nothing else there will be others who buy some of the shelves and online before the Moron Majority can buy up the rest so it won't stop people from buying the book.
Either way, they just pushed my book sales through the roof and it becomes a national best seller, I get on Oprah, sell a million copies for $29.95 and become a multimillionare overnight at Jerry Falwell's expense... literally.
Scary... no.... funny as hell, you bet!
So by all means, I hope that damn fool bids outrageously for as many of Viola's books as he can find... really I do. Think of the royalties she'll get (and if not her, some kinkster selling the book who can then use said money to buy more books by Viola, John Warren, Guy Baldwin, Jack Rinella, Dossie Easton, etc helping to keep them all publishing), and since her book is being reprinted it ought to set up her retirement nicely, fund an endowment to preserve that kink library of hers, and pay her to write a few more books.
With enemies like that kink will rule the world!
quote:
Why is this story, assuming its true, scary?
Its not scary, its an example of someone being a moron.
Follow me on this... I write a book about kink and publish said book.
Some group... we'll say Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority for example... decide to buy up every copy published so they can destroy them.
Fine... by all means Mr Falwell, I encourage you to do so... and I'll laugh all the way to the bank.
First of all if the book is published and nationally marketed through say... Barnes & Noble for example... there's very little chance they will be able to buy all the books... if nothing else there will be others who buy some of the shelves and online before the Moron Majority can buy up the rest so it won't stop people from buying the book.
First, Dominatrixes happen to know of occurances with each other from across the world. Because many of us are smart enough to COMMUNICATE AND TO NETWORK!
OK, I was relaying information which I read on a Professional Dominant Message Board - I simply passed the information on for those who wanted to read and possibly further investigate. To believe it or not is the reader's choice. Personally, I believed because of the source of My finding this information and the networking of ProDommes.
As to why there is no news of such.... funny thing, history is FULL of cover-ups and conspiracies to keep the public ignorant of the ways of governmental agencies. As the attorney appointed to Empress M's case is affiliated with the Free Speech Coalition, I imagine there might be updates, and I know that Empress M. is keeping others updated via various ProDomme networks as well as direct communication with her, if one is so inclined.
As to sitting back smugly while the "gestapo" ruins your home - easy for someone to say that it did not happen to!! Yes, Empress might very well be sitting on one hell of a lawsuit..... but as we all are smart enough to realize....it's a hell of long time before the actual profits of that law suit are to be realized. In the mean time, she's lost her viable means of business at this time, she's lost equipment, she's was violated and verbally abused and she's not in good shape RIGHT NOW. Being smug when all is falling down around you is unrealistic. I think your comment is somewhat smug and lacking in compassion for her current situation.
As to the scary issue of the right-wing confiscating erotica and BDSM books - it's even scarier that you think it's ok as it's simply a matter of boosting commercial profit. YIKES! Viola's book was OUT OF PRINT at the time she told this story. I'm glad to hear it's back in print again and that's good for her and we kinksters. But what about all of the out-of-print books that will possibly never make it back into rendition. What about the obscure and eclectic pieces of art that might be destroyed at the hands of a zealot - that is SCARY and SAD. I'm sorry that you do not see it that way.
*sighs*
To each their own.
Truly,
Lady T.
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