Pack Shack Foils Howard County at Every Anti-Pornography Turn

Is this the definition of having nothing better to do?

For 11 years, Howard County officials and some residents have fought to close the jurisdiction's only adult bookstore.

They've passed legislation and waged costly legal battles, only to be thwarted time and again.

And now, despite a county law designed to force the Ellicott City store to move away from nearby homes or close, the Pack Shack appears poised to prevail again - maintaining its "Adult Video" sign along a busy stretch of U.S. 40, along with shelves of explicit movies, skimpy lingerie and sex toys.

The store's solution? Filling its basement and other little-used areas with a broad selection of used books that most customers may never see.

"I'm very bitter," said John Baronas, an Ellicott City resident who first protested the store in 1997 and fears that pornography spurs sex crimes. "Why, if [Rudolph W.] Giuliani can clean up Times Square, can't we get rid of an eyesore?"

It doesn't say in the article, but I'm pretty sure John is bitter because he doesn't have a brain. To begin with Ellicott City isn't Times Square. It's Ellicott City...In Howard County, MD. One of the richest, crime-free counties in the Baltimore-Washington area. There isn't a rape epidemic, or any crime epidemic in Howard County because of one porno store called The Pack Shack (which incidentally is a great name). In 2007 there were 19 rapes (yet county police only arrested 6 suspects) in the entire county to go along with 4 murders within a county population that is over 270,000. The rape rate is nearly half of what it is for the rest of Maryland, and homicide rate doesn't even come close to the state average.

And just a reminder for John: It's 2008 and we are blessed with computers and the Internet, both of which allow scumbags like myself to stay up until all hours of the morning watching completely free and completely disgusting porn in my very own home. While I'm sure The Pack Shack gives its customers a helluva' selection you could no more stem the flow of pornography into your county by unlawfully closing one porn shop than you could slow the flow of white yuppies in Howard County by closing down one Starbucks.* However, that isn't an argument for closing The Pack Shack; it's a business that follows the law and clearly has a market, and just because some activists and silly county executives don't like it doesn't mean that's a good enough reason to close it.

More here including how the county blew $187,000 in taxpayer money.

*Disclaimer: I own a very small amount of Starbucks stock that like most everything else in my portfolio has lost me a lot of money in the last 3 months.

Libertarian Candidate Spotlight: Sonny Landham

Mr. Landham is running on the LP ticket in Kentucky, targeting Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. Who is Landham? Well, he's a movie actor who appeared in such films as 48 Hours, Poltergeist and Predator. Before that he appeared in porn movies, something that he now argues is no big deal:

"That was 30 years ago," he said with a laugh. "If you've seen the porno movies, you've seen my shortcomings."

Checkout his personal website here (sfw).

9. He Blogs Less

Fox News -- We Report, You Decide: FOXSexpert: 8 Signs Your Partner is Addicted to Porn:

Many people are completely in the dark that their partner likes porn, much less has a serious relationship with it. Ignorant as to any issue, they trust their lover unconditionally. They assume their partner understands that using porn, at least beyond a magazine like Playboy, is the equivalent of having an actual affair. This ignorance, combined with the great lengths to which a porn enthusiast will go to hide erotica, can leave a partner in the dark for months or even years.

Guys, take a piece of advice from me -- Throw your porn in your girls face. Don't give her a choice. You're a man, a man that likes to watch a rooster get fucked by a German Frau with a strap-on. Don't let her tell you that it's "weird" or "disgusting", or totally "inappropriate" to watch on the train. After all, she'll be gone in a few months, but the German chick and the rooster? They will always be there for you..

Now, on to the "8 Signs that You're a Fat Cow and You're Husband Would Rather Watch Teeny Porn Instead of Fucking You":

2. Your partner lacks interest in sex or is sexually unresponsive.

You’re noticing a decrease in physical affection and non-sexual touch. If you have sex, it’s because you are the one initiating it. Your partner is having trouble becoming sexually aroused (for example, achieving erection or having an orgasm).

Furthermore, your partner needs more and more stimulation to get turned on and release. He has developed a strong interest in sexual practices that seem a little out of left field. No matter what, both of you are feeling largely dissatisfied post-sex.

3. Your partner is being uncharacteristically demanding or rough during sex.

You’re feeling pressured to engage in sexual activities that are either physically or emotionally uncomfortable to you. Your partner is using atypical sexual language. He seems to be objectifying you and he has no qualms about it.

I'd like to know what this Sexpert considers a "little out of left field". Something tells me her left field is around my pitchers mound. Or home plate. Either way, it's interesting that if a guy talks a little dirty to his partner, wants to love her good and hard, and maybe wants a dildo up the ass every other Saturday that he should be considered a candidate for a porn addiction. Because that just sounds like a healthy sex life to me.

More:

7. Your partner is practically wed to the Internet.

He spends an excessive amount of time on the computer, often demanding privacy and/or changing his bedtime ritual. As a result, he has eye problems from spending long hours on the computer. He may also complain of back, wrist, neck or shoulder pain.

Uh..Timeout for a Rob moment here. Sweetie? Yeah...You know how I spend a lot of time on the internet and complain about back and neck pain? That has nothing to do with porn. It's all research for my blog. Political stuff that you just wouldn't get...

In conclusion:

If there is a problem, it will surface sooner or later. Whether a partner finds actual evidence, the user confesses, or somebody else – unintentionally or not – spills the beans, the one who has been wronged finally realizes what she’s dealing with. It is a horrible, powerful experience that rocks one to the core. Stunned, overwhelmed and confused, many do not know what to do. The longer and more intimate the relationship, the harder it is to process this news.

Can I add one more sign that your partner is watching a lot of porn? You're reading FoxNews.com for relationship advice.

Full article here. Semi-related porn story that makes me want to serve jury duty here.

A Tax on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Might Do the Same Thing

A California state legislator is calling for a tax on porn:

Democratic Assemblyman Charles Calderon proposed a 25% tax hike on adult entertainment such as strip clubs, DVD's and pay-per-view movies. He says it would help pay for programs related to the effects of the industry like drug use and sexually transmitted diseases.

Yeah, I'm sure none of estimated $700 million the tax will bring in will be diverted to something else. That never happens in politics.

Should the tax actually be enacted, adult entertainment industry spokeswoman Diane Duke (presumably her stage name) says they'll pack up and move:

"Make no mistake. Our industry will leave the state. A 25% multi-use tax on our industry would just be destructive."

Can they do that? Is this the kind of industry that can be done anyplace, without even leaving the hotel room? Help me here people.

Porn Taxes For the Children

A South Carolina politician has proposed a "porn tax." The money will be used -- wait for it -- for the children, so it's all good, see?

State Senator Mike Fair wants to add a 20 percent surcharge on magazines like Playboy and Hustler that show frontal nudity. He says the tax hike would raise $385,000 dollars for the state to pay for tracking devices for sex offenders.

"Just as we're trying to do with cigarettes, we have tried to do and continue to try to do with alcohol, is lets the users of those products pay for some of the consequences that come from that," Fair explained.

It's one tax increase mom's like Virginie Sanders won't argue about.

“I agree with it. I agree with it because we need all the help we can get to keep them away from our kids. It's better than tax payers paying out of their pockets for it.”

'Cause, you know, it's not like any of the people who buy these magazines also pay taxes. It's practically found money.

Read the whole thing here.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

That would be the Eliot Spitzer-hooker story. There is a possibility you have already seen the girl in question naked. Yesterday Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild revealed that Ashley Alexandra Dupre spent seven days hanging out with his film crew in 2003. According to the AP, Francis had been in talks with her to appear in an upcoming video when one of his people searched their film library and made the discovery:

"It'll save me a million bucks," Francis told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It's kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch."

Francis said at that point, his offer was off the table.

"We actually had been dealing with her rep," he said. "Our (offer) was the real deal. We just never made the connection."

***

According to a "Girls Gone Wild" press release, Dupre visited Miami in 2003 to celebrate her 18th birthday. After fighting with a friend and getting thrown out of her hotel, Dupre found a nearby "Girls Gone Wild" bus, the company said.

She signed legal papers and spent a full week on the bus, filming seven full-length tapes which included nudity and same-sex encounters, according to the company.

There does appear to be a hitch though. She may not have been eighteen when the tapes were made. Francis, being that class act that he is, will probably release it anyway:

Dupré's lawyer, Don A. Buchwald, immediately took steps to inform Francis that the New Jersey native, her birthday being April 30, 1985, was only 17 when the footage was taken.

But Francis tells E! News he's going ahead with the release anyway, albeit not for at least a few days while his lawyers debate the repercussions.

"We are getting pressure from her lawyer," Francis said at his Santa Monica, Calif., office Wednesday. "As soon as we withdrew the million dollar offer—he is just mad because her price has dropped. Even if she was only 17, we could still release it. There was no sexual contact. There's only nudity."

So, look for pictures of Dupree to start appearing as spam in in your inbox in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Mile High Club

Just what I need to join the Mile High Club - by myself.

NEW YORK - Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.

Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 33,000 feet — and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.

Porn and the ability to call 1-900 numbers. Talk about a happy ending to every flight.

Headline Does All the Work for this Blogger

Policeman shot in butt with own gun while battling porn vending machine bandits

TAGAWA, Fukuoka -- A police officer is in a serious condition after being shot in the buttocks with his own pistol while scuffling with porno vending machine thieves here Friday, police said.

Never get in between a man and his porn. Especially if he is desperate enough to be stealing the pornography from a road-side vending machine.

Full article here. Thanks to Sean Higgins for the link.

What About My Grandpa's Porn Collection Passed Down From Generation to Generation?

In what can only be described as one of the best 'take that, bitches' moves of the year, Hong Kong free speech advocates battling restrictions against 'indecent' material tried to get the Bible restricted.

Hong Kong's media regulator has rejected calls to reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication following more than 2,000 complaints about its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

"The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilization. It has been passed from generation to generation," Hong Kong's Television and Licensing Authority (TELA) said in a statement issued late Thursday.
[...]
The regulator received 2,041 complaints against the Bible this week, following an uproar over a sex column in a student magazine that was classified as "indecent" by authorities for asking if readers had ever fantasized about incest or bestiality.

A Web site launched soon afterwards campaigned to have the Bible similarly classified, citing passages with sexual and violent content it claimed went beyond that of the sex column....Publications classified as indecent in Hong Kong can only be bought by people aged over 18 and must be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.

How Not to Convince People: Demonize Their Choices

Which side do I join??

I spend many hours with my favorite lagers, stouts, and ales. I'm well known as the guy who is constantly carrying a tumbler of Jameson (I go Bushmills if with a Catholic crowd; I'm a respectful traveler), stumbling around, calling hipsters cunts and getting punched in the face by English women, American women, my mom, etc.

On the other hand we have pot. Oh pot. Pregnant porn, granny porn, bestiality porn...Would I have found these genres (as quickly) if not for you? Or those times smoking hashish with the Afghani and/or the Pakistani (honestly who knows where those guys are from...all I hear is mountains and I spend the next hour nodding at everything they say). Would have never happened without marijuana. Oh, and I forgot midget porn. And that hole in the locker-room of the H.S. soccer-team that I coached. Well, that doesn't have anything to do with pot. But boy am I glad I found that hole. Am I ever. Did I ever fill it. Ah...the memories

Nick Gillespie highlights the battle, I've blogged about the intellectual stupidity of using the argument...We bring you Modern Drunkard vs. SAFER.

P.S. As I said, I've blogged on this before, so I'll leave the substance for another day, but check out some of the comments at Hit&Run. Too many are cheering on SAFER's propaganda as a fair counter to the Drug Warriors propaganda. Bullshit.

A "Go" For Online Porn, and a Big Day for Freedom

For all of us who love online porn, here is some Constitutional relief

.Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. also said the Child Online Protection Act fails to address threats that have emerged since the law was written, including online predators on social-networking sites like News Corp.'s MySpace, because it targets only commercial Web publishers.

"Even defendant's own study shows that all but the worst performing (software) filters are far more effective than COPA would be at protecting children from sexually explicit material on the Web," said Reed, who presided over a monthlong trial in the fall.

Cicero's True Identity Revealed

Sorry "Cicero", but the jig is now up. [Emphasis mine]

A registered sex offender arrested Friday in front of Jamestown Elementary School with pornography in his van was released from jail Monday.

[...]

Hill was arrested Friday around 2:30 p.m. after a deputy saw him driving around Jamestown Elementary dressed in a black-and-red marching band uniform. In Hill's blue GMC van, Deputy Brandon Lowry found children's toys, games and a pornographic videotape inside a box marked "Cinderella."

You need only explain why you didn't invite me to come along.

Full article here.

DCers: Express Your Love for Sex Workers on Valentine's Day

Hate Valentine's Day and live in the DC area? Come to this:

Sex Workers’ Art Show Tour 2007
Feb. 14th
Rock and Roll Hotel
1353 H St, NE
8pm ~ $15

The Sex Workers' Art Show Tour is coming to DC! The show is an eye-popping evening of visual and performance art created by people who work in the sex industry to dispel the myth that they are anything short of artists, innovators, and geniuses! This year's incredible lineup of performers includes international burlesque sensation Miss Dirty Martini; acclaimed Whitney Biennial artist Julie Atlas Muz; award-winning author of How I Learned to Snap Kirk Read; stripper historian and activist Jo Weldon; author of Happy Baby Stephen Elliott; member of the internationally renowned Japanese performance collective Dumb Type, Cono Snatch Zubobinskaya; enigmatic operatic musician and performer Reginald Lamar; feminist smut purveyor and queer film starAmber Dawn; and tour founder and ringmaster Annie Oakley.

Proceeds will benefit HIPS. More here.

Since Nothing About Porn or Vegas is Ever Subtle, Her Motto is Naturally 'Keeping the SIN in Sin City!'

It's official. Former porn star Mimi Miyagi (nee Melody Damayo) filed papers today as part of her effort to become the next mayor of Sin City, running as a Libertarian. Miyagi placed fourth in the state's most recent Republican gubernatorial primary.

According to here Wiki entry, Miyagi was best known as an actress "for her abilities to take well-endowed men during vaginal and anal scenes, as well as for her exceptionally long tongue and enthusiastic fellatio scenes."

Mimi's for legalizing pot and prostitution, and favors lower taxes. I'd vote for her if I could stand to set foot in Vegas -- nevermind live there. Not that the current mayor is all that bad -- he certainly has his moments.

I find it worth noting that if that boozer Mr. Miyagi was still alive, he'd probably sue poor Mimi.

More photos (some NSFW) of Mimi at her blog here.

Thanks to Sean Higgins, who interviewed Mimi for the National Review in July, for the tip.

Milk and Meat Bad, Meat in Meat Good?

Despite being a Half-Jew, figuring out what is and isn't Kosher is not one of my talents. Seems that even among Jews in the know, though, there's a good deal of debate.

The producer of a new adult DVD showing off the delights of Israeli porn stars has been attacked by a New Jersey Rabbi - for using a kosher stamp on the cover, without permission.

Rabbi Yehuda Rosenbaum, whose company KOF-K Kosher Certification authenticates food including meat, grains and dairy products for the Jewish market, says Oren Cohen has no right using his stamp on Assraelis.

More here from Jewtastic.

Very NSFW site here.