Toys in Babeland

There is a sex toy store in Seattle that has a clever name, “Toys in Babeland”.  They have an online presence too.  I had heard people talk about the store and figured it must be something pretty special.  I have visited a couple times now, the most recent must have been a couple years or so ago.  Barb and I were disappointed.  It had a very poor selection.  Their online store is much better and I subscribe to their email list which is kind of cool.  I just got a mailing from them today, visited their website, and thought I would share a few things:

It’s extremely rare that I find occasion to legitimately mix sex with guns.  I don’t care to see scantily clad or naked women (or men) with guns as some people do.  Guns and sex are just two completely different aspects of my life and I don’t generally see activities with one as being connected in any way to the other.  However, this is one occasion where I can see the benefit of a connection between the two.  You see, an added benefit of getting the Pocket Rocket name out there as a vibrator is that it makes it all the easier to make fun of the anti-gun governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich who refers to small handguns as “pocket rockets”.

Interesting paradox

You would probably guess Georgia, Mississippi, or West Virginia, but this is from Utah:

SALT LAKE CITY The Utah Court of Appeals is upholding a judge’s refusal to dismiss a sexual abuse allegation against a 13-year-old Ogden girl who became pregnant by her 12-year-old boyfriend.

The appeals court on Friday ruled that the law’s “rigorous protections” for younger minors include protecting them from each other.

The decision leaves the teens in the position of each being both a victim and a perpetrator in the same offense.

“The Legislature certainly may act to protect the health and safety of children, and may more vigorously protect those of more tender years,” Judge Gregory Orme wrote for a three-member panel of the court, which made its decision “with some reluctance.”

The girl’s Ogden attorneys, Randall Richards and Dee Smith, are considering an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court.

Richards pointed out that Utah law says minors under age 14 do not have the ability to consent to sexual activity.

“It’s a paradox,” he said. “How can they be old enough to commit an offense if they’re not old enough to consent to it?”

Juveniles who are 14 or 15 and have sex with peers can be charged with unlawful conduct with a minor but the law provides for mitigation when the age difference is less than four years, making the offense a misdemeanor.

Posted in Sex

Putting the pieces together

I have some very interesting friends.  Barb thinks I attract them some way or another.  Of course she doesn’t always describe them as “interesting”.  Sometimes when people start talking about things that maybe they shouldn’t be talking about it’s best to just listen and not say anything that might cause them to realize they are talking about something they shouldn’t be talking about.  The problem with this strategy is that you can end up with a lot of missing pieces.  Some fragments that don’t really make sense or that leave some very interesting questions unanswered.  I just got another piece to something that has puzzled me for years.  Here’s the additional piece from Antonin Scalia:

 I even accept for the sake of argument that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.

The original “puzzle” was presented to me about eight or ten years ago by a casual friend while sitting in a hot tub at a party.  That bit of information will have to remain unpublicized.  He really shouldn’t have been talking about that.

Posted in Sex

Whoo hooo!!! Party time in Canada!

Three days ago I told you the Canadian Supreme Court was about to rule on the legality of swingers clubs.  The ruling is out now:

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Group sex between consenting adults is neither
prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled
on Wednesday, dismissing arguments that the sometimes raucous
activities of so-called “swingers” clubs were dangerous.

In a ruling that radically changes the way Canadian courts determine
what poses a threat to the population, the court threw out the
conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have
group sex in a private room behind locked doors.

“Consensual conduct behind code-locked doors can hardly be supposed
to jeopardize a society as vigorous and tolerant as Canadian society,”
said the opinion of the seven-to-two majority, written by Chief Justice
Beverley McLachlin.

“Criminal indecency or obscenity must rest on actual harm or a
significant risk of harm to individuals or society. The Crown failed to
establish this essential element of the offence. The Crown’s case must
therefore fail,” wrote McLachlin.

In indecency cases, Canadian courts have traditionally probed
whether the acts in question “breached the rules of conduct necessary
for the proper functioning of society”. The Supreme Court ruled that
from now on, judges should pay more attention to whether society would
be harmed.

The judges said that just because most Canadians might disapprove of
swingers’ clubs, this did not necessarily mean the establishments were
socially dangerous.

“Attitudes in themselves are not crimes, however deviant they may be
or disgusting they may appear,” the judges said, noting that no one had
been pressured to have sex or had paid for sex in either of the cases.

“The autonomy and liberty of members of the public was not affected
by unwanted confrontation with the sexual activity in question only
those already disposed to this sort of sexual activity were allowed to
participate and watch,” they said.

I won’t be going to Canada anytime soon even if Barb said I could
do some “field research”.  They may have figured out sex between
consenting adults isn’t a threat to society at large but they haven’t
figured out that someone that carries a handgun for person protection
and hasn’t ever committed any crime worse that going 10 or 15 MPH over
the speed limit isn’t a threat either.  But this is a step away
from the Nanny State.  I wish the fiscal conservatives in this
country would realize that being a Nanny State isn’t just about
refusing to let people spend their own money however they think is
best.  It’s also a Nanny State that tells individuals they can’t
fry their brains with recreational drugs, marry the person of their
choice, or play a group game of belly bump.

Top court checks out sex club ‘swingers’

From the Ottawa Sun:

The Supreme Court of Canada is set to rule on whether
spouse-swapping in public venues should be a criminal act. The
ground-breaking case, which could set new standards for decency in
Canadian society, stems from two Montreal “swingers” clubs charged with
keeping a bawdy house.

One defendant, James Kouri, ran the Coeur a Corps bar, where couples
could hook up by paying a $6 cover charge. Every half hour, a
translucent black curtain automatically closed around the dance floor
while people took part in, or watched, sex acts.

Kouri was convicted of keeping a common bawdy house and sentenced to
pay fines of $500 on the first count and $5,000 on the second. He won
acquittal from Quebec’s top court, but the other club owner, Jean-Paul
Labaye, lost his appeal.

Although there are similar prosecutions happening in the
U.S. it’s frequently a socialist (when you think about it you realize
religion is frequently very socialist) mindset that drives this sort of
prosecution.  The people are just cattle to be
herded/controlled.  They don’t have the brains to make decisions
for themselves.  It’s for the “greater good” that people are
forbidden dominion over their own bodies.

World Cup 2006: More sex than football!

I’m not a big fan of watching sports I don’t participate in so I won’t be visiting German for any of the activities described below which are planned for next year.  Lots of other people will though and it sounds like people will have lots of fun “making friends” even when they aren’t watching ‘football’:

BERLIN: Prostitutes, many of them from the neighbouring eastern European countries, are expected to flood Berlin and other cities in Germany during next years football World Cup.

Prostitution is legalised in Germany, and those involved in it are supposed to register with the authorities, and pay tax and employee health insurance. This also applies to brothel owners.

German capital Berlin, already has close to 10,000 prostitutes working in the city, and this number is expected to be greatly swollen once the World Cup gets underway. The same goes for Leipzig, Dortmund, Munich and Gelsenkirchen, and other cities where games are taking place.

A wealthy Turkish nightclub entrepreneur, anticipating a boom in the sex trade business during the World Cup, recently opened a four-storey, 40-room luxury brothel in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district, at a cost of 5 million euros.

The brothel is just three S-Bahn (municipal overhead railway) stops from Berlin’s 1936-built Olympic Stadium where key World Cup games will be played, including the final.

Named “Artemis” after the virgin goddess of hunting, the facility is considered a “state-of-the-sex-art” facility. Atop the building, a giant red phallus billows in the wind.

Its owner says that unlike in most other city brothels, the girls active there are free to negotiate their own rates with clients and don’t have to pay “pimp money”.

Artemis is equipped with a FKK (nude) “Wellness Club”, massage, and solarium and a gaily-decorated spiral-ascending stairway. Its owner says entrance costs 7 euros with payment for sex “extra”.

“Romy”, the establishment’s manager, says up to 200-300 men a day have been using its premises in its “opening phase”.

Once the World Cup is in progress, “we are considering staying open 24 hours”, she says with a broad smile. Massive security will be in operation during next summer’s World Cup matches. FIFA officials are saying there will be an unprecedented level of surveillance at matches, so that if violence does flare it can be dealt with swiftly by crowd control experts.

While in city centres a vast body of police will be on duty.

But at Artemis, the staff do not anticipate any trouble at its premises. “We are a pleasure facility,” enthused one of the staff.

Hundreds of sex establishments are to be found in Berlin, as well sex cinemas, massage salons, and a huge number of night clubs catering for every kind of saucy, eyebrow-raising late night titillation. In Germany, the World Cup slogan “A time to make friends” can, it seems, be understood in a number of ways.

Posted in Sex

U.K. supermarkets to stock sex toys

“Anything you want me to pick up at the grocery store on the way home honey?” 

“Yes.  I’m fixing a special desert tonight.  Would you please bring home an aersol can of whipped cream, a Pocket Rocket vibrator, and package of AA batteries?” 

From news.telegraph:

Asda is to become the first supermarket to stock sex toys, after striking a deal with Durex over its range of vibrators and lubricants.

The move follows Superdrug’s decision to stock the toys.

The supermarket chain, which promises that the products will be on a high shelf, out of the reach of children.

Catherine Gort, Durex’s marketing manager, said that the decision was a “sure sign that as a nation we have become more at ease with our sex lives”.

Posted in Sex

Gay marriage lawsuit in Iowa

I’m surprised this is occurring in Iowa.  California, Massachusetts, and even Washington state.  But Iowa?  Apparently the Iowa constitution looks friendly to the pursuit of gay marriage via the courts. 

DES MOINES — A gay rights group filed a lawsuit on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples Tuesday in Polk County District Court, asking for the right to marry for same-sex couples.

Lambda Legal, which has spearheaded the same-sex marriage drive across the country, said it wants full recognition of the civil rights of same-sex couples.

I’m all for gay marriage but I’m not comfortable with it being implemented via the courts.  I would prefer that it happen legislatively or via a popular vote of the people.  Particularly when it is indisputable that the original intent of the constitution or law being utilized was that marriage only be for men and women.  The original intent may have been wrong but there is a procedure for changing it that should be utilized.  Changing the meaning via the courts is just wrong.  Freedom of the press could just as easily come to mean the government printing office has the freedom to print the news but private or corporate “press” is not.  You think it couldn’t happen?  Look at what has happened with the Second Amendment.

Quote of the day–Cullen Hightower

Our laws can be friendly to those who obey them, and too often useful to those who don’t.
    
Cullen Hightower
[Among the most useful laws to those that disobey them are the laws that attempt to ban or restrict goods or services.  The black market always finds a way whether it is something physical like booze, guns or recreational drugs or some service such as high interest loans (loan sharking), gambling or prostitution.–Joe]

This is what happens in places without guns–Case I

If this had been in a gun friendly state in the U.S. these scumbags would be suffering from acute lead poisoning after about the second “unannounced visit” and the expected winners of the next Darwin awards.  Instead they invaded several homes before getting caught and will get another chance to invade homes after they get out.

A Dublin man was tonight sentenced to nine years in jail for trying to force a young woman to have sex with her flatmate and then cutting her with a knife.

Stephen Phelan, 20, from Poddle Close in Kimmage was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to the woman by a jury in June.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Phillip O’Sullivan also imposed concurrent sentences ranging from three to seven years for 17 other offences carried out on the same night.

On February 11 2003, Phelan and an accomplice began a spree of burglaries which led to the sexual assault, the stabbing of a student nine times and the crashing of a car into a Dublin Bus.

Judge O’Sullivan said Phelan had been involved in a series of violent incidents and outlined the impact on his victims: post traumatic stress disorder, the loss of power in an arm, permanent scar wounds and a fear of sleeping alone at night.

“No summary of mine can do justice to the trauma suffered by these people,” he said.

He imposed a five-year probation sentence on Phelan to commence on his release, after hearing from a psychiatrist who said he had serious reservations about him getting out into society again under the influence of drugs.

Phelan had been spending €1500-€1600 euro a day on crack cocaine and had been using robberies to fund his habit.

Detective Sergeant George McGeary said Phelan and his accomplice, who has since fled the jurisdiction, had broken into a house in Harold’s Cross, where four people were living, including the young woman.

They armed themselves with a screwdriver, a Stanley knife, a Swiss army knife, a dumb-bell and a hacksaw.

After searching the house for property and money, Phelan went into the bedroom of a 24-year-old tenant. She screamed when she saw him and shouted at her flatmate to get her trousers.

The court heard he came into the room and told her: “Give us what we want or we’ll cut you.”

He was unable to find her ATM card and told her to take off her clothes, where he believed she was concealing it.

Later in the burglary, he came back into her room and told her to lie down on the bed or he would cut her nipples.

She refused several times to take off her clothes but then Phelan came back, held a knife to her throat and told her to ’take off her f*****g clothes’.

Detective Sergeant McGeary told the court that she was crying while she took her trouser bottoms off.

He used his knife to cut off her underwear and then told her to have sex with one of her two male flatmates.

He refused, saying “She’s my friend” but was then cut twice on the upper arm in a X shape.

The young woman was then ordered into the bedroom of another flatmate, who had been forced to lie naked on the bed.

Phelan told them to have sex together and they kissed, pretending to have sex.

Phelan then cut the woman’s buttocks with a knife and also made a cut running from the top of her back to the base.

Detective Sergeant McGeary told the court that the flatmates had been terrified by Phelan’s threats.

Home invasions are rare where people’s rights to defend themselves are not infringed by oppressive governments.  And this is just a hint of some of the things that happen.

Office sex mishandled

I believe this was entirely mishandled.  I would have used my camera (the cell phone camera if nothing else) to take pictures for the web.

Posted in Sex

Males: Do you have a brain? Or balls?

The following story reminds me of this old joke:

I went to the County Fair. They had one of those “Believe it or not?” shows.

They had a man born with a penis and a brain.

Here’s the story:

Syracuse University biology professor Scott Pitnick knows a lot
about the birds and the bees (or in this case, bats). He teaches
courses in evolution and population biology, and researches topics such
as sexual selection, sexual conflict and speciation. His latest
research sheds light on a little-explored area of evolutionary biology:
the contribution of sexual selection to brain evolution. “The brain can
be considered the most important ‘sex organ,’” says Pitnick.
“Nevertheless, the relationship between breeding system and relative
brain size has received little investigation.”

A recent study by Pitnick and colleagues Kate Jones of the
Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London and Jerry
Wilkinson of the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland
was funded by the National Science Foundation and used comparative
analysis to show that bat species that roost in larger social groups
and those with promiscuous females have relatively smaller brains than
species with females that are faithful to their mates. Male infidelity,
by contrast, had no evolutionary impact on relative brain size.

According to Pitnick, a likely explanation for this relationship
relates to the energetic demands of producing and maintaining both
brain and sperm cells; males cannot afford a lot of both. Under this
explanation, males with relatively large testes and small brains leave
more offspring than larger-brained, less fertile, competitors.

“When females mate with more than one male, sperm compete to
fertilize the female’s eggs. Such ‘sperm competition’ is rife in many
bat species, perhaps due in part to the unusual ability (among mammals
at least) of sperm to survive inside the female’s reproductive tract
for a very long time,” says Pitnick. “The
male who ejaculates the
greatest number of sperm may win at this game, and hence many bats have
evolved outrageously big testes—as much as 8.5% of their body mass.
Because they live on an energetic knife-edge, bats may not be able to
evolutionarily afford both big testes and big brains. We’re excited
about these results, as they may stimulate more research into the
correlated evolution of brains, behavior and the extravagant and costly
ornaments and armaments favored by sexual selection.”

The full results of Pitnick’s study have recently been published in Proceedings B (London) a biology journal of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science.

You know what this means, don’t you?  If someone says you have big balls they are also saying you are pea brain and your mother was promiscuous.

Posted in Sex

A dress for the woman in your life

Probably not something you would give your mother.  And not recommended for office wear–except maybe at Planned Parenthood.  100% latex condoms.

Thanks to Samatha Burns for pointing this out.  She has links to other clothes made with condoms here.

Posted in Sex

Overstated headline

I’m disappointed. The New York Times headline says, “Where an Orgy of Shopping Meets Shopping for an Orgy”.  Cool.  I’ll take three orgies for Christmas gifts (I have interesting friends), can I have them gift wrapped?  I was disappointed to find:

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4 – The season of the holiday shopping orgy has arrived. In San Francisco on Sunday, they took it literally.

“Holidays are a time for intimacy,” said Carol Leigh, a k a Scarlet Harlot, a pink-haired former call girl who was selling her own brand of perfume, Whore Magic, along with feather boas and other “sex positive” gifts at the holiday bazaar at the Center for Sex and Culture. “It’s winter, so it’s time to keep warm.”

While shoppers in suburban malls trolled the aisles for iPods and salad spinners, at the Belle Bizarre, as it was called, they could pick up a used copy of Sophocles’s “Oedipus Cycle,” a Delta Burke bustier, a Post-it-note-style pastie, or a candy garter belt or G-string, a new spin on candy necklaces sold at Kissable Cutie, a booth operated by Contessa Carlton, a professional escort.

It is probably safe to say that the average American mall would not feature a sign that said “U.S. Out of My Underwear.”

The bazaar, where Santa Claus was not spotted, was a benefit for the sex and culture center, a nonprofit organization that specializes in adult sex education programs. The money raised from the sale of geisha hair clips, suede chokers and the like is to help finance the center’s Exotic Dancers Education Project, a support program for sex workers that addresses issues like filing taxes and “avoiding sex worker burnout.”

There’s more but it wasn’t much more interesting.  The local shops in the Seattle area sound just as interesting.

Posted in Sex

U.K. to legalize same-sex partnerships

They aren’t technically calling it marriage but there is no legal distinction between the two.  Read about it here.  Many of my conservative readers will disagree with my libertarian viewpoint on this but I think it’s a good thing.  Marriage (the first 29 years anyway) has been good for me and I expect it will be good for others even if they happen to be of the same gender as their partner.  And what is good for the average individual is almost always good for society.  I’ve posted on this topic before and don’t need to expound on it much again:

The sleep defense to sexual assault

I knew this sort of thing happened but this is the first time I have heard it used as a defense in a sexual assault case:

TORONTO – In an unusual case Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom, a 33-year-old man was acquitted of sexual assault after a judge ruled he was asleep during the attack, the Toronto Sun reported Wednesday.

“This is indeed a rare case,” said Justice Russell Otter, as the woman who Jan Luedecke had sex with shook, sobbed and then left the courtroom.

“His conduct was not voluntary.”

Luedecke, a landscaper, met the woman at a party on July 6, 2003. Both had been drinking.

The woman had fallen asleep on a couch. She woke up to find him having sex with her. She pushed him off, then contacted the police.

Luedecke said he fell asleep on the same couch and woke up when he was thrown to the floor.

He only suspected he had had sex after using the bathroom and discovering he was wearing a condom, court heard. He confessed to police.

During his trial, sleep expert Dr. Colin Shapiro testified Luedecke had parasomnia – a disorder with symptoms such as sleep-walking. Shapiro testified Luedecke suffered from sexsomnia, which is sexual behavior during sleep.

It was brought on by alcohol, sleep deprivation and genetics, Shapiro said.

Luedecke previously had sex while asleep with four girlfriends, court heard.

News of the successful defence of sexsomnia may spread to others accused of sexual assault, said University of Toronto law professor Hamish Stewart.

“We may hear more forms of this defence from accused persons,” he said, adding he has never previously heard of such a case.

Luedecke has cut down on his drinking and is taking medication to stop a repeat of the incident, court heard.

It sounds to me like the correct decision was reached but the woman says she has the means and the intent to appeal the decision.  I would like to suggest she stop falling asleep in drunk stupors at parties and get on with her life.

Posted in Sex

Retirement income

I would have never have guessed.  Perhaps it’s only true in Australia:

Some rural sex workers, male and female, are aged over 70, a new study has found.

The study by the University of New England, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, interviewed 20 NSW rural sex workers.

It found the numbers of female and male sex workers in the state’s country areas had risen in the past 10 years.

While there had always been brothels in country areas, escort services had only taken off since the early 1990s, project leader Dr John Scott said.

And male escorts had only begun to appear in rural centres in the past five years, he said.

The study also found country sex workers were more educated and much older than those in the city.

The interviewees were mostly aged between 20 and 58, but there were a few – male and female – over 70, he said.

Posted in Sex

Dirty sayings you can get away with on Thanksgiving

1. Talk about a huge breast!
2. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
3. It’s Cool Whip time!
4. If I don’t undo my pants, I’ll burst!
5. Whew, that’s one terrific spread!
6. I’m in the mood for a little dark meat.
7. Are you ready for seconds yet?
8. It’s a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
9. Just wait your turn, you’ll get some!
10. Don’t play with your meat.
11. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in.
12. Do you think you’ll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn’t expect everyone to come at once!
14. You still have a little bit on your chin.
15. How long will it take after you stick it in?
16. You’ll know it’s ready when it pops up.
17. Wow, I didn’t think I could handle all of that!
18. That’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen!
19. How long do I beat it before it’s ready?

Posted in Sex

Giving thanks

I was chatting with my landlords about Thanksgiving plans this evening and remembered a Thanksgiving story I shared with them.  A friend of mine was at Thanksgiving dinner with parents, grandparents, etc and they went around the table sharing what they were thankful for.  My friend, in addition to being rebellious, was sexually active at a rather young age.  She, at the age of 15 or 16, told the entire family she was thankful for birth control.

I’ll bet that really changed the atmosphere of that particular family gathering.

Posted in Sex

Sex profits

Innovation as well as expanding their market share of existing products brought greater profits to Durex recently:

The launch of sex toys and new types of condoms has lifted sales growth at Durex to a record 10 per cent. And SSL, which owns the Durex brand, promised further growth yesterday as it launched a new range of sex aids for men that will be available in Tesco and Boots.

A range of vibrators and lubricants sold under the Durex Play brand accounted for half of the sales growth reported yesterday. Durex revenues were £77.1m in the six months to 30 September.

The decision by Boots to stock a new £5.99 vibrating ring for men represents a significant U-turn for the high street chain. At the start of this year it backed out of talks to launch the Durex Play range of vibrators, for fear of a conservative backlash. The range was eventually launched by Superdrug.

Tesco insisted yesterday the disposable rings – which last 20 minutes and have a small vibrating pad to enhance the pleasure of women during sex – were not sex toys but part of the health and family planning range.

SSL claimed that Durex’s global market share had risen to 30 per cent after strong growth in the US and Eastern Europe, and thanks to the launch of innovative condoms, such as Pleasuremax, which is ribbed, and Tingle, which is coated with a lubricant that gives a tingling sensation.

SSL, which owns the Scholl footwear and footcare brands, reported interim profits of £17.3m, up from £10.5m in the half-year to 30 September 2004.