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Most Japanese adult films are made in Japan are made for their own domestic audience. Digital J Media is looking change that by creating and bringing high quality videos featuring popular Japanese adult video stars to an American audience.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
It is about connecting Japanese porn with fans outside of Japan. I want to give westerners the ability to interact with Japanese AV stars and have their feedback be heard while producing the highest quality porn that I can.
How did you even get started shooting porn? And more importantly how did you end up doing it in Japan?
Being in Japan came first. No actually, watching a lot of Japanese porn came first and when I got to Japan I thought how awesome would it be to participate. Already a fan of the content, style, and of course Japanese women I applied to do extra work, "soup man" jobs. You know, bukkake, occasional blowjobs, or any other standard group content where all they need is a dick in tighty-whities, the soup man uniform. Not being Japanese, the response was a resounding no from just about everywhere, even if my Japanese was spot on. They assume no foreigner could possibly understand their customs and manners and they probably have stds anyway. Since then I've always had a frustration with how closed off things are from outsiders here (hence this project!). Being persistent and mostly luck I eventually got some jobs with some smaller, fetish productions. After a couple of years one production hired me as a set assistant. I had a direct influence on the end product, but it was still very limiting and I was still frustrated with how I was treated as a foreigner. So I created my own production. Years later, and many mistakes later, I've got a solid team that I trust and can really help me push the limits.
Why aren't there more US porn companies who film in Japan?
Because it's expensive. Travel, accommodation, sets, staff make it prohibitively expensive to even consider. On top of that Japanese actresses cost at least twice as much as their US counterparts, and stars cost 3 to 10 times more. I believe the first time Maria Ozawa did a foreign production her guarantee was about $40k, don't quote me on that. Then there are the Japanese censorship laws to contend with. There was one foreign production, Pink Lotus I think, that came in 2007 and went all out. It was a huge expenditure, and it fell flat. They got mediocre female talent and the communication barrier made it difficult to create a product worth the cost. Model agencies generally don't deal with foreigners and don't really speak English. The ones that will are usually involved with a particularly unsavory group of people I won't name. Fortunately with my connections I was able to avoid that and get proper access to female talent. But things are changing and opening up to productions outside of Japan. Because I am the only US based director in Japan I will be playing a direct role in plans within the industry here to become more international.
What are some of the differences between porn production in the US versus porn production in Japan that are surprising?
To be honest, I haven't filmed adult in the US so this is based on my assumptions of how it works in the states. I think the biggest difference is that the contents of most DVDs are shot in one day. One long day.
Almost all Japanese actresses are cover girls - most actresses that sell get a chance to be the sole actress in a film at least once. And most get swept up into contracts with one maybe two producers from the start, work for 1 to 3 years and quit after it ends. In other words, getting good female talent is difficult unless you are an established production in Japan.
On the set, the actresses are pretty much worshipped. One or two staff are constantly tending the needs of the actress from the instant the director says "cut."
The porn industry is where you end up if you fail in Hollywood. The porn industry is a doorway to the film industry in Japan.
How is porn and porn actresses viewed in Japan? Are they celebrities? Are they looked down upon, etc…?
Some actresses are celebrities who appear on late night TV. Most don't make it that big, but being in porn does not preclude them from moving onto bigger things. As I mentioned, if anything it's a doorway. But the stigma of working in the adult industry is as it is anywhere else in the world. I've had mixed reactions from people and in some cases you cannot be a member of certain communities if it is known you do porn because it will bring shame to the group. I learned that the hard way. Japan is an intensely conservative country, but has had a long history of openness towards sexuality. So porn is not viewed negatively in appropriate situations.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
I hope to do it again and again! Of course. But on a grander scale I hope to bring western fans of JAV closer to the stars and production community in Japan. And on the opposite side I hope to create a conduit for Japanese producers to reach their audience outside of Japan. This all in time of course
The Offbeatr.com Interview that Was Too Sexy to Publish
Since our launch we've been fortunate enough to have been approach by several news organizations and blogs who were interested in interviewing for us for their publications (view the press we've received). A smaller tech blog contacted us and asked us to if we'd be interested in being featured on their site. We thought, sure, why not? We're a startup, they're a blog that covers startups.
The interview itself is a generic questionnaire of 27 questions they have you fill out. Not only are there 27 questions, but they require you to answer a minimum of 300 characters for each answer. It took a long time to answer all the questions, but we figured since these guys approached us we would put in the time.
After sending them our answers we heard back from them:
We extremely apologize for the inconvenience caused but unfortunately we won't be able to feature your start-up "Offbeatr.com" as it is related to porn material and as per our policy we don't promote any adult content on our blog.
To which we can only scratch our ends and wonder "wtf?" How did they not know we were adult related? Most everyone has called us "Kickstarter for Porn". It's not like we tricked them.
Rather than let this interview go to waste, we are featuring it below. While we don't appreciate them wasting our time thanks are in order. Thanks to them we are able to share this with you.
Since their interviews are formulaic we will be able to present you with a version which most likely would have appeared on their website.
Today, we [startups.co] have interviewed Mr. 'Ben Tao'; Founder of the US (Los Angeles – California)-based start-up 'Extra Lunch Money' about his company.
'Extra Lunch Money' is the company behind extralunchmoney.com, a social marketplace for models to market and sell custom and pre-made adult digital content, and offbeatr.com, a platform to allow people to crowdfund adult creative projects.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. 'Tao' regarding his start-up company 'Extra Lunch Money';
1. What is it exactly that you do and what your start-up is all about?
I'm the CEO and Co-Founder of Extra Lunch Money. Extra Lunch Money is the company behind extralunchmoney.com, a social marketplace for models to market and sell custom and pre-made adult digital content, and offbeatr.com, a platform to allow people to crowdfund adult creative projects. Our company is dedicated to creating innovative and safe platforms to allow people to explore sexuality.
2. When has your startup been founded? And what stage is your startup currently at?
We officially launched our first website, extralunchmoney.com (the social adult marketplace) in April of 2011. Then in August of 2012 we launched offbeatr.com (crowdfunding for adult projects). We've been self funded / bootstrapped ever since the beginning. Right now we're focused on continuing the growth of extralunchmoney.com and getting the word out to people about offbeatr.com.
3. What is your startup's business model and how does it work?
Offbeatr's business model is very similar to many of the other crowdfunding platforms that currently exist in that if a project reaches its funding goal then we take a percentage of the total money raised. Part of that money covers our credit card transaction costs and the rest helps us continue to grow and improve the site.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
Eric, my co-founder, and I met many years ago at a young professionals networking event. Back then we both discovered we had an interest in entrepreneurship. We kept in touch and it wasn't until a few years later that we teamed up and started working on different projects which ultimately lead up to us creating Offbeatr. Eric handles much of operations and technology portion of the company whereas I handle more of the marketing, business development, and product management.
5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what's unique about you and what's new about what you make?
Offbeatr is one of the only websites dedicated for helping people raise money for creative projects of an adult nature. The more "mainstream" crowdfunding players in the space prohibit such projects. Not only did we want to create a platform that gave people who want to work on adult projects a way to raise money, but was also wanted to innovate in the space as well. To that end we do two things differently than other platforms. First, Offbeatr projects all undergo a public voting period before being allowed to accept funding from supporters. Only after a project receives enough votes will it be allowed to start collecting payments.
Second, Offbeatr projects have two ways to raise money. The first way is through the selling of rewards similar to other crowdfunding sites. The second way which is unique to Offbeatr is through the selling of digital products. Project Creators can upload digital content they own like movies, ebooks, and photos, and supporters can purchase this content and download it immediately. Even if a project doesn't reach its funding goal sales from digital products are paid out to the creator.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has your startup achieved so far?
We just launched in August of 2012. Prior to launching we made an announcement of the platform in February of 2012. From that announcement we had over 2500 people signed up to be notified when we launched. After launch we've been growing steadily both in gaining new users and as well getting new project ideas pitched to us daily.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is your start-up's competitive advantage over them?
There are many mainstream crowdfunding platforms that exist. The best known ones of course being Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. However, we wouldn't classify ourselves as a competitor to those sites since Offbeatr is really focused around adult creative projects. So far we've been lucky as there aren't any competitors that focus on the adult aspect of crowdfunding. That's not to say there won't be competitors who will come in later. We expect there will be copycats, but we'll differentiate ourselves from them by focusing on quality projects and continuing to find ways to make project creators successful when they run a project on our site.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges of launching Offbeatr was knowing if it was even going to be possible to do crowdfunding for the adult industry. The main reason for the doubt was figuring out how to handle payment processing. Because we were an "adult" site that immediately disqualified us from using popular payment services like Paypal or Amazon. Even popular "hip" services like Stripe wouldn't work with us either. This meant we had to come up with other ways to accept payment. The process took close to 8 months, but we searched high and low for payment processors that not only would process for adult, but also understood the crowdfunding business model. It was discouraging each time we got rejected, but we persevered and tried any lead we could get which finally worked out for us in the end.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don't understand?
There are a few things. The first is payment processing for adult is not as straight forward as regular payment processing. Because adult is considered "high risk" (meaning there are higher cases of fraud and chargeback) most payment services will not allow you to use their services. The second thing is 2257 compliance. 2257 compliance is something all adult website are legally supposed to display on their website which states that any models or people depicted in images or videos on the site comply with US law that they are over the age of 18.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
Not only do we work hard (which we think is a basic requirement for any startup), but we also work smart. The "smart" part to us is prioritizing and working on the things that will push the business forwards. There is always something to do, but the challenge is to figure out what things are worth doing first which will have the greatest impact. Since we are bootstrapping this business that means even more to us since we don't have the luxury of solving problems by throwing money at it. Instead we have to be creative.
11. If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
We joke around that if we're able to be successful in the adult industry that we will attempt something we have yet to see in startups… the porn to mainstream tech startup cross over. So in addition to crowdfunding adult projects we'd end up crowdfunding independent music. We would be the Sasha Grey of the tech world.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build your start-up based on?
Like a lot of people, we assumed the porn / adult industry was a gold mine. That if you did an adult type of website you were going to make money hand over fist. However, after more careful observation, we discovered while that might have been the case a few years ago the current climate is the opposite. Many adult companies are not doing that well due to piracy and the proliferation of free porn. Because revenues are dwindling we saw many companies hold back from investing in innovation or taking bigger risks. Since we were outsiders to the industry we thought we could experiment and do things differently without the baggage of what had worked in the past. So we decided to give it a shot.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
It's important to get things out and in use as soon as possible. Spending months internally designing and working on a product is very different than actually having real users using it. The benefit of having people using a site earlier on is that you can observe and learn very quickly what's working and what isn't and take steps to fix and improve.
14. Six months from now, what's going to be your biggest problem?
The biggest problem will be coming up with ways to help ensure more successful projects. In a perfect world we would like to see 100% success rates with the projects that go through our system. It's still too early to tell or know how we can improve our success percentage, but there's no doubt there will always be room for improvement. The problem will mostly magnify as well as we get more projects into the system.
15. What's the benefit for the customer/user?
There are two groups we consider customers: project creators and supporters. The benefit of Offbeatr for the project creator is we give them a legitimate way to raise money for a project they care about. Not only do we give them a way to raise the money, but we give them tools to help manage the process along the way.
The benefit for supporters is they get to interact with project creators in a greater capacity than just a "fan" who might consume the project creator's content. Now they can be part of the process and feel part of something that previously the couldn't take part in.
16. How did customers / users find out about you?
We were fortunate and having some early press coverage when we announced in February that we were building and planning to launch our platform. Because of this we were able to get a lot of people to sign up to our launch email list. Fast forward a few months later when we did launch we were able to follow up with the people who initially wrote about us to cover our official launch. This greatly helped get the word out. A good thing that helps as well is that sex is inherently viral.
17. Who are your current customers / users? Who are your target customers / users?
We have a variety of project creators who've created projects so far. We have former male escorts, furry community artists, independent lesbian porn producers, and more. A lot of the project creators come from communities which would be considered more fringe than the average porn peddler you might think of. This makes sense since these smaller communities are typically not marketed to since their niche or fetish is not a big enough market for larger studios to target.
18. Where do new customers / users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
So far a lot of it has been word of mouth when it comes to getting new project creators. A lot of these creators have been shut off from traditional means of raising money so when they hear of a way to get access to capital they are curious to check it out. Why they would give us a try is simply because we give them an opportunity to make a project they care about into a reality. In other words, as cliche as it sounds, we give them hope.
19. What do your customers / users say about your product and/or service?
The feedback so far has been really positive. Users like the look and feel of the website. I also like to think they like how responsive to feedback and questions they have. One thing that has helped us a lot is having a chat tool installed on every page of Offbeatr. This works great when users have questions or when we are trouble shooting bugs with users.
20. How are you going to scale?
That's a good question. We're not sure how large our market is. People have said that the adult market is as large as 27 billion dollars, but when you look at where they came up with that number you realize that they pulled it out of nowhere. For us it's about finding serious project creators and encouraging them to run their project through Offbeatr. If we make them succeed they will either come back and use us again or they will tell other potential project creators. We are skeptical, however, if all these projects will add up to 27 billion dollars.
21. What's the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
We're still pretty new (it's been a little over a week since launch) so we're not sure what we might be missing. There's definitely things I think we could add, but without more real world usage it'd just be me guessing. I have no doubt with enough time we'll be hearing from users what they would want added.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up's operations accordingly?
Technically we allow other countries outside of the US to use our platform as project creators. That being said it is still limited to countries where English is the predominant language. Before we consider moving into other international markets we want to make sure everything works well with the markets we are currently targeting. If that goes well then China here we come! (In case you didn't know China has a strict zero porn policy)
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
We think there's a lot of potential with Offbeatr. Will we be able to fund 300 million dollars with of projects like Kickstarter? No, we don't think so. What we do think is we will be able to attract a variety of interesting sexual projects. So while money-wise we might not see as much go through our system like Kickstarter, what do think will happen is that the project themselves will be interesting to browse through and consider supporting. This means we believe we can be a top trafficked website. How we get there is through focusing on curation and helping to make projects successful.
24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?
Right now we're still in a lean phase of our company so this means we're not actively seeking new employees. That being said we are always on the lookout for good people (for as we know finding good people is tough!). If someone is interested in what we are doing or wants to learn more we would encourage them to contact us at email@example.com.
25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?
We knew from the beginning that traditional venture capital firms would not be interested in investing in our business. The exit opportunities in adult are much more limited than mainstream companies. Because of that we've focused on building a site and platform that can make money relatively early on. We have to be self sufficient otherwise we're dead. While VC's might not be interested in us we wouldn't mind them contacting us. They or angel investors can reach us at email@example.com.
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
It's not only important to ask questions, but to ask the right questions. A good example is getting honest feedback from users. Stop asking "what do you think" when showing to a user. Instead ask them "what is wrong?" Not only will you get honest feedback, but you'll be able to improve.
27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
Thanks for interviewing us. Be sure to check out either extralunchmoney.com or offbeatr.com
Meet the Project: Double D Erotica Interview
Double D Erotica is a company that's looking to bring authentic "real" lesbian sexual experiences to a market that has been traditionally underserved and misrepresented. We sat down with them to learn more about their project and background.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
Double D Erotica LLC, is a multifaceted company that produces adult entertainment and products that cater to a special niche of the lesbian community that is untapped and underserved. Through film production, media via the internet, adult novelty products/merchandise, events and adult literature.
Your project targets the urban black lesbian, are there not studios or companies that cater to this group?
Our project shows real lesbians having real sex, the way we have it and want to see it. Not the way that our sex is generally commercially portrayed. There are companies out there who are trying to cater to the niche, however our approach is to cater not just to the niche but also the industry as a whole, giving a fair glimpse into the real world of lesbians.
How did you end up starting the company?
I am a writer, I wrote my first erotic story 12/17/2009 after arriving home from a serious car accident. I put the story up on a blog and my writing caught on virally. From there an idea evolved to cater to and showcase a viable niche within the adult industry that is underserved.
What has been the biggest challenge starting this company?
Finding the proper amount of funding has been the paramount challenge for the company. We also have some issues with acceptance as far as what we are trying to do from within and without the LGBT community. But we strive to overcome the challenges and present a product that anyone can enjoy.
Because your niche is smaller how do you go about finding models and actors?
We have a vast social media network that allows us tap into models and actors who are willing to perform both on and off screen without hesitation for the company.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
The exposure that Offbeatr has given us is incredible already, but when our project is funded our intention is to hit the ground running with filming a video and the completion of our website. We will use this first video as the spring board to launch a long term campaign of providing the best in real lesbians having real sex! As the ladies say: Double D Me Baby!
Meet the Project: Super Fuck Friends Interview
Super Fuck Friends is a collaboration project brining together mainstream models and mainstream photographers to build a porn site that focused not only on high quality content, but also didn't take itself too seriously. A place where sexiness and humor can coexist. We sat down with them to learn more about their project and background.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
The primary goal of Super Fuck Friends is to deliver very high quality content, but to never really take ourselves too seriously. We're all a bunch of perverts in the first place so we're basically doing what comes naturally to us.
So you submitted photos and content to well known studios like Bangbros, Reality Kings, etc… how does that process work? I thought they shot all their own content? And do they tell you why they don't accept your content?
Some sites like Twistys have submission forms directly on the site for photographers, some studios are on networking sites like One Model Place, and you'd actually be surprised the contacts you can find on Linked In. In several cases I had direct contact emails given to me by a few established adult actresses that have done modeling work for me. In most cases I get an automated response that they received my submission and they'll get back to me, which they never do. I have had some good experiences though, Louis B. at Karups has taken interest in our work so you'll likely see Tilly and a few other familiar faces appearing on their sites in the near future.
You said you guys came together for this project, how did you and the other models all meet?
Tilly and I have been friends for a while, and you might have noticed she was originally referred to as Jezebel Foxx. That's the name she's been using on Stream Mates. She had been cam modeling for over a year, but wanted to do more professional looking work, we crossed paths and set up a shoot… and well what I thought was just going to be a standard photoshoot landed up to be an evening of sex toys and squirts. We originally planned on just building a solo girl site, but when I mentioned that I was building an adult site to a few other models I knew in the area… I was really surprised a lot of them asked to be on the site! Turns out if you're not a creepy guy that tries to bang every model you work with, you're pretty decent with a camera, and you have a sexy Irish nymphomaniac as a friend… girls will start lining up to shoot porn with you. So what was originally planned as JezebelFoxx.com turned into the Super Fuck Friends.
How did you come up with the idea for Super Fuck Friends in the first place?
Super Fuck Friends was created in reverse… we didn't have a concept and then started to create. We already had the performers and content and it just sort of turned into the Super Fuck Friends. Things like the itunes based pricing structure is just a reflection of how we feel about current adult websites and how we can set ourselves apart from them. We're based on the East Coast so we're pretty far removed from the San Fernando porn scene… however a lot of porn actresses do tour as models, so that's how we got Pepper Kester to shoot with us last July. Pepper was actually the one who suggested she change her name from Jezebel Foxx to something more Irish sounding. I think that's when we started to gain more confidence in our content as well… there was always the lingering doubt that maybe we were rejected by these other companies just because our stuff wasn't very good… but then after working with Pepper and getting her opinion that our content was very high quality and Tilly is an A+ performer… it was enough of a boost to go ahead with the project on Offbeatr.
For people who don't shoot porn, what's something they would find surprising about the process?
The thing that's surprised me the most about shooting porn is how many models I've met that are open to shooting porn. I do still primarily work in mainstream photography… that's why you won't see my real name or portfolio on the project (although a few resourceful people have figured it out). I think if you can provide a safe and fun atmosphere, it's not very hard to get attractive women to want to explore their sexuality on camera. I think what's great too about Tilly is what you see on camera is real… when she squirts, it's not because we did a douche and she's just pushing it out. A lot of the porn you see online is fake, but that's also the kind of porn you see failing very badly right now.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
If the project succeeds has really become a big "if" right now. We've had close to 37,000 views on our project and less than 100 votes. $12,000 was a very conservative goal to launch a site that focuses on exclusive HD video content. The hope was that the project would catch fire and we'd get at least double our goal to invest in a second camera and give us a budget for more creative concepts.
How to Build a Following with SlowMotionBlowJob.com Creator Camille Crimson
Getting people to support your project can be difficult. It helps if you already have an following or audience that you can ask to help support your project. However, what if you don't have a following? How do you build one?
Today we invited Camille Crimson, founder and model of the popular website TheArtOfBlowJob.com and the newly launched SlowMotionBlowJob.com, to share how she keeps blowjobs interesting and how she builds a loyal following.
First off, how would you describe yourself and your occupation?
I'm the model and webmaster of TheArtofBlowjob.com and SlowMotionBlowjob.com. I focus on making beautiful porn devoted to the sensuality of oral sex.
Tell us more about Slow Motion Blowjob. What is the site about and where'd you get the inspiration for it?
The site is, as the name suggests, about slow motion blowjobs. We shoot the blowjobs on a specific slow motion setting, placing shots that really emphasize the detail of oral sex. The result is very sumptuous and sensual blowjob videos that you can practically feel. It's a hypnotic kind of eroticism. The videos are much longer than the typical video we have on The Art of Blowjob, but they're set to a similar kind of trance background music. It's really an entirely different sensory experience… It's really, really beautiful.
How did you get the website built? Did you find contractors? Or did you do everything yourself? How long did the whole process take?
I do it all by myself. It wasn't an extremely long process, because I've refined my way of doing things through the various iterations of TheArtofBlowjob.com. The trick is mostly fitting in the time to build the website with everything else I have to do to shoot for both sites and maintain my online presence.
The quality of your videos is really top notch, how long does it take to film and edit a video?
The filming itself doesn't take that long. Set-up can take a while, but the filming itself is only slightly longer than the end result. We don't stop and start much… We try to preserve the intimacy and authenticity as much as possible. As for the editing, it depends. Sometimes everything just comes together in a few hours, but other times we like to experiment more and take our time… We don't like to rush, so we take the time it requires.
How do you keep the content fresh and interesting when each clip is a blowjob?
The main thing that keeps it fresh is just the attitude with which we approach every video. It's real, so you get the giggles, the anticipation, the connection… We change locations, themes, outfits, focuses, other sex acts, but all of that comes second to the natural evolution of our relationship.
You've been working on erotic / porn websites as early as 2006. What if anything has changed either for the better or worse since then?
It feels like things shift pretty frequently in terms of the best way to share our content and the ways to connect with people, but the fundamental need to reach out to people and be yourself is the same. Styles may come and go and technologies will evolve, but personality and authenticity will always keep people interested.
We've talked to many in the industry who throw up their hands and complain that "there simply is no money in porn", is this true? What do you think?
Because we started later in the game relatively speaking, we never worked in porn while you could post one picture and make a million dollars. We've always had to work smart and be innovative. I don't think that has changed since we've been in the industry. There's still money, you just have to be prepared to evolve and be thoughtful about what you do.
We know you are very active with on social media what sites or services have worked best for you?
Twitter is amazing. I'm a huge fan. It's a great way to communicate and make connections. It's important to find a balance between getting a larger message out there, sharing minutiae of your life and advertising your work… But if you can find that equilibrium, it can be tremendously useful. It's important to have a web presence everywhere you can (within reason) but Twitter is usually my biggest social network because it's pretty adult-friendly and the sharing/trending functions are straight-forward.
Some people think social media is a waste of time. Why do you spend the time?
I get great feedback, I make genuine relationships with fans and other pornographers alike, it can be a great traffic generator if you know how to work it… It's just a great way to spread the message of beautiful porn.
What's the best way to engage people either fans or potential fans? How do you engage them without seeming like you are just trying to sell memberships to your site (which is what ideally what you would want)?
I try to create ways for people to get involved in the conversation by asking questions, whether it's about porn, sexuality, my work in particular or just life. It breaks the ice and we're able to create a rapport. It takes time, but that's the most genuine way to gain trust… Just be yourself and be interested in others instead of just pushing an agenda. Also, I share photos and links with some thoughtful writing, which always makes people happy. It gives them a little free taste, a little insight and they are welcome to get more by joining.
What tips or strategies do you use to build a following? A lot of people want to have an audience, but when you start it's difficult since no one knows you. What has worked for you?
Making great work and getting people to notice you is the best way. Sharing on blogs or tubes or sites with great social media presence means that they will likely share your content with their followers, including a link to your social media. Then, once you have some followers, be interesting and they'll be likely to share you with more people, who will in turn follow you… It's all pretty obvious, but being interesting is harder than it sounds. I'm always tweaking the way I share things to make people happy while still being honest with myself.
What's next for Camille Crimson? Maybe FastMotionBlowJobs.com??
Probably not fast motion. I'd get seasick watching it. ;) We're working on a lot of new projects, but nothing we're quite ready to share yet… Hopefully I'll be back here pretty soon to share my next endeavour, maybe with an Offbeatr campaign of my own!
Learn More About Camille Crimson
2 Interviews on Why the World Needs Offbeatr
As relatively new entrepreneurs to the adult industry we've only begun to learn how different the "mainstream" world is from the "adult" world. No where is that more apparent than when it comes to taking payments or raising money for a project.
To get a better idea of what it's like for people on the front lines of adult we did 2 quick interviews with Ela Darling (a performer) and Voluptuous Lynn (a cam model) to learn what issues they've had raising money and what they hope Offbeatr can do for them.
Ela Darling Interview
What problems do you have fundraising for adult projects?
Crowdsourcing websites like Kickstarter don't support adult content. It's easy to come up with fantastic concepts for unique, fun, and exciting new porn, but production is expensive, and distribution is incredibly tough, especially when you're an independent filmmaker and you're not associated with any of the big porn companies.
Have you tried fundraising for your projects? What happened?
When Kickstarter first started, I sent out some feelers to see if I could bring to life this fun fairy porn idea I had, but I was shot down by the site admins because they didn't want to host that sort of project. It catered an adult art project specifically to the Kickstarter community, and it was successful, but it's still disappointing that in spite of that success, I can't bring other, bigger projects to a crowdfunding site like that.
What issues have you had with those services?
Aside from the fact that those sites don't support adult content, people don't necessarily want to associate their public face with their private interests. Other services connect with your facebook which would tell your friends, family and boss that, "I just backed Lesbian Fairy Seduction XXX!" People find that off putting. There needs to be a separate space with a separate community that is just devoted to making fantasies come to fruition.
What are you hoping Offbeatr will allow you to do?
I'm hoping Offbeatr will give me the ability to pitch new project ideas to my consumers and let their support guide my new projects. When I have a creative new idea for a scene, rather than settle with the same materials, wardrobe, and locations I have on hand, I can plan out the required budget to make it come to life the way I want it to and if fans like it, we can make it happen together. Together, we can build the bridge to achieve the porn of our dreams. We can create sexy, interesting porn that is made with a professional production quality that we can truly take pride in.
Voluptuous Lynn Interview
What problems do you have fundraising for adult projects?
The major problem I have had with fundraising is the majority of fundraising sites don't allow people in the adult industry. Although several adult people use them they are gambling with the fact if the site finds out they are connected to the adult business they will close the account down and keep all the money.
Have you tried fundraising for your projects? What happened?
I have tried fundraising using ChipIn.com and GoFundMe.com. One problem is that some fans view it as begging or if they do contribute they expect a lot from you like dates, phone calls, or free material.
What issues have you had with those services?
My major issue was being in fear of them taking the money no matter how tame I made the wording for the project which prevented me from putting a widget or button on my site to fund raise, nor could I go to them for support.
What are you hoping Offbeatr will allow you to do?
I am hoping Offbeatr will have people who are ready to seriously invest in projects, marketing support, technical support, and it would be nice to feel safe putting a widget or button on my site to better raise the chances of me completing my goal.
What Do You Think?
Have you had issues? Do you think the world needs another crowd funding project website. Tell us your thoughts in the comments below. Learn more about Offbeatr (the first platform for adult project fund raising).


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Spinach Omelet with Cream Cheese and Feta
Kitchen Tested
- Yield 4 servings
- Prep 5 mins
- Cook 10 mins
A creamy spinach and three-cheese filling adds a flavor boost to your morning omelet.
Serve this omelet with fresh tomatoes or sliced red bell peppers.
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
- 3 tablespoons Neufchatel cream cheese, softened
- 3 tablespoons 2 percent low-fat milk
- 3 tablespoons crumbled feta
- 8 eggs
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 ounce freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- Cook spinach according to package directions; drain well and place in processor. Add cream cheese, milk and feta; process to combine or stir with a spoon.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, water, oregano, salt and pepper.
- In a large (12-inch) nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add egg mixture. As edges set, move toward center with a spatula, allowing the uncooked egg to run to side. When top is set, spoon spinach mixture over omelet, top with Parmesan cheese, cover and cook for 1 minute. Fold omelet in half and slide onto a plate.
Recipe by Jean Kressy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Every year the Divinity School holds a reception and alumni reunion at the AAR/SBL conference, typically on the Sunday evening.
The 2014 Annual Meeting of the AAR/SBL is in San Diego, California! Our reception iis scheduled on Sunday, November 23 from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm in the Marina Ballroom, Salon F at the Marriott Marquis & Marina.
The Divinity School is pleased to welcome all alumni to our reception and alumni reunion. All Divinity School alumni are invited, whether you are attending the conference or not. Registration is not required, but it does help us plan for the event and is strongly encouraged.
For more information, please contact Linda Lyles Aldridge at 773.702.7170 or .
Each spring, we hold an alumni reunion dinner for all alumni engaged in ministry, in conjunction with the annual ministry conference, held in Swift Hall. Details will be posted as soon as plans are finalized. See you there!


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Related PostsMint's Training Log – 2.23.14 Weight, What? Gaining Weight During Marathon Training Wasabi's (Tardy) Week 5 Boston Marathon Training Log: 1/27 – 2/2 Dirt to Skirt: The Fashion and Hygiene War of the Cloves Wasabi's (Tardy) Boston Training Log, Week 10: 3/3 – 3/9 Read more
Clove's (!) Training Log: Week of 1.18.2014
Hullo? Anyone out there? Yeah, it's me. You know the one – the one who spent half of last year trying to get knocked up via drugs, doctors and procedures, then ran a quickie 100-miler when it didn't work, and then proceeded to fall off the face of the Salty earth? I'm baaaa-aaaack. And I'm sorry. You know, I meant to get back a hundred different times. Busy is not more » Read more
Clove's Secret: The Things That Running Cannot Heal
Nope, this one's not about infertility. Those of you that follow me may have noticed that I dropped off the radar after the failed pregnancy push earlier this year. I did exactly as planned; trained up as best I could over five weeks and ran Burning River. There should have been a race report. Actually, most of the race report exists, but it became too painful to finish. I need more » Read more
Runners are Not Special – Until They Make Others Feel the Same
Yesterday, a friend of mine posted an article on Facebook that resonated with me. So much, in fact, that I immediately realized that our own community could use some similar reminders. Kristen and I met more than ten years ago. She was training for her first marathon and I had just moved to Columbus. We had some fun times running and going out with friends until she moved away (boo), more » Read more
Clove's Training & Fertility Treatment Log: Week 5, Cycle Four
Well, I guess I'll just cut to the chase. 19 weeks, 76 shots, five pregnant days back in March – but no baby. Sorry, Salties, but I'm not pregnant. Definitely not pregnant. I've had so many thoughts, so many ruminations, so many emotions over the past week, and yet this post just isn't working out to be one of my more emotional ones. I had thought, a week or so more » Read more
Clove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Weeks 3 & 4, Cycle Four
We're a little under two weeks from a big sea change here; I'll either be miraculously pregnant, or I'll be training for Burning River. The biggest change this week has been the shift in my mindset; I feel as if I've turned the corner from hoping and praying and moved on to envisioning a day at Burning River. In many ways, I feel as if I'm just waiting out these more » Read more
Badwater 101
Badwater. In short, it's 135 miles across Death Valley in 120 degree temperatures. The pavement alone reaches up to 128 degrees. It's nothing short of epic. It's Coriander's long-term stretch goal, and her post awhile back was enough to get me reminiscent of my four trips there; twice crewing the official race and twice "playing with fire." And let's not lie, I've got my eye on that sucker too. But I've more » Read more
Clove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Week 2, Cycle Four
The weekend of "floating my boat" down in Lauderdale was such a wonderful, relaxing break – in spite of all the running. It just felt so good to put it all down for a few days, with the exception of the ten minutes I spent preparing and doing my shots. DB and I got to spend some quality running (and relaxing) time together, getting excited for Badwater, gearing up for more » Read more
Clove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Week 1, Cycle Four
The results are in – in the title, that is. Week 1, Cycle Four, otherwise known as "An Introduction to Nun Piss and the Part Where Sh*t Gets Serious." But more on that later. Related PostsClove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Week 2, Cycle Two Clove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Week 4, Cycle Two The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat: Face Your Fear of Failure Clove's Training more » Read more
Clove's Training and Fertility Treatment Log: Weeks 3 – 5, Cycle Three
Salty readers, it has been a crazy busy few weeks for the Clove-ster. Nothing bad, just a lot of work, travel for work, running around and general malaise from the treatments. While I got a little behind in posting my logs, I was indeed still jotting them down. Cycle three went much better than cycle two, both on a day to day basis and in terms of anticipated success, but more » Read more


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Theriot's Outdoor Power Equipment
608 Westwood Drive
Marrero, LA 70072
Contact: Chad Theriot
Phone: 504-348-7109
Fax: 504-348-7307
Email: email@example.com
Website: http://www.theriotsope.com
Business Hours
8:00 - 5:00 Monday, Wednesday & Fridays
8:00 - 6:00 Tuesday & Thursdays
Payment Accepted
About Us
Theriot's Outdoor Power Equipment has grown from a specialty shop to one of the largest multi-line dealers in the area. Theriot's Outdoor Power Equipment prides itself on its customer service - we know how important it is to be taken care of and to have someone you can trust.Our Parts department is staffed by experienced professionals that want to make sure you get the right part at the right time and at a fair price. Not only can our team answer your questions intelligently, they'll help you find the parts you need.
We have the largest selection of parts and accessories in the Marrero area. Based in Marrero, we have next day delivery on thousands of parts to all of Louisiana. Two day delivery or overnight available to the rest of the US! Our first-class Service department is the best place for your equipment. From minor tune-ups and maintenance to major overhauls, our knowledgeable, certified mechanics can get you up and running quickly. Call for an appointment today! So you found the equipment of your dreams, but you need a loan to make it yours? No problem! We've got great financing programs available for virtually all makes and models, including our quality pre-owned units. Call our friendly sales staff or fill out our online loan application so you can start enjoying your new vehicle as soon as possible!
|Formatted Directions
Directions not specific enough? Use the full version of Google Maps by clicking here.
|2012 Sea Ark
| Year: 2012
Make: Sea Ark
Type: Duck Boat
Length: 17.00 ft.
|Dealer / Seller:
Theriot's Outdoor Power Equipment
Marrero LA
|View Details
Contact Dealer


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The State University of New York (SUNY) will soon close its discredited Shale Resources and Society Institute. The Buffalo-based university announced that it is terminating the institute after its failure to prove the credibility of its research, to consistently disclose its financial interests, and to ensure the presence of sufficient faculty.
The Shale Resources and Society Institute was investigating the hydraulic fracturing process. Back in May, it released a study that showed significant partiality towards the oil and gas industry. Critics promptly tore into the institute for its obvious bias.
SUNY President Satish K. Tripathi told the "university community" that faculty members should follow strict standards of academic integrity, intellectual honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct.
The Austin-based University of Texas at Austin is likewise investigating a fracking study that it released earlier in 2012. UoT had discovered that one of the professors who 'fostered' the study hid the fact that he was a board member of a gasoline company.
Government grants are on the decline, forcing academic research to rely more and more on corporate money that is accused of influencing its results.
Grassroots efforts accounted for recent investigations and the closure of controversial institutes like the Shale Resources and Society Institute. Professors, students, and several SUNY trustees had pressured the University to close its shale institute. The movement presented a petition with more than 10,500 signatures to support its cause.
SUNY English professor Jim Holstun was one of those who challenged the credibility of the Shale Resources and Society Institute. The signatories strongly insisted that their public university should not turn into a corporate mouthpiece.
The Shale Resources and Society Institute released a study that claiming that state regulation was making drilling for oil in Pennsylvania much safer. The study argued that the rules pending in New York would bring about the same benefits.
Howver, the local government watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative challenged some of the data and conclusions published by the study. The PAI also pointed out that the study's lead authors directly conducted research for the oil and gas industry, and that they did not release full disclosure.
The PAI noted that John P. Martin, the study's third author and the co-director of the Shale Resources and Society Institute, provided planning and public relations services for the oil and gas industry.
According to Dr. Tripathi, the now-closed shale institute brought a number of transparency issues to light. The State University of New York will be assembling a committee to discuss ways of strengthening policies for disclosing financial interests and sources of support in research going forward. Dr. Tripathi added that SUNY would continue to study energy and environmental matters.
Recommended additional reading:


text: Greetings Archers of Ansteorra, I'm sending this out to the archery list since this is where the most likely target audience is. I've started a Yahoo group called SCA-Bowyers. I'm hoping to gather up all bowyers (novice and veteran alike), want to be bowyers, and those with a genuine interest in bowyering in one place. This will provide a forum for discussion and hopefully a place for us all to learn from each other. So please, come on down and test the waters. I'm trying to keep the SPAMing down so you will have to get Moderator approval to join the list. Let me know you heard about it here and I'll approve you right away. I look forward to hearing from everyone soon. Yours in Service, Ld. Jean-Paul de Calmont -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/ansteorra-archery-ansteorra.org/attachments/20040914/50f1d401/attachment.html


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The deadline for clubs to make qualifying offers to their free agents was today at 5 PM, and there were 13 players who were given the $14.1 million qualifying offer.
Those players are Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Napoli, and Stephen Drew of the Red Sox, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Hiroki Kuroda of the Yankees, Carlos Beltran of the Cardinals, Shin-Soo Choo of the Reds, Nelson Cruz of the Rangers, Ubaldo Jimenez of the Indians, Brian McCann of the Braves, Kendrys Morales of the Mariners, and Ervin Santana of the Royals.
The above players have until 5 PM on November 11th to either accept or reject the qualifying offer. If they accept the offer, they return to the team who made the offer on a one year deal worth $14.1 million.
If they reject the offer, they hit the open market. If the player then signs elsewhere, the team he left receives a compensatory draft pick.
Nine players received qualifying offers last off-season, and each one rejected the offer.
By finishing with one of the 10 worst records in baseball, the Mets have a protected first round pick (10th overall). However, the Mets will have to part with their second round pick in the event they sign a player who rejects a qualifying offer. If they sign two or more players who were made qualifying offers, they'll be forced to surrender more draft picks.
Of the 13 players who were made qualifying offers, there are likely five who will be of interest to the Mets. Those players are Jacoby Ellsbury, Stephen Drew, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Beltran, and Shin-Soo Choo.
Although they'd both be solid fits, there have been reports that Ellsbury and Beltran will most likely not be heading to Queens for 2014 and beyond. Ellsbury's injury history may be scaring the Mets off, and the Beltran reunion that some fans (including me) are hoping for may not be in the cards.
I don't think Beltran would refuse to come back to the Mets because of some assumed bad blood. Rather, I think it would be Beltran wanting to join an immediate contender and/or preferring to sign with an American League club so he could serve as a designated hitter on occasion.
That likely leaves the Mets with three legitimate options from the pool of players who were made qualifying offers – Stephen Drew, Curtis Granderson, and Shin-Soo Choo.
To repeat – I don't believe forfeiting a second or third round pick (or both) would prevent the Mets from signing a player if they valued that player and thought he would improve the club. However, that doesn't mean it's smart to forfeit draft picks if you don't have to.
Perhaps the Mets sign Choo and Drew and forfeit two of their top three picks. Maybe they'll sign Choo or Granderson and elect to sign Jhonny Peralta (who was not given a qualifying offer) instead of Drew. It's also possible the Mets will fill their outfield or shortstop void (or both) via the trade market.
For both the Mets' sake and the sake of the fans, though, it's great that the Mets' first round pick was protected. If it wasn't, there would be much more hand wringing going on regarding the qualifying offers and how they would impact the Mets.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow @RisingAppleBlog on Twitter and Instagram, and Like Rising Apple's Facebook page to keep up with the latest news, rumors, and opinion.


text:
3.96p each
Beautycard Points: 0 points
Product Information
4 in 1 cleanser, eye make-up remover, toner and moisturiser.
Dermatologically tested.
Approved by Superdrug skincare specialists.
Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Product Specification
Size (25) Unit (EA) Height (13) Width (9.5) Depth (10)
not very good for my skin.
Would you recommend this product: NoFlag this review


text:
Tag Archives: Sexualization
By Maya | Published: October 19, 2011
Tweet Read Part 2 of the cartoon at The Hairpin. "Sexy Virgnia Woolf" is my fav. It's almost Halloween, you guys! Which means yet another year of eye-rolling about how TEH SEXY has completely taken over. Jillian Tamaki's costume ideas in Part 2 of the cartoon above are so hilarious/sad because they not very different [...]
Also tagged Halloween, Sex, slut-shaming, Wednesday weigh in | Comments closed
The SPARK blogtour starts here!
By Chloe | Published: October 12, 2010
TweetLast week, Courtney mentioned the SPARK Summit, which is happening in NYC on October 22nd. SPARK stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge. SPARK is both a Summit and a Movement designed to push back against the increasingly sexualized images of girlhood in the media and create room for whole girls and healthy sexuality. SPARK [...]
Also tagged Activism, Conferences | Comments closed
Fighting back against the early sexualization of girls
By Courtney | Published: October 5, 2010
TweetCheck out the awesome Ileana Jimenez and the incredibly wise student, Yanique Richards, in this video. It's all leading up to the SPARK (Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge) Summit at Hunter College later this month. If you're in the area, don't miss out, and if you're not in the area, never fear; these folks are [...]


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Yet another canceled show might find a second life online. Amazon is set to revive�The Tick, a source tells�People.The superhero parody, based on a�
Legendary wrestler�Jake "The Snake" Roberts�has been hospitalized in Las Vegas after he collapsed on a...
Syfy has canceled�The Wil Wheaton Project, according to�
August 30Word of the Day, This Day in History, Number to Know, Website of the Day, Today�s Featured Birthday and Daily Quote.Word of the Daybillet \ BIL-it \ verb; To provide or obtain lodging. � Dictionary.comThis Day in History
The unofficial end of summer is here
It's time to fire up the engines on the Millennium Falcon (again).Production has resumed on Star Wars: Episode VII following an
The Following's new showrunner has departed before the new season even...
- Events Calendar


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Why not barbed wire and guns?
I remember when I was a young Soldier in Germany and America stood against the idea of countries erecting walls to keep people from leaving.Comments Off
I remember when I was a young Soldier in Germany and America stood against the idea of countries erecting walls to keep people from leaving.Comments Off
Jim Geraghty pens a controversial piece wherein he opines that liberals are more tolerant of the hypocrisy of other liberals than are conservatives. Before I get to that portion of his argument, I'd like to address his conclusion with an historical analogy. Geraghty writes:
"As long as a particular position or stance lets progressives feel good about themselves, they will embrace it. Thus the measuring stick of Obamacare is not whether it's actually providing the uninsured with health insurance . . . but whether a liberal feels that it's a sign that he cares about the uninsured more than other people.
Liberals will deem Obamacare a failure only if it stops making them feel good about themselves.
The original Progressives advanced another misbegotten law that made them "feel good about themselves", even while it destroyed the country. That law was Prohibition. In 1925, H.L. Mencken observed,
"Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished."
It would be another eight years after what was obvious to Mencken was finally obvious enough to Progressives that Prohibition was repealed. And even then, it was not the obviousness of the chaos created by Prohibition that turned Progressive minds. It was the fact that by 1933 Congress finally got around to re-apportioning districts–a decennial requirement that was purposefully (and unconstitutionally) ignored following the 1920 Census, because Progressives knew that if they counted the nation's newly arrived Catholics and Jews, that their beloved Prohibition would have gone to an earlier grave.
Still, even after Prohibition died with the 21st Amendment, Progressives consoled themselves with the belief that it was a "noble experiment".
There was absolutely nothing noble about Prohibition or about its supporters, who employed more dastardly tactics even than just using unconstitutional measures to over-represent the nation's more rural (dry) areas instead of its burgeoning urban (wet) cities.
Daniel Okrent catalogued just some of the evils that Prohibition's adherents used to advance their cause. They actively cultivated the support of both flavors of racists, typified by the overtly bigoted Arkansas congressman John Tillman, as well as soft bigoted paternalists like the United Methodist Church which explained in an official publication that "Under slavery the Negroes were protected from alcohol, consequently they developed no high degree of ability to resist its evil effects." They encouraged anti-semitism and anti-Catholicism, as both religions were associated with alcohol's manufacture, sale, and consumption. They stirred up nativism, specifically directed against Irish, Italians, and Jews. They not only allied with a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, they made the modern Klan and purposefully harnessed its hatred in order to enjoy the benefits of the fear unleashed by strong arm tactics that closely resembled those of Nazi brownshirts a decade later.
Most unforgivably of all, Progressives attacked all things German as war began on the Continent. A year after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress and claimed that those Americans "born under other flags . . . poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life." The metaphor was well-chosen. While not an avid dry himself, Wilson wanted those supreme executive powers that only war could bestow. If that meant further stoking nativism to bring those zealots closer to his aims, then so be it.
Yes, what I am saying is that early Progressives supported their cause so fervently that entry into World War I–the single most disastrous American political mistake of the last hundred years–became a desirable means of achieving their Prohibitionist ends.
And all of what I just described is the horror that occurred before Prohibition's enactment. History tells us full well the terror unleashed as a result.
Those early 20th century Progressives are the intellectual forebears of modern Progressivism. Therefore, it should surprise us not that a movement which allegedly supported greater democratization in the form of the Nineteenth Amendment's extension of the franchise to women, also purposefully blocked blacks from the polls and diminished the value of an urban immigrant's vote. Women supported prohibition; blacks and immigrants did not. Hypocrisy has a long pedigree in progressive politics.
In an answer to his own question "Why [is it] so hard to make progressives live up to their own rules?" Geraghty comes close to the truth when he says that Progressivism is about making progressives "feel good about themselves". But even closer to the truth is this oft-quoted observation from C.S. Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Progressivism is the belief that they know better than others how others should live their lives. There is nothing that they won't do, there is no ally so abhorrent, there is no rule so inflexible, that a Progressive won't embrace the unthinkable to advance their cause. That is because they do so with the approval of their conscience. (As an aside, this is why some strands of "Christian" conservativism have far more in common with Progressives than they do with most conservatives.)
In short, the end justifies the means–even if that end is measurably (as in the case of Prohibition and Obamacare) worse than the beginning. Adherence to means has no meaning in the progressive mind.Comments Off
That's the question ABC News asks:
Bob Shlora of Alpharetta, Ga., was supposed to be a belated Obamacare success story. After weeks of trying, the 61-year-old told ABC News he fully enrolled in a new health insurance plan through the federal marketplace over the weekend, and received a Humana policy ID number to prove it.
But two days later, his insurer has no record of the transaction, Shlora said, even though his account on the government website indicates that he has a plan. . .
Obama administration officials acknowledged today that some of the roughly 126,000 Americans who completed the torturous online enrollment process in October and November might not be officially signed up with their selected issuer, even if the website has told them they are.
It obviously is a bad thing to lose health insurance even if the prospect of needing it is just a theoretical abstraction. It is far worse for that abstraction to become a concrete reality. If, after January 1st, many thousands of Americans find that they need the health insurance that they think that they signed up for, then the Obama administration is going to be pining for the days when their approval ratings were in the low 40s.
This ABC News report suggests that the "fix" now being touted by the White House is actually a front-end website that isn't connected to a back-end that can deliver the ordered product. We'll know soon enough. But nothing about Obamacare to this point should give anyone any confidence that we won't be seeing scores of tragic stories of procedures denied, prescriptions unfilled, and deteriorating medical conditions.Comments Off
Prior to the disastrous implementation of Obamacare, has there ever been a law that fell that so far out of disfavor that the American people clamored for wholesale repeal? Yes, it was called Prohibition.
The parallels between Prohibition and Obamacare begin with the fact that both laws were the culmination of decades of "Progressive" ideals. A century ago Progressives believed that people would be better off if they were able to control what individuals were allowed to buy and sell. Modern Progressives are no different. From its first attempt in Maine in the 1850s, Progressives in both parties worked tirelessly to extend anti-alcohol laws to the entire country. This most recent bout of progressivism began sixty years ago with Democrat Harry Truman, who pushed the idea of socialized medicine. The movement received considerable advancement from Democrat Lyndon Johnson, who created Medicare, Republican George W. Bush, who added prescription drugs coverage, and Republican Mitt Romney, who built the first Obamacare-like system in Massachusetts.
Many Progressives of an earlier era wanted Prohibition for others, but not for themselves. The progressive United Methodist Church, which was officially dry but whose membership certainly wasn't, said that, "Under slavery the Negroes were protected from alcohol, consequently they developed no high degree of ability to resist its evil effects." A Collier's editorial elaborated on this form of racial paternalism, "White men are beginning to see that moral responsibility for the negro rests on them, and that it is a betrayal of responsibility to permit illicit sales of dangerous liquors and drugs." These were the attitudes of "Wet-Drys," people who themselves drank, but who didn't want "others" to drink. Besides racism, anti-Catholicism was rampant among earlier Progressives. Germans, Italians, and Irish (and let us not forget anti-Catholicism's sibling, anti-semitism), flooded America's cities during this period–and they all drank! Modern progressives similarly want Obamacare for thee, but not for me. Most infamous is that Congress specifically exempted itself and its employees from the new Obamacare requirements when it passed the law. Favored Progressive partners too–especially unions–have asked for, and gained their own Obamacare exemptions. Hypocrisy enjoys a long pedigree among Progressives.
Electoral chicanery is another similarity. There was a rush to enact the Eighteenth Amendment before the 1920 Census resulted in redistricting that would give more House seats to the cities and the immigrant Catholics who lived there. Following the census, which recorded a 21% population increase largely as a result of immigration, there was so much concern that "Wets" would gain the upper hand in Congress as well as in state legislatures, that Congress was never redistricted in accordance with the Constitution. Until 1933 when Prohibition was finally overturned, the House was stuck with the same district lines that were drawn back in 1910. A century later, modern Progressives played similar games after Republican Scott
Walker Brown's surprise election to the Senate from Massachusetts meant that the House bill enacting Obamacare could not be ratified. Instead, an earlier Senate bill, that was nowhere near to ready for implementation and which had not gone through a conference committee, was accepted without modification in the House, and in defiance of the Constitutional provision that revenue bills had to originate in the House.
In 1925 H.L. Mencken observed:
"Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished."
More than three years after the passage of Obamacare, one could make similar observations: there is not greater health insurance coverage but less; there is not lower health care costs, but more; and certainly, respect for the law–even from the law's namesake and executor–has not increased, but diminished.
There is a final similarity which I am afraid might also come to pass. While it is popularly believed that the 18th Amendment was repealed, that was actually not exactly true. The 21st Amendment did not return things to the way they had been. Instead of repeal, the modfication to the Constitution gave the States special power to legislate alcohol. Because the Amendment gives the States jurisdiction, alcohol is not afforded protection under the interstate commerce clause. Each state can, and does, tax interstate sales, while they prevent residents from acquiring alcohol across state lines. This, and a whole host of other state restrictions, has created a hodge podge of laws that makes life difficult for wine-makers, retailers, and consumers alike. The only beneficiaries of such legal confusion are the descendants of Prohibition's bootleggers who are now ensconced in legally mandated monopolies.
Similarly, when Obamacare meets its demise, it is unfortunately likely to die in such a way that the successor system will leave Americans worse off than they were before Obamacare ever became law. I hope that on this latter prediction, I am proved wrong.Comments (2)
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is in a bit of trouble for making this statement in his Monday column:
People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn't look like their country at all.
While there is some, surprisingly, the bulk of the criticism does not come from the Right for having been portrayed as knuckle-dragging dinosaurs whose acceptance of Justice Clarence Thomas' biracial marriage and former VP Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter belie Cohen's stereotype un-updated since the Archie Bunker era.
No, it's actually the Left that has most criticized Cohen. The Huffington Post said, "Dear Washington Post: Please fire this man." Esquire put Cohen in the "Newspaper Stupid Top 40." Paul Farhi catalogues some of the others who voice umbrage at Cohen's remarks, including Gawker, Slate, Salon, and MSNBC. All this "venom-spewing" as Farhi said, from "people who should be [Cohen's] allies."
Sadly, this is normal for the Left. Who could forget their outrage directed toward radio host Bill Bennett when he was asked about a statistic from the then recently-published Freakonomics that said that crime has gone down because of abortion:
BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both – you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well –
CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.
The Leftists at Media Matters had a field day with Bennett's comments even when their excerpts clearly exhonerated (highlighted above) him of the thought-crime of advocating the racial infanticide that they say Bennett advocated.
Bennett was engaging in the logical device known as reductio ad absurdum, whereby an argument is reduced to an absurdity so as to demonstrate the fallacy of the premise. It just so happens that last night I mentioned to my seventh-grade son the classic reductio ad absurdum: A Modest Proposal, wherein Jonathan Swift argues that to eliminate the surplus population of beggars, the Irish should be allowed to sell their unweaned children to be used as stew meat.
In 1729 Swift's reader's quickly recognized the essay as satire. Sadly, I don't think that American Leftists today would be able to understand the argument. If their umbrage toward Cohen–who clearly was not advocating discrimination against biracial and gay couples—is any indicator, were Swift to write his classic today, MSNBC would surely charge him with cannibalism.
Prior to this week I could have dismissed Leftist outrage directed at Bennett as political fanaticism akin to the fanatic football fan who, even upon seeing the slow-motion replay, yells at the referee for blowing a call that he clearly called correctly. Heretofore, I could have accepted that Bennett's detractors understood his argument but purposefully misconstrued it so as to appeal to Low-Information Voters who might have heard only an edited version of the exchange. Now as a result of the outrage that the Left directs against its own Richard Cohen, it is obvious that the Left isn't trying to appeal to Low-Information Voters, but is instead made up of a large swath of Low-Intelligence Voters.
How else could one explain Obamacare? Many of the people who are incapable of understanding Cohen's argument are the same ones who are logically incapable of understanding that Obamacare could not work the way the President promised. Unless you believed, as one commenter noted, that Obamacare was powered by "unicorn farts and pixie dust," it was always completely illogical to believe that more people could get more health coverage without some people paying higher prices or being kicked off of their existing plans.
Another Cohen, Michael Cohen (I don't know if he is a relation), buttresses that point (hat tip: David Henderson).
But, of course, this means that some Americans would not only lose their plans and access to their doctor, but in the case of particularly healthy individuals, reform could yield higher premiums. Beyond that, reforming such a huge chunk of the U.S. economy necessarily leads to often unanticipated changes for millions of Americans.
Acknowledging that reality would have been the honest thing to do. So would asking healthier and wealthier Americans to sacrifice for the greater good of ensuring every American have health-care coverage.
But doing so would have opened Obama and his democratic allies up to the charge that Obamacare would lead to widespread dislocations — and made the path to reform that much politically harder to traverse.
Indeed, this is precisely the argument that was made by Republicans . . .
In other words: Everything Republicans told you about Obamacare was true, but–and these are Michael Cohen's words–you "can't handle the truth." What he didn't say but is clearly implied and could have appended: "And we know that you are too stupid and too illogical to figure out the truth on your own." Logical fallacy abounds on the Left, and this Cohen actually celebrates it.
This is where the modern Left is today: at the head of an easily manipulable cadre of useful idiots. To be sure, the Right has its share of blind adherents as well. To some, the words "abortion" and "homosexual" are like red herrings to a dog: they quickly distract. But I'm hard-pressed to find so glaring an example as Obamacare to demonstrate how easy it was to dupe millions of people who should have been smart enough to know otherwise.
For years it has been fashionable in some segments of the Right to complain that America's public schools are engaged in indoctrination instead of education. But the Left's slander of Richard Cohen might point at a reality far worse. It's not that millions of Americans have been taught the wrong things–bad lessons can be unlearned. Much worse is the possibility that many millions of Americans have never been taught how to critically read and to logically think. If this is true, it does not bode well for the nation's future.Comments Off
Over at the Daily Beast Jamelle Bouie accuses Sarah Palin of rhetorical overreach by recently likening the national debt to slavery.
It just so happens that the introductory chapter of a book I've been working on doesn't just employ slavery as a simile, but actually asserts that a central feature of modern government is slavery. Undoubtedly, Mr. Bouie will take umbrage at the equivalence. But I challenge him and you to refute the assertion on logical grounds. I look forward to critiques and encourage discussion if you dare to proceed . . .Comments Off
Republicans want a delay in Obamacare. Because of the many significant problems with the rollout of Obamacare, and because he has delayed parts of the law himself some 19 times, President Obama should want a delay in Obamacare too. One year gives Democrats an opportunity to fix systemic errors in the software, the regulations, and the law. One year gives nothing at all to the Republicans–nothing–except the opportunity to crow a little bit.
That the President can't compromise in a way that gives him everything he wants, plus the extra time he needs, is not about business. It's strictly personal.
UPDATE: Thanks to Glenn for the link. While you're here, take a look around.
MORE: Allahpundit and Evan McMurray dissect Wolf Blitzer's wonderment that it isn't the Democrats who are the ones begging for a year's delay.
Exit question: Do national Democrats hate the Tea Party so much that they would take all the (well-deserved) negative reaction over the Obamacare Follies rather than to give in on just the delay even while it benefits them more than Republicans in the long run?Comments (17)
With a weekend to digest recent events, I have concluded that Newtown is really just the continuation of that timeless discussion regarding the correct balance of individual rights and responsiblities against the ability and wisdom of government to control events.
An obviously mentally unstable man steals some firearms and kills more than two dozen of the most defenseless victims. Immediately, as after all such events, there goes up a cry for more restrictions on the individual ownership of guns. However, even if that were the right course of action, as John Fund points out, in a country that contains over 200 million privately owned firearms, prohibition is not possible. To outlaw gun ownership would be as futile (not to mention damaging to the cause of limiting violence) as would be an attempt to return 11 million illegal aliens to their homelands or a second attempt at the prohibition of alcohol. Some things are just too entrenched to ever completely end.
Another group has argued for a greater ability of the government to diagnose and detain mentally ill individuals. While certainly there is great merit in having a serious adult conversation about the role of mental illness in violent crime, proposals to return to an era of committing people to the Cuckoo's Nest, are as fraught with societal danger as are proposals to ban guns. Granting to government the power to forcibly hospitalize the mentally ill who might perform violent acts is as anathema to the American way, as giving government the power to imprison those who might commit a crime. Just how many scores of thousands of imprisoned innocently insane is the right number to save the lives of the next score of innocent children?
If phrasing the trade-off that way doesn't make you uncomfortable, then I suggest that you don't have an appreciation for what the American ideal of freedom means. Our system was purposefully designed to default to government inaction and individual freedom. While it is understandably frustrating to victims and their families, our rules prefer that the guilty go free rather than to wrongfully imprison an innocent man. That is no less true for the criminally insane than it is for the just plain criminal.
Shit happens. Sorry to so crassly phrase it, but that's just the way life is. As we grow more technologically advanced, we have had great success in controlling–even eliminating–some of that shit. Smallpox is completely gone. Polio is rare. Malaria is almost non-existent outside of the third world. The same is true of hunger–the real, dying of starvation kind. We have even the ability to screen out telemarketers without ever touching the phone.
While shit still happens, less of it happens than happened before. So it is not surprising that we look around for other shit to stop. But sometimes in our zeal to stop it all, we lose sight of the trade-offs. How many millions of man-hours of economic productivity, for example, are lost every day in airport security lines in an effort to stop a hijacking that takes place less often than once-a-year?
Rare tragic events sharpen the focus more clearly than does the every day cost of preventing them. I remember a couple dozen years ago the sad story of an airplane lap child who died when he struck the bulkhead during turbulence. Immediately a cry went out to require infant seats on aircraft. In one of those uncommon examples of when Washington considers the whole issue–that which is unseen as well as that which is seen–Congress wisely chose not to act. I say wisely, not because I wish for infants on airplanes to die, but because a serious analysis of ALL of the facts indicated that the solution would lead to more deaths than it would save. That was because if parents were forced to buy an extra ticket for their infant, some significant percentage of them would opt to drive rather than to fly. And by driving, they would make their infant child far more susceptible to accidental death. Shit happens. And sometimes we just have to let it happen, because in trying to stop it, we inadvertently add to the pile of shit.
So what should we do to mitigate the risk of shit? Confiscation, as Ed Schultz suggests? Only if you want criminals to act with less caution, not to mention the real risk of igniting a civil war. Outlaw automatic weapons as Rupert Murcoch demands? It wouldn't have helped as they were already outlawed in 1934 and Mr. Lanza's weapons were not automatic. Reinstituting the "assault weapons" ban that limits the size of magazines as Senator Schumer wants? That wouldn't have helped either; as Mr. Lanza reportedly overcame that limitation by having "hundreds of rounds of ammunition in multiple magazines." Enforce tighter restriction on gun possession by the mentally ill? That might be worth analyzing, but it still wouldn't have helped here, as apparently Mr. Lanza shot his own mother dead and then stole her guns. More cops in schools? There are 132,000 schools in the nation; even ignoring the $13 billion additional cost, is 132,000 new police really going to stop the violence? In a mall in Clackamas it apparently only limited, but did not stop, the bloodshed. Add to the list of places where guns are illegal? They are already illegal in schools; perhaps that is why schools and other gun-free zones are such a target-rich environment.
In epidemiology there is a concept known as "herd immunity." If enough of the population is vaccinated, epidemics can't occur. Even the uninnoculated benefit because their vaccinated neighbors prevent a disease's spread from getting out of control. Herd immunity doesn't stop the disease, but it does stop its spread. The evidence of recent gun violence suggests that if enough law abiding citizens are armed, the death toll of mass murder events may similarly be limited by a form of herd immunity. It is worth considering that the answer to gun violence is the counter-intuitive: more guns.
But what I would even more strongly suggest is that more restrictions on individuals is a worse response than doing nothing. Whether it is to leave a hundred million citizens more susceptible to everyday violent acts because, unarmed, they are at the mercy of armed criminals, or to add to the already swollen number of Americans forcibly detained, any heavy-handed governmental reaction to events such as what occurred in Newtown is likely to be worse than the problem it is meant to cure.
Government was never meant to be the last line of defense against evil. We individuals are. We are the militia. That is the meaning of the Second Amendment. Shit happens. And when it does, hopefully enough of our herd is ready to deal with it before shit gets out of control.
Guy Benson echoes a similar theme:
I'm skeptical that proposing more grief-fueled laws is a meaningful solution. And even if one could accurately project that passing Gun Law X would save Y number of lives, where do Constitutional rights come into play, and who gets to weigh those factors? If curtailing the First Amendment could also be scientifically proven to save some quantifiable number of lives, would we tolerate additional government limits on those core, specifically-enumerated freedoms? These are extraordinarily difficult questions.
Megan McArdle does too:
What Lanza shows us is the limits of the obvious policy responses. He had all the mental health resources he needed–and he did it anyway. The law stopped him from buying a gun–and he did it anyway. The school had an intercom system aimed at stopping unauthorized entry–and he did it anyway. Any practical, easy-to-implement solution to school shootings that you could propose, along with several that were not at all easy to implement, was already in place. Somehow, Lanza blew through them all.
. . . It would certainly be more comfortable for me to endorse doing something symbolic–bring back the "assault weapons ban"–in order to signal that I care. But I would rather do nothing than do something stupid because it makes us feel better. We shouldn't have laws on the books unless we think there's a good chance they'll work: they add regulatory complexity and sap law-enforcement resources from more needed tasks. This is not because I don't care about dead children; my heart, like yours, broke about a thousand times this weekend. But they will not breathe again because we pass a law. A law would make us feel better, because it would make us feel as if we'd "done something", as if we'd made it less likely that more children would die. But I think that would be false security. And false security is more dangerous than none.
For McArdle's crime of pointing out the obvious truth–nothing that gun control advocates have proposed would have stopped Mr. Lanza's murderous spree–New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait awards her the "Worst Newtown Reaction Award." I urge you to read his column, and then, if you can stomach it, read the comments. There really are two Americas. And Chait and his readers apparently have never stepped foot in the America west of the Hudson River.
Daniel Greenfield offers his thoughts on individual rights and responsibilities versus the government's ability to control events:
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The clash that will define the future of America is this collision between the individual and the state, between disorganized freedom and organized compassion, between a self-directed experiment in self-government and an experiment conducted by trained experts on a lab monkey population. And the defining idea of this conflict is accountability.
If the deal is $1.2 T in new taxes and new spending now in exchange for $400 B in cuts ten or more years away, then Republicans shouldn't walk away from "fiscal cliff" negotiations. They should run.
The alternative is to just let sequestration take effect. The biggest hit is to the Department of Defense. And I can tell you that the hit won't be nearly deep enough.*
*Usual caveat about this being my view and not DoD's, blah, and blah.Comments Off
I'm not Mitt Romney, so I don't have to focus solely on jobs, jobs, jobs. (But fear not; if you stay with me to the end, there's a jobs angle to this story too.)
To mark this historic occasion–the 24 hour anniversary of Barack Obama's evolution wherein he catches up to the position where Dick Cheney was two years ago–let's talk about people who hate people who aren't like them.
No, I'm not talking about these people. I'm talking about mommy bloggers who want to punch people in the throat. That's actually the name of the blog "People I want to Punch in the throat." And just in case that was too nuanced for you, she adds in a subtitle: "I think the title sums it up. If you can't figure it out, then go away before I punch you in the throat."
The homophobic rants at this site are the work of the pseudonymous mommy blogger Jen Fisher, who advises her readers that she is a "funny, negative, bitchy type of person," and adds that "If you can't handle that . . . don't waste your time flaming me for being a grouch." While she is unlike another mommy blogger I know and like, who is funny without being negative and bitchy, I can see how that persona could be humorous . . . if your idea of funny is a female Archie Bunker with a blog.
Actually her rants aren't homophobic. At least none that I've read. But they might as well be, because they heap scorn, ridicule, and virtual violence on "people not like me."
Let me give you an example from the post that I found via a link from an old friend. Jen wants to punch "Douchey Dads" in the throat. She never quite defines "Douchey Dad," but apparently it is a young, well-dressed member of a country club. They are guilty of taking Tuesdays off to golf, wearing expensive shirts, and "yukking"–whatever that is. In short they are "people not like me."
Jen met the DDs when she was setting up at a country club for a charity auction and immediately took a dislike to them, those people not like her. Why? I don't know. Apparently being affluent, well-dressed, and comfortable is somehow wrong. (Methinks I detect jealousy.) Why do people take an instant disliking to someone, lump them all into a category and pillory them on the web for others to mock?
Here's a little exercise I like to engage in: turn the story around 180-degrees and see if it's still the same. If instead of making fun of idle white wealthy fathers, this was a post advocating a punch in the throat for unemployed black impoverished mothers, would we act the same? No. At the very least it would be labeled "hate speech." And it wouldn't be funny to anyone . . . anyone except Archie Bunker, perhaps. (When did Meathead turn into Archie? That's a subject for another day.) So why is this funny to Jen and her hundreds of commenters?
Why is it that society feels comfortable mocking one group, when we would never tolerate the same treatment of another? Why is it that those very people who dislike people they don't even know (church-goers, rednecks, Kansans) often think of themselves as being so tolerant? Just how little introspection does it take to have such a bipolar view of the world?
I'm probably too hard on Jen. I'm sure that she's a nice person in real life and is mean only as a means to amuse. But then again, maybe I'm not too hard on her. "Mean only as a means to amuse" is pretty much the definition of a bully. (Or at least that's what we'd call it if Jen was ridiculing a protected class.) Maybe it just takes having the contrast exposed for her to see the point. Plus, it's hard to heap too much blame on a mere blogger, when we have a President who likes to divide people, label them, and engage in ridicule. So much for unity.
Finally, since I promised a jobs angle to the story . . . it isn't clear from Jen's post whether she was at the country club as an employee, vendor, or to help the charity hosting the auction there. It doesn't matter, because in some small way the presence of the "douchey dads" she found so objectionable, contributed to her cause. Even if they weren't at the charity auction themselves, they help fund the country club so that it can offer reasonable prices to charities wishing to host an event. It amazes me how often I hear scorn from employees, clients, and benificiaries directed at those who provide them cash. People might want to keep that in mind lest they again make the mistake of engaging in covetous tax policies that put a bunch of shipyard workers out of work.
P.S. Don't misconstrue this post as advocacy for a world free from mockery. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's more fun to live in a Blazing Saddles world:Comments (2)


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