A wickedly fun and perfectly frivolous post, no harm intended -- except between consenting adults. Since, after all, “All blogs are quite useless.” (Fake Oscar Wilde quotation.)
Now, I’m sure the Republican National Committee and Michael Steele will have an appropriate response to the topic addressed in Jason Linkins’ HuffPo Article today (namely, if I have understood aright, RNC-paid visits to a bondage-themed nightclub in WeHo), but at the moment they’re, well, you’ll understand -- all tied up.
Hosannah to Our Lord in the Highest for this good man’s tenure as RNC Chair. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I worked at it, uh, “24/7.”
I don’t mind stories like this playing rough with the daily headlines: dominate us, you sexy right-wing sadists, DOMINATE US! All through November 1st -- the day before the election. We just can’t get enough….
PS -- just so y'all don't accuse me of plagiarism, the "Party of Yes" ha-ha headline (without the naughty additions I made) first appeared in HuffPo.
LOL. Love it and love your rendition.
ReplyDeleteDino-mite!
ReplyDeleteHosannah indeed. If you're gonna have hos tying you up, you better have ho sanitation.
Yum, a delightful story and post, Dino (though the title makes some humans blush, yanno).
ReplyDeleteI love the club's review included in Jason's piece:
The girl at the door sent us in right away and told us to go to a table by the bar and get some free Champagne. Seriously. This club is amazing. There are topless "dancers" acting out S&M scenes throughout the night on one of the side stages, there's a half-naked girl hanging from a net across the ceiling and at one point I walked to the bathroom and pretty much just stopped dead in my tracks to watch two girls simulating oral sex in a glass case.
Really understated elegance here.
Also, Lindsay Lohan was at our table at one point.
"Really(!) understated elegance" is so appropriate an impression, isn't it? The place just, uh, oozes it.
Thanks all,
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, you humans and your blushing. We dinos can't blush -- just can't do it.
I was gonna say the RNC has a safe word and it's HELL NO YOU CAN'T!
ReplyDeleteSoBe-- Excellent observation!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite liberal/feminist blogs, Echidne, compares Iceland’s recent banning of strip clubs with this curious Republican practice curiously known as T&E. About the Iceland story:
ReplyDeletethe Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday: "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold."
Now contrast the difference in culture:
Echidne: “Astute readers may have noticed that the Iceland link is to the Guardian and the U.S. link to the New York Daily News, and that these are not comparable newspapers. But note that even in the Guardian this topic is filed under "Lifestyles."
That's where we stand: The Icelandic ban on strip clubs is under lifestyles/women and the U.S. coverage is a concern about spending tax money on the titillation of men who work for the Republican party.”
These stories are so ironically humorous. I think the RNC should spend more money at the Voyuer Club - might help to get the sticks out of their asses and lighten up!
ReplyDeleteWhat pisses me off is the hypocritical stance. All this fake moral superiority and "Christian" values while engaging in the nasty in all its many forms.
HA!
Rocky, that's a fine idea -- the DNC really should give them the money for it if the RNC balks. I've been indecorous enough today, so I'll avoid the pun that could be made about "sticks" and the benefits thereof for too-puritanical Republican psyches....
ReplyDeleteOcto, but what do you think of the Icelandic ban on this stuff, for any reason at all? I'm certainly not the type who would go to such places -- that kind of public display (and many men's "locker-room" attitudes towards such displays) embarrasses this dino personally, quite aside from the feminist angle.
I would be for ensuring that sex workers (or whatever the right term is here) don't get exploited the way they often are, but banning these establishments?
Dino - what do you think of the Icelandic ban on this stuff, for any reason at all?
ReplyDeleteDino, the issue is a conundrum for me because I know from case studies and meta-analyses that the preponderance of sex workers (89%+) have histories of child sexual abuse. When compromised as a child, it is easier to compromise oneself as an adult ... especially if you are a runaway teenager escaping abuse at home and falling victim to a pimp or trafficker on the streets.
I regard the criminalization of prostitution as a form of victim blame because, in effect, young women are victimized twice: First, the crime of abuse perpetrated upon them as children; second, being branded as criminal and/or immoral by a society that refuses to acknowledge what was done to them, and incarcerates them rather than offer any form of counseling or rehabilitation. From this perspective, I regard our social attitudes as hypocritical and immoral.
Nevertheless, how about the rights of those who 'choose' this line of work for whatever reason? Should they have the right to choose? Feminists resent the commoditization of female sexuality, viewed as another form of patriarchal domination, and, out of respect, I would prefer to avoid having this argument with them.
From a psychological viewpoint, I abhor all forms of victim blame and would prefer a more tolerant and supportive attitude on behalf of the victims. What bothers me most of all: At present, sex workers have little or no legal protection from abuse and violence, and perhaps the only justice we can offer them is to decriminalize prostitution and confer full protection under law.
(What I failed to mention in the quote above - 100% of the strippers in Iceland are not native but trafficked in. By outlawing it, perhaps the intent is stop trafficking.)
BTW, Dino, I make the same argument concerning young women who suffer from the eating disorder known as Anorexia nervosa.
ReplyDeleteThere are well-intentioned, yet ignorant politicians who want to ban these women as fashion models on the theory that they serve as negative role models for other young women.
Pure bunk. What drives A. nervosa is NOT role modeling in media or within a peer group, but certain kinds of parenting styles within the home, i.e. criticism and nagging with regards to appearance that damages the self-esteem of the subject.
Once the etiology is properly understood, it makes no sense to stigmatize and deprive already damaged young women of their livelihood.
Another example of victim blame: First, the young women are damaged at home; then they are damaged again by do-good politicians yearning to score legislative points without forethought as to the impact of their pandering on their victims.
Sheesh, the stupidity of fools is enough to make me ink the aquarium.
"the stupidity of fools"
ReplyDeleteForrest Gump would win the White House by a huge majority since we're a country that believes profoundly in the wisdom of fools.
I have to buy my ink at Office Depot, but I know how you feel.
Captain, Forrest Gump is a kind and wise man compared with the mean-spirited crap that now calls itself the Republican Party.
ReplyDeletePredictably, this story keeps getting better.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that Steele was not involved in the elegantly understated (or the other way around) SMBD clubbing, but that it was a perk for "Young Eagles" (yup), the up-and-coming generation of Republicans. Which I, for one, totally support, cuz if you're gonna grab them young'ems, that's the way to do it (grab'em and tie'em up and whatnot).
But what is really important here is the condemnation of this incident issued by one Douglas MacKinnon, former press secretary to Majority Leader Robert Dole, who said the following (directing it to Mr. Steele):
No matter which side of the aisle you find yourself, if you are giving a political party your hard-earned money, you should have no doubts that it is going to be spent as advertised and not to provide a spoiled, egocentric, out-of-touch chairman with frivolous luxuries which are out of reach of the vast majority of the American people. Michael Steele needs to resign and let the RNC vote in a man or woman who understands that his or her needs do not come before the needs of the nation or the party.
Yeah, what he said! Who sez that Republicans are heartless and selfish bastards? This is a call for equality and social justice, if I've ever heard one!
Until every hard-working American man (and woman, alright, alright) can afford his (or her) own trips to understatedly elegant SMBD clubs -- or better yet, until we turn the whole nation into one SMBD orgy -- singular Republicans (or other creatures) should not be given opportunities to avail themselves of such luxuries. There.
How's that for equality and fairness? (And Glenn Beck should have a coronary now, after such a blatant appeal for social justice from the right.)
Yes, social justice is a great evil in this land of ours! We must stamp it out wherever we find it....
ReplyDeleteBut as for those Eager Eagles, well, I don't know -- maybe they just reckoned that when you're offered some "Party money," the only proper thing to do is party. It's an understandable mistake since Republicans tend to interpret things literally....
Jon Stewart has spoken -- even reenacted Steele's BD club adventure with Muppets!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Elizabeth. Will have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteThe Muppets never fooled me with that all-innocent act of theirs....
Jon Stewart has really been on his game lately -- first his excellent Glenn Beck free-association-happy impression a few days ago, and now Michael and the Muppets? Can he top this? (Okay, bad pun intended.)