1. Former Capitol Hill staffer's lawsuit over sex blog moves closer to trial
2. When Will Bisexuals Drag Homosexuals out of Polygamy Closet?
3. Cop's lawyer, prosecutor square off at end of dominatrix case
4. Sergeant denies Greenburgh officer had reputation for fetish
5. Knitting for Adults Only
1. Former Capitol Hill staffer's lawsuit over sex blog moves closer to trial
2. When Will Bisexuals Drag Homosexuals out of Polygamy Closet?
3. Cop's lawyer, prosecutor square off at end of dominatrix case
4. Sergeant denies Greenburgh officer had reputation for fetish
5. Knitting for Adults Only
Former Capitol Hill staffer's lawsuit over sex blog moves closer to trial
by Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press (via The York Dispatch, York PA)
December 27, 2006
WASHINGTON — When Robert Steinbuch discovered his girlfriend had discussed intimate details about their sex life in her online diary, the Capitol Hill staffer didn't just get mad. He got a lawyer.
Soon, though, the racy tidbits about the sex lives of the two Senate aides faded from the front pages and the gossip pages. Steinbuch accepted a teaching job in Arkansas, leaving Washington and Jessica Cutler's "Washingtonienne" Web log behind.
While sex scandals turn over quickly in this city, lawsuits do not. Steinbuch's case over the embarrassing, sexually charged blog appears headed for an embarrassing, sexually charged trial.
Lurid testimony about spanking, handcuffs and prostitution aside, the Washingtonienne case could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of the people they interact with offline.
Cutler, a former aide to Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, says she created the blog in 2004 to keep a few friends up to date on her social life. Like a digital version of the sex-themed banter from a "Sex and the City" episode, Cutler described the thrill and tribulations of juggling sexual relationships with six men.
One of those men was Steinbuch, a counsel to DeWine on the Judiciary Committee. Cutler called him the "current favorite" and said he resembled George Clooney, liked spanking and disliked condoms.
"He's very upfront about sex," she wrote. "He likes talking dirty and stuff, and he told me that he likes submissive women."
When Ana Marie Cox, then the editor of the popular gossip Web site Wonkette.com, discovered and linked to Cutler's blog, the story spun out of control. Cutler was fired and Steinbuch says he was publicly humiliated. He went to court seeking more than $20 million in damages.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/business/ci_4907880 To respond, write to: letters@yorkdispatch.com
When Will Bisexuals Drag Homosexuals out of Polygamy Closet?
by Janet M. LaRue
TownHall.com (Washington, DC)
December 22, 2006
In 1972 the National Coalition of Gay Organizations demanded the "repeal of all legislative provisions that restrict the sex or number of persons entering into a marriage unit; and the extension of legal benefits to all persons who cohabit regardless of sex or numbers". So why aren't homosexual activists leading the battle to legalize polygamy?
Maybe they're smart enough to understand the visceral reaction most of us would feel if we knew their goal and playbook. Maybe the rest of us would get our backs up if we stopped believing it's just about equal treatment of "two loving and committed same-sex couples".
Maybe a whole lot of us need to care more about morality and the greater good of society and children in particular than we do about our self-centered obsessions about how "fair" and "loving" we're perceived to be.
Polygamists are pushing the paradigm by arguing that if Heather can have two mommies, why not two mommies and a daddy? And come to think about it, aren't two mommies and a daddy "better" than no mommy or no daddy?
Already, an estimated 30,000 to 80,000 families are living polygamously in the United States, including hundreds of Laotian Hmongs in Minnesota and thousands of fundamentalist Mormons in Arizona and Utah. (Cheryl Wetzstein, "The Marriage of Many: If homosexuals can wed, will polygamists be next", Washington Times, Dec. 11, 2005, p. A01).
Given the number of children in the average polygamous household, there's no doubt that many more children are "deprived" of state benefits because of anti-bigamy laws than are children in homosexual households.
A May 2005 Gallup poll found that 92 percent of Americans oppose the practice, which is illegal in all 50 states. But if Americans can be convinced that polygamy, like same-sex marriage or civil unions is about "fairness", opposition can be expected to erode, once homosexual activists come out of the closet in support of the right of bisexuals' to marry an individual of each sex.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/JanetMLaRue/2006/12/22/when_will_bisexuals_drag_homosexuals_out_of_polygamy_closet To respond, go to: http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/JanetMLaRue/2006/12/22/when_will_bisexuals_drag_homosexuals_out_of_polygamy_closet?page=full&comments=true#postComments
Cop's lawyer, prosecutor square off at end of dominatrix case
by Jonathan Bandler
The Journal News (Lower Hudson area, NY)
December 21, 2006
GREENBURGH – The lawyer for the town police officer embroiled in a dominatrix scandal urged Town Board members last night not to let the woman's unsubstantiated claims "destroy the career of an honest, hardworking cop."
Andrew Quinn gave an impassioned defense of Erik Ward, saying dominatrix Gina Pane's salacious claims of misconduct were as dangerous as guns and knives.
"There is another weapon that is no less fatal to a police officer, and that is the trajectory of a false allegation. And that is exactly what we are dealing with here," Quinn said at the conclusion of Ward's disciplinary hearing at Town Hall.
The prosecutor, Vincent Toomey, said Pane's credibility about performing a kinky sex act for Ward so he would help her deal with a marijuana charge was not the issue. He said Ward's own reckless behavior and bad judgment in dealing with Pane had exposed the town to liability. Police officials never would have suspended Ward, a decorated officer, if they hadn't investigated the matter and found misconduct by the officer, Toomey said.
"This is isn't something the department wanted. It was something dumped upon them," he said.
The Town Board members are serving as the Board of Police Commissioners and can suspend Ward further or dismiss him if they find him guilty of departmental charges brought by Police Chief John Kapica.
Last night, the board reserved any decision until after Friday, when it will visit the locations where Pane and Ward met.
Pane was arrested Jan. 21 on marijuana charges in the parking lot of the Greenburgh Multiplex. Ward, a member of the street crime unit, went there and began cultivating her as an informant, suggesting she could help herself with the criminal charge if she had valuable information for police about drug activity. The conversation continued at police headquarters, Ward followed up with phone calls, and they met the next day near her Rye Brook home to set up a cocaine dealer she knew for an undercover drug buy.
Pane contends that the conversations were laced with Ward's discussions of his sexual fetishes and that she eventually agreed to go to a wooded area in Greenwich where she defecated for Ward as he masturbated.
Ward, a six-year veteran, was suspended without pay after Pane made a formal complaint to police later that week. Ten weeks later, he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct, accused of getting an unauthorized benefit through his interaction with Pane. A town judge acquitted him last week on that charge.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061221/NEWS02/612210373/1018/NEWS02 To respond, write to: the author at jbandler@lohud.com or the editors at letters@lohud.com
Sergeant denies Greenburgh officer had reputation for fetish
by Jonathan Bandler
The Journal News (Lower Hudson area, NY)
December 20, 2006
GREENBURGH – A Greenburgh police sergeant insisted last night that he did not call Officer Erik Ward to an arrest scene just because he had a dominatrix in custody.
Sgt. Robert Gramaglia's testimony at Ward's disciplinary hearing was intended to counter dominatrix Gina Pane's claim that Ward confronted her about a sexual fetish as soon as he got there on Jan. 21.
Pane was arrested that night outside the Greenburgh Multiplex after a police officer allegedly saw her smoking marijuana. Ward, a member of the street crime unit, responded to the scene and spoke to her there and at police headquarters about the possibility of becoming a confidential informant.
Pane contends that Ward was called in by his buddies because they had learned of her occupation and knew him to be a sex fetishist, a claim Ward has denied. Gramaglia said he knew of no such reputation and the only reference he ever made to Pane's occupation was when he called ahead to headquarters to report that an emotionally disturbed prostitute was being brought there on marijuana charges.
Ward was suspended after Pane made a complaint, and in April was charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor. Last week, a town judge found him not guilty.
The disciplinary charges focus on whether Ward violated departmental rules in contacting Pane. Members of the Town Board, serving as the Board of Police Commissioners, could find him guilty and fire him even if they don't believe Pane's claim of a tryst in the woods.
Commissioner Francis Sheehan questioned Ward about the computer missing from his apartment when police executed a search warrant at the end of January. Ward insisted he was surprised to learn of the search and said he had thrown out the computer a week earlier because it had broken. Police officials had wanted to see if Ward had frequented sadomasochistic Web sites – Pane's in particular – in the past, since he had denied any interest in that topic.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061220/NEWS02/612200341/1023/NEWS07 To respond, write to: jbandler@lohud.com or the editors at letters@lohud.com
Knitting for Adults Only
by Violet Blue (opinion column)
The San Francisco Chronicle
December 14, 2006
Much to my surprise, San Francisco's real sexual revolution seems to be happening neither on the streets of the Castro, nor in the sex-positive, women-owned sex shops, nor in Victorian apartments besieged by prolific feminist porn companies. Instead, it is happening in the last place I'd think to go shopping for a whip. At this very moment, the new discourse about reinventing intercourse (and many non-vanilla-flavored activities) is happening at the neighborhood yarn store.
If the idea of yarn craft sounds more like Martha Stewart than Dita Von Teese, then your reaction to the emergent sexy knitting meme is going to be more like mine: a combination of whimsical cynicism at the absurdity of such a concept, and then no small amount of dismay at the sexification of crafts. Felt is so not hot. But yarn? A craft pattern for which you have to show over-18 ID as proof of legal age to knit? It just makes me giggle.
But if San Francisco's Domiknitrix has anything to do with it, my laughter would soon turn to tears should I find myself at the wrong end of Jennifer Stafford's stern knitting needles. No potholder-crafting submissive is she. As evidenced by her new book, "Domiknitrix: Whip Your Knitting Into Shape," wielding wool has many more arousing applications than the schoolmarms at the craft store let on. This sexy take on demanding unexpected pleasures from perfecting a stitch is all about Stafford showing you "the ropes" on making perfect sweaters with uneven stitches. And while not overtly sexual in content, the decidedly adult tone insists that yarn's place is over your lap, ready for discipline — or even groveling at your feet for a firm hand from a merciless wool disciplinarian.
From start to finish, the book is filled with wickedly sexy pinup color photographs of hip-looking girls and guys in various demonstrations of the naughtily knitted product. Two women wrestle in cavegirl bikinis. Pasties are modeled by a sexy lineup of women who could only belong in a San Francisco burlesque troupe. "Kinderwhore" is a knitting pattern for naughty schoolgirl socks shown on two mischievous adult schoolgirls. In one adorable photo, a demure model pouts amid a pile of sex toys and hand-crafted cozies for almost every sex toy that keeps Good Vibrations in business. Lest we forget that the ingredients for marital bliss can include love, a paddle and deft needles, one image shows a babe in latex playing cards on the back of a man made into a human table by way of the knitted blindfold and cuffs she's administered. And one delightful section called "Disobey Madame at Your Peril" shows several whips that can be created in an hour. So basically, if he's an hour late, Lohr has your back.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/12/14/violetblue.DTL To respond, write to: the author at violetblue@sfgate.com or the editors at letters@sfchronicle.com
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