Monday, September 18th, 2000
Flashman Calls
Flashman phoned: "I'll give you an update on some of the girls that have called me, and are looking great, and still like you. Like Alicia Rio. She's had her boobs done. I saw her at the celebrity softball game. She says she's clean and sober. And she'll never again wind up in New York, on the dole, without any money, on drugs and booze... And she's feeling better and will show off her new look Halloween night.
"Mia Smiles called me to say that she's living with Chris Cannon. But she still adores [her ex-boyfriend] John Decker but gets along better domestically with Chris."
Director David Clark Releases His First Gonzo
David Aaron Clark writes on RAME: Just released my first out and out gonzo, "PORNOCIDE: In the Company of Whores" from Heatwave. The cover is so truly horrendous that none of you in your right minds would pick the damn thing up on a bet (hey, even I wouldn't, and it's got four of my favorite girls of the moment in it!), but I'm hoping a few "kind" souls might enjoy the chance to sock it back to me, and not only give it a try but offer a thumbs up or down. I'm a big boy, I can deal with gratuitous insults (hey, I use to work for both Goldstein and Black ...). I promise to offer reasonable explanations or opinions in reply only if truly needed, and not be a bad sport about any death threats or so forth.
I know this might seem like an odd request, but the thing is, nobody at Heatwave even LOOKS at your work (besides the Mexican guy who has to run the duplicating machines), and the politics of Porn Valley are so intense that it's all too easy to predict what 99 percent of the critics will say about what you do, positive or negative, thoroughly based on your industry status as opposed to the actual show in question. And I'm BEYOND f---ing tired of it. If you think I'm trolling for free publicity, then just privately e-mail your opinion.
PORNOCIDE's an unusual departure for me, but it's my interpretation of what I think gonzo was originally about, and should be about. It absolutely isn't meant to compete with Rocco, Anabolic, etc ... it's something different. It stars Ryan Connor, Alliyah-Yi, Mercedes, Kasorn Swan and Jade Marcella, if that helps ... I can't promise to refund rental fees, but it's a good chance to put me in my place, and if you really insist on fair recompense I'll dub off my forthcoming video record of the elsewhere-mentioned summit between tal, Peter North and Frank Towers in which the topic of whether a performer's personal limits should impact upon their professional standards will be tested "in the field," so to speak, and resolved in an extraordinarily firm and fulfilling manner ...
Luke Meets Arnold Schwartzpecker
I attended a Jewish singles picnic Sunday afternoon in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. For about an hour, I threw a football around with some guys. Then before I went off to hit on Persian women (I love their dark exotic looks and traditional ways), I started talking with one of my footy mates. A muscular man in his 30s told me, "We work in the same industry. My stage name is Arnold Schwartzpecker."
He's appeared in about 400 films during his seven year career. He reads GeneRoss.com regularly but has never been to my site.
I never mention l-keford.com at such events unless I'm alone with close friends. On rare occasions, I do run into Jewish porners (mainly folks behind the scenes) at Jewish events but overwhelmingly the Jews of porn do not participate in Jewish life.
For the first time in months, I did not drive on Sabbath (thus keeping Jewish Law). I'm becoming Orthodox, ie, fully observant of Jewish Law. Every morning and evening I pray at shul and study Torah. I eat out at kosher restaurants and my heart fills with pride at the site of the dozens of young vibrant Jewish kids, the boys wearing yarmulkes and tzitzit (fringes) and sometimes payas (sidelocks) and the girls dressed modestly.
It was about a month ago, that I last told someone that I could never be orthodox. I could not fully subscribe to the 13 essential principles of the Jewish faith as enumerated by the Jewish philosopher Maimonidies. I found it difficult to believe that every word of the Torah (five books of Moses) and the oral Torah (mishna - foundation of the Talmud) came from God. And I could elaborate on countless other ways that the tradition seemed to oppose reason.
But a strange thing has happened. My thinking has started to follow my observance. Since returning from Israel, I've become more observant of Jewish Law. And now that I get up every morning at 6:30 AM to pray in shul, it is harder for me on Saturday morning to violate Jewish Law by driving to the non-orthodox shul I belong to (and pay $1150 yearly dues). The practice of praying in shul three times a day seems to be taking over my whole life. It's become the highlight of my day, and I organize the rest of my time around it.
I find myself not publishing many of the emails I receive because they're too vulgar. My sensitivity to impurity and coarseness has dramatically increased because of the increased practice of my religion.
I particularly enjoy the male camraderie of my new routine. I pray in Orthodox shuls, which separate the sexes during prayer. My daily Talmud class is for men only. When I go to yeshiva in Israel, I will probably choose a traditional one (for men only). That makes it easier to concentrate on the sacred text.
I've come to enjoy the contradictions between Jewish tradition and Western rationality. For one thing, these "irrationalities" tie me closer to my fellow observant Jews. It's our common burden. And it makes life richer and more thrilling and challenging and complex.
I converted to Judaism because I thought it the most rational of the world's religions but in my mellowing middle age, I've developed greater tolerance for the irrationalities of my faith and the for the irrationalities of many of my coreligionists. I don't surrender my reason. I still find things that contradict reason impossible to believe. But I have greater peace with them, and feel less of a need to pronounce on their empirical wrongness. Thus I'll be able to fit in better with my fellow Orthodox Jews. I hope.
I find Christian cartoonist Jack Chick wildly irrational at times, but I enjoy the hell out of him.
I'm reading a book ("Safed Spirituality - Rules of Mystical Piety") about some wildly irrational pietists of the 16th Century in Safed, Israel, the center of kaballa - Jewish mysticism (TV personality Roseanne Barr owns a home there).
Here's an excerpt from the pious customs of Joseph Karo, the author of the most authoritative book of Jewish Law, the Shulchan Aruch. Karo moved to Safed in 1537. He believed that he was regularly visited by an angel who taught him the following (I think the readers of l-keford.com would do well to heed this advice and they should report back on how it has affected their lives):
1. To begin with, take care never to think about anything, at any time whatsoever, other than the Mishnah, the Torah, and the commandments. And hsould some other thought occupy you, thrust it away.
2. Be careful to avoid thinking about anything at the hour of prayer besides the words of prayer themselves. This even includes avoiding thoughts of Torah and the commandments.
3. Be careful never to indulge in idle conversation whatsoever, neither during the day nor at night.
4. Take care to avoid engaging in any kind of talk which may lead to frivolity. And if you should overhear conversation of this sort, do not indulge in laughter whatsoever. This extends to the complete avoidance of mockery.
5. Never become angry about anything at all having to do with material things.
8. Be gentle in speech to all people.
9. Never act pridefully whatsoever, rather, be exceedingly humble.
10. Conduct yourself modestly, even in relationship to your wife.
11. Be careful to avoid taking pleasure while eating meat and drinking, or while partaking of any other kind of enjoyment. Act as if a demon were forcing you to eat this food or indulge in the enjoyable activity. You should very much prefer it were it possible to exist without food and drink altogether, or were it possible to fulfill the obligation of procreation without enjoyment.
12. Always have your transgressions in mind and preoccupy yourself with them.
14. Acquire the habit of always keeping your eyes cast downward so that you do not chance to gaze upon a woman who is forbidden to you.
16. Do not cease thinking about Me, even for the slightest moment, and limit your enjoyment. When you are eating and you desire to eat or drink still more, refrain from doing so. If you behave in this manner at every meal it will be tantamount to offering a sacrifice. Your table will serve as an actual altar upon which you slaughter the evil inclination.
Curious writes: Coincidentally the 16 rules of Jewish purity given to Joseph Karo by an angel are very similar to the symptoms of depression that led me into therapy. I'm serious.
Luke writes: Saturday morning, I left my home at 7:45 and walked a mile or so to shul for the 8:15 Daf Yomi (page of Talmud a day) class. Then I walked to a Shlomo Carlebach ecstatic style minyan. We prayed until 1:30PM then ate lunch. Then we heard a talk from a black American female Christian minister who converted to Orthodox Judaism and now lives in a charedi (very religious) community near Jerusalem. Afterwards I talked to her, and she mentioned that she had a couple of women in Jerusalem that she wanted to introduce me to when I move there.
Upon the conclusion of the Holy Sabbath (7:45PM Saturday) I drove to the Dr Susan Block studios on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles (the security guards and most of the assistants are black). The place is filled with sexually explicit art. The curator, black female Kim Mendoza, took part in our panel discussion along with white guys Bill Margold and Lasse Braun.
Lasse tells me that if things proceed to plan, by next year he will only create material for distribution on the internet. He's tired of working for traditional video distributors.
A German TV crew is on hand (from the European cable TV channel ArtTV). They're making a documentary on Lasse Braun.
The German producer asks Bill Margold who he is.
Bill replies: "I am the leading authority on the X-rated industry in the world. I've done it all - acted, run agencies, directed, written..."
Bill shows the German a picture of Viper that he keeps in his wallet.
Bill: "This is the great love of my life. We were together for five years."
Dr. Block's husband Max comes by.
Max: "Lasse is responsible for all this. He perverted me when I was a kid."
Lasse: "That is my role - perverter."
Bill: "Unlocking the zippers of the mind."
Bill snuggles on the couch with one of his "kids" - new busty blonde porn star Salena Del Rey.
Dr. Block finds a bell for an assistant to ring whenever any of going over time in our answers. Lasse doesn't like the bell because it reminds him of church. During the following discussion, the only person who runs over the time limit is Lasse.
Dr Susan Block: "How would you guys define pornography?"
Lasse: "Filmed explicit sexual acts among humans or animals."
Bill: "It's a denigrating term for adult entertainment. It depends on your state of mind..."
Kim: "It's repetitive sexual acts."
Luke: "Sexual explicit entertainment designed to arouse."
Dr Block: "To what extent should society try to control people's sex lives?"
Luke: "Society has an interest in the private sex lives of its citizens. It has an interest in discouraging incest, homosexuality and other forms of deviant behavior. Society has an interest in fostering the nuclear family, to men committing to one woman exclusively, and the raising of children."
Lasse: "The interests of society are too vague... There are criminals who have taken power and are dictating their views... They pass laws against this and this. They want to control you. They want to control you by putting you into a monogamous relationship. After a couple of years tops, they can't have sex anymore... The government takes advantage of all this and starts to pass laws against incest. For four thousand years, we had incest everywhere and society grew fantastically. Bestiality was in Greek mythology. What's the big deal? Why should we forbid it? If you don't like it, don't do it."
Dr Block: "What do you guys think of ethical hedonism (something we try to practice here)? Is it an oxymoron or a practical philosophy of sex for the 21st Century?"
Kim: "I practice ethical hedonism every day, at work and at home."
Luke: "Ethical hedonism has a history going back to Epicurus. It is better than no ethics. But in the final analysis, unless people believe they are morally responsible to an all powerful God and to His higher moral law, it won't be enough to keep a society in line. It may help certain exceptional individuals and help them elevate their behavior but for an entire society, you need God and organized religion, a Bible and a moral code of Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots."
Lasse: "Ethical hedonism is foreign... It is not a bad idea but those are two words, that if you ask a thousand people, you may find three or four who know what they mean."
Dr Block: "Are you one of the three or four?"
Lasse: "Probably. It is difficult to understand what is the limit of ethics and how is hedonism involved in ethics? Why should hedonism be involved in ethics? Hedonism is one thing and ethics are another thing. I don't know how to put the two together."
Bill Margold: "It is a paradoxical term that I've never heard before. It is interesting that there are only two things that you can lose only once in your life - your virginity and your honor. I lost my virginity by accident when I was 20 when I found out that sex wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. And I don't think I've ever lost my honor. Ethics you have to live with inside yourself. Hedonism you practice externally with other people."
Dr Block: "How about some final comments?"
Bill: "This is my first time at this kind of table. It's been enlightening and cool. I agree with everything that's been said here..."
Lasse: "I'm a person who wants to have no limits..."
Dr Block: "You can be an ethical hedonist as easily as you can be an unethical puritan. You can lead a life that honors pleasure and be a good person."
Lasse: "It's the good person that is strange."
Dr Block: "You're a good person."
Lasse: "I know I'm a good person but I'm also a bad person..."
Bill: "You've made some bad movies? Big deal. So have I."
Lasse: "For me what counts is the revolutionary content of humans actions. So if the humans are making a revolution, I am always on their side. If they are somehow pulling back, then no. In this situation with our friend Luke, he is obviously a conservative and a Republican and a person who believes in the Ten Commandments. And that is ok. If he wants to believe that... It is when these people want to force their Ten Commandments on everybody else. That's what I dislike."
Luke: "I do want to force some of the Ten Commandments on you and everyone else. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't lie in court. I don't want to force the Sabbath or Don't Covet on everyone. I wish that people would keep 'Don't Commit Adultery' but I am not for legislating that.
"Lasse Braun's sexual revolution philosophy scares me. His lack of interest in ethics scares me. His having no problem with bestiality and incest scares me. His philosophies undercut the traditional bulwarks of morality which are necessary for society to flourish."
Lynne L-patin writes Luke: I see the site and your interest in pornography in general as an exploration of your own personal sexual conflicts....done in a safe arena, and a safe context. An exploration of things that, done privately, might be too painful to bear...
Chaim writes: Damn, it was pretty interesting today! Everything from yeshivas to shvartzes! But for how long will you be able to keep this up, and when are you moving to Israel?
Nico Treasures Repeat On Howard Stern
Jon writes: Luke, This coming up Wednesday and Thrsday nights @ 2A (Technically Thursday and Friday) Nico Treasures/Meredith Kott is sked to be on Howard Stern's E! shows. The shows are repeats from a few years back but now that we know more about Nico/Meredith thanks to the Dodgers' incident we can look back at these with a different perspective - and with lots of laughter, too. If these are the shows I think they are, Nico mentioned she was having a "contest" to prove no man was too big for her to orally take - although the guy had to be white - and not black - and, of course Howard started asking why that was.
Frank writes: Dear Luke When it ever stop? I am so tired of hearing about this white porn slut or that white porn slut will not f--- a black man. First of I have nothing against Nico the porn slut but when is going to stop? As a black man you would not believe the white men that are looking for for black studs to f--- there wifes and girlfriends and let them watch, I would thank it is safe to say most rednecks that don't want to see white woman with black man are really homos that want to suck a big black cock themselves. Well anyway I laugh whenever I read things about this subject, well I guess I just have to go out and f--- some more white pussy:)
Sex.com Lawsuit Swings Kremen's Way
As I've reported for months, Gary Kremen is suing Stephen Michael Cohen to regain control of the sex.com domain name. It now appears clear that the suit is swinging Kremen's way.
Judge James Ware in the US District Court, San Jose division, last week ruled decisively in Kremen's favor in several motions. For instance, Ware granted Kremen's motion to strike Cohen's counterclaims"
Introduction
Plaintiff, Gary Kremen, filed this suit alleging misappropriation of the internet domain name, "sex.com." Defendants and Coutnerclaimants, Stephen Michael Cohen, Ocean Fund International...filed counterclaims...claiming...defamation... Plaintiff has moved to strike these counterclaims under California's anti-SLAPP statute [against frivolous lawsuits]. ...Motion GRANTED.
Background
... In October 1995, Kremen discovered that "sex.com" was registered to Cohen. Kremen alleged in his First Amended Complaint, filed October 16, 1998, that Cohen forged a letter, which bore the signature "Sharon Dimmick," as president of Kremen's company, and which purported to transfer the "sex.com" domain name to Cohen. Kremen further alleged that Cohen submitted the fraudulent letter to NSI as the basis for misappropriating the rights to "sex.com." Kremen further alleged that, at the time Cohen submitted the letter to NSI, Cohen had just been released from prison for bankruptcy fraud, false statements, and obstruction of justice...
In April 1999, Kremen conducted an interview with a reporter for Wired News, an online news service. While discussing the current lawsuit, Kremen stated that (1) Cohen had stolen the sex.com domain name and (2) Cohen had called Kremen and identified himself as a trademark attorney...
Luke writes: Judge Ware last week also denied Cohen's motion to dismiss Kremen's third amended complaint. Judge Ware writes:
Sharon Dimmick was Kremen's housemate in October, 1995. It is undisputed that Ms. Dimmick did not sign or have any knowledge of the Dimmick letter. In fact, her first name is misspelled in the signature of the letter. Ms. Dimmick has submitted an affidavit confirming that she had no involvement with creating or authorizing the letter...
Plaintiff [Gary Kremen] asserts that Cohen forged the Dimmick letter to improperly gain control over the sex.com domain name. In his Response to Plaintiff's Requests For Admissions, Cohen has admitted that he directed Mr. Vito Franco to prepare the Dimmick letter. Cohen has admitted in deposition that no person other than himself and Mr. Vito Franco was involved in producing the Dimmick letter. Cohen stated that the letter was typed on the computer system of Mr. Franco, and that Mr. Franco had told him that he had geenrated the letterhead for "Online Classifieds" on his computer. Cohen also admitted that he may have drafted the text of the letter with Mr. Franco.
Luke writes: Gary Kremen's attorneys have filed for summar judgment on the heart of the case. I quote from Kremen's attorneys motion:
Please take notice that on October 16, 2000, at 9:00 a.m., or as soon thereafter as this matter may be heard, in the court...located at 280 South 1st Street, Courtroom 8, Fourth Floor, San Jose, California 95113, before the Honorable James Ware, plaintiff Gary Kremen willl...move...for summar adjudication of plaintiff's claims for declaratory relief and defendants' claim and defenses for trademark infringement...
The controlling issue in this case is simple: who owns "sex.com" - Gary Kremen or Stephen Michael Cohen and his shell corporations... As will be demonstrated below, the transfer of the domain name "sex.com" to Cohen - based as it was on an indisputably forged document - was invalid and, therefore, Kremen is entitled to summary adjudication on his claim for declaratory relief. Furthermore, there is no dispute that Cohen's fanciful claims to trademark rights to sex.com are meritless as a matter of law.
Cohen's involvement in the Dimmick forgery and its use with NSI is not the first time that he has engaged in criminal misconduct and impersonations to defraud others. Indeed, Cohen has spent a lifetime perfecting his "art" of defrauding and manipulating unsuspecting victims. He has an extensive criminal record, and has been convicted on multiple occasions for fraudulent activities, obtaining others' property under false pretenses, criminally impersonating others, as well as other crimes.
From 1974 to 1977, Cohen was convicted of various state law crimes in no fewer than three separate prosecutions. For example, in 1974, Cohen was charged with and convicted of multiple counts of grand theft and writing bad checks. Significantly, in 1977, Cohen was convicted inter alia, of several counts of false impersonation, forgery, and grand theft.
Then, in November of 1990, Cohen was named as a defendant in a five-count indictment filed in federal court in San Diego. He was charged with and ultimately convicted of obstruction of justice, bankruptcy fraud, and making false statements. The crux of this criminal conduct was that Cohen misrepresented himself as a bankruptcy attorney to various people and to the Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California. He was found guilty of fraudulently gaining access to funds belonging to the Debtor in Possession and hiding his misconduct through a series of shell-companies and fraudulent transfers. IN denying him bail, the president federal judge cited Cohen's penchant for lying to courts.
At his recent deposition, Cohen also admitted to impersonating attorneys at various points in his life, in addition to the pattern of such misrepresentations for which he was convicted in federal court. Although he is not an attorney, Cohen falsely represented himself to be one (as he did in this litigation) and assumed the identity of other attorneys on numerous occasions when communicating to others. He also admitted to using at least two different Social Security numbers during his life - no doubt to divert others from traking his true identity.
Significantly, the Dimmick forgery is not even the first time that Cohen has utilized a forged letter to obtain the beneficial interest in the nameo f a business not otherwise his own. On October 13, 1982, Cohen submitted a letter purportedly from "Araldo Peralta," the President of Omni-tech, Inc, purportedly authorizing Cohen to incorporate a new corporation named "Omnitech International" with the Secretary of State of California. The 1982 Peralta letter, like the Dimmick letter, is a forgery...
Kremen's Motion For Preliminary Injunction
The evidence is overwhelming that Cohen - consistent with his life-long pattern of criminal fraud and impersonations - stole the sex.com domain name enterprise and devised a scheme of supposed transfers to shell corporations and offshore entities in an effort to avoid facing ultimate financial responsibility for his misconduct.
Cohen's theft has been highly renumerative - even by his own felonious standards and according to his own testimony. Since the theft, he has used the domain name to create a pornographic website that boasts at being the largest website in the world, eliciting millions of "hits" per day and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in income. Although Cohen has been far less than forthcoming in discovery in this action, he has acknowledged that the domain name sex.com was worth "megamillions" and produces an enormous sum of advertising and membership revenue on an annual basis.
It recently became clear at Cohen's deposition (obtained as a result of a Court order) that he has every intention of immunizing himself from teh effects of any financial relief this Court could award after a trial. Not only has he set up a series of interrelated offshore companies through which sex.com related assets are held and developed, Cohen is thwarting plaintiff's efforts to obtain critical information through discovery. For example, at his deposition, Cohen invoked the Fifth Amendment over twenty-five times as part of his refusal to answer numerous questions relating to the financial affairs of the various offshore entities. In addition, he relied on the Fifth Amendment in refusing to provide any information about the terms of his alleged transfer of the domain name sex.com to one or more of these entities. Moreover, when plaintiff's counsel asked about the profits and losses related to sex.com, Cohen stated that he lacked any knowledge about these topics.
...Kremen will demonstrate that he is entitled to the following provisional relief against Cohen...
1) Defendants must return the status quo by returning the domain name sex.com to Plaintiff [Kremen];
2) Defendants must return to or maintain in the United States a meaningful portion of the revenue already generated from sex.com to be held by the Court pending final judgment;
3) Defendants must provide a complete accounting as to all revenues, rents and profits in connection with the sex.com enterprise;
4) Defendants must return to or maintain in the United States all revenue generated between now and the entry of a final judgment...
...As demonstrated in the companion Motion for Summary Adjudication, Stephen Michael Cohen has spent most of his adult life pursuing criminal schemes to deprive others of their money and property through impersonations, forgeries and fraud...
Court and prosecutors have long noted that Cohen is untrustworthy and perfectly capable of saying or doing almost anything to avoid financial responsibility for his misconduct. For example, after Cohen's conviction in federal court of bankruptcy fraud in 1991 (in connection with his impersonation of attorney Frank Butler and as part of a Ynata Corporation bankruptcy), the government sought to have his bond exonerated and have Cohen remanded into custody. The prosecutor noted that:
"as was clear from his testimony, this man changes his identity, changes his occupation, changes his location at will. He drives on a Colorado driver's license. He recently lost his house. It was finally foreclosed on after a number of shell corporations that had been holding the house had gone bankrupt and managed to get stays... He has lied to courts repeatedly, not just in the matters that came before this Court in the course of this trial but over a period of 15 years or so."
...Cohen admitted at his deposition that prior to his release from prison in 1995, he would freely forge others' names on documents or would misrepresent his identity to others.
...At his deposition, Cohen offered the following whimsical chronology of those transfers: after acquiring rights, title and interest to "sex.com" through the forged Dimmick letter, Cohen transferred the domain name to a Nevada corporation, incorporated by him for the purpose of taking a brothel public, Sportin gHouses Management Corp ("SHM I") for $2 million in cash plus $2 million in stock. Pursuant to Cohen's agreement with SHM I (one that was made with no appraisals, lawyers and conspicuously was not memorialized anywhere except in phantom "minute orders" of SHM board meetings), Cohen purportedly retained a right of reversion in the event that SHM failed to pay the specified sum.
Sometime thereafter, and as a result of fraudulent activity uncovered by the Secretary of State of Nevada, SHM I dissolved and transferred most of its assets (including sex.com) to a newly formed California corporation (again incorporated by Cohen), also exactly and confusingly named Sporting Houses Management Corp (SHM II). Significantly, the prospectus for SMH II did not list "sex.com" as an asset. According to Cohen, SMH II failed to honor its predecessor's agreement, and sex.com thus reverted back to him. Again, there is no writing to reflect this supposed transfer of this multi-million dollar asset.
Then, sometime in 1996 or 1997, Cohen purported to transfer the domain name to Ocean Fund Internacional, Ltd, an offshore corporation formed by Cohen...
At his recent deposition, Cohen disclosed for the first time that OFIL supposedly has changed its name to Ynata, Ldt (another offshore corporation incorporated by Cohen)...
Despite the fact taht the terms of the sex.com transfer and the profits generated thereafter are highly relevant to this action, Cohen has thwarted numerous discovery efforts to obtain information on these matters. At the outsdet of this case, Cohen resisted even appearing at deposition, requiring extended discovery motions and a court order to obtrain his recent deposition conducted in July, 2000...
In spite of defendants' discovery stonewalling, Kremen has obtained documentary evidence establishing that defendants' use of the sex.com domain name has been highly profitable...
While Cohen refused to answer questions about Ynata's or OFIL's profitability, he did disclose the following:
1) In 1996, he told the Board of Directors of Sporting Houses of America, Inc. that the domain name would be worth "megamillions";
2) defendants recently turned down an offer of $48 million in cash for sex.com
3. As of mid-1999, sex.com had approximately 9 million subscribers paying $24:99 monthly for access to sex.com, meaning, on an annualized basis, gross revenues of several billion dollars...
Luke Gets Mail
Steve Neece writes: To Greg at RAME:You are way off re. Max/fame. The women in Max's video's are either desperately in need of quick money and are too ignorant or unattractive to get get it in less abusive videos. Either that or they have a conscious/unconscious need to be abused. Fame has nothing to do with it as they would obviously get greater exposure from videos from major companies. How many top performers have ever done a Max vid? I can't think of any. as for how common it is in the real world;I would venture that in the U.S. it is not common on that level if you are speaking of consensual,non-coercive sex among adults.It is wishful thinking on your part.Or perhaps you are thinking of Gay male s& m ,which is a different story altogether.
As for Dudley Moore: you are pathetically transparent.Other than selfishness on your part,you do not give a logical reason why a woman should not have a lesbian lifestyle.Two very good reasons for these relationships are,one,you WILL NOT get pregnant and,two,your chances for AIDS is all but nonexistent.If I were a woman ,those would be more than sufficient reason for me.
Lynne writes: I have always felt that even those fans who cannot connect with a real live woman, and who use porn as a substitute don't hate women, thus I am delighted to read the postings from the men who have written on RAME in defense of women, and against Max Hardcore's "style" of pornography. Now all we need is twelve good men and women who feel the same way to sit on a jury and convict Paul Little on obscenity charges, and a jurisdiction with the extra half million to fund the experience.
There are, of course, those out there who hate women, and who wish to hold women responsible for their own degradation above and beyond their low self esteem and mistaken choices. For example, Greg writes on RAME:
While the things that Max does in his videos may be rare in porn and in the lives of most of his fans, they are not that rare in real peoples' sex lives. Many, perhaps most women have "rape" or as its now called "forced sexual role-play" fantasies. I know women who make their livings as dominatrixes, but who still want the men in charge in their real sex lives.
Lynne writes: There is a big difference between wanting a man in charged and having a "rape" or (new to me) "forced sexual role-play fantasy." Many, if not most women, (not to mention men) dream of being able to give up the weight of the world for just a few minutes, especially in the sexual arena, where traditionally they are blamed and labeled "sluts" if they initiate or enjoy sex. Being scooped up from real life by a gorgeous, muscle bound stranger and carried off to a castle in the heavens is not exactly the reality of rape. The reality of rape is bruises, broken bones and years of sexual dysfunction. Many, if not most women, fear rape from the time they are old enough to understand what it is, and many, if not most little boys mention "being raped" as one of the primary reasons they are glad they are not little girls (per my sociology class...)
Greg writes: The power of Max is not what he does to women sexually, because honestly its not that rare in the real world, but the fact that its recorded and sold to the world. The Western world has turned fame and wealth into "gods", and Max shows how far people are willing to go in order to get close to either of these "gods". Part of the population will do "anything" for fame, and the rest of us are fascinated to see how far "anything" extends. Max fans and "Survivor", "Real World" and "Big Brother" fans all come from the same mold.
(Lynne writes: What Max does to the women in his videos is not only "rare in the real world" but it was rare in porn until relatively recently. A certain group of writers began lauding men for forcing anal sex on women in videos, until unwanted anal sex became common place. These writers couldn't tell the difference between mutually consenting sex, and undesirable sex, because they had no experience with real, consenting women. We continue to allow them full reign in creating our fantasies, and are left with plastic, unattainable ice goddesses or brutal mistreatment of ordinary girls. But that is best left for another thread....)
Greg writes: I don't find the sex in Max films that shocking, but I when I think about the fact that someone signs a model release giving Max rights to that video FOREVER, that is shocking. Its shocking to think that someone is so desperate for their "15 Minutes of Fame" that they don't think about or care that they are famous for getting sodomized, sucking cocks straight from their asses, and drinking piss. If the right guy asks in the right way, many, many women will do these things (well, maybe not the A2M, that is unusual), but they don't want that guy to tell anyone about it, much less make a video and show it to anyone.
Lynne writes: For a man not to find the sex in Max films shocking, he is obviously brutalizing women in his private life and finding it acceptable. This sex is horrid sex. It does not represent pleasure, love, orgasmic delight or even a consensual good time for both parties. Most pornography is at the very worst stupid, but only a few producers actively destroy the women involved in the videos. I dare say that most of the women Max hires are unfamiliar with his product, are taking the job as one of many, are prepared only for the anal sex (which has been foisted upon us as "normal heterosexuality" by the closeted homosexuals who control the adult press), and that the rest comes as a complete surprise.
Greg writes: In this booming economy there are many ways to make money, and even if a woman chooses porn as her route to money, there are far more tame porn productions than there are "Max-like" ones, but these women chooses Max because its the most fame per hour of time invested. Max benefits from the obviously very powerful desire to be a "star" that these women have, and the fact that they don't see a difference between acting in a Hollywood big budget production, and getting f--- hard by Max on video. Fame is fame, it doesn't matter how they got it, it just matters that they got it and their friends and relatives didn't. Someone should interview these women soon after they shoot with Max, and again in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now to see how their views on what they did will change.
Lynne writes: Rather than "15 Minutes of Fame" for making a porno, women are looking for "15 Minutes of Decent Compensation" for their time. When I made $5 an hour in 1980, gasoline cost around seventy cents a gallon, and we considered it expensive. Now that I make $7 an hour twenty years later, gasoline has climbed to $2 a gallon. The primary reason for performing in pornography, more than ever, is economic. Booming economy? Not for women with no skills, no family ties to business and no education!
The idea that a woman would "choose" to do a Max video for anything other than money is ludicrous. These women are told by "agents" to be cooperative, not to turn work down, that Max and Ed Powers and TT Boy are stepping stones to better jobs. The money is seductive. And ordinary sex with ordinary guys is usually so stupid, nonorgasmic and meaningless that it is hard to imagine anything worse....until some guy is offering you an extra two hundred bucks to let him piss on you when you are already naked, submissive, on your knees in front of him, and you've had too much to drink or smoke to just say no...
Dudley Moore writes: "What you really most long for isn't a masculine woman who wants and demands sex from you in return. Why that's no better than any jerk guy, right! What you really long for is a strong, loving heterosexual mother who wants NOTHING in return but your love. You can still get it, with the help of a strong, heterosexual, female therapist. Read Elaine Siegel for further direction before letting women into your pants."
Lynne retorts: And what we women really most long for isn't a masculine man who wants and demands sex from us in return, it is a strong, loving, heterosexual father who wants NOTHING in return but our love. Sorry, what we really want is for both guys and gals NOT to be jerks, so that we can choose to have a warm, loving egalitarian relationships with a partner of either gender.
Goddess writes: Luke, just wondering if you heard anything from the porners in Tampa? I'm wondering how they fared with the tropical storm.
Luke replies: I think it is the wrath of God.
Lynne L-patin writes: I hope they were all washed into the sea, myself...freshen the world for a new generation
Net Gossip
Dragon King writes on Netpond about the Netpond owner NickatIlynx: Nick and his crew are thieves in more ways than one. Multiple sites of his are rip offs of Sex Spy..not just that one. Read post after post here daily from webmasters looking for there money.. I'm not here to piss with anyone I'm here confronting a board run by thieves and have YET to hear Nick explain himself. I guess he is hoping if he ignores it I will just go away. All I know this is BAD Business... I hope Nick has a nest egg saved up because he is on the road to self destruction in this business.
Vintage Jack Chick
Today's Jack T. Chick classic is from 1973. It's the moving story of a life-long sinner stricken with cancer and a fellow cancer patient who shows the sinner the truth about God's love. Porners, will you wait until your death bed until you repent or will you accept Brother Chick's advice today? The end is near. If you are ready ... God is ready. Click here: Room 310
Amused writes: I loved it when Danny O'Hara's friends gave him cigars in the cancer ward. That's what made this a classic to me.
From today's LA Times: NEW YORK--Fellas, get ready to explore a softer side of style next spring. At least, that's what menswear designers want you, Big Guy, to do. After all, so many of you embraced those cropped pants this summer. You know, the ones women call pedal pushers.
Now, designers are hoping you'll go for the feminization of their spring 2001 menswear collections--softer silhouettes, fabrics and colors. These were the themes of just about every men's collection presented during the first few days of Fashion Week. Even women in the audience--from buyers to journalists to stylists--eyed the clothing for themselves, often exclaiming, "I'd wear that!"
Designers think the modern man wants European styling with American comfort: suits without button-down shirts, shirts without ties, trousers without pleats, shoes without socks. The well-cut, sophisticated suits, worn with sleeveless shirts or stylish T-shirts, offer new pulled-together looks for casual Friday.
Lightweight sweaters--many of them cropped--are sheer enough to show off pecs.
Luke writes: Dennis Prager commented on his nationally syndicated radio show today: This is part of the war on masculinity.
Tom Brokaw called the WWII generation, the greatest generation. This was a masculine generation. Will this feminized generation be better or as good? I don't think so.
DP remembered from his dating days, women telling him, I don't like men who look in the mirror as much as I do.
DP: Isn't life more exciting and joyous when the sexes are different? Yes it is easier to all blend in but life is not as rich.
Luke: I will be on the Loveybtes show with Bob Berkowitz Tuesday at 6PM PST. Among the topics I hope we will discuss are these:
I heard Dennis Prager comment on the rash of female athletes posing nude. And the near nude antics of Brittany Spears at the MTV Awards. Prager said that feminism has robbed women of ways to be feminine by denying the basic differences between men and women. So women are reduced to showing off their anatomical differences with men to prove their femininity. Traditionally, women have demonstrated femininity through more subtle means, such as virtue, chastity, propriety, empathy, etc.
Marc Putative writes in with these suggested topics:
* suicide of paula yates, the self-destructive british starlet who was married to the alleged patron saint of rock 'n' roll, bob geldof. (read her obits in the british papers, i think you'd find it interesting.)
* debauchery down under: what is the olympics coverage not telling us?
* michael douglas' new baby (as covered in the current issue of US) the phenomenon of 55 yo men taking 30 yo wives, claiming that this time they are gonna do the dad thing right. (sure, what about the 1st time?)
* why are jewish fellas like chaim amalek so repulsed by all jewesses?
[Chaim responds: Not fair. But if you must know, it is because we are inundated with images of sweet, feminine, supportive and beautiful young shiksas in the jewish controlled press and media, and next to them, the average jewess just cannot hold a candle.]
* what kind of people are drawn to the porn business--specifically, those bullying-with-a-smile types you banter with over the webshow.
* the process of teshuva and why LF.com will no longer dwell on porn.
* lastly (and i think this would be the most amusing, not just for me and chaim): how you dealt with the issue of your career while dating peppy (start with the ron jeremy deli anecdote and take it from there).
Marc writes: even (gulp) kendra had a great point concerning how the teen pop stars are being marketed to teens, unlike "adult" videos. i share your enthusiasm for seeing frum kids who are shielded from such influence. there was a column in a recent issue of the forward which concerned this subject. (nothing too original, but with the popular culture skewing younger over the past 2-3 years, it can only make parents more defensive about what their kids are exposed to.) another current event: the new incarnation of details magazine, trying to rebel against T&A with an image of male chivalry. but then, that's all just madison ave. marketing, nothing to do with real life.
Paula Yates Death
From the Australian Broadcasting Commission: A post mortem examination has failed to establish the cause of the death of Paula Yates, the former partner of INXS star Michael Hutchence.
The TV personality was found dead in her home in the London suburb of Notting Hill. It was Paula Yates' four-year-old daughter with the INXS star, Tiger Lilly, who found her mother's body.
Police say the results of post mortem tests have proven inconclusive, but there has been intense speculation in the British media that a cocktail of drugs and alcohol was found beside her bed. The death is still being treated by the police with suspicion, pending the result of further tests, although they say there were no signs of violence.
It is understood that Tiger Lilly is currently in the care of Sir Bob Geldof, who was divorced from Paula four years ago, and has custody of their other three children.
From Reuters: Family and friends said Yates never got over the death of Hutchence, refusing to believe that he could have taken his own life and left his daughter fatherless. It plunged her into a spiral of grief and depression from which she never recovered.
Yates reportedly kept his ashes in a pillow on her bed. Hutchence committed suicide soon after Yates lost custody of her three elder daughters -- Fifi Trixibelle, 17, Peaches 11, and Pixie 10, -- to ex-husband Bob Geldof, former singer with the Boomtown Rats.
Lynne L-patin writes: No one commits suicide with a four-year-old in the house. Unless there was a specific note to the contrary, try "exceptionally stupid, accidental drug overdose."
Lynne is Very Different from Prager
Luke's anti-intellectual hero Dennis Prager, as usual, sets up straw dogs as targets in an effort to create knee jerk emotional responses from the inadequate as he, once more, accuses "feminism" of having equalized the sexes.
DP: Remembers from his dating days, women telling him, I don't like men who look in the mirror as much as I do.
Lynne: Luke, this may your problem with women in a nutshell -- you spend far too much time looking in the mirror admiring your gorgeous bitch self for women to like you.
DP: Isn't life more exciting and joyous when the sexes are different? Yes it is easier to all blend in but life is not as rich.
Lynne: Correct. LIfe is not as rich for women, period. Women are now earning about sixty-three cents to every dollar earned by men, up a whopping six cents from twenty years back, when I first started paying attention to such things.
Luke: I heard Dennis Prager comment on the rash of female athletes posing nude. And the near nude antics of Brittany Spears at the Emmys. Prager said that feminism has robbed women of ways to be feminine by denying the basic differences between men and women. So women are reduced to showing off their anatomical differences with men to prove their femininity. Traditionally, women have demonstrated femininity through more subtle means, such as virtue, chastity, propriety, empathy, etc.
Lynne: So now it is the effects of feminism that forces women to parade around half-naked in an effort to demonstrate their female differences, as well as making pansy fashions for men? Feminism itself has always posited that women's fashions are designed by homosexual men who have it out for the women who wear their clothes, thus explaining clothing styles that suits men better than they do women (no hips, no breasts, male height and limb length, etc.)
In what way would it benefit women to "prove their femininity" in a world which punishes the feminine? Do women who are perceived as "more feminine" earn more money? Hardly -- feminized professions (other than sex work and maybe nursing) on the whole pay less than masculine professions. Do more feminine women find better i.e., richer, more attentive husbands? Possibly, though I've never seen statistics. And I doubt it -- trophy wives are not judged by their possession of virtue, chastity, propriety, empathy, etc., but by their possession of specific physical attributes, such as blonde hair, long legs, flat bellies and large breasts, real or not.
I daresay women parade around half naked less because they feel forced to do so to display their femininity, but because femininity has become as obsolete as a vestigal appendix. Parading around half-naked attracts attention, and attention feels good, especially when one spends endless hours perfecting one's physical appearance at the gym, and practicing the tremendous dietary self-denial necessary to keep one's body fat ratio at levels less than what would allow for healthy menstrual cycles, conception and pregnancy).
If, as a culture, we valued femininity, we would prize soft, voluptuous women with massive REAL breasts, preferably lactating, bellies swollen and sagging from multiple pregancies, whose own girth is indicative of an ability to prepare delicious food in huge quantities, and who refuse to work outside the home, expecting to be supported in exchange for giving birth and cleaning toilets (though not necessarily in that order).
Instead, we prefer hairless, emaciated supermodels with boy's bodies and rock hard plastic breasts, leaving real women to fend for themselves. Dennis Prager would blame feminism for this, but all feminism ever did was to let women know they had choices. Real men don't need to blame women for their own idiocies.
AVN Combats Child Porn
Stacey Boyd, the super cute managing editor of AVN Online, writes: Hello, Please find a media release attached to this document, as well as an invitation, below, to visit a site created expressly for media members. We would appreciate any coverage of this sensitive topic you may be able to give. Please don't hesitate to call for more information.
This email alert is an appeal to the mainstream media for help in bringing increased attention to a problem that AVN Online believes is of critical importance to all societies, not just our own - child porn on the Internet.
Our objective is simple - to spotlight the issue of child porn by making easily available to members of the mainstream media an October 2000 AVN Online special supplement titled "A Plague Upon Our House: Child Porn Online."
(A website containing both the article and relevant statistics is available for members of the media only, accessible by clicking here. PLEASE DO NOT post a link to our hidden site -- it is not intended to be visited by the general public.)
In compiling material for this article, AVN Online took advantage of its unique access to adult industry insiders in order to cast light on a murky subject that hides deep in the recesses of the Internet, though at times brazenly exposing itself to the light of day. The article is objective journalism, but our desire is that it will help facilitate a vigorous dialogue between the mainstream and adult Internet communities, in order to more effectively combat a problem that refuses to go quietly into that good night.
We also hope that articles such as this one will help to show that there are many members of the adult Internet community dealing ethically with all issues that affect the Internet, including marketing strategies, fraud, copyright infringement, privacy, and alternative methods of billing, to name a few.
To further these goals, we invite all members of the mainstream media to attend the ia2000 Convention in New Orleans Sept. 22-24, the largest meeting of adult Internet professionals anywhere on the planet, where seminars covering these subject and more will be presented.
Why Can't Net Porners Charge Users Based On Honor System?
TalibanPornMafia> Well, after masturbating to the pornographic images offered, people would send in checks for what they thought the experience was worth.