


A California legislator has proposed a 25% tax on pornography, to be used to establish an "Adult Entertainment Venue Impact Fund" to be used to "to ameliorate the secondary effects of adult entertainment and adult entertainment venues." There's just one problem: it's unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruling in Arkansas Writer's Project v Ragland, which dealt with an Arkansas law that taxed "general interest" publications but exempted religious, sports and other types of publications, clearly stated that differential taxation based on the content of a publication is a violation of the first amendment:
The Arkansas sales tax scheme that taxes general interest magazines, but exempts newspapers and religious, professional, trade, and sports journals, violates the First Amendment's freedom of the press guarantee.And this applies even if there was no legislative intent to target a particular type of publication:
Even though there is no evidence of an improper censorial motive, the Arkansas tax burdens rights protected by the First Amendment by discriminating against a small group of magazines, including appellant's, which are the only magazines that pay the tax. Such selective taxation is one of the types of discrimination identified in Minneapolis Star. Indeed, its use here is even more disturbing than in that case because the Arkansas statute requires official scrutiny of publications' content as the basis for imposing a tax. This is incompatible with the First Amendment, whose requirements are not avoided merely because the statute does not burden the expression of particular views expressed by specific magazines, and exempts other members of the media that might publish discussions of the various subjects contained in appellant's magazine.The case was a 7-2 decision with Rehnquist and Scalia in dissent.
The Economist reports bras and panties from the world’s first carbon neutral clothing factory are set to hit Britain’s high streets this month.
Via Pam's House Blend:Do we need to set up special clinics to send The Peter, Bam Bam and the rest of the professional "Christian" step for some therapy to deal with their disease?The president of Brazil has become the first nation leader to launch a conference with the sole purpose of promoting gay equality.The First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals was inaugurated by president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who called for a "time of reparation" in Brazil.
At last week's conference President Lula announced his support for gay rights, and stated he will "do all that is possible so that the criminalisation of homophobia and the civil union may be approved."
He also called homophobia "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head."

Butt Seriously Folks
This past weekend we celebrated “Le Vélo” (bicycle) throughout France and in Paris of course (since the creation of Velib’, it is extremely popular to ride a bicycle here). This gave an idea to a few protester associations who teamed up with nudist associations and organized a ride through Paris with no clothes on to protest against the invasion of cars, scooters, motorbikes… in Paris. One thing is sure, they managed to get media’s attention; there were more journalists and cameras there than actual demonstrators! More photos here.
Due to a variety of reasons there are a number of places best avoided by the casual traveler: poor sanitation, casual crime, routine natural disasters, an unstable political condition, poor television reception, aggressive panhandlers, unattractive squalor, etc., but sometimes there are other, more unique, reasons to avoid certain lands and peoples. Occasionally these other unpopular destinations might have such reasons as hemorrhagic fevers or death squads to stay off a traveler’s agenda, but sometimes their uniqueness is so disturbing, so peculiar that they deserve at least a mention -- so as to show how disturbing these places can be, how dangerous even a slight detour from recommended tourist sites can be sometimes be. True, most of these places are no longer as dangerous as they've been in the past but that doesn't mean the message is any less valid: there always have been, and will be, unpopular tourist destinations.

Tuesday 3-Jun-2008 1:01 PM "Your breasts should be back to normal soon," says Funcom after accidental boob job
It came out in the UK last week. Our boys (i.e. PC Zone) are currently playing through it, and you'll have the proper, fully fleshed review shortly.
Ages of Conan developer Funcom has apologised for erm, accidentally reducing the breast size of all of the female characters in its MMO.
The apology comes after many Age of Conan users spotted the breast reduction on their female game characters and complained on the official forums, even providing photo evidence of the boob job.
"Funcom can confirm that some of the female models in the game have had the size of their breasts changed," the company said in a statement. "This is due to an unintended change in data that was introduced in an earlier patch, data which controls the so-called morph values associated with character models and the size of their respective body parts.
"We are working on a fix for this and your breasts should be back to normal soon." Right on time as well - we were about to return our copies to the shops in a strop.
A strong performance is expected from the head-chopping MMO, which has already lobbed GTA IV off the top spot in several European countries.
No trip to Siberia would be complete without a visit to those charming local inhabitants, the Maritime Koryaks. Famed throughout the region for their fabulous meals of putrid tea and fresh (still bloody) venison, they are more even more famous for the wonderful hospitality they show strangers visiting their remote villages.
- here's a bit (from Technooccult) about the annual phallus festival in Greece:“Each year on the first Monday of Lent, the people of the tiny Greek town of Tyrnavos go crazy about penises, singing lewd songs and urging passersby to kiss their model phallusses. The pagan fertility festival is one of the most famous parties in Greece.
If you want to eat phallus-shaped bread, drink through phallus-shaped straws from phallus-shaped cups, kiss ceramic phalluses, sit on a phallus-shaped throne and sing dirty Greek songs about the phallus, then you should visit the little Greek town of Tyrnavos each year on “Clean Monday.”
The one-day pagan fertility festival in this town of 15,000 people near the central Greek city of Larissa marks the beginning of Lent, the fasting period before Easter, and is one of the most famous carnivals in Greece. Come prepared. Passersby tend to be grabbed and rocked over a pot of boiling “bourani” spinach soup while a ceramic penis is placed between their legs. They must kiss the phallus, then drink tsipouro — a strong local spirit — from its tip, and then stir the soup before they’re let go.”
Freaky Vulva Bike Taxi is a walking, talking Vagina Monologue
Determined to show up all the phallic symbols so pervertedly taking over the world, Finnish artist Mimosa Pale has decided to educate the world about the ills of downgrading the feminine powers. So three times every week she invites inhabitants of her hometown Helsinki to ride around town in her “bike taxi” which BTW happens to be a giant disembodied vagina, hairs and all! Now the protest may be novel, and it might be a real lesson to all the manwhores about respecting the very place they themselves came from but to be very honest, the whole concept of ferrying people around and using a replica of the female genitilia as a “taxi” e.g., a temporary means of transportation is just down degrading! I guess the lady just got it horribly wrong and I personally am finding her artistic protest really, really offensive. And no, I do not think the situation could be salvaged by adding huge granny underpants to the freak show!
Japan Dominates Masturbate-a-Thon: Gadgets Help Break 8 Hour 30 Minute Record
Think you have what it takes to become a masturbating champion? Can you endure longer than 8 hours and 40 minutes? Because that is what it will take to beat the new record set by both Norihiro Taneichi and Masanobu Sato of Tokyo at this year's Masturbate-a-Thon in San Francisco. The two finalists went "head-to-head" in a competition that finally ended when an exhausted Taneichi gave up, allowing Sato to claim the prestigious title. What was their secret? They were both using the Tenga New Adult Concept line of onanism cups. WARNING!: NSFW gallery after the break.
In fact, the two men were representatives from Tenga who spent the $20 entrance fee in order to conduct a "little research" into their new product. So, if you want to go pro with your masturbating hobby, you are going to need to get yourself a Tenga cup and practice, practice, practice. But that is what it takes to be a true champion—blood, sweat, and semen. So get cracking guys! We need to bring this title home to the USA next year!
By Nik (Simple Love Secrets)
According to many studies, a lot of women fake their orgasm in bed. At the same time, lots of men don’t know anything about that thing. They believe that their women are satisfied and they believe that during many years.
But, there are a lot of reasons why women aren’t satisfied in general or aren’t satisfied at the moment. You should learn how to detect when the women don’t feel orgasm and how you should overcome this moment.
Some women are so smart and play the role of satisfied woman so good that nobody can discover her true color.
So, how do you know?
There are some little secrets that will help you know the reality:
You should observe her breathing. According to sexologists, when the woman has an orgasm her breathing isn’t normal. I mean that her level of excitement will raise her intensity of breathing. So, if she isn’t breathing hard it means that she faked her orgasm.
You should observe her energy. If your sexual partner is active and full off energy after sex you must know that she imitated her orgasm. According to sexologists, an orgasm takes a lot of energy that’s why she can’t be so fresh. It means that she faked it.
You should observe her activity. If she starts doing immediately some things after sex it means that she faked her orgasm. Normally, after sex and an amazing orgasm you don’t have energy and you want to stay in bed for a longer period of time.
Moreover, in case that she accepts the sex as a regular thing in her life she will never show her feelings after sexual intercourse. In this case, sex for her is only like a routine, not something special and intimate.
Note: You must overcome this moment together and discuss with her what should you do for a better sexual intercourse: what should she do and why should you do it. Moreover you can use some sex toys (www.desiresecrets.com), as to increase libido. In this case, only reciprocal understanding will help your relationship.
Simple Love Secrets is a blog about love. Here you can find many interesting posts. Different advices and life experience.