Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Fact or Fiction?



This is a bumper sticker on the back of my vehicle and it is a message I truly believe. The bailout failed to pass in Congress. Fantastic! The politicians blamed each other while I sat back and thought about the several times I tried to call my members and found the phone lines constantly busy or off the hook (in the case of Sen. Mel Martinez). I think the truth for the failure of the passage is due to a high volume of "NO BAILOUT" cries by the public citizens and astute economic advisers and other educated people who know this bailout is a LOSER!

I was thinking about that money. And then I thought about how that money could be best spent. What happened the last time our country was nearing or in a severe recession/depression? The WPA was created. That is right. The economic bailout came in the form of WORK. Real work!!! No welfare handout!

Here is a clip from Wikipedia on the story of the WPA...."The WPA employed a maximum of 3.3 million in November 1938. Worker pay was based on three factors: the region of the country, the degree of urbanization and the individual's skill. It varied from $19/month to $94/month. The goal was to pay the local prevailing wage, but to limit a person to 30 hours or less a week of work. Total expenditures on WPA projects through June, 1941, totaled approximately $11.4 billion. Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings; more than $1 billion on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities and school lunch projects.

I encourage you to read the rest of the story about the largest employment project this country has ever undertaken to inspire a strong work ethic (something the multi and trans-national corporate executives know very little about given their GROSS pay and golden parachute packages) and revive a heart-beat from the dying country we call our home. We have the answers to the problems we are facing. But these solutions are not coming from the criminals who perpetrated the economic crimes we have been faced with, and in some cases, engaging in due to a lack of substantial ways for average citizens to become involved in civic participation in any real or meaningful way.

I believe the people who can rescue our economy are the people who want to work and pay their bills and taxes that contribute to their community.....not to an institution (Wall St.) that engages in business with companies that "cook the books", encourage poor or NO leadership where the head of a corporation gets a boot in the ass out the door with the money safe under his or her arm, encouraging offshoring jobs to increase stock prices, and other egregious acts against the workers in our own country!!!

The biggest golden parachute will be this $700 billion dollar one if Congress passes it. KEEP UP THE PHONE CALLS TO WASHINGTON!!! Let's get a NEW DEAL that puts Americans back to work!!

Passionately.....

Emma : )

Sunday, September 28, 2008

"The Sting" of Loss


Last night I read, online, of the passing of Paul Newman. Sadness filled my heart. The world has one less humanitarian today and for that I am in mourning.
I know Paul Newman more for his philanthropy than I do for his acting. In 1982 Paul started his commercial food venture (initially as a joke) with salad dressing and pasta sauce. I was 14 then and my mother could never resist his magnificent blue eyes (as I recall he was her favorite actor) and I loved the salad dressing. When I heard that all the profits from his products were going to support his favorite charities (instead of his rather modest CT lifestyle) I was more attracted to him from a fan standpoint. As an adult consumer I made a concerted effort to select "Newman's Own" products whenever I had the option.

As far as Newman's acting goes, I think my favorite film (that I have seen) of his would be "Cool Hand Luke" (and my mother's least favorite....she hated all the violent abuse thrust on him/his character). What I loved about it was his character, Luke's, rebellious spirit and sense of humor. These are two characteristics most dear to my heart!

Like Luke, Newman had a wonderful sense of humor like the time he and one of his best friends, Robert Redford (MY favorite older generational Hollywood star) gifted and re-gifted every year on their birthdays a crashed-up car that was more mangled each year to the point of non-recognition. I am certain human beings can handle any distressing situation as long as a sense of humor is maintained!

My thoughts today are with the Newman family and their close friends and my mother. I know there are many people like me who are feeling a little less optimistic but grateful for having had such a caring, decent and authentic human being among us for 83 years.

Peace, Joy and Love.....

Emma : )

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

“The stock market crash of 1929, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression of the US, came directly from wild speculation which collapsed and brought the whole economy down with it. But, as John Gailbraith says in his study of that event (The Great Crash), behind that speculation was the fact that “the economy was fundamentally unsound.” He points to very unhealthy corporate and banking structures, an unsound foreign trade, much economic misinformation, and the “bad distribution of income” (the highest 5% of the population received about 1/3 of all personal income).

A socialist critic would go further and say that the capitalist system was by its nature unsound: a system driven by the one overriding motive of corporate profit and therefore unstable, unpredictable, and blind to human needs. The result of all that: permanent depression for many of its people, and periodic crisis for almost everybody. Capitalism, despite its attempts at self-reform, its organization for better control, was still in 1929 a sick and undependable system.

After the crash, the economy was stunned, barley moving. Over five thousand banks closed and huge numbers of businesses, unable to get money, closed too. Those that continued laid off employees and cut the wages of those who remained, again and again. Industrial production fell by 50%, and by 1933 perhaps 15 million (no one knew exactly)- ¼ or 1/3 of the labor force- were out of work. The Ford Motor Company, which in the spring of 1929 had employed 128,000 workers, was down to 37,000 by August 1931. By the end of 1930, almost half of the 280,000 textile mill workers in New England were out of work. Former Pres. Calvin Coolidge commented with his customary wisdom: “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.” He spoke again in early 1931 “The country is not in good condition.”

Clearly, those responsible for organizing the economy did not know what had happened, were baffled by it, refused to recognize it, and found reasons other than the failure of the system. Herbert Hoover had said, not long before the crash: “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” Henry Ford, in March 1931, said the crisis was here because “the average man won’t really do a day’s work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.” A few weeks later he laid off 75,000 workers.

**There were millions of tons of food around, but it was not profitable to transport it, to sell it. Warehouses were full of clothing, but people could not afford it. There were lots of houses, but they stayed empty because people couldn’t pay the rent, had been evicted, and now lived in shacks in quickly formed “Hoovervilles” built on garbage dumps.”

Excerpts from “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn


** Does anyone recall within the last 2-3 months when dairy farms were in the news reporting that they were dumping their cows milk in the ground because milk prices were so low they couldn’t make a profit to keep their businesses open? This is reality in 2008.

I am sharing this with you all, not to scare you but to recognize this is the problem of capitalism…yesterday and TODAY. It is a system that destroys itself if unregulated and left to its own devices. If it weren’t for socialism, capitalism couldn’t survive. I am certain of this fact after seeing bailout after bailout in my lifetime. Chrysler Automotive, the S&L Savings bailout, Amtrak, US Airlines, United Airlines, Fannie May, Freddie Mac, AIG, and early next year in 2009 we, the people will be giving $25 billion to the “BIG 3” auto manufacturers and on and on and on it goes folks…..it is NEVERENDING how much of our tax dollars flow out of our pockets and into corporate hands. I encourage you to buy historian and former professor Howard Zinn’s book to re-introduce you to your country’s history. It may be the most important book you will ever read!

Namaste’

Emma

Friday, September 26, 2008

Brother, Can You Spare....700 Billion Dollars?

I have had to wait a few days to post this comment. I've been so mad I could spit (and a lady NEVER does that). However, my anger has been channeled in productive ways. I have written a letter to the editor and made two calls to my senators to demand they do not bailout Wall Street (certainly not the initial 3-page plan Paulson submitted...giving all power over the funds to the financial industry w/ no oversight and complete impunity for their actions...DEFINITELY NOT).

I don't know anyone in my world who isn't nervous about what is going on in our economy. We are all thinking the same thing...."What's going on?" and "What can I do to get through this rough period?" I am paying attention to what is happening and am thinking "How is bailing out multi-national corporations...some of which produce goods overseas not using Americans to produce those goods...going to put my friends and neighbors to work? and How is bailing out banks so they can lend money going to help my friends and neighbors who are not working to borrow money?" I don't see where any of this money is going to employ my friends and neighbors.

My world is just as uncertain as yours is and I am not taking any news lightly. I do think we can change our personal lives to prepare for challenging times. I encourage people to investigate concepts like "voluntary simplicity", "community gardens", "time dollars", "bartering". I think we are all coming to consciousness that the material world is a dead-end street. First world living is unsustainable and we are all now realizing this fact.

I am not completely bummed out about all this bad news...I think we have been missing out on the good stuff in life....spending time with friends, neighbors and playing with each other rather than our X-Box's. Remember playing card games and Chinese Checkers? Remember good home-cooked meals? Remember digging up worms to go fishing? I do. I have been longing for spending quality time with my friends but many have been seeking stuff to fill their lives or watching the idiot box because they are so disengaged or fearful of the future.

Wishing everyone reading hope & faith (not in politicians but in each other) that we can weather this storm and work together to create a society that is more humane and more loving. I am keeping my heart and arms open to welcome better days ahead : )

Much Love.....

xoxoxxoxo

Emma : )

Friday, September 19, 2008

Year of the Cat


It is hard to believe that fall (officially) will be here in a matter of a few days! Where has the year gone??? I am getting very excited about my move west. There is much to do still....weeding through my things and selling and donating items that I really don't need. I am still trying to figure out logistics of my trip and setting myself up once I am in Oregon.

A friend has asked if I wanted one of her cats (Quasar, who adopted me when I was living in the beachside condo). I love this big black sweet boy kitty, but it is challenging enough trying to travel with one cat let alone two. Quasar is currently spending a few nights with me to see how he feels being away from home. So far so good. I am kind of worried that he will work out with me....but I know I will miss him if he doesn't go with us (me and Jasmine). Check out the picture of this sweet boy.....isn't he cute???

Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxo

Emma : )

Monday, September 8, 2008

Quiet Reflective Moments...

I am getting ready for my move. Boxes are getting packed and sorting through things I really need to donate or sell to lighten my load. One thing I have yet to figure out is how I am traveling west when I finalize plans for my October departure.
Today I went to the beach to get naked and celebrate the fact that Hurricane Ike is nowhere I am (on the east coast of Fla) today and looks like we won't get this already destructive cat 1, 2 & 3 storm (depending on the day it is it seems) thankfully. My heart goes out to the poor, poor, already devastated people of Haiti and our neighbors in Cuba. Hopefully, our humanitarian efforts will not be hindered by the callous, cold-hearted individuals like Sec. of State, Condoleeza Rice, who would like to keep our trade embargo going w/ Cuba. Sick.
I am going to miss the beach....the ocean....the unobstructed sunrise....the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore....my beachfriends....the salt water on my skin....the red/brown color all over my body....the place I go to when I need to reflect and commune with God...the creatures-birds, turtles, dolphin, mantaray fish, seashells, and the feel of sand between my toes and all over my body when I lay on the sand in the shoreline with the waves gently rushing up over me...I will miss it ALL!
I had the very good fortune to meet a really sweet man over the weekend. Honestly, I am so proud to say that I have been blessed to have 99.9 percent of my friends treat me very well, with the utmost respect and courtesy. But sometimes I get really lucky with a very kind, gentle soul who approaches me as if I am a delicate china doll, looks at me like I am a precious, one-of-a-kind gem stone (with a mix of wonder and excitement in his face & eyes) and examines & touches me as if my skin is made of the finest silk. This man was shy and leery of sharing ideas or fantasies that may be distasteful or upsetting to my mind but I gently reassured him that I was a safe and supportive soul who would listen without judgement. He opened up to me and I was happy to assist in helping him to experience something foreign but interesting to him that I felt ok doing. It was truly a turn on for me to feel so desirable and in such a powerful position with my new friend and what was key about this is that the power resulted in my wanting to be ever so gentle and supportive with this person. I thank him from the bottom of my heart!! : )
I am off to bed now....it is getting late and I need to pack again tomorrow.
Sweet Dreams Everyone!!!!
xoxooxoxoxo
Emma

Friday, September 5, 2008

Leaving Florida


"The time has come" the walrus said "To talk of many things: Of shoes, and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Well, my time has come to take flight again. My target date is early Oct or latest the end of Oct to leave Florida for some time. I am feeling restless here in Melbourne, FL and feel adventure calling me. For those of my friends I have been honored to meet and enjoy here in Florida I will miss you all : ) Be sure that I will let you all know what is going on when the time is right.

Until the end of September I will be able to see friends at my incall location in Vero Beach. I should be available for outcall visits until early Oct. so be sure not to miss your "Emma Experience" and call to make an appt. with me or else....... ; )

I hope everyone is enjoying my new website. I really am pleased with the work my friend took in creating it.

This afternoon the waves were really perfect. Tomorrow early a.m. I will be going out on my surfboard to catch some of the perfection going on in my backyard.

xoxoxxoxoxo

Blissfully,

Emma

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Activism in Chicago

Ok...I have spent the last few days trying to link my last 4 months of posts from one blog site to this..my original blog site. I don't know why I changed in the first place except I thought there were some added benefits to the "homepage" site but as it turns out it lacks one impt. thing for me.....links to other people's websites & blogs and I want to connect w/ other artists, sex workers, and in general give people some good sites to check out. I LOVE sharing information w/ people!!!

So, my blog today is one of the events I attended (and partially participated in) while in Chicago last week. There is this old, well-established restaurant, Lincoln Restaurant (I think it was built more than 60 yrs ago or so in the Irving Park area) which hosts a weekly free speech forum "College of Complexes" and has been since Jan 6, 1951 (they display the date proudly on their fliers). In the subtitle section it reads "The Playground for People Who Think...sustaining the academic tradition of One Fool at a Time"...CUTE!

Anyway, I was invited by one of my new friends in Chicago to attend last week's forum "Decriminalization of Prostitution: a sex workers perspective" to be presented by a great speaker and member of SWOP-Chicago (Sex Workers Outreach Project- Chicago), Jackie. There were 4 of us known sex workers there at the restuarant and about 30 or so present and it was a pretty long evening of explaining the problem of keeping prostitution illegal, a question and answer session and then an hour of rebuttals by the attendees.

During the question and answer section I did both ask a question of Jackie- relating to filling up the courts and jails w/ people who consent to selling a desired service (sex) and the effect on families, children and our socieity in general to something we, Americans, CLEARLY want (otherwise why can't it be stopped?)- and answered a question from the audience- "Don't women feel degraded/disrespected by the men who call on them and isn't it so that these workers destroy marriages?". In my answer I stated, "No, I never feel disrespected because I get to screen people I choose to spend time with and turn down people I feel are not going to be enjoyable for me." and "No, if anything I think I am saving marriages, because wives cannot be everything to their husbands. Wife, cook, housekeeper, mother, worker and entertainer! I provide intimacy without fear of interferring and wrecking homes. The men who call on me are lawyers, doctors, accountants, ministers/preachers, traveling salesmen, and other nice white-collar careers."

I think our presentation was well received for the most part, but of course there are always a couple people who thrust their moral indignation into the discussion and just cannot handle the sensitive nature of sex and just refuse to set aside judgement. That is ok. Not everyone can handle discussing much less THINKING about sex outside the monogomy box! : )

The funny part was the rebuttal period. We either gave such good arguments for our point of view or we were sitting in a room with "the choir" (which I think is more likely) and they got us. But the men were so funny......getting up to the podium and ranting for 3 to 4 minutes and backing up our case for decriminalization. One man said some gem like this "The most money I have ever spent was on my wife! The second most costly relationship was my mistress/girlfriend who required lots of money/gifts to stick around. The least costly woman I have ever had was a working girl. She told me what she wanted and I gave it to her and that was the end of that! She never bothered me and kept her professional distance." There was such a roar of laughter from the crowd. I joined in....it is sooo true.

I didn't stay for the entire hour since it was kind of late and we wanted to go out and meet up w/ some other fun sex workers at a bar giving away free drinks for an hour. I could care less about the drinks, but I didn't want to miss out on meeting up w/ some of the cool workers I met from the Desiree Alliance Conference last month.

The photo is from the night of the forum. I have blurred out faces to protect those in attendance.

PEACE & JOY,

xoxoxoxoxoxxo

Emma : )

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

H-E-L-L-O CHICAGO : )

Original posting Aug 23, 2008

Ok...I am here....and I am already having fun!!!

Met up with a great girlfriend when I arrived on Friday and we went out picked up some dinner and sat on her very cool roof-top balcony and watched the people down on the street and the boats going along the coast in the lake....soooo cool to watch all the people and to be out of Florida right now!

I am very excited to go see the museums and I am taking an architectural boat tour on Friday! This morning I went w/ my friend over to a green market in Lincoln Park and marveled at how much the market has grown since I last visited it in 2005! Yummy grapes and other produce made me hungry!!!

LIFE IS GREAT !!!

Getting ready to go out for a big-ass margarita !!! : )

hugs & kisses,

Emma

Delayed by Fay

Original posting Aug 20, 2008

Well, my flight has been cancelled today and with the uncertainty of the weather outside I am wondering if my flight will leave tomorrow.
This is the first time I know of that a tropical storm has sat....literally over one spot for more than 24 hrs. As the news has reported there has been over 16 inches of rain in many parts of Brevard County where I live. I'd be better off to have a kayak right now rather than a car.
So my flight is delayed a day but will look forward to meeting my newfound Chicago friends by the end of this weekend!!!
Keep some towels on hand to dry me off ; )
Blissfully.....Emma : )

Tropical Strom Fay Approaches

Original posting Aug 19, 2008

I have to say....I haven't been this scared since I lived in Ft. Lauderdale back in '92 when I experienced Hurricane Andrew. Until then, I had never experienced a really scary, cat 4 or 5 hurricane...and I am a native.

I am writing from the 5th floor of a 6 story condo on the beach in Melbourne. The speed of the winds right now are about 50 mph and the eye of Fay is 60 miles southwest of us right now (it is 3 p.m.). The wind is whipping so hard and flowing in between the gaps of the balcony shutters that wrap around from outside my livingroom area. The howling sound is un-nerving. Also the rain is coming under the shutters in puddles on the balcony floor. I am trying to keep a couple of the window shutters open so I can see what is going on outside. All day today I have been hearing somebodies home alarm (I think above me where I believe the owner is not in their unit).

I have three cats here that I am caring for and they are very much aware of the bad weather outside. I wish I had a valium for them (and for me) but I guess I need to keep my wits about me just in case.....

The photos were taken 15 min ago...updates later.... I hope.

: (

Emma

Sex, Politics & News??

Original posting Aug 11, 2008

Yesterday I read a very well written article by Chris Hedges regarding the latest sex "scandal" (geeezzz) that in my opinion is just one of millions that go on and makes for what today is called "news". Here is part of it for your reading enjoyment....

"I do not trust or believe most politicians. I have covered too many. The question is not how we can get good people to govern. The question is how we can limit the damage of mostly mediocre, callow men and women, who comprise the majority of those who yearn for power, from doing the most harm. This comes through the rigorous checks and balances of a functioning democracy, not self-appointed political saviors. But we always prefer saviors, those who make us believe they have attained moral and heroic summits that elude us.

There is something sad and pathetically human about Edwards’ affair and his cowardly attempt to lie about it. I never liked Edwards. He is all flash and sparkle with his boyish $400 haircuts and oily sincerity. He preached a faux populism, one at odds with his record in the Senate, to sell himself to voters. But, even as I do not condone what he did, I feel sorry for him. He is being crucified by journalists and politicians, and a public, who often behave no better.

We demand that our politicians play superhuman roles. They cannot exhibit the weaknesses and temptations we carry within ourselves. They must appear to be perfect parents, wives or husbands. We insist that they behave like the idealized couples we watch on television or in the movies. Campaign appearances, with the dutiful spouse as prop, are scripted mini-dramas. We live in a society so saturated in lies that we can no longer distinguish between a married couple in a sit com and on the campaign trail. Bill and Hillary continue to act out their sham roles of committed husband and wife. And, despite all the evidence to the contrary, people continue to believe in the Clintons’ charade.

Political leaders no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. The most essential skill in political theater, which has no room for knowledge or debate or trust, is artifice. Those who are most able to entertain, that is, to deceive, succeed. Those who cannot play these roles, like Ralph Nader, are pushed to the sidelines.

There are worse things done by politicians than illicit sexual adventures. Ask an Iraqi. Ask an Afghan. Ask a detainee at Guantanamo. Ask an unemployed steelworker in Ohio. But in an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not want honesty or even reality but the reassurance of old clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives. We want leaders who are willing to pretend they live in a make-believe world of happy couples and perfect relationships. We want to feel that they like us and we want to like them. This gives us what television gives us, a simplistic narrative around which to frame our lives. This narrative defies the messiness and disorder of the real world. If politicians adhere to this ridiculous narrative of personal happiness and fidelity, designed to reassure us that the world is ordered and neat and constant, they can commit egregious war crimes and strip us of our power. If they do not we will find better actors."
.........................

Last week on the Oprah show one of the day's topics was on sex. A couple was on who talked about their open marriage. It was quite refreshing to hear...finally...people who are mature enough to say they love and respect their partner enough to let them engage in sexual experiences outside their union if that is what they wish to do. Obviously this requires complete honesty and open lines of communication.

Some statistics were cited on the show... In a poll taken 7% of women and 14% of men responded that they engage in an open marriage. 20% of people polled believed people can be happy in an open marriage. Dr. Gail Saltz, a psychiatrist, responded saying "Monogamy is not hard-wired. Monogamy is a choice." AMEN to that!

You know, in my opinion, I think there is nothing worse than sharing a partnership w/ someone who may be with me physically but is divorced from me mentally and dead to me emotionally. It is like being in a prison.

I hope that people will begin to question what the "news" should be and what should we expect from our elected leaders? News to me is what policies are being made that have a direct or in-direct impact in my life. What I expect from my leaders (first and foremost) is that their words should coincide with their voting actions. Secondly, my elected officials should be held accountable for illegal actions. And lastly, that our elected officials work on behalf of the majority of the people in their district, state, nation...not the minority.

Let's leave sex and each person's moral beliefs where they belong...with the individual.

More power to people who wish to really embrace what LOVE means...not in a mutually exclusive way...but rather in mutually INCLUSIVE way!!

In the immortal words of my all-time favorite movie figure Maude from "Harold & Maude"as Maude was leaving Harold with departing last words.......

"Go and love some more"

xoxoxxo

Emma

No Human Rights...No Olympics for Me!

Original posting Aug 8, 2008

One of the two most vivid news casts I will always recall from 1989 is the Tiananmen Square student democracy protest. The scene of the lonely business man standing in front of a line of military tanks is forever emblazoned in my mind.

I was horrified then....and I am horrified now. Human rights and environmental rights are not discernable and are non-negotiable terms in my mind. China does not respect either rights. They are both necessary and essential for mankind to continue down a path towards evolution, enlightenment, and humanity.

To think that we actually went to war in Iraq to bring "democracy" (that was the second story told to us....after the WMD story didn't hold water) to the people there and yet in China free speech is NOT ALLOWED ( but there is LOTS of security...more than 300,000 surveillance cameras and 100,000 policemen are operating in Beijing now for the Olympics...and let's bet after the games the cameras will stay and the numbers of police will remain the same) is hypocritical. How any American can believe that holding the Olympics in China will bring freedom & justice is just delusional. I mean we shouldn't export something until we have mastered it here..don't you think?

If Communism is so respectable now why then are we, Americans, not allowed to travel to Cuba? If Communism is ok now then why is it ok to do business w/ China but not with Cuba? Our politicians must think Communism is a good thing otherwise why would we do business with the Chinese? What is the difference between the two countries?

For more than 40 years we waged a "Cold War" against Communism and all of a sudden we are now embracing the largest Communist (and the most populated) country in the world? Am I missing something here?

Our government and people with access to the media want us to believe that sports has nothing to do with politics. I say that is not true. Everything is political (even religion).

No....as an American, a world citizen, and a human being I cannot just compartmentalize my views and separate the Olympics (or sports) from my political and moral values. That would be like asking me to go to go out and sell sub-prime mortgages to poor & working class people during the week and then go to church on Sunday and maybe write a check to "Feed the Homeless" at Thanksgiving.

It is a farce to believe that the Olympic games will do more to promote democracy in a country that is ruled with an iron fist. The only thing we are promoting is "McGlobalism" and less freedom by increasing security measures. You can either choose to be free or secure...you cannot have both.

I mean no disrespect to athletes. I grew up being very involved in competitive swimming and gymnastics and if it were not for sports I would not have learned how to respect and care for my body. But there comes a time when you have to see that anything and everything can be used as a political tool and having the games in China is akin to having the Olympics in Nazi Germany. I believe we would not have participated in the 1936 Olympics had we known the atrocities going on there.

Please join me in NOT turning on your television to watch the Olympic games.

Peace & Justice,

Emma : )

Library Fantasy

Original posting Aug 4, 2008

A friend recently asked about my fantasies… Well…I will satisfy his and possibly your curiosity with one of them…

I have such a love affair with books (or maybe it is just information in general) so I have a fantasy of meeting a hot looking man (a young Robert Redford type comes to mind) in a grand old library (like the one in Portland, OR) that is large, has marble floors, columns, and several floors with small rooms (for rare books) where we can slide in to quietly express ourselves and risk getting caught in public at the same time.

I am wearing crotch-less pantyhose, no panties, a black mid-thigh high skirt, a red cropped sweater top with my boustier bra on underneath, cute black platform shoes with a dash of my favorite scent, Shalimar on the back of my neck. My blonde hair is pulled back behind one ear exposing my lovely pearl earring.

I walk up to the rare books room and wander through the isles thumbing thru the classics when a man wanders through the isle next to me and I can barely see his full, strawberry-blonde feathered- head of hair over the books on the shelf between us. Then I peer back into the book I have selected “To Kill a Mockingbird” as if I am reading it because I can sense this tall drink-of-water is at the one end of the bookcase glancing at me feeling as though he wants me.

Then I feel him…he walks behind me and brushes my ass w/ his big strong hand…my ass tightens upon his touch from surprise. I smell just a hint of his cologne, Royall Lyme, which turns me on.

I try to concentrate on the book thinking maybe he touched me by accident, but my attention is once again distracted by him as he walks back towards me again. This time he stops behind me and gently bushes the hair away from the back of my neck and then kisses my neck. My head tilts back and to one side as my shoulders pull up and goose-bumps form on my arms. I let out a soft sigh “aahh”.

Then this mystery man softly grabs my hair slowly pulling my hair back and to one side with his mouth drifting towards my face and eventually his mouth meets my mouth and we begin kissing passionately. While his one hand has my hair griped in his fist his other hand has slid around my waist and up my cropped top to cup my breasts in his large hand. The hand then pulls down the demi-cup to be able to fondle my entire breast and his body is pressed against mine which is pushed into the book shelf.

By this time the book has fallen on the floor and my hands are now grasping behind my body desperately seeking the way to the button and zipper on his pants. My hand makes contact and just short of ripping his pants open, the hardware complies with my demand and his trousers begin to fall to the floor. My hand feels his rock hard 9” cock bulging out towards the front of his soft cotton boxer shorts. My fingers weave their way into the slit in the shorts and grab a hold of his luxuriously soft shaven crotch area…feeling his large uncircumcised cock and balls.

The stranger and I are still dining on each others tongue, my nipples are hard and my kitty is wet and desiring with great anticipation some satisfaction and release.

Then his one hand that has been gripping my hair makes its way down my back to my skirt and around to the front and he begins using his fingers to tease my clit while his other hand has left my breast and he uses it to guide his long, thick, hard cock between my cheeks to my throbbing and excited yoni.

He then takes one hand and slides it up to my stomach and has me half-wrapped in his arm as my legs widen and move back a bit so that my upper body lowers making penetration deeper inside me. His back straightens upward and is virtually leaning against the book shelf behind him as we now consume the whole width of the isle.

He is thrusting gently and slowly at first while the fingers on his one hand circulates my clit. My hands grip the book shelf in front of me and my teeth are biting my lower lip to keep from moaning aloud. My hips sway side to side, back and forth to keep in rhythm with the luscious cock that is filling me up.

As confused and aroused as I am…I am praying no one walks into the room as I am enjoying every minute of this powerful exchange of energy…as much as I want to be in the moment of this lustful experience I know I must keep an ear out for any signs of someone coming into view of our lustful act.

I don’t want this encounter to end…the moments build more and more tension as my clit begins to enlarge from the stimulation and my fluid has made his cock slide easier and faster and the speed of his manlihood- sliding in and out- increases to the point where my ever-enlarging clit feels his shaft on every stroke.

Sweat begins to build on my forehead and my eyes shut and tighten…I am now seeing darkness for a moment and then the swirls of color (like the kind you see in an acid trip) are flashing thru my mind’s eye. I know the time is quickly approaching where I am going to cum fast and hard and I am going to want to scream with ecstasy when I climax.

The only utterance I make to my lover is to take his hand off my clit and put it across my mouth as I am going to cum any minute…then it happens…a burst of color flashes before my eyes…sweat is beading down my back, face and chest as I pull my body forward and release his cock from the grip of my pulsating feminine cavity as I cum with complete shockwaves that shake my body and leave me wanting to fall to the floor. His arm is keeping me upright as my legs want to buckle and give way. At this moment I am most grateful for his strength. My lover has climaxed at the same time and is in his own world now too.

Our encounter was memorable and somehow we both managed to keep from alerting the library staff and patrons of our pleasure-filled time together, thankfully.

THE END !!!

Yeow.....I need a cold shower!

xoxoxxo

Emma

CHICAGO !!!

Original posting July 28, 2008

I just came back from a wonderful trip to Chicago! This is my second trip to the windy city and the best yet.

I went up to attend a sex worker conference hosted by Desiree Alliance which is a volunteer-based, sex worker-led network of organizations, communities and individuals across the US working in harm reduction, direct services, political advocacy and health services for sex workers.

The title of the conference was "Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work, and Social Justice". I met some amazing women AND men who feel as I do that sex is vital to humanity, is only scary to those who choose not to understand the subject and whose kidding who here....sex is FUN to engage in!!!!

I learned a great deal about how to build allies among people in various areas of sex work, learned about different industries like brothels, how to build trust with youth engaged in their sexual world (as a trusted acquaintance not an authority figure...there is a VERY FINE LINE when dealing w/ younger people and I don't mean under-age people!!) and learning how to work w/ disabled people.

There is far too much to list in this blog but believe me...it was a worthwhile experience. I have met and be-friended some amazing people!!!

While I was in town I was able to meet a few great men and unfortunately I had to deny meeting others due to my constraints with the conference. However, I am planning another trip next month to try to make those and other connections and go out on the town and listen to some GREAT MUSIC !!!

Wishing you a blissful summer day!!!!

xoxoxoxxo

Emma : )

The Only News You Need to Know

Original posting July 16, 2008

Ok....it has happened...the courts have sided w/ Bush in allowing US citizens (that means you...those BORN here) to be held INDEFINATELY w/o a jury trial... This is the only news you REALLY need to know...but I bet you didn't catch it on the news last night, did you?

"Court: US Can Jail Civilians Indefinitely"

A federal appeals court has ruled President Bush can order the indefinite jailing of civilians imprisoned in the United States. The five-to-four decision effectively reverses last year’s ruling that the administration cannot label US residents “enemy combatants” and jail them indefinitely without charge. The ruling came in the case of the only person still held as an enemy combatant on US soil. Ali al-Marri was arrested six years ago at his home in Peoria, Illinois, where he lived with his wife and five children. He was initially charged with credit card fraud and lying to federal agents. But in June 2003, President Bush declared him an enemy combatant and ordered him into military custody. He has spent the last four years in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Al-Marri’s attorney Jonathan Hafetz said, “This decision means the president can pick up any person in the country—citizen or legal resident—and lock them up for years without the most basic safeguard in the Constitution, the right to a criminal trial.”

This is from Democracy Now! (the ONLY news outlet that provides their audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media, including independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts).

What more can I say?

Emma

Independence Day...What it means to me...

Original posting July 4, 2008

I love the word "independence".

Here is a definition of the word...

(n.) The state or quality of being independent; freedom from dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one's own affairs without interference.

I don't know about you but reading that sends a rush of excitement to my mind and a desire to embrace that concept. It is easier said than done!! I am not one to set goals (financial, career, material attainment, partnership, etc..) but this one...to achieve independence... would be the one goal I would set for myself...and have done so.

What does this mean to me? It means that I must read about and understand (to the core of my soul) "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Self-reliance means I must think for myself, trust in myself, work to support myself and develop my OWN Constitution...not one that is given to me by someone who may view self and society differently than me. For what is right for you may not be right for me and vice versa.

Self-reliance means that I must either learn how to grow my own food or barter with those who grow it for me. I must build my own home or barter with someone who owns one that will share it with me. I must make my own tools and clothes or barter with those who possess or make them to care for and protect my body. Everything beyond these things are just wants.

The life that American's having been living for over 50 years (since house-hold appliances have made home-life easier..giving us more free time) has cost more (individually, collectively and environmentally) than we are even conscious of. The "wants" that I mentioned are in the form of "stuff". My “stuff” currently resides in two storage places collecting dust and/or mold. I have decided to free myself of most of my things (except for just a few things) and let them go to others who will hopefully make use of them.

A few days ago when we experienced some strong thunderstorms late in the day I looked through the large sliding glass doors to the balcony of my place that overlooks the beach and ocean and noticed a sailboat about 30+ ft. long anchored not more than 1,000 feet from the shore. It is not a normal sight to see (it was the first time I had seen a boat anchored so close to shore) but I spent a lot of time watching the boat and wondering what the people on board were thinking and doing as the lightning and thunder accompanied the downpour of rain. It was a peaceful and solitary reminder to me that while some people spend their lives going to work to make money to buy things and stay grounded...there are others who choose simplicity and life-experiences instead. More and more I feel compelled to embrace my free and independent spirit like the later group of people and forgo the trappings of a material-driven existence. That sailboat was a sign for me to make a change.

Just the other day part of a quote popped into my head (out of nowhere...into now here) when I was thinking of the word "clever". I GOOGLED "sell your cleverness" and got a quote by Rumi "Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment".

This morning I awoke at 6:30 a.m. and made some coffee, took a chair and my tape player w/ a Wayne Dyer tape "Power of Intention" with me down to the shore on the beach. I was really engrossed in the tape and had finished my cup of coffee after 40 min. and all of a sudden Wayne quotes Rumi..."Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment". I had not heard this tape of mine in over 3 years. This is the first tape in a collection of 6 in this one program. I think I am going to find the rest of the tapes and listen to them more closely this time and take more steps to becoming INDEPENDENT and FREE.

Wishing you all a wonderful INDEPENDENCE DAY !!!

NAMASTE’

Artists & Sex

Original posting June 25, 2008

For the first time in my life I had sex with a “guy in the band”. I have always wanted to say that!!!

Music is very, very important to me! I've heard it said that music is the soundtrack of our lives and it is so true for me.

Songs link me to my past and here are a few examples...

When I went to Montessori school in the early 70's I recall one day riding home with my mom in her yellow 1973 Ford Mustang coupe listening to "Saturday in the Park" by Chicago (I LOVE horns).

And then there was the first time I had sex (too young to know better) when I was 15 and my boyfriend and I were listening to "Silly Love Songs" on the Wings at the Speed of Sound album. We both lost our virginity and sadly I heard he took his own life a few years ago...

And lastly, I won't ever forget during my rebellious youth going to a rather seedy house w/ my best friend to smoke pot...sitting on a mattress on the floor of this guy's bedroom with High Times posters all over the walls listening to Talking Heads song "Take Me to the River" and hitting a bong...hard to believe some of the stuff I went through...but I'm still here : )

Anyway, I cannot live without music. I often imagined musicians and other artists would be great in bed. Maybe it was just one of those generalizations that one hears but it is one I imprinted into my head. I've only had one experience so far with a man in a band (not a major rock star...but he could've been) and that was recently with a new friend.

Our encounter was magical!!! He brought his I-POD and speakers and played such an appropriate selection of love-making songs and brought a nice bottle of Pinot Noir for us. I provided the candles (you need all three for a romantic setting in my opinion) and a fun, flirtatious attitude (as usual).

There was so much passion that exploded out of us that our bodies were drenched with sweat and after round 3 we collapsed on the bed in complete exhaustion. I felt worked like a guitar being strummed by Eric Clapton!!! OH GOD YES !!!!!!!

Well, I can only make the assumption right now (having had one experience) that my guess that artists/musicians are great in bed is correct!! But don't take my word for it ; )

With that being said....I am off to hear some great (I hope) jazz music in a little while.... hmmmmmmmmxoxoxo

Emma ; )