Buck Up (2019)
That Boy
American Kid
Buck Up
Vim & Vigor
So Ferocious
Lovin is Easy
Fat & Happy
The Animal I Am
Fever Dream
Laziest Gal in Town
Heavenly Thing
Two Sleepy People
You Don't Know What Love Is
What Is This Thing Called Love?
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
Sweet Lorraine
Don't Come Too Soon
Not Old, Not New
Under Your Thumb
Together Too Long
Little Death
Idiot Heart
All We Got
Honest Truth
Itches and Tugs
O, Gabriella
Two at a Time
Every Punch You Throw
Baby Can Dance
Crazy for Love
Anything At All
Ain't So Green
Don't Wanna Know
Everybody's All Alone
Take Me Along
Temporary Lapse
Wedding Song
Willing To Fall
Redemption Blues
thoughts on love, sex, music and ferocity
tagged: sex law
Casual Love
How Not To Be A Nice Girl
New Rules for the Music Business
Emotional Affairs Are Not a Real Problem
How to DO Creativity - Part II.
Six Things I Hope I Learned in My Twenties
The Importance of Practicing Heartbreak
On Women Who Like Sex
Three Myths About Art and Success
The Problem with Panic
Sexual misconduct, affirmative consent, and the dangers of shame and moralism.
We are in the midst of a massive reconnoitering of American sexual culture. At the convergence of the Weinstein watershed, the #MeToo movement, and the rapidly-changing standards of sexual negotiation and consent, it has become clear that we are undergoing a sea change.
Most of the women I talk to are giddy with delight. There is a sense that the feminist movement has finally made it out of classrooms and courthouses, and is entering the intimate spaces of our everyday lives. There is a sense that the chickens are coming home to roost, and that men - who have enjoyed centuries of arbitrary and unmitigated power over us - are being cut down to size.
But there is also a sense, in some quarters, that this particular reckoning contains within it a kernel of panic, and that the legacy of sex panic in America is long and grotesque. There are those of us, for example, who feel that Al Franken might better serve women by staying in the Senate, attempting to divert the coming wave of fascism, than by sitting at home thinking about what he’s done. There are those who have been victimized not only by men, but by previous moral panics, and the misguided policy decisions that follow in their wake. And there are those of us who worry that while talking about sexual assault is a clear sign of progress, the way we are talking about sexual assault may be setting us up for a dangerous and regressive backlash.
I’ve been reading voraciously for the past couple months, trying to absorb the many competing interpretations of this cultural moment. Much of what I’ve read has been deeply thoughtful, courageous, and gorgeously written. But some of it has been short-sighted and narrow-minded; more concerned with the thrill of the latest accusation, or with regressive, sensationalist theories, than with the broader meaning or direction of the movement. Pieces like these seem to present within them the very weapons that may be pointing back at us when the tide, inevitably, turns.
As an amateur student of sexual culture, history, and law, I can’t help but notice these troubling patterns, and feel obligated to address them. I worry that this will lose me friends and fans, because some of what I’m going to say is decidedly out of fashion; so much so that it may be interpreted as offensive or even immoral.
But I am an artist, not a politician. My obligation is not to fashion, or even to feminism, but to the truth, as I see it.
1) The problem of sexual moralism.
In Christine Emba’s recent opinion piece “Let’s rethink sex”, she makes the following observation:
“It’s unlikely that we’ll return to a society in which sexual encounters outside of marriage are disallowed or even discouraged — that sex train has already left the fornication station, if it was ever properly there to begin with. But now could be the time to reintroduce virtues such as prudence, temperance, respect and even love. We might pursue the theory that sex possibly has a deeper significance than just recreation and that “consent” — that thin and gameable boundary — might not be the only moral sensibility we need respect.”
While this seems benign enough on its face (although, spoiler: the sex train was indeed never “properly” confined to marriage), it left me in a cold sweat. Consent may be an imperfect boundary – I’d even agree that it is thin and “gameable” - but it is the only practicable boundary that does not invoke sexual moralism, which is the opposite of sexual liberation.
Moralism thrives on vague, nameless panic, and can only be beaten back with nuance and specificity. When we allow the media to lean on vague, catchall phrases like “sexual misconduct” and “inappropriate behavior”, we are inadvertently furthering the cause of sexual moralism, and making room for just such harebrained attempts to “rethink sex”.
Sexual moralism makes two claims:
1. Sex is outstandingly powerful and magical. When it’s “good”, it’s sacred and holy and life-creating, but when it’s “bad” it’s terrible and evil and life-destroying. It’s really important that we protect the power/magic of sex, and don’t allow anybody to treat it with a laissez faire attitude; that’s why birth control and abortion are bad, and love and commitment are necessary.
2. All sex is either “good” or “bad”. And, wow! We happen to have the rulebook right here! We can just look up the sex in question, and determine whether it is of the sacred/holy variety, or the terrible/evil variety. It’s oh, so simple!
But here’s the bad news for the moralists. Sex is rarely magical, sacred, evil, or simple. The magical part (if you ask me), is that humans are so incredibly sexually omnivorous. There is no more a “right way” to have sex than there is a “right way” to eat food. There are plenty of ways to do it, and plenty of reasons for doing it: we do it for fun, to connect, to satisfy hunger, to satisfy curiosity, to make each other happy, to make each other unhappy, to get power and status, to explore our own psychology, to express ourselves, to distract ourselves, and to perpetuate the species. We do it because we are ridiculous, dumb, playful animals.
And as we consider resorting to sexual moralism in a desperate attempt to control sexual assault and violence, here’s the bad news for the rest of us:
Sexual moralism has more often resulted in panic-driven, counterproductive legislation (sodomy laws, Sex Offender Registries, limiting access to birth control and abortion, criminalizing gay marriage and trans use of bathrooms, and jailing teenagers for sexting) than in security or justice.
And it has never, on the societal level, resulted in “prudence” or “temperance”.
Of course, we are each free to enjoy our own preferred flavor of sexual moralism, in our own sex life. But if we hope to progress, we should avoid imposing it on large groups of strangers.
As we watch hordes of creepy, despotic men being thrown to the lions, it’s easy to enter a Coliseum-like mob mentality. It’s thrilling to see scums-of-the-earth like Weinstein and Moore destroyed, and difficult to see the potential negative fallout of this kind of justice. But as we begin to throw additional creeps into the pit without thoroughly reviewing the evidence, we are allowing ourselves to be seduced by righteous indignation, which is often the precursor to sexual moralism.
Rejecting sexual moralism doesn’t mean that we can’t criticize people for shitty sexual behavior; or fire, prosecute or jail them for harassment or assault. It means that we must remain committed to nuance, complexity, and evidence-based justice as we do so. All of these are necessary for us, as a society, to determine how to prevent sexual assault without surrendering the hard-won victories of the sexual liberation movement.
One of the reasons sexual moralism strikes me as a clear and present danger in contemporary American society is that any standard other than “consenting adults can have whatever kind of sex they damn well please” is just a short downhill slide from our conventional societal structure, wherein sexual morality is the purview of the Christian right.
The Christian right, in case you’ve forgotten, is allergic to all sex that isn’t straight, married, and potentially reproductive (as is alarmingly foreshadowed in Emba’s widely-shared piece, published not in Christian Living, but in the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune).
And before you say “nah, this time is different!”, please cast your mind back to the ancient times of barely one year ago, when the Christian right – using their time-honored, folksy traditions of fear-mongering, nationalism, white supremacy and misogyny – helped to elect a fascist-leaning, fantastically underqualified President.
With this in mind, I think you’ll agree that it’s particularly important for us to keep our heads, and remain committed to evidence, nuance, and real progressive change. Righteous indignation – especially in times of creeping fascism - is a very bad organizing strategy.
“So how about if we avoid turning Sexual Moralism 2.0 into shitty, regressive, life-destroying legislation, and just stick with the public shamings?” You might ask.
Unfortunately, we already have plenty of evidence that shaming people about their sexual urges and behaviors doesn’t work. Instead, it drives those urges and behaviors deeper into the closet, where they get nastier and uglier and meaner. And then, in order to protect our shameful meanness, we construct whole philosophies and institutions around the denial of said urges and behaviors, until that precious house of cards finally self-destructs under the weight of the lie.
Just ask the Catholic Church!
Or even the Penn State Nittany Lions.
We have run plenty of experiments, and the results are in. Sexual shame and moralism do not serve to prevent sexual abuse; they serve to protect it.
2) The problem of “Sex Offenders” and “Sexual Misconduct”.
On the topic of sexual moralism resulting in shitty, life-destroying legislation: let’s talk about Sex Offender Registries.
In the 1990s, a series of high-profile child sex abuse cases resulted in a cluster of sex offender laws. First, states were required to add all “Sex Offenders” to a registry; then “community reporting” laws required states to make those registries public; then “residency restrictions” were added in many states to bar registered offenders from working or living within a thousand feet of a school, park, swimming pool, or daycare.
The first problem with sex offender registries is that they have a tendency to destroy the lives of registrants. Residency restrictions can significantly impact a registrant’s ability to find legal housing or work, and most states allow potential employers and landlords to deny work or housing on the basis of sex offender status, even when the registrant has managed to meet those restrictions. Community reporting laws in some states require that whenever a registered sex offender moves or changes jobs, their neighbors and coworkers are notified, via flier or bulletin, of their status (for comparison: this does not happen when a convicted murderer moves in).
“So what’s wrong with destroying the lives of rapists and child abusers?” You may ask.
Unfortunately, the registries include large numbers of people whose “crimes” do not come close to qualifying as abuse, many of whom ended up on the list when they were teenagers, or even children themselves (according to Human Rights Watch, children as young as 9 have been placed on the registry, and Juvenile offenders account for 25 percent of the 800,000+ registrants). So even those among us with the deepest faith in punitive justice - and the deepest hatred for sex abuse - may have to admit that the implementation is less than ideal.
The second problem with sex offender registries is that they don’t work. Registry laws were passed based on a pervasive sense of panic, rather than on empirical evidence; and in the decades that have passed since their implementation, statistical data has failed to provide any.
There is vanishingly little evidence that sex offender registration, mandatory reporting laws, or residency restrictions have any measurable impact on deterring first-time offenders, or reducing recidivism.
Both of these very big problems may relate to the fact that sex offender registries fail to make distinctions between different kinds of “sex offense”. While the registries do include people who have been convicted of rape and child molestation, they also include people like a relative of mine, who was placed on the sex offender registry at the age of nineteen for having consensual sex with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend.
Each state determines what qualifies as a sex offense, and due to the historical popularity of using sexual moralism to determine our sex laws, some states cast a particularly wide net.
Twenty-nine states can require sex offender registration for consensual sex between teenagers. Twelve states can require sex offender registration for urinating in public. In a rash of recent cases, teenagers are being placed on sex offender registries for “distributing child pornography”, after being caught texting pictures of their own genitalia to another teenager.
Sex offender registries also include people who have visited a sex worker, people who “exposed themselves” to children when they were also children, and at least one parent who was found guilty of being “party to the crime of child molestation” for letting their fifteen-year-old daughter have sex with her boyfriend.
By calling all of these people “sex offenders”, we have obliterated any possibility of sex offender registries being a useful tool for protecting our families from abuse. Instead, we have succeeded only in depriving a huge and growing number of people - whose “crimes” consist of decidedly normal and innocuous sexual behavior – of the right to fair treatment under the law.
When I read accounts of “sexual misconduct” among famous men, I can’t help but draw a correlation. I worry that we are in the process of conflating rapists and abusers with assholes (people who do mean or obnoxious things, out of thoughtlessness or insensitivity) and fuckwits (people who do dumb things, out of dumbness), and that this conflation is leading us down a dark and familiar road.
Based on my reading of the allegations at hand (with the caveat that published accounts may be incomplete, new information is coming out every day, and accusations are usually true):
- Harvey Weinstein is a rapist.
- Donald Trump is a rapist, as well as a serial sexual-assaulter.
- Kevin Spacey is a serial sexual-assaulter. He also may be attracted to adolescent teenagers, or was when he was in his twenties (not a pedophile, but a hebephile, in the name of specificity).
- Roy Moore is a serial sexual-assaulter of minors, and probably also a hebephile.
- Louis C.K. abused his professional power to manipulate several women into weird, creepy sexual situations. This may or may not qualify as sexual assault, but it certainly qualifies as assholery.
- Al Franken is probably more of a fuckwit.
- Garrison Keillor might be an asshole, a fuckwit, or both; but at this point, there is no public evidence to either support or refute that claim.
Some of these cases constitute harassment or assault, and some of them may not. Some of these men have been sued by their accusers, some have not. That’s partly because it is not a crime to be an asshole, even when the expression of your assholery is sexual. And that is a good thing.
When we conflate assholery with rape and assault, and approach all of them with the same fervor for punitive justice, we are inadvertently downgrading the seriousness of rape and assault. In addition to being an insult to survivors of rape and assault, this puts us at great risk of cultural and political backlash.
There is a danger of the #MeToo movement creating similar conflations. Although immensely useful in identifying and raising awareness of the problem (huge numbers of women have been coerced into uncomfortable and unwanted sexual situations, at work and elsewhere), the solution will require more from us. It will require lots of frank and specific conversations about what kinds of sexual behavior are dangerous, and should be labeled “criminal”; what kinds of sexual behavior are inappropriate at work, and should be fireable offenses; and what kinds of sexual behavior are socially unacceptable, but should be addressed directly with the asshole in question.
If the sex offender registry teaches us anything, it’s that a failure to make distinctions like these - when combined with our pre-existing culture of sexual moralism and punitive justice - is itself dangerous.
I must’ve read the phrase “sexual assault is not about sex, it’s about power” a thousand times since November. While I don’t dispute the sentiment, it always strikes me as incomplete. Sexual assault is about power; sex works as a method of control because sex and its attendant cultural narratives are so powerful. And the less we understand and examine them, the more powerful they become.
That’s why it seems to me that in order to address sexual assault, we need to abandon catchalls like “sexual misconduct”, and be willing to talk - with honesty and specificity - about sex. We need to confront the confusion, anxiety, messiness, and shame of our sexual culture, and of sexuality itself, and not revert to lazy and dangerous oversimplifications.
As long as we defer that project, no amount of retribution will satisfy us, or protect us.
3) The problem of consent.
Back in October, I ran a Kickstarter campaign for a card game I created called The F’ing Truth. It’s a talking-about-sex game, and it includes over a hundred questions about players’ sexual experiences and interests. The purpose of the game is to make it fun and easy to talk about sex with the aforementioned honesty and specificity.
Halfway through the campaign, I released a printable version of the game to Kickstarter backers. Some backers reacted negatively to a few of my questions, on the grounds that those questions could be construed as pertaining to nonconsensual sex. Here are the questions they took issue with:
#23: Have you ever had sex while intoxicated, or with a partner who was intoxicated?
#26: Have you ever had sex while asleep, or with a partner who was asleep?
#34: Have you ever lied, withheld, or distorted information to encourage someone to have sex with you?
#34: Have you ever had sex with your employee, subordinate, or student?
While I agree with the fact that any of these questions could pertain to nonconsensual sex, I don’t agree with the assumption that they must. This reaction strikes me as a kind of consent-based sexual idealism, which does not leave room for the complexity, awkwardness, or confusion of actual sex.
Regardless of whether you feel that these questions are referring to “bad” sex or “good” sex: did you answer yes or no?
I, for one, answer “yes” to all of them, as have many of the people I’ve played the game with. All of these kinds of sex are prevalent, and often consensual. I worry that by vilifying them, we are – again – sacrificing a lot of valuable nuance in the name of an unrealistic standard of sexual righteousness.
In other words: this may be sexual moralism in new clothes. In this case, the measuring-stick of righteousness is “affirmative verbal consent”, combined with the belief that people who do not hold equal power (like bosses and employees) are incapable of consent. This is a better standard than, say, “sex is only for procreation”, but like all forms of sexual moralism, it makes one fatal error: it fails to thrive in reality.
The truth is, there are many healthy sexual behaviors besides fully-verbalized, enthusiastic, sober sex, between adults who know each other and enjoy the same socioeconomic status.
There is flirting – which is not only verbal, but also physical – and which by its very nature includes making a sexual overture when you don’t know for sure whether the other party feels the same way. There is the honest-but-awkward attempt to flirt, which often includes making the other party uncomfortable. There is joking, which - since the dawn of time - has included sex as a central theme, because sex is hilarious. There is non-sexual touch, which is sometimes misinterpreted as sexual. There is unwanted touch, and unwanted sex, which we are afraid or ashamed to admit is unwanted, until later. There is consensual sex that is stupid, or drunken, or just bad. There is consensual sex between bosses and employees, actors and directors, and teenagers and adults. There is the sexualization of power imbalances, which is exceedingly common for people of all genders and orientations. There is consensual sex which we regret having consented to.
There are sexual interactions that make us feel icky, or awkward, or even deeply hurt; and yet, no wrong has been done.
I am not being prescriptive here, I am reporting. All of these kinds of interactions occur, regularly, in the actual world where we live. To chalk them all up to “nonconsensual”, and to then use “nonconsensual” as a bludgeon with which to beat each other, is to deprive ourselves of deeply important distinctions, and to shame ourselves and each other for many of the sexual interactions we have, and will continue having.
Although “affirmative verbal consent” may be a good policy for institutions (because it removes the burden of proof from the victim), and a good guideline for men (because it treats them as responsible actors), it strikes me as a poor measure of sexual righteousness, and a potentially dangerous interpretation of feminism.
Let’s review the brief history of “affirmative verbal consent”.
In 1991, Antioch College instituted the “Sex Offense Prevention Policy”, or SOPP, which includes the following: 1) all sexual activity at this college must be consensual. 2) “Consent” is defined as verbal. 3) Violations of this policy should be reported to the community standards board. 4) In response to complaints of a violation, the board will hold a hearing in which they interview all parties involved, including witnesses. 5) The board can respond to complaints in a variety of ways, including mediation, “restitution”, therapy, community service, loss of campus privileges (jobs, housing), and finally, suspension or expulsion.
Since Antioch (which was roundly mocked for this policy in the early 90s, including by SNL), more than 1400 colleges have adopted similar policies, and two states (California and New York) have passed legislation requiring colleges to institute their own affirmative consent policies.
A few clarifying notes: 1) Affirmative consent is a policy on college campuses. It is not a law for adults who live in the wild. 2) While the SOPP gives a lot of consideration to “due process” following violations of the consent policy, many of the campus policies that have followed do not. 3) At this point, there is no evidence that affirmative consent policies result in a decline in campus assault or rape. There is, however, some evidence that these policies result in disproportionate disciplinary expulsions of students of color.
Regardless of our personal feelings or beliefs about verbal consent (which may, rightly, be totally positive): the evidence on whether affirmative consent policies work is conspicuously absent. They may be a triumph for women, or they may be another example of turning panic into law, and waiting a few generations to find out whether it was a good idea.
Aside from law and policy, though, I’d argue that the way we are talking about consent in the media and online is becoming increasingly more ominous, less helpful to women, and further removed from the realities of sex between adult people. The trend seems to be towards a view of women as passive recipients of sex, incapable of communicating desire, preference, or rejection.
Take, for example, this mindboggling statement recently published in the New York Times:
“Most of us understand, or at least we should, that a blackout drunk person cannot consent to sex. On some campuses, that inability to consent applies even if someone has had just a sip or two. But what about a woman who doesn’t feel that she can speak up because of cultural expectations? Should that woman be considered unable to consent, too?”
Speaking for myself, I’d have to say, absofuckinglutely not. I have spent my adult life developing a sense of sexual agency; of familiarity with, and entitlement to, my sexual desires and preferences. If you want to take it from me, you’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
This is Dworkinesque anti-sex feminism, repackaged for the 21st century. It echoes both Victorian feminism and the religious right in its fantasies of female purity, chastity, and helplessness in the face of Big Bad Male Sexuality. While it can make for an interesting philosophical exercise, I find it useless - and potentially dangerous - for those of us who hope to live as women here on planet earth.
Although it is too early to say conclusively, recent research suggests that sexual assault resistance training - unlike campus policies of affirmative consent - may reduce rates of assault and rape by up to 50%. The Canadian pilot program included (as part of a multi-faceted approach) training and education for young women “to explore ways to overcome emotional barriers to resisting the unwanted sexual behaviors of men who were known to them, and practice resisting verbal coercion”.
In light of this information (and supported by my own personal experience, and that of many of the women in my life), I think we should consider the potential dangers of encouraging women to view themselves as powerless, silent victims.
To my ear, the standard of verbal consent - requested by the male partner, granted by the female partner – seems to further the “women are powerless victims” narrative. It focuses only on the male actor, gives him full responsibility for the sexual interaction, and fails to provide any guidance whatsoever for how we, as women, can have better sex, or avoid traumatic sexual experiences.
If the conversation ends with “men should get our consent”, we have only succeeded in giving away our sexual agency, and inviting men to treat us as passive recipients of sex. Instead, it should be our goal to enter a sexual interaction as a full participant, which must necessarily include a measure of responsibility for pursuing what feels good, and changing or stopping what feels bad.
By saying this, I absolutely don’t intend to blame or shame women who have been victims of sexual assault, or of otherwise painful or traumatic sexual experiences. Many sexual assaults are physically forced, or perpetrated on a victim who is passed out, or who is a child. Some assaults are coerced in the context of power differentials that make consent complicated (I don’t believe that able-bodied, conscious adults are ever “incapable” of consent, but that does not preclude us from considering the complexities of power).
But still others fall into a gray area. Many of us have had a sexual interactions that felt terrible, but that we did not attempt to stop or change. If something like this has happened to you (as it has to me), have compassion for yourself.
We have, after all, been socialized to find sex terrifying and confusing, and to surrender our responsibility and agency to whatever random male is available. This combination means that the very act of being approached sexually brings up a fuckton of bullshit for us, which is at times difficult to see through.
Some of that bullshit includes:
Sex is dirty and dangerous; you shouldn’t do it at all. Sex is sacred and holy and God cares about how and whether you do it. Sex is your only value as a human, so you should do it well. Sex is something men want, and are in charge of. Wanting or liking sex makes you a filthy slutty whore. Not wanting or liking sex makes you a dull unfuckable prude. Pleasing men is your whole job. No one will ever love you if you don’t do sex correctly.
If any of this sounds familiar, and reminds you of someone in your past, any media you’ve ever consumed, or the inside of your own brain: you may be a lucky recipient of American Female Human Socialization. If you’ve ever found yourself in an uncomfortable sexual situation and become paralyzed with confusion or fear, then congratulations! It worked.
But in the name of becoming happier, more empowered people: shouldn’t it be our goal to work through the bullshit, and become full participants in our sexual lives?
And when we focus only on the idea that it’s a man’s job to seek consent, and that consent is some kind of magic incantation that renders us fuckable, are we not perpetuating the same bullshit, in a hip new outfit?
What’s more: due to the aforementioned bullshit, even if our partners request and receive verbal consent 100% of the time, we will not be saved from the possibility of icky, awkward or hurtful sex.
We are all just too full of shit.
To avoid hurtful and traumatizing sexual interactions, we need to approach the problem from both sides of the bed. Men should seek enthusiastic consent, and women should seek to incinerate the bullshit inside us, confront anyone who makes us uncomfortable, and become active co-creators of the sex we have.
The seemingly-innocuous #BelieveAllWomen hashtag strikes me as a similarly infantilizing perversion of feminism. Isn’t the idea that women are immaculate Goddess-creatures, irreproachable and unable to engage in debate or stand up to scrutiny, something feminism has historically been fighting against?
These narratives of victimization (which I can’t help but notice, have a tendency to come from upper-class, educated, white liberal feminists (like me!)) also seem to lack acknowledgement of the larger power struggles playing out in society. Women like me have, in fact, scraped together a huge amount of cultural, economic, and institutional power and privilege. There are millions of women in this country (and the world) whose social conditioning has been more toxic than ours, and is combined with considerably more economic and institutional obstacles.
The victim narrative seems to imply that until we are free of all negative cultural conditioning, we cannot be expected to take responsibility for our action, or inaction. If we believe this, what does that mean for people who have received more negative cultural conditioning: women of color, men of color, gay and trans people?
By encouraging us to frame ourselves as powerless, the narrative of victimization seems to reduce our responsibility to protect ourselves, and obliterate our responsibility to engage in political struggles with those who have even less access to power.
It seems to me that in order to further the larger struggle for equal rights, we must reject the narrative that because we are not yet equal, we are powerless.
4) The problem of shame.
One of the questions the media seems to be doing a poor job of grappling with is that of why this seeming “epidemic” is happening at all. In a stunning display of pseudo-journalistic bullshittery, the New York Times put it this way:
“How are we supposed to create an equal world when male mechanisms of desire are inherently brutal?”
Rather than dignifying that regressive, biologically-deterministic, downright stupid question, how about we answer some different ones. Like:
“Why is all of this coming out now?”
This cultural sea change is only possible because of the legal and institutional sea change that has taken place over the past century. The movements for suffrage, civil rights, reproductive rights, and rights and protections for women in the workplace have given us a world that is almost unrecognizable from that of our foremothers. We can vote, own property, enter any college or profession we like, and decide for ourselves whether and how to marry, have sex, or have children. We can even (and this one is fairly recent) sue and collect damages for workplace sexual harassment.
None of those statements would have been true one hundred years ago.
I say this to point out that we are part of history, and history is still happening. This wave of cultural change is part of the larger story of the struggle for equal rights. The policies and laws we pass have an enormous effect on culture, which plays out over generations; and the culture we create has an enormous effect on future policy and law.
Here’s another good question:
“People are assholes in all kinds of ways. Why is regular assholery different from sexual assholery?”
I’d argue that there are two reasons.
The first reason is that sexual assholery, especially when performed by a male perpetrator upon a female victim, is part of a historical context in which sex (and related issues like birth control, reproductive health, abortion and motherhood) is the primary battleground on which the war on women takes place. Sex has been used to control, devalue and silence women for actual millennia, and we are dealing with the legacy of that tradition every day of our lives. This is the conversation we are beginning to have in the culture at large, which is long-awaited and much-needed.
The second reason is shame.
Sexual assholery strikes us as more serious, dangerous, and shameful than general, everyday assholery, because we have not yet shaken our belief in the inherent danger and shamefulness of sex itself.
How can it possibly be more hurtful to touch someone’s breast than to punch them in the face?
How can it be a resignation-worthy offense for a senator to put his hand on a woman’s butt, but business-as-usual for a senator to go home for Christmas without renewing funding for CHIP (which provides access to basic medical care for 9 million low-income children)?
In part, because when someone commits an act of sexual assholery (and this is also true of sexual assault, harassment, and rape), they are weaponizing the shame that is already inside us.
And shame – especially for women – is so incredibly powerful, deep-seated, and all-encompassing, that we will do almost anything to keep it hidden.
Which is why it is a revolutionary act - and a stride towards ending sexual violence - to become shameless.
5) The problem of what to do.
When we lose sight of the broader struggles taking place – in this case, the battles for women’s rights AND for sexual freedom and justice for sexual minorities – we risk making the wrong legal and institutional changes, and those changes bring with them a legacy that lasts for many generations (as in the case of sex offender registries).
Laws and policies that are evidence-based, rather than driven by panic and moralism, typically do a better job at improving people’s lives.
Here are a few examples of the kinds of evidence we might use to make laws about sexual behavior:
-Decriminalizing sex work may reduce sexual violence by 30% (and some STDs by 40%).
-“Sexual Assault Resistance Training” for female college students may reduce rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault by almost half.
-Proactive counselling and group therapy for pedophiles seems to prevent child sexual abuse more effectively than mandatory reporting and sex offender registration.
-Comprehensive sex education has been shown repeatedly to reduce unprotected sex, unintended pregnancies, and the spread of STDs.
- Because this is my favorite statistic and everyone should have it on hand: abortion rates are about the same worldwide, regardless of legality (but where abortion is illegal, more women die from botched abortions). The only thing that has been shown to reduce abortion rates is access to free contraception.
I don’t know yet how this will play out, and it’s possible that this sea change is, in fact, entirely healthy, and will result in a greater measure of justice for all involved. But I do know that panic and righteous indignation do not, historically, produce good legislation. So I can’t help but implore us to, first of all, stop panicking.
Other than that, here are my humble suggestions:
Continue to report, litigate, and speak out about sexual assault and harassment. This will help to improve our legal and institutional processes for handling accusations, which should be our #1 priority if we hope to stop the Weinsteins of the world.
Continue to hire and elect women and sexual minorities into positions of institutional, legal and political power. This will continue to change sexual culture in the workplace and in society, and to dismantle the hierarchies that protect harassers and abusers.
Talk about sex and sexual abuse using precise, shame-free language; continue to normalize and celebrate healthy sex (in all of its myriad forms); and maintain a commitment to evidence and data especially when dealing with sex. This will give us a head start if we hope to outrun our history of using sex panic to inform bad policy.
When dealing with assholes and fuckwits: personal confrontation should be our first line of defense. Although it is scary, I believe this is our best chance at changing sexual culture for the better without furthering the cause of the sexual moralists. As a bonus, it will make us braver, stronger, and less ashamed.
Incinerate the bullshit inside us, and cultivate a sense of sexual and personal power. This will change our relationship to sex and shame, disempower abusers, and allow us to better protect ourselves and each other.
If you ask me: women are ferocious beasts. We have the power not just to say “yes” or “no”, but to uphold or dismantle the patriarchy, capitalism, and perhaps the world as we know it.
If we think of ourselves not as helpless victims, but as the keepers of a considerable quantity of personal and political power, the question then becomes: what are we going to do with it?
*View this post on my blog*
This piece was inspired by the following works:
Sex Panic and the Punitive State by Roger Lancaster
The Politics of Sexual Harassment by Linda Gordon
When Does a Watershed Become a Sex Panic? by Masha Gessen
Girls & Sex by Peggy Orenstein
Dan Savage’s ongoing refusal to panic.
If you love this post (and my other creations), subscribe to me on Patreon.
#sexuality
#sex panic
#weinstein
#consent
#affirmative consent
#sex offender registries
#sex law
#sex crimes
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Copyright © 2019 Carsie Blanton. Website by Mindlark. Photos by Bobby Bonsey


Task force recommends ways to improve residential college dining
by Eric Quiñones
Oct. 20, 2005 7:44 p.m.
As envisioned by the task force, dining halls in Rockefeller and other colleges would feature a more "homelike, intimate atmosphere."
Below left: The changes in the dining facilities would be part of a transformation in the entire residential college system, which currently includes five two-year colleges. When Whitman College opens in 2007, it will join Mathey and Butler (shown here) colleges in housing students from all four classes. Each of the other three colleges (Forbes, Rockefeller and Wilson) will be paired with a four-year college, and all the colleges will include graduate students in residence.
Bottom left: Mathey College, like other residential dining facilities, currently offers a "scramble" style of service, with specialty bars and short-order grills. To diminish their institutional feel, the college dining venues will be upgraded to a "marketplace" style similar to the Frist Campus Center food gallery, with multiple stations serving more diverse dishes that are cooked to order.
Photos: John Jameson
A task force created to examine dining and social life in the residential colleges has recommended a broad series of changes aimed at significantly improving the quality of the food and dining atmosphere in the colleges.
In a report delivered to President Shirley M. Tilghman, the Task Force on Dining and Social Options also recommends strategies to provide greater access to residential college dining facilities through operational changes and a new partnership with the eating clubs.
The task force, consisting of faculty, staff and students, was appointed in spring 2004 by Tilghman to play a key role in planning efforts for the new four-year residential college system. The new system will take effect in fall 2007 with the opening of Whitman College.
"Our goal was to help put forth a series of recommendations that would allow Princeton to supply food of the very highest quality in warm, intimate spaces," Michael Jennings, a German professor who chaired the task force, said in presenting its report at the Oct. 10 meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community. "The president has envisioned a more fluid, flexible, tolerant social environment, and our task was to think about how the new colleges could be part of that vision."
The task force members spent the past academic year evaluating Princeton's current college dining system to provide insight on how to appeal to more undergraduates, as well as graduate students, faculty and staff. Members visited other colleges and universities around the country to compare offerings. Their work was guided by "the necessity of making recommendations that would promote the integration of the colleges into the wider campus community, forging relationships with existing institutions such as the clubs, the co-ops, dormitories housing independent students, and a wide range of student organizations," according to the report.
The residential college system, which currently includes five two-year colleges, is being transformed under a plan approved in 2000 by the trustees to increase the undergraduate student body from roughly 4,700 to 5,200. Under the new system, Whitman will join Mathey and Butler colleges in housing students from all four classes, allowing for greater interaction among all students and more participation by juniors and seniors in the colleges' academic, social and cultural offerings. Each of the other three colleges (Forbes, Rockefeller and Wilson) will be paired with a four-year college, and all the colleges will include graduate students in residence.
Improved dining environment
A key element in the task force's vision for the residential colleges is enhancing the appeal of the dining environment through improved food quality and design of the facilities.
The task force noted that the "homelike, intimate atmosphere" and smaller quantities of food served draws many students to the eating clubs. "The task force is convinced that one of the most important goals in the design of the new college dining facilities is a renewed attention to scale -- the reduction or elimination of the institutional character of the dining experience," the report says.
"As Whitman College is built and planning is undertaken for renovations to the serveries and dining halls of the remaining colleges, the University should insist that the architects and designers responsible for the new dining spaces be especially attentive to issues of scale and warmth," the report says.
To diminish the institutional feel of the dining halls, a "marketplace" design -- similar to the Frist Campus Center food gallery -- has been incorporated into plans for Whitman and for future renovations in the existing residential colleges. The task force endorsed this more open style of service and further recommends that the University hire architectural firms with experience in commercial restaurant settings to oversee the design of the dining halls, noting the need for "high standards in furnishing, lighting, acoustics and ambience."
"Dining spaces that can seat 400 students, with open sight lines, soaring ceilings and geometrically arranged rows of identical … tables are impressive, but they are not conducive to the kind of intimate dining experience envisioned here," the report says. "The architectural firms should be encouraged to explore solutions that allow for smaller dining areas within larger dining halls -- that convey the sense of warmth and intimacy stressed in this report."
To promote individual identities for each of the colleges, the task force recommends a new emphasis on autonomous units in the Department of Dining Services, with each college dining venue run by its own chef with direct responsibility for the menu and budget. Currently, menu development and purchasing decisions are centrally controlled by dining services. The task force envisions a more competitive, creative environment that provides incentives for chefs to devise appealing menu offerings. It also recommends the hiring of chefs with extensive restaurant experience.
"It is essential that the spirit and driving force of a retail operation suffuse every aspect of a newly conceived dining operation at Princeton," the report says. "In the newly conceived dining system in which each unit is a cost center, students must be considered as customers who are able to exercise options regarding where and what they eat. With the introduction of upperclassmen and graduate students and their access to a wide range of dining options, it will have to become clear that these customers, if not satisfied with the food and service in their unit, will take their business elsewhere."
Enhanced meal plans
Another goal of the task force is to increase access to the residential college dining system. Recommendations include a closer working relationship between the residential colleges and the eating clubs, increased hours of operation for residential college eating venues and a more diverse menu to support students with special dietary needs. The task force proposes shared contracts to allow students to take meals in both a college and a club, while encouraging the clubs to offer social memberships to students who dine in the residential colleges.
The report cites initial discussions between members of the task force, the administration and representatives of the eating clubs about developing new working relationships. "We believe that a truly significant opening has been forged here, an opening that can be exploited to the advantage of the colleges and clubs alike, but also one that could lead to generally improved relations between the clubs and the University, to the benefit of all concerned," the report says.
The report calls for other major changes to meal plans offered to students based on the idea that "the dining halls should take on the character of the rest of the college facilities: They should afford extensive, trouble-free access to members of the community." Those changes include: expanded late-night meal hours; a faster electronic check-in system; a reduction in the number and variety of meal plans to eliminate confusion; and a revamping of meal plans to "allow for free movement between colleges, clubs, co-ops, independent eating arrangements and retail facilities on campus and in the town."
The task force also proposes expanding the graduate fellow system -- which encourages graduate students to eat in the dining halls -- to all six residential colleges. The system currently exists in four of the five colleges. "Such a system helps address a major concern of many undergraduate and graduate students, who hope to break down perceived divisions on campus," the report notes. In addition to expanding the graduate fellow system, the task force recommends efforts to regularly involve other graduate students in college dining activities to foster a greater sense of community.
The task force also noted the need to provide greater options for students with special dietary needs. Students who eat kosher food can dine at the Center for Jewish Life, for example, but provisions should be made in at least one of the colleges for Muslim students, faculty and staff who follow halal dietary practices, the report says.
A copy of the report is available on the task force's Web site.
Further conversations
The report of the Task Force on Dining and Social Options is one of many elements in the planning for the four-year residential college system. At the CPUC meeting, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel updated members of the campus community on a series of "brainstorming sessions" held over the summer among administrators and faculty associated with the residential colleges to discuss various elements of college life.
Those meetings, convened by Malkiel and Executive Vice President Mark Burstein, generated numerous ideas that are detailed in a report titled "Creating a New Social Environment in the Residential Colleges." The report is available on the CPUC Web site.
Major themes in the report include the following:
Colleges should be vehicles for student-generated activities and should provide space and other resources to help students develop their ideas. Students should develop signature activities for each college, similar to Wilson College's BlackBox dance club.
Colleges should offer regularly scheduled special events for juniors and seniors, such as gatherings with graduate students and faculty members, or wine tastings.
Other student organizations should be encouraged to sponsor campuswide events in the colleges, such as senior class pub nights or dinners and dances for all classes.
Colleges should accommodate events that students currently find difficult to schedule elsewhere, such as exhibitions of student art work.
Malkiel said the report will be distributed to students and discussed intensively in the residential colleges and with members of the Undergraduate Student Government, the Undergraduate Life Committee and other students to gather their input during the college planning process.
"Our plan for this fall is to have this document assessed in every venue that we can imagine. … We're going to take stock of what we've heard and decide on the right structures for carrying forward the next part of the conversation," Malkiel said.
Malkiel noted that freshmen and sophomores will be key constituents in these discussions. "The classes of '08 and '09 will be the first upperclass students who will live in these colleges, and their leadership in figuring out how to make these colleges as effective as possible for them and their classmates is front and center," she said.
Committee issues pilot recommendations for undergraduate dining
Task force issues report on University and the eating clubs
Charge: Task Force on the Relationships Between the University and the Eating Clubs
Residential life remodeled: Princeton moves into new four-year college system
Committee seeks feedback on undergraduate dining plans
Students capitalize on choices in 'room draw' launching new residential options
Designers chosen to give dining halls distinctive look


Muslims Are Increasing in Number at a Faster Pace Than Other Religious Groups
Conrad Hackett at the Pew Research Center has headed up a group of researchers at Pew, aided by the researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA0 in Vienna and the Vienna Institute of Demography to produce a very eye-opening set of population projections broken out by religion. This analysis deserves a lot more attention than I can give to it in one blog post, so here I am just going to hit the highlights (more highlights at CNN) and then I will dig into more details in subsequent posts.
The projections suggest that by 2070 the number of Muslims in the world will catch up with Christians, if current trends continue. They also suggest that by 2050 Muslims could account for 10% of Europe's population and that in the United States "Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion."
Furthermore, four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa, but this is also the region of the world with one of the highest rates of growth among Muslims and the growing friction and tension is felt in the recent shooting of Christian college students by Islamic extremists in Kenya.
Overall, the global numbers could shift a bit depending upon what happens in China:
For example, China’s 1.3 billion people (as of 2010) loom very large in global trends. At present, about 5% of China’s population is estimated to be Christian, and more than 50% is religiously unaffiliated. Because reliable figures on religious switching in China are not available, the projections do not contain any forecast for conversions in the world’s most populous country. But if Christianity expands in China in the decades to come – as some experts predict – then by 2050, the global numbers of Christians may be higher than projected, and the decline in the percentage of the world’s population that is religiously unaffiliated may be even sharper.
The key element here is especially the trend of the birth among Muslims, in particular, in various regions of the world--a topic that I have been following for a long time and which I referenced yesterday with respect to Iran.
Topics: Age Transition, Coping with demographic change, Global Population Trends, What Lies Ahead?
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A Path to a Sustainable Future? Part 2-Energy
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A third of Bangladesh under water as flood devastation widens
By Steve George, CNN
Updated 12:06 PM EDT, Fri September 01, 2017
(CNN) In rural areas across northern Bangladesh families are preparing to mark Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest dates on the Muslim calendar.
The holiday, which translates literally as the "sacrifice feast," is intended to be a time of great celebration. In small villages and towns, such as Beraberi some 134 kilometers northwest of Dhaka, residents spent much of the last year hand-rearing goats and cows in anticipation of the annual festivities.
Then the rains began to fall.
As the world's media trains its sights on the tragic events in Texas and Louisiana, another water-driven catastrophe is unfolding in villages like Beraberi throughout Bangladesh and parts of Nepal and India.
There, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) estimates that at least 1,200 have died and more than 41 million people have been affected by monsoon rains and severe flooding as of June this year. The rains are now moving northwest towards Pakistan, where more devastation is expected.
At its peak on August 11, the equivalent to almost a week's worth of average rainfall during the summer monsoon season was dumped across parts of Bangladesh in the space of a few hours, according to the country's Meteorological Department, forcing villagers in low-lying northern areas to grab what few possessions they could carry and flee their homes in search of higher ground.
And still the rains keep coming. In Bangladesh alone, floods have so far claimed the lives of 142 people, and impacted over 8.5 million.
In Beraberi, one of numerous island villages know as "chars" dotted along the Jamuna River, entire homes have been washed away, and crops and food supplies -- including livestock -- all but wiped out. When aid workers carrying relief parcels from the IFRC arrived by helicopter earlier this week, villagers described the rains as the "worst in living memory."
"People were fearful they would soon begin to starve," says Corinne Ambler, who was among the IFRC team who visited the village. "They are used to seasonal flooding but nothing to this degree, this is a different level -- for miles around all you can see is water, the flooding has transformed the countryside."
Mother of two, Adere Begum, 34, was at home in the village with her daughters when the flooding began. "The water was up to our knees inside. There were snakes in the water and my children were very scared," said Begum, who lost much of her livestock, including ducks, chickens and cows in the floods.
The IFRC has described the flooding in Bangladesh as the most serious in 40 years. The organization estimates that 700,000 homes have been partially or totally destroyed and up to a third of its terrain -- much of it farmland -- left submerged, raising fears of a coming food shortage, as the country grapples to deal with a shortfall in staple produce.
"This is the season of rice cultivation," Reaz Ahmed, Director General, Bangladesh's Department of Disaster Management told CNN. Almost half of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single most important product.
According to government estimates, to date a total of 61,877 hectares of cropland, mostly rice, have been "completely damaged," while 531 million hectares have been "partially damaged."
Recent figures from the the Asian Development Bank show that 31.5% of Bangladeshis live below the national poverty line. For many of those in the north of the country, where fragile sustenance farming remains the norm, even the slightest drop in crop production can prove devastating.
In areas where the flood waters are receding the government is advising that farmers return in the hope that some crops can yet be salvaged. "Farmers still have around 20 days to re-cultivate rice plants. The government is providing them seed, saplings and fertilizers," said Ahmed.
But such efforts are complicated by poor infrastructure. In areas north and northwest of the capital Dhaka, where flooding is most acute, a significant number of villages remain entirely cut off, with many major roads and highways inaccessible.
Asia under water: How 137 million people's lives are being put at risk
Bangladesh is no stranger to flood related disasters. Much of the country is built on low-lying and flood-prone areas, making it particularly vulnerable to seasonal monsoon rains. In 2007 more than half of Bangladesh was seriously affected by deadly monsoon flooding, leading to over 1,000 deaths, the majority of them children.
A report by the World Bank group lists Bangladesh, a densely populated country of 165 million, as among the world's "potential impact hotspots" threatened by "extreme river floods" due to global rise in temperatures.
As of August 31, more than than 51,000 people have been relocated to emergency flood shelters set up by the government, according to Ahmed, though that number is expected to rise as food shortages begin to bite and families seek additional assistance.
The sheer number of displaced people would be a monumental challenge for any government, but in Bangladesh, where as many as 27,000 Rohingya refugees have this week arrived across the border from Myanmar -- joining an estimated 85,000 currently housed in camps -- the situation becomes additionally perilous.
With the country essentially left combating two separate humanitarian crises, aid agencies are appealing for international assistance.
"Providing clean water and sanitation are our major priorities right now. The floodwaters will soon become a breeding ground for deadly diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, dengue and Japanese encephalitis," said Antony Balmain, IFRC's Communications Manager in Asia Pacific. "As we've seen in flood hit parts of Sri Lanka, there is a very real possibility this could yet get much worse."
CNN's Sugam Pokharel contributed to this report


A Spider Web Of Hedge Fund And Forex Ponzi Fraud
Bill Singer Contributor
Advisor Network
I am a critic of the inept and ineffective
This is a somewhat long and convoluted tale, whose every twist and turn will likely turn you’re your stomach in disgust. With that warning, let’s go back to 2009, when George Sepero, Glen Rock, NJ, Carmelo Provenzano, Garfield, NJ, and Daniel Dragan, Hunterdon County, NJ, claimed to run a series of hedge funds in New Jersey. If you were an unlucky investor who fell into these characters’ web, you would have likely been lured their by the dazzling bait of extraordinary profits in foreign currency ("Forex") trading through a chameleon-like assortment of companies with the names of “Pelt Capital,” “Caxton Capital Management,” “SP Investors Inc.” and “CCP Pro Consulting Inc.”
Ah yes, another Forex scam. Ah yes, more hedge funds. And, on top of that now somewhat banal bit of investor fraud, lets add that tired label of being offered an investment opportunity that was “too good to be true.”
Sepero, Provenzano, and Dragan (the "Co-Conspirators") told their unsuspecting dupes that they owned and controlled a proprietary Forex computer trading algorithm – one that had achieved over 170% returns for the two prior years! Oh, and, of course, if you had asked, you would also be assured that your investment would not only remain highly liquid but could be withdrawn on mere days’ notice.
Like I said: Too Good To Be True -- and now decked out in the trappings of high tech algorithms.
I mean, seriously? 175% returns for two years in a row? And the reason that the Co-Conspirators continued to work for a living was what?
In any event, this Forex algorithm spiel brought in over $3.5 million to the conspiracy. From the vantage point of 2013, you really shouldn’t be surprised, not in this post-Madoff world. And speaking of no surprise, you should have been expecting the revelation that virtually none of the investors bucks were invested in Forex. As these frauds all to often develop, the funds were used, in part, to repay earlier investors a la the infamous Ponzi scheme, and, in part, to pay of personal expenses of the masterminds of this fairly small minded fraud.
Lemme give you a whiff of the stink here. Some of the siphoned funds were diverted as follows:
About $25,000 a month in credit card bills
$18,241 in bar tabs—including a $4,000 tip
$14,034 on separate nights at “Drai’s Hollywood” nightclub in Los Angeles;
Tens of thousands of dollars for luxury hotel rooms – including over $4,000 a night suites at W Hotels in New York; and flights to Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
Over $80,000 for Sepero’s customized Ford F-350 “Harley-Davidson Edition” pickup truck
Over $71,000 for Provenzano’s luxury Range Rover Sport SUV – including a $65,000 down-payment
On top of those splurges, the Co-Conspirators used their victim’s funds to make mortgage payments, home improvements, meals at high-end restaurants, jewelry and limousines.
Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum
Having fabricated the whole Forex trading algorithm thing, why stop there? The Co-Conspirators emailed to their victims fake statements showing their principal had been invested in very profitable Forex trades. An nice fillip was the attribution to “Mel Tannenbaum,” as the author of some of the reports. Who’s Mel Tannenbaum – oh, he doesn't exist; he was made up by Provenzano. Another nice touch was the emailing of “screen shots” of the computer-based Forex trading program, which showed purported real-time action on behalf of the investors (but for the fact that the screen shot was showing fictitious accounts).
Gonna Find Out Who's Been Naughty
A couple of weeks or so shy of Christmas, Sepero and Provenzano got a nasty holiday surprise in the form of special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who arrested the pair on December 14, 2011, pursuant to a criminal Complaint ( USA v. George Sepero, Carmelo Provenzano a/k/a "Mel Tannenbaum, December 13, 2011, DNJ) alleging wire fraud conspiracy. The pair faced a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the offense.
Have You No Shame?
On June 27, 2012, a federal grand jury in Newark, NJ indicted George Sepero, then 39, on one count of wire fraud conspiracy and 16 counts of wire fraud. In addition to the gaudy details set forth above, the Indictment adds that Sepero had purchased with his victims' funds a Mini Cooper automobile costing over $37,000 and he had leased a BMW. Also, the Indictment alleges that Sepero became acquainted with an elderly woman from New Jersey who suffered from dementia and multiple sclerosis, and was a paraplegic. Apparently being the charitable guy, Sepero allegedly took charge of the sick, elderly woman’s annuity account and convinced her to write checks to entities that he controlled.
Once Sepero had his hooks into the old lady, the Indictment charges that without authorization, Sepero opened accounts in the names of her family members and, thereafter, made numerous phone calls to the financial institution administering the annuity account, impersonating either the victim’s son or the victim’s late husband. Apparently trying to keep a step ahead of any suspicion, Sepero allegedly delivered to the victim’s family a wholly fraudulent statement for the annuity account, which reflected a value of over $750,000 at a time when it had been gutted down to $16.57.
Where did all the elderly woman’s savings go? C’mon, you know the routine by now. The Indictment says the dollars were converted for Sepero’s personal use.
As to the Indictment, Sepero faced a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gain or loss from the offense on each of the 17 counts.
Due Diligence -- Did Anyone Else Do?
I dug behind this story to see what, if anything, I could find for a “George Sepero” and was shocked at how easy the troubling disclosures surfaced. If you were to log on to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (“FINRA”) BrokerCheck you would find a jaw-dropping list of prior regulatory incidents.
2003, a customer of Sepero’s at a brokerage firm where he was registered alleged that he “misrepresented the return on mutual fund investments.”
2004 another customer at the same firm alleged that Sepero “made misrepresentations regarding the purchase of mutual funds at net asset value.”
2005, at another brokerage firm, a customer of Sepero complained about poor investment recommendations.
2006, at this same firm, another customer complained about non-disclosure of commissions, and a second customer complained about unauthorized trades.
2007, at the second brokerage firm, another customer complained that Sepero misrepresented the risk of investments.
To be fair to Sepero, all of the above cases are reported under a BrokerCheck section titled: “Customer Dispute- Closed-No Action/Withdrawn/Dismissed/Denied” and the accompanying summaries indicate that the allegations were denied or found by the employing firm to be baseless.
Of course, then there’s the section in which BrokerCheck discloses the settled cases involving Sepero. Here we learn that in:
2003, one of Sepero’s customer complaints involving misrepresentation of risks and fees was settled for just under $800 versus a $7,379 claim;
2004 a different employer firm settled a customer complaint alleging Sepero’s failure to accurately disclose the tax consequences of a variable annuity surrender for $19,059, the full amount sought.
Then there is the section in BrokerCheck about regulatory action taken against Sepero. On February 13, 2008, without admitting or denying the findings, but consenting to the sanctions and the entry of findings, Sepero was barred by FINRA for effecting “unauthorized securities transactions in customers’ account and he gave false testimony during an on-the-record interview with FINRA.” FINRA Dept. of Enforcement V. George Sepero, Respondent (AWC 2006005804301 , February 13, 2008 ).
What does all of the above teach us? The frightening fact is that Sepero appears to have been barred in 2008 by FINRA but by 2009 was involved in what the feds characterize as a multi-million dollar securities fraud! And it took until nearly July 2012 to indict someone with that background
On August 10, 2011, in separate criminal Informations, Co-Conspirators Provenzano and Dragan pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy The wire fraud conspiracy count carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the offense.
On March 01, 2013, Sepero, 40, pleaded guilty to a Superseding Information charging him with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and tax evasion. The wire fraud conspiracy count to which Sepero pleaded is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the offense. Also, Sepero pleaded guilty to:
conducting a wholly separate fraud scheme involving the elderly client; and
tax evasion for the tax year 2010, as he derived income from his fraudulent activities, but did not file a tax return and deposited his victims’ money into his companies’ accounts.
Bill Singer's Comment
What’s the Difference: Complaint, Indictment, and Information?
Generally speaking, if there is a perceived need to arrest someone who is believed to have committed a crime, a prosecutor will ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant based upon a sworn statement that is usually set forth in a Criminal Complaint. If the judge determines that the standard of probably cause has been satisfied, the warrant will be issued.
In situations where there may not be a pressing need to arrest an individual prior to the completion of an investigation, a prosecutor will present evidence to a grand jury and seek its vote on the proposed criminal charges in an Indictment. Under the Constitution, if you are accused of a crime punishable by over one year’s imprisonment, you have a right to be indicted by a grand jury.
Following a defendant's arrest, that party is either released on bail or held subject to trial. Following arrest, a defendant is brought before a judge, who informs the individual of the charges against him and asks for a plea of guilty or not guilty. This appearance is an Arraignment.
Should a defendant and prosecutor agree on a plea, those terms are generally set forth in a Plea Agreement. If an individual agrees to waive the right to Indictment, the terms of the plea are normally set forth in an Information.
In federal criminal practice, an Information or Indictment must be filed within 30 days from the date of arrest or service of the summons; and trial must start within 70 days from when the Information or Indictment was filed, or from the date when a defendant appears before an officer of the court in the court where the charge is pending, whichever is later. The resulting trial may not begin less than 30 days from the date the defendant first appears in court, unless the defendant agrees in writing to an earlier date.
Also see these "Street Sweeper" FOREX Ponzi cases:
Feds Say All That Glittered At Gold Coast Futures & Forex Was Not Gold (June 6, 2012)
Botfly LLC's Lewalski Sentenced in Federal FOREX Ponzi Case (November 18, 2011)
Feds Go After Another Alleged FOREX Scam (April 13, 2011)
FOREX Pirate's Ponzi Scheme Ends In U.S. Brig (April 4, 2011)
Bill Singer
I'm a thirty-year veteran of Wall Street and an outspoken critic of ineffective regulation and an advocate for economic and political sanity. Following a career as an in...


Home » Real Estate » Borno governor sets up committee to investigate allocations in four housing estates
Borno governor sets up committee to investigate allocations in four housing estates
Posted by: Rianat Sanni in Real Estate, Real Estate News June 14, 2019	0
The Governor of Borno State, Babagana Umara, on Thursday inaugurates panel to review the ownership of houses in four government housing estates within Maiduguri, the state capital.
The estates made up of about 3000 houses were built between 1999 and 2011 by governments of late Mala Kachalla and Ali Sheriff.
Mr. Sheriff’s administration built three of the estates while the administration of his successor, Kashim Shettima, now a senator, did the allocation of the 1000 housing estate when he took over in 2011.
Though the initial intention of the government for the massive housing estates was to provide solutions to the housing needs of the civil servants in the state, the immediate past government allocated most of them to top officials, politicians and traditional rulers who in turn either sold them off or put them up for rent to the same civil servants at exorbitant rents.
It was also observed that not all of the occupants of the houses pay the official monthly rent to the Borno State Housing Corporation, a situation that gradually rendered the corporation incapable of paying its staff salary for many years.
Officially, according to the Housing Corporation, a tenant in a single bedroom bungalow pays N15,000 while those in two and three bedrooms pay between N30,000 to N45,000 per annum.
But the unofficial rents collected by the landlords from their tenants range from N150,000 to N300,000 per year.
This development seemed to have repulsed the new governor who felt civil servants are being shortchanged.
It was on that note that the governor inaugurated a committee headed by the chairman of the state Housing Corporation, Usman Ngulde, to among other things investigate the illegal sale of government houses and unauthorised transfer of ownership.
The governor said his intention is to retrieve houses from illegal occupants and sell them to the civil servants in the state on an ‘owner-occupier’ basis.
While inaugurating the committee at the council chambers of Government House, Mr. Umara said: “Government deemed it necessary and fit to constitute a committee to look into the issue of housing problems of civil servants with a view to selling the houses to the civil servants.”
He added that the chairman and members of the committee were carefully selected to carry out their assignment diligently and “without fear or favour.”
The governor said it was deliberate that those civil servants, leaders of the housing estates and officials of ministries of land, housing, justice, trade and labour unions were included in the committee.
He said the second reason for the probe and verification exercise was to “make Borno State Housing Corporation functional and effective by enabling it to take charge of the management” of the estates, provision of shops, roads electricity and other facilities needed in all the government housing estates.
He said the state government has the responsibility to provide facilities to the occupants of the housing estates.
The committee’s terms of reference is “to determine the actual number of the occupants at the 202, 505, 707 and 1000 housing estate.
“To stop issues of sale and conversion of houses henceforth, until the exercise of the committee is completed.
“To stop backdating of housing allocations and further allocations, and to determine whether the actual occupants are civil servants or not.
“The committee is also tasked to determine or assess the values of each of the 3000 houses accurately, to determine the modalities of payments by the beneficiaries, especially, the civil servants.
“The committee is to submit it’s report within two weeks from today Thursday 13 June 2019 and to recommend to the government any suggestion that will be useful to the government.”
Responding after their inauguration, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Ngulde, thanked the governor for finding them worthy of carrying out the assignment. He promised they would justify the confidence reposed in them by discharging their duties diligently.
Credit: Premium Times
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Growing up, Sarah Raplee wanted to be a mother, writer, poet and artist—in that order—but her unfortunate lack of eye-hand coordination eliminated artist from her list. At a tender age she followed her heart to marry her firefighter-cum-Coast Guardsman boyfriend, who is the inspiration for her heroes. Sarah writes an eclectic mix of paranormal and steampunk romance stories that includes curses, shapeshifters and sharp-toothed gnomes. For unknown reasons, dogs have infiltrated nearly every story.
Her first novel, BLINDSIGHT, begins the Psychic Agents series, a paranormal romantic suspense series featuring psychic FBI Agents. Sarah writes because she can’t help it, and it’s more fun than most of the alternatives. She lives near Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two small dogs and a cat—all rescues—and an ever-changing assortment of children and grandchildren.
Visit Sarah’s website: http://www.sarahraplee.com/


Weakley County man accused of showing pornography to 10-year-old girls
Two people were arrested at a Weakley County residence after deputies investigated reports of young girls viewing pornography at a man's house.
Weakley County man accused of showing pornography to 10-year-old girls Two people were arrested at a Weakley County residence after deputies investigated reports of young girls viewing pornography at a man's house. Check out this story on jacksonsun.com: https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/crime/2019/03/13/weakley-county-clarence-allen-grantham-gleason/3155603002/
Cassandra Stephenson, Jackson Sun Published 4:46 p.m. CT March 13, 2019
Clarence Allen Grantham, 59, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure, contributing to the delinquency of juveniles, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia Tuesday. (Photo: Submitted)
Two people in Weakley County were arrested Tuesday after one admitted to giving 10-year-old girls cigarettes and allowing them to view pornography at his residence.
Weakley County Sheriff's deputies searched the Gleason residence of 59-year-old Clarence Allen Grantham Tuesday after allegations that someone at the house had shown pornography to several 10-year-old girls, according to a press release.
Investigators found multiple pornographic movies at Grantham's residence, including one the girls described to investigators, claiming they had seen it on a cell phone. Investigators also recovered drug paraphernalia, pipes and a small amount of methamphetamine, the release states.
During the investigation, investigators determined that Grantham allegedly gave the girls cigarettes and possibly marijuana.
Grantham admitted to investigators that the girls had seen pornographic material at the residence and that he had pictures on his phone of the girls without clothes on, though they had been deleted. According to the release, Grantham said the girls took the photos themselves. The girls told investigators that they had also seen Grantham without clothes on.
Grantham was charged with indecent exposure and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles as well as possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Brandy LeeAnn Manuel, 36, was arrested on an outstanding failure to appear warrant and charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia Tuesday. (Photo: Submitted)
Brandy LeeAnn Manuel, 36, was present in the residence at the time of the search and had an active arrest warrant for failure to appear. She was also charged with possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Grantham is being held at the Weakley County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond. Manuel is also being held at the Weakley County Jail on a $2,500 bond.
The case is still under investigation, according to the release, and WCSD plans to obtain warrants to search additional cellphones and computers.
The Gleason Police Department assisted in the residential search.
Read or Share this story: https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/crime/2019/03/13/weakley-county-clarence-allen-grantham-gleason/3155603002/
Forrest's relative willing to memorialize him at park


Gilbert Houseaux
by Marquis Who's Who ModeratorPosted on February 12, 2018 February 12, 2018
Title: Associate Broker
Company: Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Gilbert Houseaux, Associate Broker at Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in real estate.
A leading expert in the industry, Mr. Houseaux has been with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty as an associate broker since 2012. Prior to obtaining his current position, he workedas an associate broker for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage from 1984 to 2012. He considers a highlight of his career being recognized as the top realtor in his state.
Mr. Houseaux attributes his success to hard work, being social, and having worldly experience. Born and raised in France, he came to the United States in 1977. In addition to his career in real estate, he is licensed as a Martial Arts Grand Master and he conducts martial arts seminars all over the world. In 2015, Mr. Houseaux was inducted to the Karate & Kickboxing Hall of Fame with the Ohio Judo and Karate Association.
Mr. Houseaux first earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Bordeaux in 1968. He has worked as a math teacher in France and as an affiliate at Merrill Lynch. Acquiring his real estate license in 1984, Mr. Houseaux is a member of SAG-AFTRA, the National Association of Realtors, the Leading Edge Society, DKI and Service Corporation International. He is known for his abilities in being resilient and thinking ahead of the curve, which he credits for aiding in his success.
Outside of his professional work, Mr. Houseaux’s interests have also turned toward entertainment, including acting and producing in 1990’s “A Dozen Ways to Die!!” In addition, he has contributed as a producer and actor in numerous other films and artistic projects.
Contact Mr. Houseaux
Posted in Real EstateTagged associate broker, gilbert houseaux, martial arts, Real Estate, sotheby's
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Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production and Wealth
W. Godley, M. Lavoie
Palgrave Macmillan UK, Jan 1, 2007 - Business & Economics - 530 pages
This book challenges the mainstream paradigm, based on the inter-temporal optimisation of welfare by individual agents. It introduces a methodology for studying how it is institutions which create flows of income, expenditure and production together with stocks of assets and liabilities, thereby determining how whole economies evolve through time.
Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income ...
W. Godley,M. Lavoie
Wynne Godley,Marc Lavoie
WYNNE GODLEY was formerly Director of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Cambridge, UK, from 1970 to 1994, and subsequently a Professor of Applied Economics. During this period, from 1987-1988, he was also a Visiting Professor at University of Aalborg, Denmark. Between 1994 and 2001, Professor Godley was a Distinguished Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, New York. Professor Godley joined CERF as a Visiting Research Associate in 2002.
MARC LAVOIE is Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He has been Visiting Professor at Curtin University, Australia, and at the universities of Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Limoges, Nice, Rennes, Paris-1 and Paris-13. His main research areas are in post-Keynesian and monetary economics. He has written over 130 journal articles or book chapters as well as authoring Foundations of Post-Keynesian Economics and co-edited Central Banking in the Modern World.
Title Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production and Wealth
Authors W. Godley, M. Lavoie
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2007
Business & Economics / Economics / General
Business & Economics / Economics / Macroeconomics
Business & Economics / Finance / General


6/27/2017, 10:59am
Say goodbye to ‘Pretty Little Liars’ infamous cyber villain, ‘A’
BY Adam Phan
High school is already hard, but it isn’t any easier when an anonymous cybervillain is out to ruin your life. Especially one who knows all your deepest, darkest secrets.
That’s the premise of the hit TV series “Pretty Little Liars,” which will end its seven-year run Tuesday at 8 p.m.
The show follows Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) after Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) — Rosewood’s resident mean girl and the leader of their clique — goes missing.
With their ringleader gone, the Liars begin to drift apart.
A year later, the estranged friends are soon reunited as they begin receiving alarming text messages, signed by "A." The messages hint at some of their darkest and most incriminating secrets — secrets only Alison knew.
Much to their horror, Alison’s body is soon discovered in the backyard of her house and the nightmare begins.
The police soon begin investigating her death and the Liars are the prime suspects.
Then they receive the most frightening text to date from the anonymous menace — and right after’s Alison’s funeral.
I can’t say I’ve watched many shows on-air from the very beginning. Normally, I’ll discover a show on Netflix and binge-watch it in a matter of days.
That wasn’t the case with “Pretty Little Liars.” I tuned in every week since the premiere in 2010.
Back then, I was an innocent boy who had just finished sixth grade. Summer had just begun, and I remember watching some show when a promotional trailer for a new series aired during a commercial break.
“Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.”
The narrator’s words echoed through my head. It was safe to say I was immediately intrigued, as cheesy as the line sounded.
So I tuned in for the premiere.
From the very first episode, I knew I was in it for the long haul. I just didn’t realize I’d still be watching the show seven years later.
I’ve witnessed the four Liars go through the fiery pits of hell and back. They’ve survived cyberbullying, blackmail and several murder attempts. They were even locked away in an underground dollhouse, not something that happens to a typical group of friends.
What was supposed to be a simple mystery of “whodunit” turned into a cornucopia of conspiracy theories as the Liars, the entire PLL fanbase and I attempted to solve the identity of the villain underneath "A's" black hoodie, which is their signature look.
The anonymous tormentor was unmasked — multiple times. Out with the old “A,” in with the new “A.” Whenever the identity of “A” was revealed, someone else would swoop in and carry on the “A” game. The Liars could never catch a break and neither could I because I devoted so much time to this addicting TV drama.
The show was such a big part of my life that my senior quote was a line spoken by Spencer, my favorite character in the series: “Why enjoy today when you could be worrying about tomorrow?”
On my college application to UNC, I was asked what my “Biggest Little Worry” was. My answer was “Missing a TV episode, especially Pretty Little Liars.”
OK, I may have been a little obsessed with the series, but you can’t blame me. After all, the show is a guilty pleasure.
With only one more “A” to unmask, it’s sad to see that “Pretty Little Liars” is finally ending. It’s definitely gone well past its expiration date, but I’m very thankful for the ships (#HalebForever), the drama and a never-ending supply of plot twists and cliffhangers that kept me on the edge of my seat.
Most importantly, I’m thankful I can move on with my life now that “A" is gone.
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Home » Feature Stories » Blog article: Canada’s Collectors Scour BC, PEI, Ontario and More for Memorabilia - CanadaGolf.com
Written by Chris Smith posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2011
By Michael Cronin
BC, CANADA – Are you a golf fan, or are you a golf fan? The former likely collects scorecards, bad tags or branded tees from memorable golf vacations on courses across Canada. The latter scours British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and more to find the golf artifacts and memorabilia that define Canada.
Golf antiquarians and savvy hobbyists agree: within the vast realm of golf, Canadian collectibles are few and far between. It’s a matter of numbers, geography and commerce. In the brush with greatness category there are five contending Canadians on the PGA Tour. Only two, Mike Weir, and more recently, Stephen Ames, have prestige, autograph-wise.
As well, while the game was born in Scotland and migrated originally to Canada, it was popularized in the United States, a union with 10 times the population of its northern neighbor. And, there just wasn’t a major manufacturer of golf gear in Canada as compared to the United Kingdom and the United States.
Golf History in Canada
Still Canada does have an illustrious golf heritage. The first recorded game of golf in North America took place at Priest’s Farm, now part of Montreal, in 1826. The oldest club in North America is Royal Montreal, founded in1873. Canada’s had great and colorful players including, Olympian George S. Lyon, brothers Albert and Charles Murray, two-time Canadian Open winner Karl Keffer, and power hitters like George Knudson and Moe Norman. Souvenirs related to the aforementioned have good international market value.
There is a sports antiquities dealer in Melrose, Mass., that advertises a dozen U.S. Royal balls, circa 1932, in the original cellophane wrappers for $1,000 (all prices quoted are in US $ unless otherwise noted). The same purveyor is hawking an “uncommon mesh pattern ‘Park’ Gutty with one tiny cut and missing paint” for $4,500.
Collectors in Canada Covet Golf Clubs
Collectors still covet certain clubs based on provenance such as the item’s age, history, original owner(s), relation to Canadian golf, rarity and notoriety.
The most sought after clubs were made by Robert Forgan. He had a shop next to St. Andrews and was the club maker to the Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII in 1901.
The most expensive collector clubs are those made by the McEwan family of Scotland in the late 1700s.
Post World War Two golf clubs used in Canadian events or by Canadians are also desirable. Meanwhile, Classic persimmon clubs from the 1950s and 1960s are works of art, notes Canadian golf collector Lewis Robertson.
Regrettably, collectable clubs, like commodities, fluctuate. “The classics has been devalued considerably,” says Robertson.
Also of interest to collectors in Canada are putters. “The late 1950s to 1970 was a classic era for putters,” Robertson said. “Not too easy to find.”
Golf Literature in Canada
Another of item collectors like to get their hands on is golf literature. The world’s most expensive golf book, according to Robertson, is “The Goff” by Tomas Mathison. Dated 1743, it’s reputed to be the first book on the subject. A first edition is worth between $30,000 to $40,000.
The scarcest Canadian golf collectibles, according to Robertson, are so far unattainable. They’re related to Canadian George S. Lyon, who, at age 46, defeated 87 other players to win the Olympic gold medal at the 1904 summer games in St. Louis, Mo. Legend has it that the British and American participants were so miffed by the upstart that they refused to participate in future games. As a result, 1904 was the last year that golf part of the Summer Olympic Games.
But Lyons’ Olympic gold medal is long missing.
Be sure to brush up on your golf collectible knowledge while in Canada. The Golf Historical Society of Canada in Toronto is at (416) 493-3049 and on the Internet at www3.sympatico.ca/bill.macdonald/. The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum’s number is (905) 849-9700, extension 213, and information is available at cghf.org.
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Role of a Lifetime: Life Lessons with Peter Krause
FILE PHOTO: Actor Peter Krause announces the nominations for the 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California December 11, 2014. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
By Chris Taylor
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you are looking for steady work, it is probably best not to go into show business. Unless you are Peter Krause, that is.
The 53-year-old Minnesota native has been a staple of U.S. TV screens for years, with roles in shows like “Sports Night,” “Six Feet Under,” “Parenthood,” and his current series “9-1-1,” which begins its spring season tonight on Fox.
For the latest in Reuters’ “Life Lessons” series, Krause talked with us about the heartland principles that have kept him working steadily in Hollywood for a couple of decades.
Q: Was an acting career always on your radar, even as a kid?
A: When I turned 16 in Roseville, Minnesota, it was expected that I would get a job, so I got one at the local movie theater.
It’s gone now, which is kind of sad. But I got to see every movie that came out, multiple times: Films like “The Mission,” “Chariots of Fire,” “On Golden Pond,” and “The Pope of Greenwich Village.”
So I got to really study those performances, even though I wasn’t thinking about being an actor at the time.
Q: Did your folks give you a hard time about your career choice?
A: My dad was a farm kid, always doing chores, who didn’t even have plumbing or electricity until he was 16. By the time he was 18, he was boots on the ground in Germany, as part of the army of occupation after World War Two. So the idea of acting was very foreign to him. We had a bit of a battle at first.
Q: What was the money situation like early on?
A: My parents didn’t have a lot of money. All of our family vacations were by car. So when I flew into New York City to go to New York University, I had never even been on a plane before.
I took the bus from LaGuardia Airport to Grand Central Station, and then walked from there down to NYU, which was about 40 blocks. Seeing the city like that was a shock to the system, since I had grown up in a small town in the middle of cornfields.
Q: Were those early acting years tough financially?
A: I had been bartending on Broadway in theaters, which is where I first met Aaron Sorkin, who was a bar manager at the Palace Theatre at the time, when they were playing “La Cage aux Folles.”
But one of my first shows out of college was with Carol Burnett, which was helpful with my parents, because they knew who she was. I finally got to take my dad out for lunch, and grabbed the check and signed the bill. He looked at me and said, “Well, this is different.”
Q: Which of your roles taught you the most?
A: All roles teach you something new. Different characters have different life rules, and some of those characters end up bleeding into me a little.
Nate Fisher from “Six Feet Under” was very difficult to play, because he was so at odds with himself all the time. That was a defining moment in my career. Working on that show was like a daily meditation on life and death.
Q: Have you thought about the future, and what retirement is going to look like for you?
A: I don’t plan on retiring. I’ll do this as long as I can. I still enjoy acting as much as I ever did. Right now on “9-1-1” I get to be a firefighter, which is basically my childhood dream come true.
Q: You have a kid, so what life lessons do you try to pass along to him?
A: He just turned 17, so I have taught him all sorts of things: How to ride a bike, drive a car. I was even his baseball coach for three years. What I have tried to impart to him the most is to figure out what makes him happy. For myself, I spent a fair amount of time trying to make my parents happy, and wanting to be a success in their eyes. That kind of messed me up. So I want to get my son to listen to his own compass.
(The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.)
(Editing by Beth Pinsker; Editing by David Gregorio)
Role of a Lifetime: Life Lessons with Peter Krause – The Patriotic Post
Role of a Lifetime: Life Lessons with Peter Krause | | American-News.net