Phaedrus

Have a great 2014, Cerbies!

I think the agencies quite often stay open a bit later than the independent ladies tend to. Your best be may be to log in late and see if anyone's posted "available until late tonight" or something similar in the shoutbox...

Congratulations, RG. Here's to the next 10000...

We'll miss you, RNH. All the best with whatever you do next...

A recent discovery: our galaxy has four spiral arms, not just two.

All the best, Castle... hope you get back to where you want to be!

Actually... I'm pretty sure that we guys aren't allowed to have albums. That's just for the ladies :)

Not in the face of a 9-0 ruling :) If the court had split, then yes, I'm sure they'd have played this for all it's worth... but to try and argue that all nine justices are liberal activists would be a tough sell. Well, it was certainly discussed around here back when the case was being heard at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. I wasn't on the board back when the case was originally heard, and I'm too lazy to look back and see what was said then. One thing to note: things like this are always a risk, and given how long the complete judicial process takes you're almost always going to get at least one federal election before the SCC makes a decision (for cases that get that far), so it's really hard to predict what the political environment will be that far out. In this case, the original arguments were heard in 2009, back when Harper only had a minority government. We've had a chance to get rid of him since then. You can't blame anyone who brought this case for the fact that he ended up with a majority instead.

Well, it's been a while since we last had a FB-BBM update, hasn't it. I know you've missed us. No, really, you have. YOU HAVE. STOP ARGUING. Thanks. Yes, you're fascinated by our doings over the last couple of months. Really. You are. Yes. Yessss..... Anyway... we didn't have much news over the fall. We were hoping to get some new photos done - we know how important it is to have up-to-date photos - but once we started the photoshoot... well... we can take a hint. And we know divine disapproval when we see it. And I was all for taking more photos of Lee (I was safely inside the car :) ) but he wanted to get indoors, for some reason. Can't think why, myself. Anyways.... as I'm sure you're aware, winter made an early appearance this year. Lee had a date in November, but unfortunately it was a no-show... I had a similar experience, but I wasn't foolish enough to sit around waiting - I just went back to the FB lodge and did a little fishing instead. In retrospect, I can't help but think that Lee's no-show may have something to do with the Movember picture he'd posted that morning: Of course, Lee should have listened to Old Dog, who is not just old, but knows a lot of tricks too. He's had no problem with no-shows, although a quick look at his recent photoshoot may give a clue as to the reason for this... I knew that beard would be irresistable. Seriously, ladies, don't be fooled - that's not real. He had it delivered. Here's the proof: Finally: if you've had trouble reaching us, don't be alarmed - we've had the occasional communications glitch, but we've sent Lee to sort it out so we should be up and running again soon. I'm sure he'll sort it out soon. Wish him luck; if he isn't back in half an hour, I'm eating his share of the pizza. Well, that's all for now. Happy Christmas, and all the best for 2014!

They haven't found the law illegal. They've found the existing laws inconsistent and unreasonable; given that the exchange of sex for money is legal, the SCC has ruled that the current restrictions around that are unreasonable. The reason the SCC hasn't struck down the laws immediately is that there are three ways Parliament could go to resolve this. First, they could do nothing and allow sex work to become much more legal in future (which, realistically, means leaving it up to provinces and municipalities to regulate); secondly, they could outlaw prostitution entirely (in which case that fact that other laws make it more difficult ceases to be an issue), or thirdly they could come up with an entirely new set of laws. Irrespective of the relative merits of those three options, the decision between them is the prerogative of the legislative branch of government, not the judiciary. What the judiciary has done - and IMO is entirely correct to have done - is to give the legislative branch a serious boot up the ass and force them to consider the issue, while also allowing them time to give the issue due consideration.

My earliest TV memory is of falling over and hitting my head on it, and then thinking I was dying because there was blood everywhere. And screaming a lot. Actually watching the thing came later....

Space Lego. I was over the moon, until I found out - the hard way - that a Lego spaceship won't survive a flight down the stairs. There were tears... and then a full-blown tantrum when I was made to pick all the pieces up too. Talk about adding insult to injury...

I've always loved the grittiness of this one. And I was going to choose it as my favourite, too... but then I heard this. Eric Idle: still got it.

Quietly celebrating a triumph of logic and reason and common sense over irrationality and fear and hatred. It's not the end of the road, but it's a very significant milestone.

A picture of home... News just in: our galaxy has four spiral arms, not two. I'm hoping we can double up again, and then we can call ourselves an octopus :)

For me, someone's pics say quite a lot about their approach to things. If someone has a decent set of photos done, and they look like they've had a bit of care and attention put into them (which doesn't necessarily mean a professional photoshoot - just that she gives a shit) then that indicates to me that she's likely to put the same care and attention into her encounters with clients... which is encouraging. If all someone's got is a few selfies taken with her phone, and thrown up in a "stuff it, that'll do" kind of way, I'm inclined to think that her approach to meeting clients is similarly casual, and that tends not to be what I'm looking for. Of course, there's nothing wrong with selfies - lots of fantastic SPs take them and post them - but for me, they don't suffice alone.

Well, it's awesome news... for now. Happy Christmas to us! It's somewhat annoying that the laws still stand for another year, but I don't really think that's unreasonable; given that the laws of the land are supposed to be made by the legislature after proper consideration and reasoned debate (yeah, right), it seems reasonable to allow them a chance to do their job. Alas, the hard part now begins. The great thing about the courts is that they run on evidence; if you want a court to believe something, you have to be able to prove it, and to knock down the evidence and arguments that the other side brings. The judgement, when it's made, gives due weight to the evidence presented. The fact that this was a 9-0 decision indicates that this has been done in spectacular style, for now. But... the next bit of the battle is in the political arena, and here facts must do battle with rumour and lies and deceit and misinformation and ignorance. That's much harder. The big problem at this stage is that although most people probably aren't interested in policing what consenting adults get up to in private, sex work is very much associated with people-trafficking and exploitation in the eyes of many people. Never mind that other industries employ many more trafficked and enslaved people (Hello, construction! Hi there, agriculture!); never mind that there are plenty of sex workers who are doing precisely what they want to be doing and are forced by nobody; sex work is what frequently grabs the headlines. There's a lot of people who work very hard to ensure this link remains in the minds of the population at large, and if it isn't broken then there's a good chance that whatever legislation finally comes through is likely to be yet another attempt to marginalize everyone involved in the industry and push the whole lot back into the shadows. There's also a lot of people who simply can't understand that making an entire industry illegal does nothing but help those who would exploit others, and prevent victims from seeking help from others. These things need to be understood better by the average person if the political debate is to be won.