| Sex tourism thriving in Bible Belt |
[Apr. 5th, 2006|09:33 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pissed off | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Bedford Diaries on TV | ] |
I read the news every morning while I am getting ready for work. I found this article and I was horrified. Atlanta used to be a good place to raise children and it was safe to let your children play outside without an adult keeping an eagle eye on them. I am still trying to absorb all of this and once I do, I'm going to find a way to get involved in stopping the explotation of children in my hometown.
By Verna Gates and Mickey Goodman
Tue Apr 4, 9:10 AM ET
ATLANTA (Reuters) - In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door.
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A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport.
None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage sex.
It took place in Atlanta, the buckle of the U.S. Bible Belt, where the world's busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.
"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia.
A new federal law passed in 2003 ensures that American sex tourists landing on foreign soil and hiring prostitutes under the age of 18 can get 30 years in prison.
But in Georgia, punishment for pimping or soliciting sex with a girl under 18 is only five to 20 years, according to Deborah Espy, the Deputy District Attorney of Fulton County.
"Men are coming to Atlanta to have sex with a child," said LaKendra Baker, project manager for the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE).
Half of the street-level prostitutes in Atlanta are believed to be under 18, according to experts.
Others are booked through Internet sex sites and from social sites like Black Planet, where girls innocently post profiles, said Baker.
Just in March, police arrested a Canadian man meeting a 14-year-old girl he found through the Internet, said Cathey Steinberg, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Fund, which funds treatment for abused girls and prevention.
Another man drove from North Georgia, with a bag containing a teddy bear, a love note and condoms, snorting methamphetamine on the way.
He expected a 13-year-old girl, but instead found Heather Lackey, a corporal with the Peachtree City Police Department.
"People are stunned that Atlanta's the No. 1 sex center in the country," said Steinberg.
The FBI has identified 14 U.S. cities as centers for the sexual exploitation of children. In addition to Atlanta, they are Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
RUNAWAYS AT MOST RISK
In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study.
Most youths caught up in the sex trade are runaways, like Brittany, whose 19-year-old "rescuers" soon demanded a return on their investment.
"I didn't have any place to go. My mom hated me for what I was doing to the family," said Brittany, who did not want to be identified by her real name.
Up to 90 percent of runaways are believed to end up as prostitutes, with a third lured into prostitution within 48 hours. Some are sold into sexual slavery by their parents, according to a 2005 study by the Atlanta Women's Agenda.
Some get seduced by recruiters. Pimps use handsome young men and sometimes girls as fronts.
"A 16-year-old controlling a group of girls will not face the same penalties an adult would receive," said Patricia Crone, director of the Office of Juvenile Justice Demonstration Project.
Once snagged, the grooming process begins. Typically, the pimp's friends sleep with her, then come threats, beatings and gang rapes. Caresses and gifts, including drugs and alcohol, follow abuse, the Atlanta Women's Agenda study found.
Brittany said she was showered with fancy dinners, clothes and methamphetamine. But she also describes horror. "It made me feel dirty. It was demeaning," said Brittany.
The sex slaves are trafficked in and out of cities to supply sporting events, conventions or rap concerts.
During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, one man kept boys and hosted sex parties nightly, said Baker of the group CEASE.
The pimps even held an annual "Player's Ball" in Atlanta in 2003, openly buying and selling women and naming a "Player of the Year," according to the Atlanta Women's Agenda study.
The risks are worth it. While there are few reliable statistics, child sexual exploitation is believed to be the world's third-biggest money maker for organized crime, said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.
One reason for the demand is the false assumption that youths are disease-free.
On the contrary, with tissues not fully developed, they are more prone to lacerations. HIV infections among females aged 16 to 21 are 50 percent higher than for men, a 1998 study in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes reported.
Atlanta has won two new federal grants to establish units to fight the trafficking of underage sex slaves and to hire more undercover detectives, said Carole Morgan, director of the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy.
But the experts fear that may not be enough.
"It won't stop until people say, 'My city isn't safe for kids anymore,"' said Crone.
"This is a place where you can buy, sell or rent kids. It must be stopped." |
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| Happiness is.... |
[Mar. 28th, 2006|09:14 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
A new laptop - my first new computer in over 7 years. *happy sigh* |
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| Birthday Boy Sarikhani! |
[Feb. 5th, 2006|03:07 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Dust In The Wind - Kansas | ] |
I got you Man, and you'll never get me to the magnitude that I got you! YEEEEEE HAW!!!!!! Oh yeah, you'll get your spanking in the morning... *grins*
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Ganked from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kwangawoo |
[Feb. 2nd, 2006|09:16 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  depressed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Another Bites The Dust - Queen | ] |
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| This scares me...badly. |
[Jan. 20th, 2006|08:20 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  angry | ] |
Google Rebuffs Feds on Search Request
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP
The Bush administration wants Google to release 1 million Web addresses and records of searches from any one-week period.
SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 20) - Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine — a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance.
Mountain View-based Google has refused to comply with a White House subpoena first issued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week to ask a federal judge in San Jose for an order to hand over the requested records.
The government wants a list all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week — a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases.
In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them Wednesday, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yahoo Inc., which runs the Internet's second-most used search engine behind Google, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena.
Although the government says it isn't seeking any data that ties personal information to search requests, the subpoena still raises serious privacy concerns, experts said. Those worries have been magnified by recent revelations that the White House authorized eavesdropping on civilian communications after the Sept. 11 attacks without obtaining court approval.
"Search engines now play such an important part in our daily lives that many people probably contact Google more often than they do their own mother," said Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney who has handled several prominent cases involving privacy issues.
"Just as most people would be upset if the government wanted to know how much you called your mother and what you talked about, they should be upset about this, too."
The content of search request sometimes contain information about the person making the query.
For instance, it's not unusual for search requests to include names, medical profiles or Social Security information, said Pam Dixon, executive director for the World Privacy Forum.
"This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engines for some time," Dixon said. "Google should be commended for fighting this."
Every other search engine served similar subpoenas by the Bush administration has complied so far, according to court documents. The cooperating search engines weren't identified.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo stressed that it didn't reveal any personal information. "We are rigorous defenders of our users' privacy," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said Thursday. "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue."
Microsoft Corp. MSN, the No. 3 search engine, declined to say whether it even received a similar subpoena. "MSN works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested," the company said in a statement.
As the Internet's dominant search engine, Google has built up a valuable storehouse of information that "makes it a very attractive target for law enforcement," said Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The Department of Justice argues that Google's cooperation is essential in its effort to simulate how people navigate the Web.
In a separate case in Pennsylvania, the Bush administration is trying to prove that Internet filters don't do an adequate job of preventing children from accessing online pornography and other objectionable destinations.
Obtaining the subpoenaed information from Google "would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users, (and) to estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches," the Justice Department wrote in a brief filed Wednesday
Google — whose motto when it went public in 2004 was "do no evil" — contends that submitting to the subpoena would represent a betrayal to its users, even if all personal information is stripped from the search terms sought by the government.
"Google's acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept," company attorney Ashok Ramani wrote in a letter included in the government's filing.
Complying with the subpoena also wound threaten to expose some of Google's "crown-jewel trade secrets," Ramani wrote. Google is particularly concerned that the information could be used to deduce the size of its index and how many computers it uses to crunch the requests.
"This information would be highly valuable to competitors or miscreants seeking to harm Google's business," Ramani wrote.
Dixon is hoping Google's battle with the government reminds people to be careful how they interact with search engines.
"When you are looking at that blank search box, you should remember that what you fill can come back to haunt you unless you take precautions," she said. |
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| Bragging Rights |
[Jan. 19th, 2006|08:30 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  giddy | ] |
My brother, redredrage, has become a very well known author in the Horror and SciFi genres. His writing continues to amaze me. He recently announced the pre-order availability of his latest work - a novella called Bloodstained Oz that he co-authored with Christopher Golden. The Novella is being published by Earthling Publications. The novella is a limited edition hardcover and there are 2 different releases. One is a slip covered edition signed by both Authors and the Artist who did the cover art - Glenn Chadbourne. This is a lettered edition meaning that only 25 will be printed. The price tag on this edition is $175.00 and it sold out in one day. Not bad Little Brother, I'm proud of you! The second edition is a numbered release with only 500 copies that will be printed. This one goes for $30.00 and sales are going very nicely. After all of his hard work and dedication, I am so glad that Jim is receiving the recognition he is due!
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| ksarikhani, this one is for you! |
[Jan. 12th, 2006|08:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thankful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | video games in the other room | ] |
 | You scored as Jean Grey. Jean Grey is likely the most powerful X-Man. She loves Cyclops very much but she has a soft spot for Wolverine. She's psychic so she can sense how others are feeling and tries to help them. She also has to control her amazing powers or the malevolent Phoenix entity could take control of her and wreak havoc. Powers: Telekinetic, Telepathic
Jean Grey | | 75% | Colossus | | 75% | Cyclops | | 70% | Beast | | 70% | Rogue | | 60% | Wolverine | | 60% | Emma Frost | | 60% | Gambit | | 55% | Storm | | 55% | Nightcrawler | | 50% | Iceman | | 50% | </td>
Most Comprehensive X-Men Personality Quiz 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com |
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| The Animals Fight Back To Animal Abuser! |
[Jan. 9th, 2006|08:06 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
FORT SUMNER, N.M. (Jan. 8) - A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature returned to the man's house and set it on fire.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.
"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.
Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window of the nearby home. The flames spread up the window and throughout the house.
All contents of the home were destroyed, he said. No injuries were reported.
Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.
"I've seen numerous house fires," village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, "but nothing as unique as this one." |
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| Ganked from bowyn |
[Dec. 26th, 2005|10:44 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
Advanced
You scored 92% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 86% Advanced, and 60% Expert! |
You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score.
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/. |
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My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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You scored higher than 22% on Beginner |
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You scored higher than 12% on Intermediate |
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You scored higher than 11% on Advanced |
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You scored higher than 3% on Expert |
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| A Peaceful Christmas |
[Dec. 26th, 2005|03:41 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Where The Streets Have No Name - U2 | ] |
This Christmas was a peaceful one in the Moore household. I planned ahead this year and met everyone (those of adult age) with a cocktail in my hand, which I promptly gave to the arriving person. I blew through a bottle of Midori in record time, but the results were well worth it! Midori Sours taste so good that everyone gulped them down and asked for more. The moods were calm and relaxed. My brother, Steve, in his typical procrastinator fashion, was unable to give anyone gifts this year because he wanted until 3:00 PM on Christmas Eve to have the prints he picked out for everyone printed and the people at Wal-Mart told him (after waiting 2 hours) that they couldn't finish the prints. While no one noticed the lack of gifts, his mood was grumpy at best. On a good note, my sister, Nela, got me a huge gift bag full of Eeyore goodies including slippers, a fleece blanket, a travel cup and a new stocking. Bonus!!! Now, just another few days and 2005 will finally be over! I hope all of you had a Very Merry Christmas and I wish you all a Joyous New Year! I'm off to take my Nephews to go see the Chronicles of Narnia - which is one of the finest movies I've seen in a long, long time.
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 18th, 2005|11:24 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Androgynous
You scored 70 masculinity and 70 femininity! |
| You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles. |
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My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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You scored higher than 67% on masculinity |
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You scored higher than 75% on femininity |
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| Because even when you're nice, you're still delightfully naughty! |
[Dec. 12th, 2005|03:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | I Love Rock 'n Roll - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts | ] |
| You Are Vixen | 
Sexy and sultry, you're the one all the other reindeer dream about.
Why You're Naughty: That fur pulling spat you got into with Dancer over Santa.
Why You're Nice: Because even when you're nice, you're still delightfully naughty! |
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| A Black Comedy... Hm.... |
[Dec. 12th, 2005|03:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Purple Rain - Prince | ] |
| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy | 
In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh.
You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum.
Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, Jumping Jack Flash, American Psycho |
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| Ganked from RedRedRage... |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|06:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  weird | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Do You Wanna Touch - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts | ] |
As frightening as this is... I don't think I've even heard this song. Oh my God... I'm old!
| Your 2005 Song Is | 
Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz
"Love forever love is free.
Let's turn forever you and me."
In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain. |
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| It seems like yesterday... |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|08:40 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Imagine - John Lennon | ] |
John Lennon was murdered outside of the Dakota Apartments 25 years ago today. John, you are still very missed. I hope your journey has taken you to all of the places you dreamed of seeing.
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| Unbelievable... |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|08:33 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  infuriated | ] |
Disney has lost their mind. The 80th Anniversary of Winnie the Pooh is coming up and Disney has decided to replace Christopher Robin with a 6 year old tomboyish girl! Here is the story from USA Today... I think I'm going to be sick.
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| This one is for you ksarikhani! |
[Dec. 7th, 2005|07:45 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sick | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Peace and Quiet | ] |
 Oh Great Cthulhu!I have been an extremely busy devotee this year. In December, I fed ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ksarikhani to a Shoggoth (250 points). In October, I stopped fuguee from defiling Lovecraft's grave (-20 points). In March, I prepared an ocean voyage to R'lyeh (200 points). In July, I rammed a ship into you (sorry Cthulhu!) (-1000 points). In September, I rescued gabriel75 from being sacrificed (-200 points). In February, I legally changed my name to Randolph Carter (-40 points). In short, I have been very bad (-810 points) and deserve to have my body used as a host for one of your servitors. Your humble and obedient servant, wissago
Submit your own plea to Cthulhu! |
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| Ganked from kwangawoo, redredrage and ksarikani... |
[Dec. 6th, 2005|08:32 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Where The Streets Have No Name - U2 | ] |
 Dear Santa...
Dear Santa,
This year I've been busy!
In June I helped gabriel75 across the street (6 points). In January I saved a busload of nuns in Angola (326 points). Last Monday I gave redredrage a Dutch Oven (-10 points). Last month I put money in kwangawoo's expired parking meter (14 points). Last Sunday I turned ksarikhani in for tearing the tag off a mattress (3 points).
Overall, I've been nice (339 points). For Christmas I deserve a Lego set!
Sincerely,
Wissago |
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