Category Archive

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Current mood: relaxed

[this blog post includes replies that were received via MySpace]

A Hobby is an Addiction when “polite” “mainstream” “society” doesn’t approve of your hobby.

For instance if your main hobby is collecting stamps and you spend most of your life’s free time collecting stamps, that’s a hobby.

If your main hobby is square dancing and you enroll in every annual rotation of the local square dancing club chapter and you spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a year on your matching couples’ costumes, trips, hotel rooms, entry fees, and spend hours learning choreography and attending square dances… that’s a hobby.

If after work every night you go home and work on your patchwork quilts, that’s a hobby.

If after work every night you go home and log into World of Warcraft and hang out with friends in there and go on quests and collect cool stuff, that’s an addiction… so they say.

If after work every night you go home and surf the internet and collect well-done bondage pics from websites, that’s an addiction…. so they say.

Cough.

—————–

Actually, I think some counselors say that the sign of an addiction is if it interferes with your work life, personal life or family life, or is a major influence in preventing you from having a work life, personal life or family life. That, I think, is a much better way to determine whether something is a hobby or an addiction.

8:53 PM - 7 Comments - 10 Kudos

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Doc - Artist & Writer

Bravo

Posted by Doc - Artist & Writer on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 11:10 PM

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Richard

The thing to remember is that there is no such thing as an addictive pastime. The only external addictions that are medically recognized are those that cause physical dependencies such as drugs and certain medications where there is a chemical cause and effect.

There are people with addictive personality disorders. What I’ve seen is that, when somebody forces such a person to abandon an activity that they obsess over, they find something else to obsess over. Sometimes, a person, with an obsessive compulsive personality will turn to religion to cure themselves of their “addiction”. That person will then pursue religion with the same obsessiveness that they did with their other addiction. They haven’t been cured of their underlying problem. They have merely transferred one addiction for another that is more socially acceptable.

I did a blog comparing porn addiction with sports addiction. In every instance where one can show something detrimental about porn addiction, I found information that showed that a sports addiction was worse. There was even a war started because of a sporting event. I’ve yet to see porn cause a war. The blog has links to back up every fact.

PS: Please dump the CAPTCHAs. They cause a problem with dialup where the letters on the screen don’t always keep up with the letters required for acceptance. The letters keep changing and the download of the visual occurs after MySpace has internally changed the ones that are acceptable. People on dialup are typing in letters for a visual that is no longer being used. I never had a problem with the old system where the letters stayed on the screen. With the new system, where the CAPTCHA image keeps changing, it takes me a half dozen tries to be in sync between what’s on the screen and what is being accepted.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=48765996&blogID=197367450

Posted by Richard on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 6:10 AM

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Pete Puma

Well stated and wholeheartedly agreed with from this enthusiast!

Posted by Pete Puma on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 11:56 AM

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Duct Tape Messiah

well said

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 7:28 PM

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Andre

Then I must be in need of serious medical attention. After my real world job I come home and sketch a few damsels in distress pictures, prep a few pictures of models that I tied up, surf and download my favorite bondage pix (incl. Bedroom Bondage and American Damsels, thank you), then download a few well-done pix of women posing in sexy dresses and heels wearing pantyhose. Guess I must be a head case and a half!
-Andre;)

Posted by Andre on Monday, January 21, 2008 at 3:55 PM

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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Current mood: weird

[this entry includes comments that were received on MySpace]

I had an odd dream. I don’t know why I had this dream because I didn’t see anything on TV last night, or discuss anything, that would’ve put this into my subconscious:

My world was in a post-apolcalyptic state. Government and infrastructure had broken down and there was no law. Something had happened because the negative Christians (the ones who don’t actually practice good Christianship, but use their religion as an excuse to persecute non-Christians) had whipped up so much warmongering that wars had destroyed everything.

As I was looking for shelter I thought to myself that my mom had turned out to be right — the negative Christians had won out over the real/positive Christians. I wondered to myself what the real Christians had been doing all this time and why they hadn’t organized at some point and tried to stop what was happening, or at least announce to the world that the negative activity wasn’t how a true Christian would behave.

I finally found shelter in a little church. It wasn’t in an actual church any more; the congregation had found a building they could all huddle in. They were providing what safety they could to anyone who showed up.

We were all bunched up inside this place, and one of the Christians made a smug remark to me, and I realized that he felt that the presence of this sanctuary proved that indeed, the paranoid Christians had been right all along about the world, and that this little haven proved that all of us could indeed only count on or trust Christians, and no one else. I realized that he believed that starting the wars had been justified, because of his prejudicial beliefs, and even now with everything ruined, his world view was unchanged, and he believed the warmongering had been the correct path to take.

I wanted to point out the flaw in that logic, but as I needed somewhere safe to sleep, I couldn’t say anything. I had to just sit there and not reply.

What a strange dream. It work me up early, too. I’d wanted to sleep in today. Oh well!

7:39 AM - 9 Comments - 11 Kudos

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Pete Puma

To quote Arte Johnson…”very interesting.” It’s scary that your dream is within the realm of possibility.

Posted by Pete Puma on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 10:07 AM

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MasterKajira

Sounds like the plot of a good sci-fi novel. Good as in “plausible.”

Sure you weren’t watching “The Handmaids Tale” recently?

Posted by MasterKajira on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 11:47 AM

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Lorelei

I’d forgotten about that movie! I saw that about 12 years ago. Interesting.

Posted by Lorelei on Friday, January 19, 2007 at 9:35 AM

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Duct Tape Messiah

With all the terrible real world events we see on the news every day, it’s bound to trickle into the subconscious world eventually. Keep the faith, busy lady.

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 12:51 PM

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Richard

It does sound as if your dream is rooted in your concerns for the world now.

I had an unusual dream today that actually had me sleeping longer because I wanted it to play to the end. Unfortunately, the alarm clock eventually won out even though it was late. The bad thing is that, in my rush to get to work, I didn’t have much time to dwell on it and it’s all but forgotten now. When I saw your blog topic, my first thought was wondering if the dreams were related. I don’t get more than a handful of memorable dreams in any year, so it was interesting that we both had one on the same night. My dream was completely different than yours based on what I remembered.

Concerns about religion are not new. Here are some quotes from Thomas Paine in the 1700s:

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.”– Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791

“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” — Thomas Paine, (1737-1809), The Age of Reason, pt. 1, “The Author’s Profession of Faith” (1794), quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations

Posted by Richard on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 8:31 PM

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BBQ

I’m surprized that you were able to remember every little detail about your dream. I usually forget mine by the morning. Maybe you can take your dream, and make it into a bondage movie.

Posted by BBQ on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 10:26 PM

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Ringo

I thought that this dream that you wrote down was very interesting and sadly enough there are enough ignorant people out there to claim to be Christian. I have hope for the future and that everything will be fine. Then again, well, that’s hoping.

Posted by Ringo on Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 6:42 AM

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Dark Angel Publishings

Very intersting indeed. As a Positive Christian 1st I’ll say maybe God is trying to tell you something, then 2nd I’ll say maybe God is trying to tell me something. I’m not gonna preach or anything but I find your dream eye opening because I do believe that the Christians that have real relationships with Christ are not doing enough to get the true message of the Gospels out to the world.

I’m gonna pray on that. Very good dream.

God Speed, the Night Angel.

Posted by Dark Angel Publishings on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 11:04 AM

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Current mood: uncertain

[this entry includes replies that were received on Myspace]

Hey all, sorry I haven’t been at MySpace in a long time… we’ve been trying to deal with the bank problems. I don’t have time today to catch up (Buddy the dog is vomiting blood so I’m taking him to the vet in a bit). Just to keep folks abreast I’ll copy/paste here what I announced in the Yahoo Group a few days ago.

————————–

“BB leaps into the void”

Well, as of today I don’t have a merchant account at all.

On the bright side, this means I can put ALL of BedroomBondage.com back up. Yay!!

On the down side, if I don’t find a new merchant account by the 30th (with which to renew most of my members) BB will tank.

Hope to see you all back at BedroomBondage tonight, to enjoy its restoration to its former self. At least no matter what’s gonna happen, first we’re gonna have two weeks of unbridled fun!

–Lorelei
http://www.bedroombondage.com

12:15 AM - 5 Comments - 2 Kudos

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Pete Puma

Keep your chin up and I hope your pooch feels better!

Posted by Pete Puma on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 12:55 PM

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Duct Tape Messiah

[insert loud lengthy earth-shattering string of swearing and cursing here]

Buck up L, things will turn around eventually.

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 3:35 PM

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thomas

I love what you done with the bedroombondage.com.

Posted by thomas on Friday, September 29, 2006 at 11:02 AM

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Friday, July 21, 2006
Current mood: beaten down

[this post includes replies that were received via MySpace]

Some folks may have noticed that BedroomBondage is no longer linking to this blog! Nor linking to my bondage forum. Nor linking to my yahoo group. “Hey,” the astute observer says, “Bedroom Bondage isn’t linked to anywhere! And most of the public webpages are missing! Hmm!”

My ex-merchant bank made an offer I couldn’t refuse. They said if I cleaned up my site to their satisfaction, they would take me (& my poor innocent-bystander husband) off the Fraud list, and start rebilling my members again.

This is fairly agonizing for me, but at the moment, I don’t have a choice. They won’t take me off the List unless I come back to them, and my site has to be super-duper-clean for them to reactivate my account. Not only do I need to be off that list, but so does my partner.

I’m boned. (nod to Bender of Futurama)

So, I’ve already “cleaned up” the public area of the site, and by Sunday night, the member area will be partially expurgated as well. On Monday the bank will be calling to see if I’ve performed to their liking.

Once my record is cleared, I’m still gonna search overseas for some other bank. I want my real website back! Waaaaah!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came

–Lorelei

http://www.bedroombondage.com

8:33 PM - 12 Comments - 10 Kudos

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John

Wow that is such bs with what they are doing to you. It does seem like you may have found a loop hole though with making them happy with their stupid ideas of what we all want while you try to find something overseas. I am pretty sure once you get a better backer than these jabroonis things will go back to normal. Wea re all rooting for you and good luck, we know that you can do it and find a way around these morons.

Posted by John on Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 4:47 AM

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Richard

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had to do this to keep your site open. I hope you find a more viable billing company because this doesn’t come across as the kind of bank that you want to continue doing business with.

What can the average person do to fight the growing censorship that we’re under? Sadly, it’s a topic that doesn’t interest the media. The things that are happening are barely being noted. The end result is that more people are debating whether Britney is a good mom than issues like this.

We can write out Senate and Congress representatives, but that’s something few people ever do even when they’re upset over the state of the country. Jay Leno’s monologues, when the FBI unveiled they were going after porn, were probably more effective than what most of us can accomplish. Other talk shows were afraid to touch the issue.

It looks as if HR 4472 is going to become law.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-4472
This is a bill which has riders attached to it that have nothing to do with child protection. One of the more ridiculous provisions requires new, unreasonable paperwork requirements for tracking every single image on adult websites. When the attorney general told law enforcement agencies, that one of his high priority tasks would be to enforce these new provisions and perform audits of adult producers, these agencies balked. They would have to divert resources, from units needed to go after sexual predators of children, to check paperwork of adult producers to see if they had IDs (mostly driver’s licenses) of all the models/performers they worked with. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the kind of criminals, sexually exploiting children, aren’t checking to see if the kids they’re abusing have driver’s licenses. It’s not as if most of our politicians are geniuses.

Posted by Richard on Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 5:36 AM

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Duct Tape Messiah

Bugger all,

‘Tis a long dark day indeed when the merchants can tell their customers how to behave and not the other way around. Sorry to hear about all this trouble, Lorelei.

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 6:59 AM

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Chuck

Dear Lorelei, I’m very sorry to hear that the “thought police” have hassled you again. I get a similar problem in Memphis: the schmucks have decided they can tell adults what to look at or read. I sincerely hope you find a MUCH better merchant bank. Regards and Respect, Chuck Foley.

Posted by Chuck on Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 7:23 AM

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Connie

You can sure say that again, it is getting to be that we no longer have any rights, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but we have to get Bush and that crowd out of Washington DC and put a better person in who will stand up for all of our rights.

Posted by Connie on Sunday, August 13, 2006 at 1:04 AM

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ROBOTHIPSTER

“Fraud list?” I have been a member of your site a couple of times .. you never frauded me? What a bunch of a-holes! Hell, the last 6 years have been repression city! Getting worse and worse.

Mark

Posted by ROBOTHIPSTER on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 10:08 AM

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Doc - Artist & Writer

This is horrific…. I agree with previous posts; whatever you guys want to organize against bullshit like this, put me on the list and let me know.

Posted by Doc - Artist & Writer on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at 11:32 AM

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Kris Johnson

Fuck ‘em. Do what you have to do in the short run, but don’t sacrifice what you really want to be.

Mad respect for looking out for your husband in the deal. You’re a stand up person.

Now straighten this out so we can all prove stand up people that are into kinky shit can win too.

Yours in the fight…

Kris

Posted by Kris Johnson on Sunday, July 30, 2006 at 11:39 PM

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Phreestyle

I thought the USA was supposed to be the land of the free. What the hell is happening when bankers become the watchdog of morality? What training do they undertake in ethics and morality that allows them to make judgements about what intelligent thinking humnan beings should or should not see?
This situation strikes me as a very slippery, and very dangerous, slope and a futher erosion of personal freedoms.
Oh well take your cash to Europe and deny these wankers (oops sorry, bankers) the use of your money.

Posted by Phreestyle on Friday, August 11, 2006 at 8:38 PM

Saturday, July 15, 2006
Current mood: scared

[this post includes replies that were received via MySpace]

Some months ago the Department of Justice announced there would be a new push to arrest and prosecute pornographic obscenity. They announced a “short list” of items they regarded as obscene. One of the images listed is that of one adult peeing on another adult.

Peeing isn’t my fetish so I don’t think about it very often. But one adult peeing on another, in a video, which is viewed pretty much only by other adults who like peeing — I seriously doubt such a thing changes our world very much. Or seriously affects our society in a negative way. Or is dangerous. So dangerous that federal agents must spend years of their lives investigating and prosecuting it when they could be working on other cases. (An aside: I still vividly remember when my niece was kidnapped, the federal agent told us his own workload was 90 active cases of various kinds, and that really nothing would be done about my niece.)

Variations of the feds’ obscenity list decorate the websites of the billing services that are trying to work with adult companies. Take a look at poor CCBill’s exhaustive list of things they can’t bill for:

…cannot have on webpages/site and cannot link to such webpages/sites. Any and all depictions and/or actual occurrences and/or content and/or marketing and/or references to: 1. Underage: Provocative and/or Non-Provocative; including Hentai or animations. - 2. Rape: Rape, involuntary sex or forced sex; in all mediums including Hentai or animations. - 3. Bodily Excretions: Scat/fecal matter, person to person watersports, and/or a woman’s period or menstruation. - 4. Extreme Violence: Acts of extreme violence, and/or depictions of extreme violence in all mediums including Hentai or animations. Extreme pain and/or implying and/or suggesting extreme pain. Flogging (severe beating). - 5. Bloodletting or Bloodshed. Consumption of Blood. (Webmasters note! The blood rule can affect your linking to vampire fetish, goth fetish, and horror movie fetish sites!) Self-mutilation. Cannibalism. Depiction of gore inflicted by oneself and/or another individual or group. ‘Snuff’ or ‘Fantasy Snuff’ content and/or content involving or implying death or serious bodily injury. Autopsy photos. (Webmasters note: This can affect your linking to necro fetish and “darksites”.) - 6. Diaper Fetish: Diapers, Diaper Fetish and/or sites which depict models in diapers in all mediums including Hentai or animations; Sexual or Non-Sexual. — Not forbidden on CCBill’s website and not in the email list, but forbidden according to CCBill staff: Chloroform (chloro, chloroformed), Kidnap (kidnapped, kidnapping), Ransom.

That little word “chloroform” is what just lost me my merchant account. Not via CCBill but as I said, variations of these Forbidden Lists are everywhere now. As it turns out, two years ago when the merchant bank accepted my company for an account, my site was linked to an offsite webpage that had the word “chloro” appearing twice. Apparently it is that very link that led to them terminating my account a week ago. Even though they originally approved my account.

Now for the fun part. Apparently, these days, if your company is terminated for a “Content” reason, the bank automatically puts you on “TFL”. The Fraud List. Even though I didn’t commit fraud, I’m now on some sort of blacklist so other banks won’t want to give me a merchant account.

To give you an idea of how this affects things, 10 years down the road I could be trying to get a merchant account to run a candy booth in a mall, and be turned down because on my record, it looks like I did something fraudulent.

For the past couple years, merchant banks and billing services have been sporting these lists and dropping companies and giving people a hard time. One by one we’ve seen producers and even huge companies leveled to the ground. (People like to think that iBill caused it’s own problems, but it all started when their merchant bank said “we’re ditching you”. And two other prominent Adult-Site billers had died before that when their merchant banks abandoned them.) For some reason a lot of people see all this activity as random. As if there’s one narrow-minded shlub or board of directors at each place that initiates drop-kicking the adult producers. At this point I can’t believe that any more.

A few months ago CCBill suddenly began harassing a large number of their clients to “clean up” their sites. Ashley Renee was one of those contacted; they made her delete huge numbers of photos, even a few in which she was simply being led by tied hands and “looked unhappy”. During a phone call, someone let slip that CCBill had been “told” to do this cleanup.

I think that if a merchant bank really was the one initiating the cleanup, they would give a reasonable deadline and work with the biller to reach the goal. They wouldn’t want to lose all the money they make… they would want things to work out… they’d have no reason to put sudden, hysterical pressure.

So, I admit it, I think these demands come from somewhere higher up. Someone or something higher up makes contacts and says “do or die”. And that’s why there’s such an irrational, rushed hysteria to these ultimatums.

And such ridiculousness to some items on these lists.

My parents had, individually, unfortunate experiences with religious intolerance. For example, my father was going to be a minister. He went to college and studied Philosophy and logic figuring it would make him good at talking nonbelievers into believing. Instead, he lost his faith in the process. This was a difficult thing for him and his parents.

He was an excellent student, and he was awarded a special scholarship that would send him to Europe for a year to study in a unique program. However, when he was getting ready to leave, he was called in to the Dean’s office. The Dean said “I’ve heard you’re not a Christian any more.” My dad was like “I guess not”. The Dean told him that the university was certainly not going to send him to Europe to represent the U.S. And they yanked his scholarship.

Their fear was that a person who doesn’t believe in God, has no fear of God, cannot be moral and can’t/won’t be a good person… in other words what if he went over there to Europe and raped and murdered people because he wasn’t religious… etc…

There are a lot of people who believe that only the fear of God keeps people in line. And maybe that’s why they’re so anxious to enforce religious beliefs, even onto non believers,, even onto people of faiths that aren’t exactly the same as their own; I think it’s because they’re afraid the whole world will just be full of atheist murderers or rampaging “heathens”… But I think people can be good people even if they’re not particularly religious. And I don’t think that a single faith system needs to be imposed on 100 percent of people in the world just to make society work.

I believe that I could just possibly go through life making pictures of myself tied up, and letting other adults see those pictures, and link to a webpage with the word “chloro” on it, without destroying the fabric of society, or adversely affecting civilization — in fact I believe that my website has done more good than harm to this world.

If I don’t get another merchant account, I will lose my current list of members, which will be an immediate drop of about 40 percent of my company’s income. My little company supports a family of 4. I’m wide awake in the middle of the night because I’m very worried and scared. When I was growing up I never would have imagined that the intolerance of strangers could affect my life in a drastic way, like how it affected my parents.

5:16 AM - 10 Comments - 6 Kudos

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Lorelei

Oh — and Jon’s bondage blog was deleted (without warning) by bravenet this week. Sigh.

Posted by Lorelei on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 6:04 AM

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Whiplash Studio.com

First, with out question, I think you’re website has done more good than anything else. I know it was one of the first sites I visited years ago that helped me feel much better about who I am. I’d go as far to say I think you and the great Shevette (for those in the know) really helped me feel more comfortable in my own skin about this part of my life.

It’s really disheartening to hear these problems befalling you. I’m about 6 months away from hopefully starting my site (hired my first model this week!) and the billing part of it is the one thing I am most perplexed about. Without question, this is making me think twice about content and whether or not I’ve even link to other pages now. I hope something works out for you and please keeps us up to date on the solution you do find.

In addition, I don’t know what recourse you’re going to take when it comes to being put on this fraud list, but I don’t think the bank can legally do this. Fraud is a crime and they must have a basis to make this accusation against you. While they do hold the right to refuse business to anyone they see fit, they do not hold the right to screw with your credit. You might want to look a little more into that one as far as protecting yourself.

I for one think its crap that someone else, be it a religious organization or the government (which is what I think it is) can come thru and take out our expression of free speech. They aren’t shutting down adult book stores are they? Is the porn industry being closed? No. You know why? It’s easier for mom and dad to make sure Timmy doesn’t go into such an establishment than it is to make sure they don’t sure by a website. I think a lot of parents see the computer the same way so many saw TV; a means to occupy their child, a baby sitter more so than anything else. So rather teach their children right and wrong, rather than monitor where they go and what they do, they leave it up to someone else to remove content they don’t agree with from the medium. It’s always pushed on to someone else. Thats just my two cents on bad parenting.

In closing L, I think the religious intolerance you’ve dealt with just plain sucks for lack of a better word. As with any religion or race, it’s the few bad eggs that make the rest of us look bad. I for one like to think of my self as a very religious person. I’ve visited your site many a time and what I’ve seen there hasn’t affected my morality one iota. If I came to something on your page that wasn’t my cup a tea, I simply went to another part of your page and was just fine with that, no big uproar, no proclamation of “I’ve never come here again!” And again, consider my self a pretty good Christian. As a Christian, I want you to know that I’m praying for you and your site and your family. I’m praying that you find a way around your problems and your webpage returns to the success it has always been a prospers for many years to come. And I do so because I want you to know, we’re not all out to get you (little lol there). We’re not all rotten eggs. Best wishes to you and may this all resolve in your favor very soon.

Posted by Whiplash Studio.com on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 6:55 AM

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Duct Tape Messiah

As leads the government-so goes the companies; or is it the other way ’round?

Anyone feel safer yet? We’re all watching each other and reporting on each other and sending out memos, faxes and writing new laws to protect ourselves- but does anyone really feel safer yet? I just feel violated. I feel like a child and not in a good way with that spirit of joyous abandon and freedom. I feel like that kid from the wrong part of town; the one everyone whispers about, points at and make rude comments behind his back. Didn’t do nothing. Didn’t hurt anyone. But you wouldn’t know it from all the watching and whispering.

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 4:27 PM

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Charlzm

How’s the option of moving billing to an offshore company going? I know the US government is trying to go after offshore gambling sites now (probably due to not being part of their revenue stream more than anything else), but hopefully they’re not going to go after international credit card billing companies yet.

Posted by Charlzm on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 7:33 PM

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Lorelei

I’m told that the Fraud List I’m on is an international list, but I’m applying to two different offshore merchant banks to see if they’ll take me anyway.

Posted by Lorelei on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 7:49 PM

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Richard

It’s sad how the phrase “religious intolerance” has come into acceptance. The thing that is especially disconcerting is that most religions teach tolerance. One of the things I’ve learned, since getting involved in bondage forums, is that an interest in bondage crosses religion and politics. A person, with conservative politics and a religious background, can also find a fascination with bondage. Their background may force them to repress and avoid the subject, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t turned on by bondage.

Human beings are imperfect creatures and it is not uncommon for imperfect creatures to do the wrong thing. I’ve seen many different examples of how people use religion in their lives. I’ve seen many use religion to better themselves and they quietly go through their lives practicing the doctrine of their faiths in good and generous ways. I’ve seen others dangerously treating their religion like a legal treatise where sentences, taken out of context, allow them to do very irreligious things while wrapping themselves within the pretext of the sanctity of their religion. It is a very rare thing to see politics mixed with religion in a fashion that isn’t troublesome. There is something about group dynamics that favor the loudest person over the smartest and devolves that group’s dynamics to the loud individuals who commit them to action no matter how wrong those actions may seem later. I don’t blame the sins of religion on the faiths being practiced, but on the people exercising their religions the wrong way.

The two things that surprise me most about the current spate of censorship is the near lack of public discussion and near silence from organizations like the ACLU that one would expect to be on the forefront of the issue. The end effect is that the public is largely unaware that their choices are being slowly taken away from them.

I hope you can get past this.

Posted by Richard on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 3:18 PM

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Jeff Tucker!

The country we live in gets scarier everyday….BIG BROTHER is watching and all that.

Posted by Jeff Tucker! on Monday, July 17, 2006 at 6:09 PM

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The Dance Commander

Isn’t it always funny how the goverment says “Freedom of Expression”? But then when it goes out of the boundries of the way THEY want it expressed it gets yanked and becomes “Taboo” or “Immoral” What next? Bondage Photography linked to Terrorists? It’s stupid and moronic and when I rule the world I will make three rules.

1. Freedom of Expresion will be literal.

2. Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream will be sold at absolutely no charge.

and 3. The Show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel will be picked up and run another twenty seasons. Because Buffy and Angel totally own. (lmao)

Anyways, I hate how hypocritical people are. You’d think they would spend all the money used to shut down something as harmless as your site and actually put it towards something harmful….like oh say…I dunno….maybe finding a dirty looking dude who likes sending the government video diaries of his next plans…..

Anyways Keep you head up Lorelei, and I swear if I have to I’ll start my own petition to stop this shit….in fact that’s not a bad idea.

Posted by The Dance Commander on Friday, July 21, 2006 at 10:37 PM

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bill

very well stated.each day we lose more and more of our freedom of choice and self-expression.critizism runs rampant in the “holy”, these ar the people who are ruining the fabric of society by trying to forcefully impose their outdated ideas from an era long since passed.who the hell do these people think that they are, trying to decide what’s good and bad for us, and then attempting to cram it down out throat.i am a full grown man, and have been for a while.i have been making decisions on my own for years (good or bad it doesn’t matter)i am the one that suffers from a bad mistake or benefit from a good one. i think certian “people” need to get a hobbie and concentrate on whats really ruining our society. politics,religion and greed. you would think these people would be more concern with national security than cleaning up a love bondage site that is owned and operated by two full grown,concenting adults.to those “people” whom seek to impose their will and try to tell me what i can and can’t view i say ” now go away or i shall fart in your general direction!” and ” your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberries!”

Posted by bill on Saturday, August 19, 2006 at 12:37 AM

Monday, July 10, 2006
Current mood: annoyed

[this post includes replies that were received on MySpace]

While I was out of town, the bank terminated my Bedroom Bondage website’s merchant account on Friday — without warning.

For those who aren’t familiar with what that means, a merchant account is what a seller uses to accept Visa/Mastercard from customers.

I phoned them today and they said the content on my website was unacceptable. I pointed out that my content had not changed, and that it was the same as it was last year when they accepted my account. She didn’t reply to that. I asked her if their guidelines had changed. She didn’t reply to that. I pointed out that my customers paid (through them) to receive a certain product and as a seller didn’t I have a responsibility to those customers to provide to them the product they paid for? She didn’t reply to that. I mentioned this was rather sudden and couldn’t I have the standard 30-day notice before termination? She said no, this was immediate termination.

Another fun fact is that when a merchant account is closed, any money the bank has that belongs to the seller, is then held for 9 months “just in case” it’s needed for any refunds. So the income they recently collected for my site will now be in their hands for 9 months.

They told me I could clean up the site and then apply for reinstatement. I’ve decided not to do that. If they approved my content last year and now they’re telling me to delete some of it, who knows what more they’d make me delete a few months from now. Perhaps if I were just a generic business owner of some kind, I would do whatever my merchant bank wanted, but my websites have always reflected what I personally am into — they’re a slice of me — and I’m not up for symbolically cutting myself up and casting off some fingers and toes of who I am.

Like many other beleagured bondage sites these days, at the moment I’m looking into billing services offered in Europe. I do have an account with Verotel but I’m not sure I want to put all my eggs in one basket. We’ll see.

Now signing off,

The disgusting lady who’s into bondage and all that stuff (lol)

–Lorelei

9:18 AM - 17 Comments - 15 Kudos

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marDizzy

Not easy being you.
-m

Posted by marDizzy on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 9:26 AM

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Dark Minded Promotions™

That is so messed up. How dare they do that. In fact, i don’t think it is legal. What are you planning to do for your paid accounts now?

Posted by Dark Minded Promotions™ on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 9:34 AM

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Lorelei

This is very legal. For the past few years, many merchant banks have been doing this.

Legally they have the right to say what other companies they want to do business with and what sort of content they will accept.

Over the weekend some of my members’ accounts “got lost” because of this so I put them on a temporary manual membership. I don’t want people losing their favorite username just because my renewal system is messed up by this development at the moment.

Not sure what I’m gonna do yet. Will keep everyone informed.

Posted by Lorelei on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 9:43 AM

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Pete Puma

In my book, there is nothing worse than puritanical hypocrites! It’s obvious your bank is filled with these vermin. I’ve no doubt that if the banks books were to opened to the light of day, there would be represented those far worse than some tasteful (and quite alluring) bondage imagery. I’d wager that they are still customers and no doubt getting their asses kissed.
Why? They are big business. Trust me, the only “acceptable content” a bank is concerned with is the content of the green and folding stuff in their vaults.

Hank in there Lorelei!

Posted by Pete Puma on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 9:50 AM

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Charlzm

I understand that they can do what they like as a business, but I am disappointed nonetheless. I also understand the anger others feel about, but really, what can be done?

Move to another bank. No amount of cajoling will get them to reverse their decision, so best to move on.

Sad, though.

Posted by Charlzm on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 10:56 AM

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Chuck

This Stinks! Another fine example of Big Brother regulating personal stuff. You’d think you were some kind of anarchist. Which, by the way, I learned something two months ago from a member of another support group of mine. It seems that for every one agent investigating terrorism, 100 are investigating the sex industry, which I guess includes all of us. OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK! Chuck.

Posted by Chuck on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 12:27 PM

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Duct Tape Messiah

My sympathies,

Welcome to the new kinder, gentler, safer America of George W. Bush. Where we are free to express ourselves as the companies tell us to and exposing government spying on it’s own citizens is bad for us.

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 1:00 PM

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John

.. width=”425″ height=”350″> src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YyBjmeGD7ZE” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”350″>..>

Posted by John on Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 12:00 AM

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Lorelei

Thanks for your thoughts Paypal does not permit any adult-oriented products — they drop-kicked me a coupla years ago.

In the current climate it’s become close to impossible for a bondage company to get any billing service within the U.S. We’re all being quietly shoved overseas. LOL

Posted by Lorelei on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 at 11:48 PM

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Donald

well that sucks. Effing bankers

Posted by Donald on Friday, July 14, 2006 at 1:56 PM

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WestBound

Holding on to the money “just in case” they have to pay someone back?. 9 months interest will net them a nice little profit from that lot. Money grabbing bastards!!!!

Chin up girl, we all appreciate how much you do for us bondage devotees and love you for it

Posted by WestBound on Friday, July 14, 2006 at 5:14 PM

Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Current mood: discouraged

Ashley Renee phoned and told me that CCBill (her billing company) appears to be flinging itself into a content clean-up project.

They contacted her about her website several times in the past week with various removal requests - made her unlink BondageDirectory, then
BondageGirls, then made her take a bunch of photosets and clips off her site.

Ashley said she asked a staffer by phone “why am I being targeted right now?” and the staffer claimed that CCBill has been told by their merchant bank to clean things up (paraphrasing here). The staffer said maybe the reason Ashley was one of the first sites contacted during this cleanup, was because Ashley’s site is near the beginning of the alphabet.

A staffer also related to Ashley that CCBill now has 15 staffers currently working on this project and that spiders were being used to check CCBill client websites to check for “forbidden” words & metatags, and links to “forbidden” sites.

In one of the written notices she got, Ashley was told to remove one set because the man grabs her from behind in a hallway before tying her up. CCBill informed her that the sneaking up from behind looked “non consensual” and therefore was a violation of their “no rape” rule. (?!)

Ashley related to me that CCBill went thumbs-down on most of her two-person sets because they said she looked unhappy in the pictures — “nonconsensual” themes.

A drawing was required pulled, categorized as “extreme violence” because it depicted a damsel in distress approaching a buzz saw. Of course, the damsel was not shown injured or contacting the saw.

Ashley has a big archive of material so she brought out some of her solo-bondage classics to fill up her photo-site again, but it’s very upsetting that a lot of her work is now on hold and can’t be seen.

For curious folks who want to see CCBill’s AUP
(Acceptable Use Policy, aka “What’s Obscene”), string together this URL (myspace futzes it ptherwise) and then scroll down to the big paragraph: .. tiny url period com slash o48cx

–Lorelei

P.S. I emailed all my CCBill members and asked them to switch to one of my other billers. I don’t think I could manage renovating my site to the degree of vanilla-ism that CCBill now expects!

8:03 AM - 9 Comments - 9 Kudos

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Dark Minded Promotions™

Now that is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of. CCBill is probably doing this because of how the Government is still cracking down on adult sites and might be cracking down on the companies used for all the pay sites. Such BullS*it! As long as the person has signed a consent paper (not going into the whole legal wording here) then it should be fine.

Posted by Dark Minded Promotions™ on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 8:57 AM

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John

What a crock of you know what! Like CCBill had no idea what Ashley did when she signed up with them.. I mean come on!!! Sounds like them going with the government and stepping all over the rights of these great performers, withtheir logic of thinking than shouldn’t they also not show anything I don’t know like say King Kong since Faye Ray doesen’t seem to happy when she is kidnapped by Kong or shouldn’t PETA get it taken out of stores since it shows an animal being shot to death? I know dosen’t seem to make sense but those examples just show how stupid CCBill is being.

Posted by John on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 10:36 AM

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Doc - Artist & Writer

Censorship sucks! This is a total load of crap that we, as bondage site masters/contributors, see all too often - but when CCbill gets cold feet to this degree, we’ve got to wonder how far off the end of this ‘free speech’ party is. Granted, we’re still in a period of conservative values overseen by an increasingly ‘Big Brother’-esque government, and hopefully this will pass… but this doesn’t bode well, does it?

Posted by Doc - Artist & Writer on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 11:28 AM

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Jungle Man

UNBEFRIGGINLEIVABLE!!!! John above has some very excellent points using the Kong analogy. This whole war on pornography scare is getting waaay out of hand. What in the world happened to free speech and the ability for consenting age approved ADULTS to see what they choose to see? I find it very strange that people can write internet fiction at a free site that any child can get into, that is hundreds of times more graphic and dangerous not only describing rape but brutal torture and eventually snuff with no repurcussions, but if a simple abduction scenario is shown in a photo at a secured pay site they get threatened by the government or whatever host they use. Meanwhile, the hypocrisy continues as movies like Hostel come out and instantly become “the number 1 movie in America” it’s opening weekend. Once again, don’t get me wrong, I loved Hostel, I just wonder how long it’s going to take before the government is controlling every form of entertainment we love, and every piece of information we get once they have a stranglehold of the internet.

Posted by Jungle Man on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 12:05 PM

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Richard

Lorelei can write volumes on credit card censorship and it’s been going on for quite a few years now.

The thing that concerns me a lot is that the media has been fairly silent about the topic. Even Visa, the primary credit card censor, has been reluctant to publicly say much about their censorship efforts.

It just makes me glad that I didn’t take a major plunge to set up a full paysite. I would have lost a lot of money. I feel especially bad for people, like Ashley and Lorelei, who are trying to earn a living from their sites.

Posted by Richard on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 6:37 PM

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Duct Tape Messiah

And somewhere in Washington D.C., George Bush, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are clinking their brandy glasses together, giggling like 6-year olds.

I think George Carlin said it best, “It’s time to start slapping people.”

Posted by Duct Tape Messiah on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 8:46 AM