Is it about asserting some control?

I was reading a piece in the newspaper (The Guardian, 16th July 2007) written by a lady called Julie Bindel who was writing about someone she had known at school and who was recently convicted of a brutal murder. Now it's an interesting piece in it's own right but the bit that grabbed me was when Julie is talking about how both of them were often getting into trouble at school.

"Often, Ashdown and I would find ourselves outside the head teacher's office to be punished for our various antics. I remember one particular day when Ashdown came out of the office having been caned on his bottom. I was next. "They don't cane lasses on the backside," he advised "so go and put plenty of soap on your hands - it hurts less." It was sound advice, coming from someone who knew."

The idea that having soap on your hands would make a caning hurt less seems rather far-fetched to me but I've heard of similar ideas in the past, all of which seemed to me to be doomed to failure. However, perhaps there's something else to it. After all, part of the experience of being summoned to the head teacher's office and made to hold your hand out to be caned is about a very painful experience that you may not want to repeat. But the other part is about the establishment and it's authority and the fact it is able to make you do something to it's instructions. The rebellious schoolboy or schoolgirl who's been doing things the school disapproves of is forced into a position of acquiescing to their control.

And perhaps that's where the soap thing comes in. I don't believe it lessens the pain, but it may make you feel better - it's like saying you've not done exactly what they've ordered you to do - you're still rebelling and they don't even realise it.

On a Serious Note - Please Read

I've thought hard about this. It's way, way off topic for my blog. If you find it offensive - well, no - I'm not actually going to apologise. I think it's the most important message to get out and I don't care if people feel it's not an appropriate way to go about it.

I've just sat in my room looking at two extraordinary websites. The first, http://www.helpnazanin.com/ was created to highlight the plight of Nazanin Fatehi in Iran. At the age of 17 she was attacked by three men who tried to rape her and in the struggle she killed one of them. She was subsequently charged with murder and sentenced to death by hanging. The campaign to save her is a remarkable story that, in January 2007, was ultimately successful. She is now free - trying to rebuild her life - and trying to get an education.

Many others are still not so fortunate. The second site is http://www.stopchildexecutions.com/ - although Iran has ratified Article 37(a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states "[No] capital punishment... shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age", there are many in jails in Iran right now who have been sentenced to death for crimes committed while they were under 18. In some cases the authorities seem to keep them in jail until they're 18 and then try to justify carrying out the sentence - in others there is evidence they have lied about the age and carried out the sentences.

I sat and read Nazanin's story in tears. By the time I had watched the video on the second site - as well as more tears - I felt I had to say something and do something.

No - this isn't the right place but I don't care. If people read this site for their pleasure, then perhaps a few will take the trouble to look at these other sites and also commit to taking action to stop the executions of children.

Please - do whatever you can. The story of Nazanin shows that we can make a difference.

Hotel Service

Don't you just love it when you get fantastic service at a good hotel, You check-in, go to your room and find that somehow they've anticipated just exactly what you need...

There we are, waiting for me. How on earth did they know?

How do they train these people? Are they psychic?

They had to have known that my suit jacket had got dusty the day before and would need a vigorous session with a fluff remover...

Oh wait! Were you thinking something else perhaps???

Cruel and Unusual

On the very rare occasion at school when I was kept in after class for half an hour or so for some terrible crime like talking, it seemed a very long time and very boring. However the French have managed to take things a massive stage further with a punishment so awful it beggars description and which it is inflicting on people who've done nothing wrong.

It's called Terminal E at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and it was opened last month by their new President Sarcastic. Okay so there's loads of shops but nobody is shopping in them because apart from perfumes they don't sell anything that you would want. And if you're flying posh class there's a huge new lounge with unlimited supplies of free alcohol. However for snacks there are crisps, plain biscuits, little sponge cakes and.... well more crisps.

Believe me, after four and a half hours I was climbing the walls. Perhaps they should have sent Paris Hilton there. I'm sure she'd have fallen for it with the free alcohol package but it really is deceitfully inhuman.

Staying legit

I doubt that anyone reading this could honestly say that they don’t have some images or videos stored on disc somewhere that they didn’t actually pay for and weren’t being offered as freebies by the original owner as a “taster” for what their site offers. However, we also all know that if everyone keeps on pirating and sharing freely around their favourite spanking pictures and films, so the producers aren’t getting paid and they’re going to give up. Which is a shame because the quality from companies such as Xerotics, RealSpankings, RGE-Lupus, Firm Hand and so on is superb. I don’t want to be left with just poor quality amateur materials. So the answer is to pay for it?

The trouble is I don’t want my credit card company to have a record of me spending money with such companies although I can just about stand having an intermediate third party such as Paypal involved. However, I don’t want to risk having material seized by over-zealous customs and while it’s often not convenient to have mail delivered to my home address, I don’t want to risk adult material being sent to my work address just in case someone else gets hold of it. Any I don’t much want to give the companies my real name either. So the solution is to go into a shop and pay cash for it?

Notwithstanding the restrictions on what can be sold, even in licensed premises, there has been some sign that things are becoming a bit more relaxed in the UK lately. However, when I was last in London, while there were plenty of CP related DVDs on sale, they tended to fall into one of two categories. Some are produced by companies that make a variety of adult material and aren’t really into the spanking scene and don’t understand it – they don’t appreciate the importance of a story and they can’t imagine a scene that doesn’t quickly move to sex. The others, from companies like those I listed above, judging from the packaging, appear to be mostly pirated. If I could be a genuine legal copy of their films in the shops I would, but if all I’m doing is giving the money to some grubby intermediary who has probably found a copy of the film on the internet and run a few copies off on to DVDs then, frankly, I’d rather just download them myself in the first place.