Nomad Follow-up and February Giving

 Posted by at 2:31 pm  Karma Credits
Jan 182011
 
Camille Crimson performing felatio

This is what a woman in control of her own sexuality looks like.

This weekend I finished listening to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Nomad. When I blogged about the book, I was still somewhere in the middle of it. I wrote, “I’m hoping that, by the end of the book, Hirsi Ali will suggest some strategies for separating the good guys from the bad.”

She did something better. Rather than laying out a checklist of “How to Spot the Militant Fundamentalist,” Ms. Hirsi Ali laid out an action plan for bringing about the end of misogyny, repression, and hatred among Muslim immigrants. And then she put her words into action.

In response to ongoing abuses of women’s rights in the name of fundamentalist Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her supporters established the AHA Foundation in 2007 to help protect and defend the rights of women in the West against militant Islam.

Through education, outreach and the dissemination of knowledge, the Foundation aims to combat several types of crimes against women, including female genital mutilation, forced marriages, honor violence, and honor killings.

It turns out that honor killings, gender mutilation,forced marriages, and all kinds of medieval atrocities are taking place right here in North America. Unbelievable!

Long-time readers of this blog know that I spend a lot of time teaching people (mostly women) how to defend themselves against all kinds of threats–from thick-headed co-workers to deranged stalkers, and everything in between. I passionately believe that everyone (so long as they are not harming others) has a right to be safe. It therefore galls me to know that there are people propagating violence in the name of “clan honor” and religion right here in my country, in my state, and even–given the Somali population in my city–in my neighborhood.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any particular insight or access to the Islamic community. Because immigrant groups tend to be close-knit and keep to themselves, I don’t see what I can personally do to help prevent further acts of Stone Age barbarism. But that won’t stop me from doing something.

You read my last post about giving back, right? (Follow the link if you didn’t.) For the rest of this month–and for all of February–I am going to dedicate 20% of every dollar I earn to the AHA Foundation. I’ll tally everything up on 1 March, 2011, announce the total in a blog post, and send off the funds.

Want to help make the world a better place, starting right here in your own, Western neighborhood? Want to enjoy exclusive access to some premium pornography? Why not do both at the same time? Follow any affiliate link from the Liquid Whispers blog from now until Februrary 28, buy a membership, and I’ll donate 20% of my earnings to help Ms. Hirsi Ali’s foundation.

If you love porn–especially the kind in which women are free to enjoy themselves any way they want to–then why not go ahead and treat yourself? You’ll enjoy the perks that come with a month-long membership AND you’ll be helping ensure that more women are free to enjoy themselves as they see fit, too.

Go ahead… You’re going to masturbate, anyway. (You know you are.) You might as well do it for a worthy cause.

Cheers,

JMB

P.S.–May I suggest starting with The Art of Blowjob? Camille Crimson, the site’s main attraction, might not be Muslim, but she certainly demonstrates the mind-blowing beauty of a woman enjoying herself on her own, erotic terms. (See my review of her site here.)

Giving Back

 Posted by at 1:34 pm  Featured, Karma Credits, Our Policies
Jan 132011
 
Patricia flashing her breasts in a public park

I'm not going to flash my boobs, but I WILL help bring smiles.

Radical Giving

Effective immediately, I will begin donating 20% (twenty percent) of all the money Liquid Whispers makes to various charities, non-profit organizations, and other cool causes.

Naturally, there are a few caveats to this policy. Keep reading for the not-so-fine print.

The Backstory

After a little more than a year of trying (and failing) to make money via porn blogging, I have come to realize a few things:

  1. The people who brag the most obnoxiously about how rich their blogs make them are actually getting rich by selling “secret, magical formulas” to saps like me.
  2. The online porn market is flooded with sites. My little blog doesn’t even amount to a spit in the ocean of available sex.
  3. There’s only so much porn I can look at in a day before the whole thing seems more like work than fun.

There’s actually a fourth lesson I’ve learned, as well. Once I stopped gnashing my teeth about how gullible and naive I’d been I realized that, done part-time and for fun (rather than full time and for a living), porn blogging actually is a lot of fun.

That’s where I am right now; blogging part-time, and only when the mood strikes me. I have thrown away any expectations that Liquid Whispers will make me any money whatsoever.

Just In Case

Yet there’s still a chance that someone, somewhere, might eventually follow one of my affiliate links and actually (gasp!) buy something, thus earning for me an affiliate commission. If that chain of events ever happened, I could conceivably receive a check, representing a small slice of the transaction.

To be sure, I don’t need the money.  I’ve been living quite comfortably during the past year, despite the financial failure of this blog. That said, I’m not going to turn it away, either. (I’m not a member of what Dan Kennedy calls the “sackcloth and ashes crowd.”) Money might not be able to buy me happiness, but it sure could help to pay a few bills, boost my savings account… and a new Mac wouldn’t be so bad, either.

The Fine Print

In the event that I ever should receive a commission check because of my efforts on this blog, here is my list of rules regarding the distribution of my 20% donations.

  1. I’m not going to write checks based on credits I’ve built up with vendors. Donations will be based on money that actually goes into my bank account.
  2. I will make a donation every month, so long as I received new money in my bank account that month. If I make no money via Liquid Whispers, then I make no donation that month. (I might donate out of other funds but I won’t tell you about it. Probably not, anyway.)
  3. I will decide which charity, non-profit, or other cool cause will receive that month’s donations (assuming there is one). While I welcome suggestions, I am nevertheless running a blog, not a democracy.
  4. I might, at any time, decide to donate more than 20% of a given month’s earnings. Or I might not. Either way, I will always donate at least 20% of a month’s new revenue.
  5. I might or might not blog about any donation I make. Some people are squeamish about porn and don’t want to be associated with it, not even tangentially. Lack of a blog post will not necessarily mean lack of a donation.
  6. I will only donate 20% of the money I earn. I’m not going to cut goods or services that I receive into pieces. I will of course disclose any goods or services that I receive, but I won’t divide them. (What good is 20% of a porn DVD, anyway?)
  7. I reserve the right to amend these rules at any time, with or without warning.
Getting Started

To get the ball rolling, I’ve dipped into some funds that I earned by teaching self-defense. (Read above: I haven’t made any money off this blog yet.) I’m sending $20 to Daphne Arthur, an up-and-coming artist, so that she can take advantage of an amazing opportunity. Her cause does not qualify as a charity, to be sure, but it’s still a pretty cool cause.

 

Kickstarter Backer Badge

(For a small donation, you'll get one of these, too!)

Read more about Daphne here (not an affiliate link). And feel free to kick around the entire Kickstarter website. You might just find something cool to support, too.

As ever, you can ask questions or leave a comment in the box below. You can also contact me via Twitter. (Just click the icon at the top right of this page.)

Either way, let me know what kind of cool thing you’re doing to give a little back and to help make the world a better place. If I like your idea enough, I might just write a post about it and give you some free press here at Liquid Whispers!

Cheers!

JMB

Note: The model above is not Daphne Arthur. She’s FTVGirl’s model Patricia. Click on the link or the photo, buy a membership, and do your part to help support other cool causes and charities.

Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

 Posted by at 1:59 pm  Critique des Choses
Jan 112011
 

I enjoy getting a good reading recommendation from other people’s blogs from time to time. Just for fun, then, I thought I’d return the favor and let you guys in on what I’m currently reading and/or listening to.

Nomad

The cover of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, Nomad

Challenging ideas, but then LW readers like to think.

The full title is Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. You remember her, right? She’s the person who, as a young woman, ran away from an arranged marriage, served a term in Dutch Parliament, made a movie with Theo van Gogh that exposed the brutal treatment of women under sharia law, which led to van Gogh’s assassination by a militant Muslim who had lived his entire life in Holland?

If that doesn’t sound familiar, then you’ve got to read this book. It’s a follow-up to her first book, Infidel, which I’ll admit I haven’t read yet. (It’s on my pile. I just happened to grab Nomad first.)

What I’m getting from the audio version (read by the author herself) is that Islam is not a religion of peace. Perhaps it is in theory, but it certainly isn’t in practice. Fundamentalist zealots are working hard to establish sharia law everywhere that Muslims tread. And they’re succeeding, too. Right now, a large percentage of the world’s population is being ruled–one way or another–by Bronze Age laws and morality codes.

Think that might have an effect on social progress? The first-hand accounts that Hirsi Ali relays are… “shocking” is the only word I have for the stunned sensation I get every time I listen to a new chapter.

Wait–this doesn’t have anything to do with you, does it? Think again. Refugees from the Middle East and Africa are flooding into North America and Europe. Some of them really do want to assimilate, contribute, and find a better life. But there are a great many, too, who cling to a glorified version of their country’s mythic past, who will not let go of their Old World values, and who have no qualms about using up the social welfare benefits you pay for… all while secretly plotting against the very societies which have welcomed them.

Please understand: I am not an anti-immigration zealot. My skin color guarantees the fact that my ancestors were not here when Europeans first  colonized North America. I am completely in favor of allowing everyone and anyone who wants to build a better life to come on in. That’s the idea America was built on, after all. (“Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”)

That said, I’m no Pollyanna, either. Just because there are good people longing to come in and breathe freedom, that doesn’t mean there aren’t also sharks circling the waters of Ellis Island, too. Some of those sharks are already inland. This book helps bring to light the danger these resentful, backwards-thinking immigrants pose to America, to Canada, and to all the nations which provide safety, sanctuary, and the hope of a better life.

I’m hoping that, by the end of the book, Hirsi Ali will suggest some strategies for separating the good guys from the bad. Right now, however, all I see are imperfect solutions which will require a lot of work on everyone’s part–including those who don’t think the problem applies to them.

Leave a comment below sharing your thoughts about immigration, about Nomad, or about the fact that there really isn’t any good Islamic porn.

Erotic Picture at the End

 Posted by at 2:49 pm  What I'm Thinking
Jan 052011
 

I’m Back!

As promised, I have returned to the blogging world now that the holidays are done! [Insert applause.]

While I was gone, I had lots of time to think. I put some of that time to good use, and I squandered some of it playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 with my son. (He’s seven and he kicks more ass than I do. There’s something wrong with that picture!)

Anyway, I did a lot of thinking about this blog, my other blogs, and about blogging in general. I reflected about the things that went well during the past year, about the things that did not, about the things I’d like to do more of, and about the things I’d like to do less of.

Summary

Basically, I reduced all of last year down to these two points:

  • I spent a lot of time studying loud-mouthed marketing gurus, trying to make tons of money from sex blogging.
  • I spent most of that time working in circles, making exactly NO money from sex blogging.

I had set out last year with the intention of building an online empire based by referring horny people to porn sites.  It turns out that a lot of other people had the very same idea. It also turns out that many of those people have either more time or fewer ethics than I do.  Some people have more time AND fewer ethics. Either of those conditions brings a competitive advantage when it comes to chasing traffic, writing articles, updating blogs, and all of the other work that goes into professional porn-peddling. Combine the two? I just can’t compete with that.

Unanswered Prayers

Sometimes, though, unanswered prayers turn out to be blessings in disguise. For example, I learned last year that looking at too much porn can become quite boring. (Hard to believe, but true) I also learned that the people who make the most money are not the ones telling everyone else how to make money, too. The people who make the real money tend to keep their heads down and [drumroll] make money. The people who are selling Get-Rich-by-Blogging schemes are getting rich — by selling schemes to starry-eyed newcomers.

You’d think I would have learned all of that years ago; the people who shout the loudest usually have something to hide. In fact I have learned that lesson many times over. I’m just grateful that, this time around, I didn’t sink much money into learning the lesson, only time. And these days, I have a lot more time than money.

Ah, well.

For the Fun of It

Moving forward, then, I’ve decided to continue the Liquid Whispers brand but I’m going to take it on a more personal tack. I’m going to spend more time talking about life, sex, and anything that catches my fancy. I’m going to spend less time trying to mold myself into the hard sell, porn-pushing type. If you follow a link from my site and I end up getting a commission, great! If not, great! At this point I just don’t care. I’m in it for the fun of it now (because there sure ain’t been any profit).

Look in the coming days for updates written in the same, magical style that I always use. Just expect a bit more light-hearted flippancy and a bit less “vanilla.” Like I said, I don’t give a damn whether I please anyone or not anymore.* From now on I’m blogging for the fun of it.

Not Least

Naughty Julie in mysterious lighting

C'mon, that's worth a click-through, right?

You didn’t think that I’d write a whole post without including an erotic picture, did you? Come on, I hardly ever do that! Today’s pic comes to us via Naughty Julie, whose delicious little websiteyou can find by either following the preceding link, or else by simply clicking on the photo.

Enjoy!

JMB

*That’s probably more “talk” than “walk.” At the end of the day, I’m still me and my ability to “not give a damn” has never been very strong. Does that make sense? Heck, just subscribe to this blog and read the next several posts. You’ll see what I mean.