Unfortunately, it's time for an Al Gore sex thread.

[slomo]

I live in Los Angeles. Throw a stick you'll hit a masseuse. Maybe a couple of them.

Well, some masseuses appear to be attracted to sticks. Does anyone remember the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David gets an unexpected "happy ending" from a masseuse?

Three things happen concurrently: (1) Al Gore is rumored to have slept with Larry David's ex-wife, (2) Al Gore is rumored to have attempted a liaison with a masseuse, (3) the oil industry continues to try diverting attention from the level of catastrophe happening in the Gulf.

Hugh?

Maybe BP will give us a "happy ending" too!

I usually think Hugh is crazy, but sometimes I think he is on to something. The weird thing is that Hugh entirely eschews woo, when in fact his theory makes sense only in the context of woo! In order to believe Hugh's theories, you have to believe that small memetic seeds have, nonlinearly, very large sociological effects. This is the technical core of so-called "magic".

It is indeed very odd how the Larry David / Al Gore thing lines up so nicely.

[Nordic]

Maybe BP will give us a "happy ending" too!

They've already given us an "Oilgasm" without end.

It's the money shot.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Nobody took it there yet, huh?

Well.....

[JackRiddler]

Cheryl left Larry again?!

[Simulist]

Cheryl left Larry again?!

It could go either way.

[stefano]

The take-away for me is that almost all politicians in almost all countries get their jollies with sex workers on a regular basis, that every shag is numbered and filed, and that this is how they are kept in line. Gore was unlucky as a diversion was needed right now. What's interesting is how authoritarians tend to go for children, kinky sex and gay sex (big taboo for their public personas) while more liberal pols tend to sleep with women.

This ties in with the City lawyer with the BDSM thing and also on some level with the 'is woo a distraction?' thread. Though it's not woo, it's magic, where breaking taboos empowers the will.

[nathan28]

I'm really only interested in the pictures that go with this thread, so where are they?

I live in Los Angeles. Throw a stick you'll hit a masseuse. Maybe a couple of them.

Well, some masseuses appear to be attracted to sticks. Does anyone remember the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David gets an unexpected "happy ending" from a masseuse?

Three things happen concurrently: (1) Al Gore is rumored to have slept with Larry David's ex-wife, (2) Al Gore is rumored to have attempted a liaison with a masseuse, (3) the oil industry continues to try diverting attention from the level of catastrophe happening in the Gulf.

Hugh?

Um, any time I've ever hired a massage therapist I've felt very uncomfortable if they got too touchy, but I have a bunch of nagging injuries and I'd rather they receive the professional attention, especially considering it's cheaper to get wasted and get a cab to a stranger's house than it is to hire a massage therapist. Which is my way of saying, this seems a little contrived in light of the fact that Gore, what with having been next in line to be leader of the Imperium for almost a decade, almost certainly has ready access to high-end, very discrete sex workers, but maybe he's just a misogynist horn-dog and bad at compartmentalizing things. Maybe he's both. Anyway I'm still surprised that Spitzer USED A CREDIT CARD TO HIRE PROSTITUTES OVER THE INTERNET. Is it arrogance? Wanting to get caught? Speculating on motive, etc., etc., I imagine that this isn't an accident that the story broke.

More seriously, I think it's worth noting that some research suggests that a number of "happy ending" massage establishments are the front ends for slave/bonded immigrant labor and trafficking, to use Gore's peccadilloes to discuss a broader, more egregious social problem than infidelity.

[Nordic]

I just think this woman's story rings so completely untrue that it's worthy of derision and scorn.

It's some BAD scriptwriting on her part.

Not that I wouldn't put it past Gore. He's human. He's a man. He's loaded. He's something of a rock star in many circles. And his wife is Tipper.

But he's certainly not an idiot. Neither was Spitzer, but he was using a high end service that guaranteed what he was looking for, not pawing at some massage therapist he didn't know.

The story is just dumb.

[Simulist]

Which is my way of saying, this seems a little contrived...

I agree, and that's what I am suggesting also.

[dbcooper41]

Anyway I'm still surprised that Spitzer USED A CREDIT CARD TO HIRE PROSTITUTES OVER THE INTERNET. Is it arrogance? Wanting to get caught? Speculating on motive, etc., etc., I imagine that this isn't an accident that the story broke.

i've always thought that spitzer had to get caught so he'd have a "respectable" excuse to resign.
otherwise he'd have had to explain what he was really doing all those years when he was pretending to hound the financial industry, and aig in particular.
as it worked out the financial scam roled on with nary a peep from him.
kinda like fbi expert john o'neil and his long investigation of bin laden. once he was "dead"(like ken lay), nobody asked what he had been doing all those years.

[pepsified thinker]

Spitzer using a credit card may have been part of a set-up--maybe he was given assurances or some crap. Or maybe he, like a lot of other guys (stop for a minute and think--how many everyday guys [or gals] do you personally know who have done really stupid stuff as part of having an affair?) when it came to sex and getting some, his I.Q. dropped by a significant fraction.

I think it's the norm--not to say it's okay, but it seems pretty common--for people to cave to lust/desire when tempted, and people with wealth/power get hit on.

But--obviously--that's a weakness that will be exploited, and even if someone resisted temptation, by the time a well-orchestrated PR blitz is done with them, the believability of such charges will probably convince a lot of people even if the evidence is 'thin'.

I'm guessing this is a smear/phoney claim, as any legitimate claim would have been used against him before now--he's been a hated/targeted figure for right-wingers for quite a while.

That, along with the 'stained pants' that plays on the whole Monica Lewinski thing and thus paints him as a compromised Dem like Clinton (who Gore supposedly was furious with, over the whole Lewinski fiasco because it harmed Clinton AND hurt Gore's campaign in 2000). It's a little too convenient.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Psyops timing.

Sunday, June 27 was the annual Gay Pride parade in San Francisco.
The CIA-media exploits this every year to stir up the homophobe reich-wing with agit-prop to reinforce the meme that liberal-Dem-progressive = perverted sex criminal.

So the CIA-run tabloids have Al Gore's 'Monicagate' allegations on a cover next to another with accused-paedophile Michael Jackson on its cover.

And this weekend there was a Michael Jackson special on cable tv, too.

Formula:
Dem sex scandal
+
Black sex scandal
= Evil Obama!

[Nordic]

Maybe in Spitzer's case, he had to use a credit card to reserve the time slot. And the other "slot".

Maybe renting one of those super high priced hookers is like renting a car. Or a hotel room. Gotta reserve in advance and have plastic.

Maybe one day I'll find out. HA.

[pepsified thinker]

Maybe one day I'll find out. HA.

Story of my life--along with, 'Guess I gotta/oughtta start buying lottery tickets'

[nathan28]

Maybe in Spitzer's case, he had to use a credit card to reserve the time slot. And the other "slot".

Maybe renting one of those super high priced hookers is like renting a car. Or a hotel room. Gotta reserve in advance and have plastic.

Maybe one day I'll find out. HA.

I can't find the articles, but there was a sociologist who looked into this. At $2000/session Spitzer was paying less than he probably should have. ~$600/hour is a going rate, at least was, for some cities, for more accessible prostitutes who weren't walking the streets--and courtesy of the Craigslist, connections to high-end business support like car services, etc., many of them don't. A few thousand dollars is still kind of low-end for that type of thing. Someone of Spitzer's rank should have been hiring a prostitute who charged closer to five figures and his privacy would have been more intact--IIRC most of them work only by word of mouth referrals, usually only have a handful of clients, and usually only have sex with those clients once a month, typically working for three sessions per client per month. IIRC they typically take wire transfers but I could be making that up.

IOW, if Gore shelled out $100-200 for massage therapy and expected to get something else out of it, he'd severely "misunderestimated" the supply-demand curve.