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THE HOME OF Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki has been destroyed in a wildfire in California.
Nicole Perna, a spokeswoman for the 42-year-old actor, says his home on a ranch in the San Luis Obispo area was destroyed by the wildfire on the state’s central coast.
By last night, a 6.5 square kilometre wildfire in the region was 60% contained.
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About 250 residents were ordered from their homes in the area of Santa Margarita after the blaze erupted on Monday, but yesterday night they were told they could return home.
Galecki plays Dr Leonard Hofstadter on the show, one of the most popular on US TV. He also was a regular on the sitcom Roseanne.
Meanwhile, a wildfire burning today through a dense Arizona forest has forced hundreds of people from their homes, closed a major road and created a huge plume of smoke over the same area devastated by a blaze that killed 19 firefighters four years ago.
The fire near the small city of Prescott, fanned by 56 kph winds, has charred more than 73 square kilometres. More than 500 firefighters were battling the blaze.
Fire raging in Arizona Les Stukenberg / The Daily Courier via AP
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Elsewhere across the western US, Utah firefighters braced today for more high winds as they try to slow a stubborn wildfire that has burned 13 homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 people from a ski resort town.
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It’s it amazing that in a an advanced culture that something so fundamental to the Human condition , the desire to have sex still ,it’s still seen as taboo and “dirty”. If there were a cultural shift whereby we could leave our “learned” sense of shame behind, it would all become rather perfunctory and wouldn’t be associated with red light districts and poor vulnerable women that are made to feel like they are the dregs of Humanity. This should be service like going to the dentist run by women, who protect their and treat their employees with dignity. The real irony is that the Bacik’s et al of the world and their disdain for the act of paying for sex and the women involved that creates the idea that this should be hidden away and frowned upon, therefore feeding very nicely into the realm of the male dominated criminal underworld who prey on vulnerable women
Tom is right – there is massive exploitation of women working in prostitution in Netherlands… Tom is wrong in thinking that’s all that matters. There’s massive exploitation in Ireland too. The argument however, is that we have no idea how bad it is in Ireland and doing nothing is a lazy cruelty. No one says that Netherlands has a perfect solution, because there is none, but that doesn’t mean the Dutch approach doesn’t solve problems too, without solving all of them.
Currenty most people think its illegal and it doesnt stop people. The goverment should take control of it to protect the women that work as a sex worker
This is the problem I have with people paying for sex, they wouldn’t want their daughters or wives or mothers doing it, yet it’s okay for them to buy sex from other people’s daughters, etc. I don’t think there is anything morally wrong with selling your body for sex if it is your choice and you’re not forced in to it. But it is morally wrong to buy sex from a woman if you are against any woman in your own life selling themselves. I would hate to see any child of mine end up in the army, but then I don’t support the army and never will. If a man would hate to see his own daughter sell sex, then they shouldn’t support prostitution.
Daughters, wives or mothers doing it. I think if you did want any of the above to be prostitutes I think you would have many more problems than this comment section could cope with. Thanks anyway Tara for your outrage
Prostitution shouldn’t be legal, why because it undermines human dignity. You wouldn’t want anyone from your family doing this to support a lifestyle, it’s not an example of a good family culture…
@Tara. That’s an illogical analogy. Just because you don’t want your daughter selling HER body doesn’t mean that the right of another woman to sell HER own body for a price she sees fit should be impinged. It’s about adults making choices to engage in an activity in a private place that affects no one else. The state has no business interfering in this particular free market except to regulate it, tax it and keep criminal exploitation out of it.
Nah as she would be a woman, I would make all her decisions. And my son could be a prostitute if he wanted, fair play to him for getting loads of action
There is a vast gulf of difference between decriminalisation and 6 months in jail for people THEN declared “victims” in dire need of support from the very people who campaigned tirelessly to PUT them in jail. Ruhama refuse to answer questions on this.
I heard Benson on radio Thursday offering “help and support” to anyone who is or was a sex worker. To go to Ruhama for support would be like running back to a domestic abuser for safety.
I knew Ruhama would do this even in 1994 when wide eyed Nuns were swearing on their faith Ruhama would never support criminalisation. I was told I was paranoid…was I?
No. It’s morally reprehensible to criminalise those who seek sex. I have an immediate family member who hasn’t been in a relationship since he was 19. He has a severe mental illness. He doesn’t use prostitutes, but if he decided to as he’s now 45, the thoughts of Ivana Bacik wanting him charged and prosecuted for having a sex life makes me physically sick.
Bacik wants only the buyer criminalised and not the seller. That’s exactly the same as criminalising only the buyer of drugs and letting the dealer walk away. it’s sick and repugnant. And remember, sex addiction is a bona fide addiction too.
It also opens up the door to blackmail on a massive scale and we’ve already seen numerous cases of that this year.
Bacik is a do gooder who wants leniency shown to thugs, junkies,typical criminals yet wants to throw the book at people such as that referenced by Free Speech, time she went along with the rest of the Senate
Driving women into the black market is not the way to go, legalisation and regulation would create a transparent and safe industry. Nobody needs to be afraid to call the Gardai if something goes wrong.
Absolutely. It is not for the state to interfere with a transaction between two consenting adults. Regulate and tax it. Use the tax to implement further measures to protect the workers.
Surely a regulated and safe environment where services are run by women are preferable to blanket ban that criminalize everyone involved. This is ultimately the sale and purchase of a service. Like the war on drugs the “laws” appears to what drives things underground and into the hand of unscrupulous criminals . Unfortunately there are a lot of feminist that for all their bluster actually hate the choices some other women make because it conflicts with their world view
While that’s true, I think the biggest factor here is their loathing of male sexuality. Anything from which they think men derive sexual gratification must be stamped out; prostitution, porn, lads mags, page 3, sex-robots, fleshlights, even video game characters in tight clothes.
Overriding the choices of women who also enjoy or who make a living from these things is no big deal.
True if a person doesn’t have issue with selling their body for sex I don’t see what the problem is. Legalise and regulate it to counter trafficking (ie slavery) as you would in any normal business practice
Legalised Brothels where everything is above board ; run professionly it can ensure the women or men are safe and not being used against their will : regular health checks can be done for the benefit of both parties : revenue can get involved ; might aswell make a few bob out of it than spending money on resources trying to stop it : if u can’t beat them join them
Jason it’s not that simple. If sex workers are in a group they can be charged with pimping themselves. But if they work indoors they can be charged with brothel keeping.
Trust Francis Fitz to bow to the slightest pressure from the hysterical “progressive” Twitter mob. Shocking that this woman is being considered as a future Taoiseach when she has been so short sighted on this and the migrant issue.
Under the planned legislation, the person who seeks to pay for sex will be committing a criminal offense but the person who is actually seeking payment for sex will not be. That’s completely illogical and is the equivalent of charging a person who buys drugs but legally allowing the activity of the drug dealer to continue.
It is currently illegal to buy or sell sex on the street, or operate a brothel. So technically it is currently illegal, However one person selling sex from a private residence is not illegal.
FreeSpeech.
“And you think those who sell sex should be prosecuted?
Is that a statement or a question?
Please don’t put words in my mouth.
Prostitution in Ireland is a crime. Fact.
Whether you or I think that is right is a different matter. All I said was if it is a crime which it is, I believe those who pay for sex should also be prosecuted.
Slow down in responding and please read what I actually wrote.
Honestly if someone wants to use their body to provide a service in receipt of money and someone else wants to pay for that service I don’t see an issue as long as it’s all consensual.
Absolutely Not….would be an extremely regressive dumb thing to do. Protects nobody but rabid feminazis and the main people to suffer would be people who work in this line of work. Legalise and regulate it and collect taxes to give workers health insurance and a pension. People have SEX and doing an ostrich is not going to make it go away except puch it further into the hand of criminals
John I’ve been meaning to explore that side my personality more deeply!…. Traditionally marriage has been a food ticket in exchange for sex because the church and lately the state need to control this area to keep a grip on power.Prostitution was tolerated on the fringes as a safety valve but obviously as a rival to marriage it won’t be allowed to grow too much.
No. Moat of the prohibitionists are either religious eg Ruhama whose trustees are the nuns, or older sex prostitutes who think their bad experiences are reflective of every sex worker. In the internet age sex workers are often sole traders and less vulnerable to pimps.
Has anybody asked the people working as prostitutes what they’d like to see happen?
Or is it our catholic duty to rescue them from sin with or without their consent?
It’s not like 2 people having sex in a hotel room somewhere is harming anyone else, once it consensual because they are getting paid or whatever regulate and just make sure the prostitutes are treated properly
We are always hounding someone over their sex lives, first it was single mothers, then it was gay men, now it’s men who pay for sex.
It seems Ireland will always be a dictatorially prudish country.
Everything is not black and white. It is just soundbites to say that this is right. Just sounds moral but what about the girls or men I am sure most of them are not selling sex because they want to. Will the vulnerable girls be in even more danger? Society should protect the weak. The sex industry I would guess is around since the beginning of time. It is not nice but it is ever present. For me it is a matter of protecting the vulnerable and not false morality. Stop the trafficking and modern day slavery and give me less moral judgements.
Have you held a readers’ poll on (a) the saying of prayers before a Dail sitting begins;
(b) the Angelus bell on RTE; (c) special toilet facilities in schools for transgender students;
(d) salaries for chaplains in the defence forces; (e) the wearing of green rather than orange jerseys by members of Ireland’s rugby team.
We should have heated debates about these and other vital issues while 157 elected TDs are racking their brains trying to form a new government.
To put this bluntly, criminalization has failed, as it has brought the industry underground, full legalization has done very much the same, albeit it to a lesser extent, in Holland, Germany. E.t.c, partial criminalization , I.e the Scandinavian model has failed, as it has also brought the industry underground, away from safeguards, the only model that has succeeded in stopping the spread of the industry is the decriminalization model of New Zealand , where it is accompanied along with widespread support services for Sex workers,
Mindfulirish, but isn’t this precisely the point? That the decisions that a woman makes, for better or worse, are hers to make and should not be predicated on the views or opinions of her father, brothers and uncles? Of course the woman may take such views into account. Most of us, when making decisions which may impact on significant others, try to take their views into account. But if a woman chooses to sell sex why should the buyer be prosecuted? If the act of selling is a criminal offence then should not the payment made for sex be regarded as the proceeds of crime and be prosecuted. Your attitude is paternalistic in the extreme.
What this debate really shows is that when push comes to shove there is little difference between certain aspects of patriarchy and feminism. Both seek to control in accordance with their own values and when the behaviour of women or men is not in accordance with those values they are punished. So modern feminism disapproves of prostitution. It punishes and shames the man. Patriarchy disapproves of prostitution it punishes and shames the woman. We need to grow up. Vulnerable women need to be protected but prostitution is not about trafficking which involves kidnapping and enslavement.
A woman or man should be able to make a free choice to sell sex and a woman or man should be able to make a free choice to buy it. But we can’t have that of course because it does not accord with our values. Women are pure and childlike and are always victims. Men are predatory and always the perpetrator. It’s ironic to see feminists propagating these views as a form of social control and social engineering.
Mindfulirish, you know that there are gigolos as well?
Some women in night clubs will prostitute themselves for a night full of free booze, what is the difference there?
Prositution is going to continue regardless of whether it’s legal or not, just as it always has. Legalise it officially so that it can be monitored and made that but safer for everyone involved. Hell then the government can tax it and make money for themselves! It’s a win-win!
how about we make corruption, banking fraud, tax evasion illegal and punishable with serious prison time and fines. there so many other things that are legal but morally very wrong because they effect everybody on this island, lets tackle them eh
Porn is basically prostitution by proxy. If you’ve ever watched porn you’ve engaged the services of sex workers. Now find me one person in the western world in this day and age that says they’ve never watched and I will show you a liar.
New Zealand, probably the most evangelical and overly religious country in the “western world” have it legalized don’t see why our country flip flops on the issue so much
No to driving another reality for people into a black market situation. France is very conservative for a European country r.e. drugs, sex work and they’re not the book to take a leaf out on this. I think sex workers know better than do the politicians and many others.
Criminalise the purchase of sex, not the seller of sex. That way trafficking & exploitation can be tackled without putting the prostitutes into the criminal system, while targeting those who would happily pay to have sex with a trafficked person. Simples.
The majority of adults (mainly women) involved in been prostitutes are not freely consenting women. Many are either exploited or trafficked, the majority have addiction issues which again are exploited. More again are kept under financial pressure by pimps. Not all adults, but the majority. The utopia of freely consenting adults etc is not what the reality is on the streets.
The evidence is, that people like to think women are vulnerable fragile creatures, therefore any distasteful or unappealing behaviour by women is not their fault and the result clearly of some sort of force or exploitation as women are the gate keepers of morality ….. This viewpoint allows the likes of the throwaway to make comments like that and convince themselves of the truth… It is also the same reasons females enjoy preferential treatment in the court system etc so it can be useful for them too
An appropriate name ‘throwaway.’ Virtually everything in your post is wrong.
The PSNI stated in 2014 that the majority of sex workers are ”there by choice.” Do you somehow know better?
You show your ignorance of the subject by talking about ”the reality on the streets.” I don’t have figures for street workers in the South, but the PSNI state there are less than 20 in all of NI. Most sex work takes place indoors, most do not have a pimp and only a small minority have a drug addiction.
I would invite you to contradict any of the above.
The US criminalised sex buyers more than a century ago. As with the ‘war on drugs’, it has been a spectacular failure. Sweden did so in 1999. They have been unable to show any evidence that the number of buyers and sellers has reduced, while human trafficking has actually increased. What the law has done is make life much more difficult for sex workers by targeting where they work (homes are put under surveillance by police, landlords are informed resulting in evictions, hotel staff are trained to spot sex workers and brothels and street soliciting remain illegal).
Contrary to the likes of Bacik, Moran and Benson, the proposed law will NOT decriminalise sex workers in ANY way. Working together for safety, soliciting and advertising will remain illegal. The rights, views and wishes of local sex workers are being very deliberately ignored.
In Mediaeval times prostitution was often under the control of the Roman Catholic Church. Tariffs were paid to the Vatican and records were kept. If prostitution were once again under Roman Catholic Church Control could we expect Francis to canonise some of the ‘labourers’ in the future for performing miracles? May we some day have a church dedicated to say ‘St Cecilia the Prostitute’? It would serve to placate the financial greed of the Church and also, possibly, the vocations shortage, if apprentice priests could be issued with vouchers for reduced rates or freebies. Then they could pretend to ‘love one another’ and even enjoy the process.
It already is an offence in Ireland – section 7 of criminal law sexual offences act 1993 – soliciting someone for Sex in public place. All needs to be amended is public place & brothels can be targeted as well.
I see the prostitutes are still stealing the red lights from the rail workers who use to work at night on the tracks lol.
Without brothels in Southern U.S. then Jazz wouldn’t have become popular and Louis Armstrong wouldn’t have become famous???
Zika virus can be spread by sex and I believe many prostitutes here now are from South America? I believe in free will but no harm pointing out the risks???
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