David Weldon, one of the best friends I've made from publishing BNI, died two weeks ago of a heart attack. I can write about almost anything, but I don't know what to write about this. I'm still in a state of shock. I had no more enthusiastic reader of my own writing, and I always knew that as long as David was there, BNI had a perfect reader. This is what editors can only hope to find and reach.

I only wish there were something I could do to help David's wife, Hazel, who is mailing out the last issue of David's zine, Caress, as a memorial.

Dave was one of the sweetest people I knew, and others who knew him felt the same way. Adrienne Benedicks, was devastated when I wrote her of David's death, and emailed me back the following letter:

I knew David for perhaps a year and a half. Strange how attached I felt to his words—no body, no voice, I have no idea what he looked like or sounded like. I don't know what he smelled like, smiled like, nothing at all but words. And they are gone, I feel like I am grabbing for a memory that isn't really there at all.

David encouraged me to write reviews; he said get yourself involved in BNI. He pointed out what was right and what was wrong with the way I wrote, and why. And was doing his best to talk me into doing a few articles. I didn't send anything anywhere without sending it to David first. And the first time I did, and it was accepted, he was so proud of me; and it felt damn good. I learned a great deal from him.

Now I've had reviews in various magazines and edited a book, none of which would have happened without David's constant encouragement, and direction. I guess a little bit of David is in everything I write. He was and will always be an influence in my life.

I really enjoyed David's stories of his Amsterdam days, and the times he traveled and reported on the hot sex spots in various countries. And he loved to talk about those days. It's something I would have loved to do with him. We had lots of fun talking about what we would have done, seen, written about and taken pictures of.

He always said he wanted to go back just once more before he was too old; just simply to sit at one of Amsterdam's outdoor cafes and watch the world go by.

The last post I got from David was filled with encouragement for me, how well the e-book was going to do, and how to go about getting paper rights. I wanted him to edit the book with me once I got a mainstream publisher, but he didn't have the time to answer. I want to think we would have worked on it together.

Tammy Cole informs us of this latest, and most interesting episode of justice in Georgia:

Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta, GA recused himself from an obscenity case, citing his belief that prosecution of the defendant will "squander valuable judicial resources...with an unjust result."

In his order the judge concluded that the case should be reassigned because of his strong personal feeling "that it is fundamentally unfair to pursue...defendant...even if he is in violation of the statute, when hundreds of persons similarly situated are not prosecuted."

Says Judge Shoob, "It's just offensive to me to subject somebody to this sort of draconian penalty—that is a felony conviction—for ordering two pornographic [magazines and one tape]...it's a waste of time." So livid is Shoob that he may no longer be on speaking terms with the assistant U.S.attorney assigned to the case.

Judge Shoob first raised concerns about the government's case earlier when Kline appeared before him intending to change his plea from not guilty to guilty on three federal charges arising from his importing of adult pornography for his personal use. According to the transcript, Shoob questioned Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Toliver about why Kline had been "singled out" for prosecution, noting his observation that in similar cases the government had instituted only forfeiture proceedings against obscene materials.

"We've have gotten (sic.) four or five boxes of these over the last four or five years, and I took one box home," the judge noted later. "I saw the names of a lot of prominent people in the city, some lawyers' names, saw some doctors' names and I saw two or three names of people I knew."

"Because of the findings of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography," Toliver continued, the Department of Justice "indicated to the government and to the President that it would be appropriate to take a more aggressive stance with respect to prosecution of pornography."

Judge Shoob was not convinced. "I would certainly advise the jury that in my opinion it is ridiculous under these circumstances...to saddle this man with a felony conviction, and, if he is convicted, he is not going to jail anyway," the judge informed the lawyers. "I'm not going to saddle him with a felony conviction absent some other circumstances."

Judge Shoop said in his order, "The initiation of this action has puzzled the court from the outset. The federal judicial system, including the Department of Justice, is entrenched in the fight against the scourge created by drugs in this country and is overburdened with the increase in white collar crime... However in the same breath the Department warns that budget cuts may drastically affect the resources available to fight what are considered serious societal problems, it chooses to feverishly pursue prosecution in this case for importation of adult pornography... The government is dangerously close to the edge of a slippery slope that it created for itself... Over the past eleven years, this Court has viewed hundreds of articles of pornography, many more obscene, in order to authorize the forfeiture of the items... The government, based upon criteria known only to the prosecutor, chose to pursue this action while finding thousands of identical or even more disgusting violations did not warrant indictment. Such selectivity and arbitrariness indicate either an attempt to further the government's ‘win' record or a decision based on the prosecutor's personal predilections. In either case, valuable judicial resources are squandered with an unjust result."

Judge Shoob is a World War 2 veteran and as a private, he personally captured several German soldiers. When he brought them to his lieutenant for further action, the captured Germans were executed without benefit of trial. Since then Judge Shoob has taken a dim view of arbitrary judicial action on the part of individuals.

In the more civilized North, we are informed of the following, by Simone de Beaver:

The president of the State University of New York at New Paltz is under fire after a women's studies conference on sadomasochism, lesbianism and other sexual topics was held on the New Paltz campus earlier this month.

Gov. George Pataki, in a statement, said it was "outrageous: that state money was spent on the conference, which included sessions like "Safe Toys for Women" and "Safe, Sane and Consensual S&M: An Alternate Way of Loving."

"This has nothing to do with freedom of speech and everything to do with the proper expenditure of tax dollars," the governor said.

Will Miracles Never Cease?

I was watching John Leslie's Voyeur #9, and just as Silvia Saint was starting to get it on with Sean Michaels, what should appear on my screen but the Green Bay Packers/Detroit Lions game from Pontiac! I knew that at any moment on regular television, porn could break into a football game, but who'd a thunk?

Now while it was good to see the Packers being fed to the Lions, still, if only the Virgin Mary had shown up instead, to keep Ms. Saint from doing anal...

L

Richard Freeman's Batteries Not Included
Issue Volume IV Issue 12 (December 1997)