"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

Thanks to all of you who posted public comments, and to those who took the time to contact me personally. In a nutshell, I feel that this blog has run its course, for a variety of reasons both personal and practical. It was never my intention to disappear from the naturist world, but to make contributions in different ways.

But due to the many words of encouragement, which have been quite overwhelming and 100% positive, I have decided to remain online by making a fresh start. On The Political Naturist, I will continue to voice my opinion on matters relating to social nudism and naturism.

People seem to have mixed opinions about photos. I think that images of nudism and naturism are important in helping to show people how natural and fun the lifestyle will be, so I have created two new blogs. Adam and Eve will be a collection of photos of nudist couples, and Nudist Photo of the Day is self-explanatory.

The Naturism Blog is conceived as a central source for all nudist and naturist blogs, and will certainly evolve over time.

So again, many thanks to all for the tremendous support, any blogging effort is pointless without an enthusiastic audience.

T-t-that's All Folks!

For personal reasons which are of no interest to anybody but me, I am calling it quits on this blog after nearly four years. I hope that what I've written here has been useful to some people. The blog will remain online indefinitely but will no longer be updated. Thanks to all who stopped by and spent a little time here.

What Not to Wear

"What Not to Wear" is a 10 minute audio broadcast about a real woman named Tracy who decided to accompany her husband on a nude vacation. Listen here. Thanks to Paul Rapoport of FCN, who assures me this is indeed a true story.

Topless Coffee Shop in Maine Destroyed by Fire

Just after Donald Crabtree appeared in front of the Vassalboro Planning Board asking for a dancing permit for his topless coffee shop, his establishment was destroyed by fire. The fire marshal's office is investigating, and I will be surprised if this was an accident. More home grown terrorism?

UPDATE: It was arson.

The Weekend Newds 5/29/09

• According to Canadian journalist Sharlene Asam, the Internet has "sped up teens' sexual willingness and behavior."
• 7 out of 10 Spanish men say they have no problems getting naked.
• Facebook has reinstated graphic photos of a woman's mastectomy scars after initially calling the images "sexual and abusive."

  'I put these pictures out on Facebook to put a message out to women - check your breasts regularly and do not ever be ashamed of a mastectomy,' said Miss (Sharon) Adams, 45, yesterday. 'For Facebook to claim they were sexual and abusive was absurd. Facebook has online groups about sexual positions and some groups which are bordering on racist - but they ban this.'

• Schools across the country are imposing bans or restrictions on hugs due to fear of lawsuits over sexual harassment or improper touching.
• The rampant retouching of photographs in magazines which turns ordinary humans into something unknown in the natural world is causing a backlash.

  It now seems fresh, even exclamation-worthy, when a magazine presents an unvarnished image. Last month, for example, an issue of Life & Style took the unusual step of declaring that a cover photograph of Kim Kardashian was “100 percent unretouched,” as if it had done a great service to the cause of pseudo-celebrity journalism. And People, in its “100 Most Beautiful” issue this month, included images of 11 celebrities “wearing nothing but moisturizer.”

• A UK cable station is producing a "documentary" which "follows a Newcastle-based business building up to 'Naked Friday', a day when all of its workers will come to work nude."
• Noting that "there's never a bad reason for celebrating the human body", Las Vegas City Life explores all the opportunities for non-sexual clothes-free activities in the Nevada/Arizona area.
• Unbelievably, prison officials, prosecutors, judges and attorneys in Texas are gearing up for a big investigation over a photograph of a woman exposing her breast which was sent to convicted killer Robert Fratta.

  “It’s a class C misdemeanor to distribute obscene material to someone in a correctional facility,” District Attorney spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said. “Any violation of the law will be investigated, although no charges are likely to be filed before the conclusion of the trial.”

• A Malaysian editorial calls for a heavy penalty for "unhealthy activities" after a Danish production company taped a reality series on one of the islands off Johor where some participants were nude. Apparently an apology and the firing of the director were insufficient.
• Some Australian men streaked through Sydney wearing special "nude suits" to promote a cell phone company.
• Public interest law professor John Banzhaf has weighed in on the teen sexting issue.

  Anti-child-pornography laws were designed to protect children, including teens, from coercion and other forms of exploitations by adults, and adults involved in or encouraging sexting by teens may reasonable be punished, just as they would be if they participated or encouraged teens to play strip poker, says Banzhaf. But when a teen voluntarily sends racy pictures of herself to an equally-willing teen of about the same age, the basis for prosecution - coercion, exploitation, or other wrongful conduct by an adult - is no longer present, so punishing participating teens for exhibiting themselves to others in emails may be no more justified that punishing them for exhibiting themselves to each other when skinny dipping or playing strip poker in private among only other consenting teens.

• More news here on the "naturist walk" in Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada. Details are still sketchy, apparently FCN had nothing to do with it.
• Topless coffee shop owner Donald Crabtree says that the female employee accused of being outside the establishment with no top on actually had her breasts covered with her hands and arms. Charges are unlikely to be filed, but the Vassalboro town meeting on June 8 should be interesting, since a nudity ordinance will be considered.
• The Vassalboro coffee shop is cited as a reason for another town in Maine to enact preventative ordinances against adult businesses. Waterville planning board member Erik Thomas said "To me, it's better to be proactive about these things."
• The UK Advertising Standards Authority has approved the image of a bare-breasted woman in a brochure, saying, "we concluded the images were not so provocative as to present a risk to teenagers or be unsuitable for the target audience."
• Officials in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, are planning to auction off the site of the former Sunshine Park nudist resort because revenues are down. Residents would rather see the land cleaned up and left au naturel.
• You've heard of "Banned in Boston", but how about "Censored in Chicago"?

NAC UPDATE American River, Auburn State Recreation Area, California

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NATURIST ACTION COMMITTEE
UPDATE
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http://www.naturistaction.org
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Copyright 2009 by the Naturist Action Committee, which is responsible for its content. Permission is granted for the posting, forwarding or redistribution of this message, provided that it is reproduced in its entirety and without alteration.

DATE: May 26, 2009
SUBJECT: CA: American River updated e-address
TO: Naturists and other concerned citizens

Dear Naturist,

This is an Update from the Naturist Action Committee (NAC) concerning an opportunity at Auburn State Recreation Area (SRA) in California.

NAC recently asked for your help in thanking a couple of State Park superintendents for their steady responses in the wake of a local city council resolution. City council members in Auburn, California, had requested that citations be issued to those who are merely nude along portions of the American River in the Auburn SRA, where clothing-optional use is traditional.

California Parks personnel have reaffirmed the existing protocol for managing clothing-optional recreation at Auburn SRA. That protocol does not include the issuance of a citation for simple nudity in the absence of a specific complaint.

Naturists have an opportunity to say, "Thank You," and NAC has asked for your immediate action in the form of your letters and e-mails of encouragement and appreciation to key California Parks personnel. The NAC Action Alert asking for your help was distributed on May 21, 2009.

Here’s a convenient link to the NAC Action Alert:
http://tinyurl.com/q5l22c

UPDATE

Your response to NAC’s Action Alert has been gratifying and effective. NAC appreciates you!

We’ve learned that e-mail sent to one of the e-addresses has bounced, so we’re printing a corrected contact list. We’ve also taken the opportunity to update a recently changed ZIP code.

The corrected e-mail address is the one for Acting Sector Superintendent Mike Lynch. The revised ZIP code is for the CA Parks office in Sacramento.

WHOM TO CONTACT (corrected)

It’s not too late to write and say "Thank You."

You may send letters of appreciation that are written on paper or e-mailed. We want tangible evidence of our participation, so NAC is not asking for phone calls in this instance. Please write to both of the following key individuals.

Scott Nakaji
Gold Fields District Superintendent
California State Parks
7806 Folsom Auburn Road
Folsom, CA 95630
snakaji@parks.ca.gov

Mike Lynch
Auburn Acting Sector Superintendent
California State Parks
501 El Dorado
Auburn, CA 95604
mjlynch@parks.ca.gov

Please send a copy of your correspondence to:

Ruth Coleman
Director
Dept. of Parks and Recreation
1416 Ninth Street,
Sacramento, CA 95814
director@parks.ca.gov

NAC would enjoy the opportunity to read your thank you notes. Please send a copy to:

NAC
P.O. Box 132
Oshkosh, WI 54903
auburn@naturistaction.org


MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

Additional information and links are available, along with this NAC Update on the Web site of the Naturist Action Committee.

www.naturistaction.org

Select "Alerts" and find this NAC Update under Current Updates.

There you will find the complete text of the Auburn City Council's resolution, as well as NAC's response to the City.

Naturally,

Bob Morton
Executive Director
Naturist Action Committee

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Naturist Action Committee (NAC) - PO Box 132, Oshkosh, WI 54903
Executive Dir. Bob Morton - execdir@naturistaction.org
Board Member Allen Baylis - rab@baylislaw.com
Online Rep. Dennis Kirkpatrick - naturist@sunclad.com
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The Daily Newds 5/26/09

• Has Illinois gone too far in an attempt to clamp down on sexting?

  The ACLU and other organizations are going to have a field day with this legislation. The application to all is heavy on fail, but the biggest fail is this continued push to criminalize children. If we concede that sexting is a problem (and many would argue that it’s a media beet up and not a serious problem) how is turning teenagers into criminals and sending them to jail going to solve the problem? Vermont understands that the big stick approach shouldn’t be applied, it’s just a shame that most other US States don’t yet.

• Actress Moon Bloodgood doesn't understand why her brief topless scene was cut from "Terminator Salvation."

  "I just didn't feel as a woman that I should be apologetic about my sexuality," she said in an interview. "I thought the scene was appropriate. I thought it was beautiful. I have a very European feel about nudity. I just don't, as a woman, feel that I ever have to confine myself and be a certain way when sexuality is a part of me ... Why do we make such a big deal about it?"

• Noted nudist Cheri Alexander is waging a public relations war against Carolina Foothills Resort. She has posted here and here that she is no longer recommending the venue, but will explain why only to people she knows who contact her through email.
• Anne Hart reports that clothing-optional restaurants are booming.
• A North Carolina school psychologist is alleged to have taken inappropriate photos of a nude male teenager, but in his defense claims to be a practicing nudist.

  But that didn't explain away the photographs, which investigators found were inappropriate and crossed a line that gave them probable cause for criminal charges, Abell said. "The photographs the officers saw initiated the charges and, in their opinion and the opinion of the assistant district attorney here in Carteret County, they felt there is something more to it than just a photograph of a nude child."

• 84% of respondents to this poll feel that the new strip-search technology at airports is not worth the civil right infringements it creates.
• The simple solution of adding signs has cooled off the "nude bathing war" between Germans and Poles in the Baltic Sea resort of Usedom.
• Once again, public nudity is acceptable when done in the name of charity.
• Once again, with the start of swimming season, textiles are stressed out over the horrors of putting on a bathing suit.

  It's no wonder that so many of us dread putting on a bikini; they reveal every imaginable flaw, leave nothing to the imagination and expose all of the insecurities that we have about our bodies. Every year around this time, the tabloid magazines run a "best and worst" beach body story, with pictures of emaciated actresses with ribs poking out labeled the "best," and women with patches of cellulite or fleshy hips the "worst." To add insult to injury, they take a petite and perfectly toned woman that most of us would kill to look like and add some commentary about how brave she is to bare her "curves."

• A private health clinic in Prague is offering free silicone-enhanced breasts to female employees who renew their contracts.

  “I would rather have plastic surgery than a free car,” said Ms. Kalivodova, who opted for cosmetic breast surgery that would normally cost €2,600, or about $3,500, as well as liposuction on her thighs and stomach. These were physical enhancements, she said, that she could not afford on her €1,000 a month salary. “I feel better when I look in the mirror,” she added. “We were always taught that if a nurse is nice, intelligent, loves her work and looks attractive, then patients will recover faster.

• An Ohio judge has ordered David Weber out of the nudist resort Paradise Gardens near Cincinnati.

  "He just decided one day he liked it and didn't want to leave, so he took the wheels off his RV and built a little porch around it," Paradise Gardens' attorney, Joseph Krause, said. "The problem with that is that is not how these campgrounds work. No one's allowed to live there year-round. That's Ohio law." In a hearing last week, Common Pleas Judge William Mallory ordered Weber to get out - and take his trailer with him - no later than the end of June.

• Wingnut commentator Debra J. Saunders calls the one million dollar wrongful death settlement in the case of Berkeley's Naked Guy a "jackpot for mom."
• "Naked Words - The Body Love Project" is verbal nudism, a series of 15 monologues by women who attempt to come to terms with their own physical appearances.
• "Dressed to Kill" is a book by doctors Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer, claiming that women who wear bras 24 hours per day have a 3 out of 4 chance of developing breast cancer.
• A man found nude in a woman's bathroom claims to be a "closet nudist."