I think that the Chinese government is an example of institutional atheism gone bad: persecuting Christians, Tibetans, and generally anyone who doesn't fit its idea of how a person ought to live or behave.

That's more about power than atheism. In these cases the religions are helping a group of people stand up to power and they are being squashed. It's completely wrong.

In Brazil there have been nuns and priests murdered in a country where Catholicism is not persecuted...but standing up for Indian rights against monied interests, that's a different story.

If we lived in a theocracy (you pick the denomination) you would quickly see how tolerant the controlling faction would be of atheists or any others that were different and challenged the status quo.

I get what you are saying, but...

If you have $1,000 dollars to pay for her, chances are you outrank her in power and priviledge in every way.

I work in Newport Beach, CA. Trust me, there are sharks of both sexes operating there that are looking for any way they can to get money from the people that have a ton of it. They sell investment opportunities, fractional ownership in planes, sex, you name it. I'm good at spotting them, they're ususally the best dressed, the best groomed and drive the nicest cars.

They may not have the money that they people they are targeting do, but by no means should you assume that they are all victims of the old rich guy sitting at the bar minding his own business.

I don't feel sorry for the chump old guy, when 3 twenty something beautiful girls are all fawning over him and he thinks it's his charm. But I'm not worried about the delicate little girls in this case either and how they might be seen as objects and not be valued for their true potential.

The reason prostitution is illegal is because there are thousands of innocent woman kidnapped, brought across country lines across the world, and exploited.

And that would still be illegal, all sorts of laws are broken in the process. Kidnapping and rape would still be crimes.

Over at CBSMarketwatch, Herb Greenberg (a favorite of mine) has an article about Langone's odd comments about Spitzer and what he knew.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2008/03/what-role-did-langone-play-in-spitzers-fall/

Here's a quote:

CNBC: Would you say that you were surprised by this news?

LANGONE: Not at all. I had no doubt about his lack of character and integrity. It would only be a matter of time, I didn’t think he would do it this soon or the way he did it. But I know for sure he went himself to a post office and bought $2,800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker.

Langone's spokesman is now saying it was second hand, blah, blah, but it is kind of weird for Langone to be so vocal about knowing all about Spitzer's behavoir.

For those atheists who, in their ideal world, would not allow believers to practice their religion, can you not see that you are as objectionable as those who would persecute you for your beliefs (or lack thereof)?

Who are these atheists? And what religious beliefs wouldn't I want practiced by you, because I daresay you would agree with me as long as I was only biased against "others"...like fundamentalists that want to practice genital mutilation on their young daughters in the name of religion, are you good with that? Like fundamentalist Mormons that marry off 13 year old girls to 70 year old men, and then trade the wives a few years later? Do I have to respect that? Do you?

My Christian mother (a nice woman, kind, caring, good neighbor) believes that because of her faith, homosexuality is evil. To me, no big deal, she doesn't need to be gay. But she sees an openly gay couple as an open assault on her faith, so do most of her friends.

Most of the religious people I know are fairly tolerant, same with the atheists.

I don't buy into the BS that there is some sort of war against religion being waged by fundie atheists.

Many abuse victims made bad choices. It saddens me, but when they are adults, it is still their choice and there are (and should be) consequences.

Yeah, I don't want to be a prostitute, a stripper, a porn star, or even a lingerie model. It doesn't mesh with what my values are, or my age =( But then again, except for the prostitutes, the other women have some recourse if things go wrong. You can't beat up a stripper and trust that she can't call the police. If a strip joint owner confiscates all the strippers money, she can go after him, a pimp, not so much. A prostitute has little to no protection BECAUSE of the illegality.

If you look at many (if not most) rapists, murderers, pimps, molesters, you frequently see a almost desperate need for power. Why? Because they mostly come from hellish backgrounds themsleves. It's not an excuse.

I just remembered I met a middle aged woman who was giving a relationship workshop my husband and I took years ago. (Friends talked us into it, eek, it involved angels and all sorts of touchy feely things, sing alongs, still have no clue what our friends were thinking)

One of the leaders was kind, funny, compassionate, very overweight, in her 40's. I eventually found out she was sometimes a sexual surrogate for couples that had very difficult problems in their sex lives that needed to be worked out.

She saw what she did as an act of kindness but in many places (and by many people) she would be considered a prostitute.

I cringe thinking of someone like her being put through the wringer of public judgement, let alone arrested.