Spitzer was Attorney General for New York. He was charged with upholding the law. As governor people expect him to set an example and be a representative of the values of their state, etc.

So you would say the same about any illegal behavior -- if he smoked pot once at a party, gambled once in a private poker game, committed adultery in a state where that's illegal.

"Hey, it's a crime, and so it's a big, big story." That's your mindset? No need to think about the seriousness of the crime, whether there are victims -- just "illegal = big story!!!"

You really question whether there is something wrong with him breaking the law and paying strangers to stimulate his pud?

There is literally nothing I care less about in the world than how Eliot Spitzer "stimulates his pud," and unless your his wife, I find it morally twisted that that's of concern to you.

Go ahead and throw your hat in with organized crime all you like, but I think a governor caught using prostitutes is a big, big story.

I think some people been watching a few too many gangster movies, or local newscasts or something.

Most of these "escort agencies" are tiny one-person businesses run by an individual from their home, with a website. They have a few women on their sites. People call and book them, they call the women, the meeting occurs. It isn't complicated.

The idea that these women -- $1,000-$3,000/hour -- are some sort of exploited quasi-slaves is laughable and absurd. Have you ever talked to any? Read any literature about the prostitution business? You really have such a low opinion of adult women who choose this as their career that in your imagination, they are deprived of agency and choice?

L.W.M. - While you are busy with your "aversion to telling people what to do with their own lives, bodies and time" perhaps you could refrain from apologizing for MY "insensitive and crude remarks."

Do you people even listen to yourselves?

By the way, out of curiosity, what part of my comments did you think were crude? Was it the part where I repeated Mizmoon's phrase about "sucking dick?"

Do YOU really think you can differentiate yourself from those on the moral highground (aka Righties)?

Glenn Greenwald: "The adult women in question choose to be there. They don't have to be. In this case, they make hundreds of dollars an hour or more. They don't think they're being "exploited.""

You know way, way too much about what prostitutes think.

Do you have a scotoma? Have you done any research into the way many prostitution rings work? Do you know anything about the psychological and other pressures for women who do that kind of work?

And isn't it just as important that, whatever your moral argument, prostitution is currently illegal, and as an elected representative of one of the biggest states of the country, it's just plain stupid to engage in that kind of high-risk illegal activity?

How does making prostitution illegal reduce the exploitation and abuse of prostitutes?

So I fault Eliot Spitzer for his misogyny. His willingness to use another human being in this selfish way.

Let's ask the women in question who is more misogynistic -- (a) their clients who patronize their voluntarily offered services and provide them with their livelihood, or (b) you, who want to deprive them of the right to live their lives how they see fit and deny them the right to earn a living.

I don't think they'll have to think long before answering. Why are so many people so eager to deny other adults the right to decide for themselves how to live their lives? Where does that controlling desire come from?

I did what was needed to support my family, if it was being a sex worker, that's what I would do too..

This is the reality of life for far too many people. And that's the saddest reality of all.

The question is whether we are going to have a standard where any elected official must resign whenever it's discovered that they have broken the law -- whether it's when they smoked pot with friends once, or gambled in a private poker game, or committed adultery in those states that criminalize infidelity.

Yes - if an elected official has broken the law while in office, or is in office while the statute of limitations has not yet expired and is found out, then he/she ought to resign.

Another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

I hope I got your name right, I'm going from memory.

That you would downplay the nastiness of many manual labor jobs tells me that you have never done manual labor yourself.

There are a lot of jobs out there that are truly dangerous in both an immediate and a long term sense.. I've seen guys (and yes it's usually men) killed in front of me three times now in my working career. An explosion of oxyacetylene mixture, a fall and an electrocution/fall/heart attack combination.

There is that series on Alaskan crab fishermen on one of the cable channels.. They drop a crab basket over the side, if your leg happens to be in a coil of the rope, it pulls you over the side and down to the bottom.. You don't have a chance to drown, your head implodes from the pressure first.

I have a cousin who became allergic to latex as a nurse and now is allergic to so many things she is in constant itching, burning agony with open sores that never heal.

Try welding on galvanized iron without proper ventilation.. Zinc poisoning feels like a bad case of the flu with some other added symptoms and it lasts for weeks and the aftermath is lifelong further sensitization to other contaminants.

Arc burn your eyeballs from being around welding without proper safety equipment..Little blisters on your cornea, feels like your eyes are full of sand, takes weeks to heal and greatly increases your chances of cataracts later in life.

You know not whereof you speak and it is painfully obvious to anyone who does.