Glenn Greenwald: "And that's much worse, since you're the one who wants to imprison them, their clients and their employers. I'd say the burden is on you to know how they think and what their lives are like before running around demanding that they be turned into criminals for the work they choose to do."

What? Where did I say anything about wanting to imprison prostitutes etc.? I didn't say anything about what I think the punishment should be. I am stating a fact when I say that prostitution is currently illegal. I am also stating a hard-to-argue moral point when I say that being an elected representative sworn to uphold the law and then engaging in an illegal practice are, at the very least, contradictory.

The burden is not on me to "know how they think" because I was not making a statement based on an assumption of their thoughts. You were.

I am not "running around" demanding that they "be turned into criminals." I am sitting still, calmly stating that their activity is already criminal.

Glenn Greenwald: "I don't opine on things without knowing about them. I certainly don't advocate that my fellow citizens be thrown into prison and turned into criminals all because I don't like the choices they make for their lives."

I haven't advocated that anybody be thrown into prison. You're being wacky!

I hereby challenge you to go outside and take a nice walk and relax.

I can't understand why so many people have trouble debating things with Greenwald without trying to infer all sorts of stupid shit about his motives.

As someone whose motives and personality are a fairly common subject of discussion on this blog I think I can speak to that.

It is because they have no really substantive points to make on the particular issue at hand so they obfuscate by dragging in personal attacks and ad hominem arguments.

Personally I like it when my opponent descends to such tactics, it means I have won the argument and they are tacitly admitting my victory.

Just fucking reason with him on the merits and quit the psychoanalyzing and baseless speculation about it being tied to Spitzer's Judaism or Glenn's "hurt pride"

-- Scientician

I suspect that the guy who kept bringing Judaism into it was that shitbag who came around here from time to time under the now no longer available handle of 'Anonymous'. When he comes around he never fails to drag the same KKK shtick into a thread.

Looks like Spitz may be in dutch with the feds as much for the illegal "structuring" financial transactions as for the prostitution.

In either case, why should we care? Soliciting prostitutes is illegal. Soliciting them to cross state lines violates federal law. Structuring payments to hide illegal transactions is itself illegal.

Prostitution, even the "high class" type Mr. Spitzer appears to have solicited, ultimately feeds the demand for human trafficking, which is hardly a victimless crime. Also, by the activities in which he was engaging, he opened himself and his position up to being compromised, through blackmail, to organized crime.

Mr. Spitzer put himself up there in the Attorney General's office and as Governor as "Mr. Law & Order", ready to clean things up on day one. He made a career out of prosecuting people on obscure, technical violations of the law, and for what others have called "victimless crimes". What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

>> Oh, and the difference between prostitution and pornography? Pornographers aren't liars. Trust matters. Ask Elliot's wife.

> You don't have the slightest bit of information about the marriage of Eliot Spitzer and his wife.

You don't have the slightest bit of information about what I know about their marriage.

Come on Glenn, you don't agree about the fundamental value of trust?

> And before 2003, when sodomy was criminal in almost half the states -- too bad for the people who were prosecuted for having illegal sex in the privacy of their own homes. It was illegal, they knew it, and so they got what they deserved.

Yes, they did. They fixed the problem. That's the solution - not evading the legal system. Now I don't want to make a black and white argument out of this, because of course there are ridiculous laws. I believe in SD (where I grew up) it is still the law that if more than several indians congregate on your land at one time you can start shooting. It hasn't been a big problem. How many people were jailed for sodomy? I really don't know, but I'm going to guess very few. It was a silly law, everyone agreed it was so, and the law was easily amended.

I don't think you'll have the same luck campaigning for prostitution reform. I don't really disagree with your position on the issue, I just think it's a lost cause.

> Why are so many people having trouble reading this sentence from my post: He should be treated no differently

So what's your point? The next guy should be treated differently? Do you think he is being treated differently? I don't. Other than the fact that he's a highly public figure, which makes for a rather sensational headline, don't you think? You used him yourself.

Just capitalizing on the lefties here being dumb idiots and planning to snicker and cackle about it, right?

There is an ideologically rigid left. There are also prohibitionists on both sides of the aisle. The Prohibitionist Party is the oldest "third" political party in continual existence the United States.

http://www.prohibition.org/

Think they can legislate morality and health and diet and all kinds of really silly things. People can't even stick to their diets. Good luck with that. It's not so much a left right thing.

Was Watergate about water? Drop the "gate" and step away from the computer.

How about "Spitzer Spritzer"? Or, "Eliot Mess"? Or, "The Touchable"?

Anything but _____gate. PLEASE!

For a country of 'individuals' we sure seem to want to tell others what to do.

More than any other country on the planet, judging by our incarceration rate.

Perhaps I will vote Libertarian this year.

Oh Jeebus.. That tears it.. Now you will be attacked as a "loon".

Anyone who believes in true freedom is considered to be whacky by the Serious posters here..