Timberland's post is there for all to see. Maybe you shouldn't try to speak for him either.

I really wish some government officials understood they need play by the same rules most of the rest of us do.

If you have read the thread then you will have seen that I have pointed out that government officials as far down the ladder as beat cops do not play by the same rules as the rest of us.

The beat cops call it "professional courtesy" when they treat a fellow cop differently than a plain jane citizen.

Go to a LEO forum and ask 'em, they make no secret of it..

That's one theory.

Another theory proposed is that it degrades the men.

Proposed by... wait for it... Feminists!

Feminism

Prostitution is a significant issue in feminist thought and activism. Some feminists argue that the act of selling sex need not inherently be exploitative, but that attempts to abolish prostitution - and the attitudes that lead to such attempts - lead to an abusive climate for sex workers that must be changed. In the new discourse, the redefinition of prostitution as "sex work" saw the development of the sex worker activism movement, comprising organisations such as the Australian Prostitutes Collective and COYOTE.

Feminists who believe that prostitution is inherently exploitative, such as authors like Andrea Dworkin, herself an ex-prostitute, argued in the 1980s that commercial sex is a form of rape enforced by poverty (and often overt violence by pimps). Proponents reject the idea that prostitution can be reformed. These feminists believe that the assumptions that women exist for men's sexual enjoyment, that all men "need" sex, or that the bodily integrity and sexual pleasure of women is irrelevant underlie the whole idea of prostitution, and make it an inherently exploitative, sexist practice. One feminist argument against Dworkin's position is that prostitution, insofar as it colludes with the perception of an inherent 'need' on the part of men for sexual release, is exploiting men more than it exploits women.

Sweden's 1999 law forbidding the purchase (but not sale) of sex was a natural extension of this view. Many prostitutes in Sweden have decried the laws targeting clients, as they say the laws just drive the industry further underground and reduce sex workers' incomes without providing greater safety.

Some jurisdictions have responded to sex worker activism by decriminalising prostitution. The rationale for these legal reforms has been to extend to sex workers the same health and safety standards that apply to other professions involving close bodily contact, for example dentistry, nursing or hairdressing.

Legal issues

Roughly speaking, the possible attitudes are:

abolition: "prostitution should be made to disappear"

"prostitution is immoral and prostitutes and their clients should be prosecuted": the prevailing attitude in much of the United States with a few exceptions like Nevada.

"prostitution is a sad reality of exploitation of the prostitutes, especially women, but prostitutes should not be criminalized", the current situation in Turkey.

"the clients of prostitutes exploit the prostitutes": prostitutes are not prosecuted, but their clients and pimps are, which is the current situation in Sweden, and most likely will also be the situation in Norway from sometime in 2008 onwards.

prostitution is legal, but discouraged, while pimping is prohibited, the current situation in the United Kingdom and France among others;

regulation: prostitution may be considered a legitimate business; prostitution and the employment of prostitutes are legal, but regulated (with respect to health etc. concerns); the current situation in the Netherlands, Germany and parts of Nevada.

legalization: "prostitution is a victimless crime, and should be made completely legal so that it is no longer an underground activity, allowing the normal checks and balances of society and existing laws to apply"

decriminalization: "prostitution is labor like any other. Sex industry premises should not be subject to any special regulation or laws" such as in Australia and New Zealand. Proponents of this view often cite instances of government regulation under legalization that they consider intrusive, demeaning, or violent, but feel that criminalization adversely affects sex workers.

Originally, prostitution was widely legal in the United States. Prostitution was made illegal in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 largely due to the influence of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which was influential in the banning of drug use and was a major force in the prohibition of alcohol. In 1917 the legally defined prostitution district Storyville in New Orleans was closed down by the Federal government over local objections. Prostitution remained legal in Alaska until 1953 (though not yet a US state), and is still legal in some counties of Nevada.

Beginning in the late 1980s, many states increased the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute is knowingly HIV-positive. These laws, often known as felony prostitution laws, require anyone arrested for prostitution to be tested for HIV, and if the test comes back positive, the suspect is then informed that any future arrest for prostitution will be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Penalties for felony prostitution vary in the states that have such laws, with maximum sentences of typically 10 to 15 years in prison. An episode of COPS which aired in the early 1990s detailed the impact of HIV/AIDS among prostitutes to which the felony prostitution laws is deemed as part of HIV/AIDS awareness.

In the 1970s some religious cults were discovered practicing religious prostitution, or flirty fishing, as an instrument to make new adepts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution

It's the drug war.. It has the government watching all our bank accounts.

Tush Limberger got nailed the same way, by repeatedly withdrawing just under $10K he triggered a surveillance program.

And Democratic politicians to a virtual man support this travesty of freedom.

Artifact the barter system may be but it is still alive and well and practiced by the majority of sexually active women.

Hmmm -- sounds like somebody hasn't been laid recently. ;-)

Actually, when I was dating, I went out of my way to pay my own tab. The only time I didn't was when sex was already on the agenda. (Then again, I'm the sort of person who buys flowers for guys and opens doors for guys, especially if their arms are full.) Though even if I weren't married, I'm now at the age where I'm unlikely to have to worry about who picks up the tab, for the same reason that male movie actors can be sex symbols into their sixties and even seventies (Sean Connery) whereas women's acting careers in Hollywood peak out by the time they're forty and are essentially over (aside from character parts that don't pay nearly as well) by the time they're fifty.