Mr. Greenwald posits that if all infractions, petty and great, caused politicians to resign, there would be none left in office.

Now you're talking!

As to the prostitution v pornography legality issue, well, the self-perceived moralists who believe prostitution should be illegal on moral grounds would love to see pornography and the actors in it criminalized as well. And porn has been illegal in various guises, but in recent memory, Supreme Court decisions generally legalized it. Zealots still pursue the dream, however.

Those who believe in consenting adults doing what they want even when money changes hands but still want to criminalize prostitution make the argument that prostitution promotes crime, brings down property values, corrupts the young. They ignore the circular reasoning that criminalizing a transaction begets criminal behavior.

I will say also, from recent experience with moralizers and law enforcement, that maintaining prostitution crimes gives cops an excuse to bust people (esp. women) while giving the perception of "cleaning up the streets."

Please note that there are a number of laws that exist primarily as an excuse to arrest people because proving that they are committing serious crime is hard.

How about decriminalization as opposed to legalization?

There is such a thing.

It would mean that pimps and johns go to jail instead of the sex workers.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

you are deliberately misrepresenting me and you know it.

Perhaps you should state your position more clearly then.

I have said again and again that I support decriminalization but not legalization.

Are you even capable of understanding the difference?

Explain it to me, I'm remarkably stupid.

I'm done. You have no answer. So you drag in yet another totally unrelated topic.

I think you would pimp out your granddaughter. In your sorry, self-pitying mind you would justify it.

I like it when people resort to personal insults, it means they have no other ammunition of heavier caliber.

My God, I think while roofing you didn't take precautions and fell off one too many times.

I'm dead serious. You're having some kind of a breakdown, man.

Maybe if you were about to lose your home and source of livelihood you would be a little distraught too. My shop is in my home, I lose my home and I lose my livelihood.

Due to preexisting health problems I'm basically unemployable.

the next time Achy-breaky posts here, everybody please remember that he supports FORCING women to work in brothels against their will.

He says its no worse than the draft, which violated his personal code of morality, too.

Being forced to kill and die against your will is preferable to being forced to have sex against your will?

Your moral code is a little strange too.

I'm glad you are willing to at least admit to being stupid.

Sometimes we need soldiers to defend our lives (if you were drafted for Nam, that wasn't the case. I don't agree with that, so don't hurl it against me). Nobody ever needs prostitutes in order to live.

You've had some tough breaks. Tough shit. It does not give you any right to decide that other people need to suffer, too. I notice this point was the one you did NOT address.

Take your self-serving, whiny ass to a therapist if you need to, instead of soiling a thread about a subject that DOES NOT EVEN HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR PROBLEM.

I don't know you. I don't CARE if you lose your house, your shop, your family, or your life. Neither does anybody else here, except in the most abstract general sense.

We don't owe you anything, answers, responses, a conversation, justifications, NOTHING.

The only we know about you is that you are a DAMN FUCKING INTERNET TROLL.

Please take it ELSEWHERE. Moron. Jesus Fucking Christ on a Cracker. MORON.

All understood? God, I feel better now.

I didn't mean that as an insult.

You are so unbalanced, feeling such anger at the world, with such a huge case of sour grapes for all mankind...

I think it's something you would actually do.

Since you don't think forcing women into prostitution is wrong anyway. And poor you, you've had to do roofing, you've had it worse than all those lazy bitches, all they have to is lay on their backs.

Sure, why wouldn't you take a cut? Pimping is a skill like any other. Maybe you'd be good at it.

Okay, let's suppose you've really worked horrible jobs and been traumatized by witnessing accidents resulting from inadequate safety protections or whatever (although most accidents in these industries involve asshats taking shortcuts and not following the rules).

And you know this how?

You act like capitalists are all altruists who would never, ever fail to provide proper safety equipment and fire those who complain.

I agree with you, there are a lot of people out there, both men and women, in dire straits due to financial pressures.

I'm just relating the *reality* of what happens when people are forced to do things they would rather not do in order to maintain body and soul in our dog eat dog eat dog capitalist paradise.

It's quite clear from your comments that you have never faced real hardship, you would be more sympathetic to those who are in that rotten, leaky boat if you had.

Go ahead, throw away all your ID and go out with zero money in your pocket and with only the shabby clothes on your back and try to survive as an illegal alien has to. I know quite a few of them and it's far, far harder than you can even imagine.

Over the years we have helped a lot of desperate people, I'm a good electronic/electromechanical troubleshooter and I've fixed more junker cars for people than I can recall. I have a lot of experience repairing orphan equipment where the manufacturer no longer exists and you have to make do without proper parts so I can often fix cars without having to buy expensive replacement parts.

We have given away clothes, food, furniture, baby items and even vehicles to people who desperately needed help. If our house gets foreclosed, we are putting everything we cannot haul away on craiglist to donate to others in need.

What have you done to help those in desperation here in our capitalist heaven?