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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/opinion/12farley.html
Whether the woman is in a hotel room or on a side street in someone’s car, whether she’s trafficked from New York to Washington or from Mexico to Florida or from the city to the suburbs, the experience of being prostituted causes her immense psychological and physical harm. And it all starts with the buyer.
That point being that there are people who argue that all prostitution is inherently abusive and should therefore be banned. Hit Submit too soon.
Don't see how that can be done, myself. Oldest profession and all. Making vice illegal exacerbates rather that ameliorates the harm it does to people.
...that you figured this stuff out Glenn.
Not that I'm complaining, but i have to leave soon so I won't be able to keep up :(
I've been making this same point for years now, and am glad to see someone with a forum make it; I've never been satisfied with the distinction between different types of soul-crushing jobs taken out of desperation. Why is serving fake food at low pay to people you care nothing for better than serving fake love at high pay to people you care nothing for?
not going to like this.
Don't see how that can be done, myself. Oldest profession and all. Making vice illegal exacerbates rather that ameliorates the harm it does to people.
Exactly. Banning prostitution only creates a market for pimps and mobsters who are willing to violate many more laws in order to reap artificially high prostitution profits at the expense of the women who would otherwise receive the entire profit.
Having said that, Spitzer walked right into the airplane propeller with his eyes wide open. He knew he was under a partisan microscope, but his Alpha-maleness overpowered his good sense. He gave them the bullets to use on him and had to go.
I want to know why the DOJ felt they had to devote their time to these wiretaps and Bin Laden is still running around the hills of Afghanistan - which is supposedly the real reason for "needing" them.
In Reno some years back. I bet on the Saint Louis Cardinals every day I was in town, and they started a 10 game win streak the day I hit town. I took part of the winnings to a whorehouse outside town. That gal was something else. I rented her until morning.
That's up front in case I ever run for political office.
* People who work at an unpleasant job in order to support themselves, rather than because they enjoy it, are the functional equivalent of brutalized, exploited slaves and therefore should be barred by others from choosing that job -- when the job in question is prostitution, but not when it's factory work or fast food cashier or large corporate law firm associate or massage therapist or porn actor.--GlennGreenwald
However the fact is that many (way too many) of the unpleasant jobs you reference are also dangerous, often fatally. Profit and shareholder value take precedence over worker safety costs. One example: the costs of work-stoppage (pending investigations after the fact) and of fines are merely factored in as costs of doing business - less expensive than proper Personal Protective Equipment, safety training, occupational health and environmental screening and surveillance, etc.
The point, which I'm having trouble making clearly (but perhaps someone can help me out) is that the evil consequences must be mitigated by addressing the real iniquities and not the job titles in the abstract.
But it doesn't change that the law was on the books for the state and feds and ES surely was well aware of those laws....
So he is an idiot. With so many powerful enemies and such a bright future... Surely he could have found another way to spend the money?
He could have divorced his wife and been single.... Surely there are people out there who don't have these sorts of issues.
It is time to be legit. Just like Clinton's war vote.... It was a calculation. What we need are people who can stand up for what they believe in. That way we can have reasonable expectations about how are leaders will behave.
We have been lied to long enough. Hell we lie to ourselves. When are we going to come clean... And then move forward with an honest debate about the country and the rule of law....
Great post.
And I care a great deal what Tina likes.
/snark off/
You're a quick study, man..
The MSM has been nibbling around the edges about the oddness of the initial investigation, but that is boring for them, all their owners and publishers hated Spitzer anyway, so they ultimately ignore it. Only Keith Olbermann made the same point you made, although in the context of impeachment (why impeach Spitzer for this, but not Bush for that). In the end, his own wife wanted him to fight it out--if she was willing to overlook this (and who knows what goes on in any marriage) then why shouldn't we?
The worst part is that the public that has been calling for him to resign is the same public that benefitted from his enforcement of SEC law (as opposed to the actual SEC enforcing it). He was the only firewall between us and the Bush administration and its benefactors taking us to the cleaners.
Here we go, another 500 response GG postNot that I'm complaining, but i have to leave soon so I won't be able to keep up :(
I actually thought twice about posting this before I did just in order to avoid another war in my comment section. These sorts of issues really generate a lot of intensity. But there are just so many aspects of the moral preening relating to the Spitzer story that are driving me insane that I just couldn't keep them pent up any longer.
I am really astonished -- though I know I shouldn't be -- by how much people enjoy expressing moral outrage over the sexual lives of other people.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
Salon headlines in your mailbox
