I wrote that to have sex with someone you found objectionable and vile was demeaning.

I was then told to please shut up, because I must be relating a personal experience, and I don't matter, and my experiences don't matter, so just shut up.

I never told you to do anything..

I just wondered why you would have sex with someone you found "disgusting and vile". I had no idea that you weren't speaking from personal experience..

I have no doubt that it would be demeaning..

If I were a prostitute (male of course) I would have to charge extra for that..

Or maybe even just forgo that particular john for another I found less objectionable..

I mean, there is an abundance of johns, another one will come along any moment.

So yes, when people are being patently stupid, we pass laws to protect them from themselves and others they may hurt in the process of being stupid

If people must be protected from their own stupidity then what's to stop us from protecting them from their own lack of patriotism or inability to hold a job.

It certainly wouldn't do to let stupid people roam freely would it?

Glenn and others, out of curiosity: Allowing that the DOJ purposefully went after Spitzer with everything but the kitchen sink. Allowing that if there is anything morally wrong about prostitution, it certainly wouldn't apply in this case, where the prostitute involved was gettting paid an exorbitant (1,000 dollars) amount to do the deed. Allowing that there was nothing either unethical or illegal about the wire transfers and banking activity.

Allowing all that. What should be done about Spitzer? He is the governor of NYS, after all. What is the answer to put this issue to rest?

Glenn, I love your work and your posts and you have brought up mountains of issues to think about in regard to the Spitzer affair and ones that call for outrage as well. But I think those who have raised the notion here that prostitution is very often inherently demeaning to women have an extremely valid point and deserve to be treated better than some of the more hostile responses indicate ("get off the cross" "you're no different than religious fundamentalists", etc.). And being gay is no kind of indication that misogyny is not part of the picture. The increases in violence world-wide towards women, the huge increase in sex trafficking, child pornography, the way women are so totally objectified in many cultures--all this is something to be taken seriously. And for the person who brought up Japan--Japan is one of the most ragingly sexist countries on earth--women are treated like dirt there. I think many men like to pretend that there is nothing psychologically damaging about being a prostitute--that enables them to keep the system going. I don't think anyone here mentioned the fact that Spitzer was probably exposing his wife to a host of STDs--didn't she have some kind of right to know about this?

So, the constitution doesn't outlaw prostitution bans.

Does the constitution also not outlaw bans on sex toys? Or not outlaw bans on sodomy (which can go on in straight and gay sex)?

If you want to get all loosey-goosey like that, there are a LOT of things I am certain you don't want to have banned that can be slipped into the barn door you seek to open. Like contraception, for instance. Where in the Constitution does it ban states from banning contraception?

the part of spitzer's actions that i find offensive are not in any moral realm, but simply that he was so stupid as to put himself in the position to be blackmailed so easily had the wrong people been able to attain information about his activities.

I don't find the stupidity offensive, but it is very sad. And I'm not sure that the information didn't indeed get into the wrong hands. Spitzer had made a ton of enemies on Wall Street. Wall Street cheered his fall all the way down when he fell today and yesterday. Wall Street has many powerful friends. And this DOJ investigation is highly suspicious. Spitzer was was also a Dem. rising star, I guess. On both counts, Spitzer was incredibly reckless to expose himself to his enemies in this way. Who knows--that may have been part of the attraction--the danger of it.

One would think that Spitzer might have been on the Democratic short list for US Attorney General. After the last Three (one of whom had to cover the breasts of marble statues, because they were, like, breasts, only made of marble...), he might have been just exactly what was needed.

As was the case with Clinton, it's just terribly sad.

that even the ones who ostensibly "choose" it as a career move (which they don't, not really -- it chooses them) Katandmoon

Please do explain how that works because I'm pretty curious. How does a woman not really choose to be a prostitute, but prostitution chooses them? I'd love to hear your explanation. The rest of your post is feminist garbage. Glenn can't see how destructive prostitution is, because he's a man committed to the male-power structure. Give me a break honey.

dishonestly protray the legalities surrounding alcohol in the 20's

I have offered evidence to support my assertion, specifically, the Volstead Act.

You have offered none to support your's.

This has been fun, but I have to run.. Business to attend to..

* If I could get $1,000/hr. for sex I would almost certainly be RICH. and famous. *In my view, the most harmful aspects of prostitution is when it is employed/bartered in sustaining a drug/alc. addiction. Just my opinion.

* If I were Gov. Spiter's wife, I would not have attended the 'resignation' event. Fuck em'.

* Glenn's FISA glass ...seems half-full! But he still peers through it but darkly. :)

* I wish I had a field of clover to turn-under/over, GC! (*Clover IS the best cover crop). ...& STrawberry fields forever.

* Timberman: have you ever tried a dollar menu Happy squid meal? The double macdoddleburgers will get the best of you...Greece, is the place for squid. *Although [(encrypted)] my first girlfriend was a Horde in Naples and fed me cephalopod and other hairless cetetacians. I liked that horde a lot.]

* no spring chicken,

bah.