"....um, why doesn't it? Because she dresses nicely? Because money magically changes denigration into something else?

Or because you all have some silly fantasies about high-end hookers?"

Um, because she's not a slave simply because you say so. Um, nor is she deluded and wrong and so forth simply because you think so. Um, I'm going to ignore your silly attack against me though it is amusing that it came so quickly after you tried to play like you were being victimized here.

1. Prostitution is not exploitative when prostitutes make lots of money.

2. What is immoral should be illegal.

3. Morality should have nothing to do with illegality.

4. Something that is physically dangerous or ardurous compares to something that psychologically damaging in the same way and for the same reasons.

5. Just because it involves sex does not mean it is any different from any other "victimless" crime.

6. Circumstances that guy prostitutes "enjoy" must be the same as that that women prostitutes "enjoy."

7. Prostitutes and marriage and dating are much the same, but only if it is women who benefit. If men (read John McCain) make an economically advantegous marriage he is not a gold digger. If some gal marries a rich guy, she must be.

8. One puff on a marijuana cigarette at a party is equivalent to renting someone else's body.

9. Spitzer should not resign because Republicans do it too.

10. "I went to a prostitute once and had a great experience and she didn't seem exploited to me."

Glenn's original post was "Who Cares If Elliott Spitzer Slept With Prostitutes?" Given that that is precisely the issue over which Spitzer would be forced to decide whether or not to resign, I'd say that's exactly what Glenn's post was about.

I haven't got the slightest idea what point it is you're trying to make, but I'll defend to the death your right to make it.

I haven't seen any argument here about whether or not Spitzer should or shouldn't have resigned, and it's fine if you think that's what we SHOULD be talking about. I'm not a New Yorker. It doesn't affect me in any way.

It's also fine if you think Glenn's sarcasm is the equivalent of a Malkin/Reynolds screed. I really can't understand why folks get so upset by people's "tone" online, but whatever.

"... We are looking at literally several dozen _trillion_ dollars tossed down the toilet, millions of lives snuffed or otherwise destroyed ..."

That is what the other fellow has been saying for weeks on end here in a campaign against the "war on drugs". The regulars have begged him to stop making every point he makes into one about the drug war. You missed the point entirely and now the two of you are getting pissed off --- yet are on the same side.

Hence, I said what I said.

I think he is trying to say that decriminalization does not go far enough. I think you are saying that it does. At least the two of you could argue knowing what each other is saying.

I happen to think total legalization is the answer; but decriminalization would be a nice first step. (did I upset everyone?) :-)

Good point.

<<Exactly my point, Retired. This isn't about Japan. We're not enacting Japan's culture. Japan's culture is irrelevant in this case. The point of democracy is at least in part to allow peoples of different cultures to enact laws as they see fit. Most people from our cultural background believe that economic value should not be attached to sex. And thus laws to prevent it have been properly enacted.>>

And that's why we live in a republic, not a simple democracy. Say the majority of this culture wanted to vote that it's illegal to be reeceo, and reeceo should get the death penalty. You would be OK with that because this culture should be allowed to enact laws as they see fit, right? No? Then perhaps you should think about the meaning of what you say. Far too many people fail to see that a pure democracy is nothing but mob rule. The founders of our government understood that, and limited it by aiming to protect individual rights. The chickenhawk leaders of today, however, cite the spread of democracy as the purpose for being in Iraq, and it's the general failure of people to understand the meaning of words that allows him to get away with so much of his crap.

Objectively speaking, I think there can only be one purpose of a government, and that is to prevent the initiation of force, in other words, to prevent one person from forcing his judgment upon another. That sort of government has laws that only specify what it is allowed to do, and no laws limiting the (objective) rights of its citizens. This means: NO VICE LAWS, if people want to prostitute themselves, drug themselves into a stupor, they may, everyone else is free to condemn it morally (and should, actually), but they do not have the right to stop it legally. We do not now, and never have had that sort of government, but we've come the closest in history to doing so, with now our leaders busily doing everything they can to turn us further and further from that goal.

Isn't it amazing how much money is spent in this country combatting vice, which the government should not be bothering with, and how little in comparison is being spent on legitimate governmental duties? The vast majority of people in jail are there due to vice crimes.

--Ron Robertson

AKA Smith: "1. Prostitution is not exploitative when prostitutes make lots of money.

2. What is immoral should be illegal.

3. Morality should have nothing to do with illegality.

4. Something that is physically dangerous or ardurous compares to something that psychologically damaging in the same way and for the same reasons.

5. Just because it involves sex does not mean it is any different from any other "victimless" crime.

6. Circumstances that guy prostitutes "enjoy" must be the same as that that women prostitutes "enjoy."

7. Prostitutes and marriage and dating are much the same, but only if it is women who benefit. If men (read John McCain) make an economically advantegous marriage he is not a gold digger. If some gal marries a rich guy, she must be.

8. One puff on a marijuana cigarette at a party is equivalent to renting someone else's body.

9. Spitzer should not resign because Republicans do it too.

10. "I went to a prostitute once and had a great experience and she didn't seem exploited to me.""

Great post! (Must be the first time I've written a positive response to you.)

I notice that #8 came from Mr. Greenwald himself.