Sorry I've been spelling your name wrong all night long (I can't figure out how to "say" your name in my head)!

Anyway, I'll check out those blogs you mentioned. I've not had anything to do with the military (they ended the draft shortly before I turned 18, and reinitiated registration after I was to old for that). But, it might be quite interesting to read what's being said there. And Balloon Juice sounds interesting, thanks for the tip!

--Ron

Yeah, interesting alright, but strip it of all the military oorahing and chest-bumping and it's hard to find an iota's difference between what he's saying and what most of us are saying; what many of us have been saying since this guy -- if he's still of active military age -- was in grade school.

It's nice to see that the hard guys are getting wise. Maybe he can shoot his way out of the mess his predecessors helped us get into. Ya think?

You might also find Col. Patrick Lang's blog, Sic Semper Tyrannis to be of interest. There are many posters of quality to be found there; commentary tends to be enlightened and provocative.

http://www.turcopolier.typepad.com/

As far as liberal vs. conservative

I have no idea what either of those terms means anymore, other than as names for two somewhat opposing and self-identifying groups. You could call them The Jets and The Sharks and it would be just as descriptive.

It scares me a bit when people are very proud to be Democrats or Republicans or liberals or conservatives or libertarians. In most walks of life we resist labels, why embrace them in politics? Why voluntarily be grouped with people you will invariably disagree with at some point?

-- Margalis

Wonderful stuff. I have not been able to detect any core philosophy in "liberals", "new liberals", "conservatives", or neo-cons in a long time. Who they will choose to dominate by force does differ at times, but it still follows little reason other than the rational of coercion. I use "libertarian" to mean the philosophy of freedom more than a political label and see a lot of hypocrisy in the official "Libertarian Party" which I would never join.

Many great minds have pointed out over the centuries that democracy will devolve into many vicious groups all trying to enrich themselves at the expense of the others in the society. How would America's history disprove that contention?

Democracy: Two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for supper.

"... You can't really regulate human behaviors, that is the point, not without curtailing personal liberties. But you can regulate the market based interactions between humans that involve those behaviors."

Humans making exchanges thought the 'market' is human behavior, for god's sake.

I can't really bring myself to read 600 repetitive posts to answer a question I'm pretty sure I know the answer to already.

But I'd like to be surer.

Did anyone answer Mona's question about male prostitutes?

Because I find ironic, just a week or so after the WaPo got blogswarmed (and rightly so) for publishing an opinion piece that women are just plain stupider than men, and need to just accept that, to discover that men are considered capable of making a decision to enter the sex industry, but women are not.

I just got to reading some of the many posts that referred to my comments from last night. I can't begin to answer them all but I'll respond in general here.

1) To the poster known as Silenced: Your stance about the nexus between prostitution, a disordered (and illegal) behavior, and abuse is disturbing. First, it is not supported by research evidence. Let's be very clear about that. Secondly, from your post you seem to be upset that anyone would conclude that abuse can drive disordered behavior. At any rate that was my impression of your post. I can only state again that you need to do some study on the subject beyond your own experience. The research into prostitution overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that many prostitutes enter the field, so to speak, as an extension of their abuse. As we all know, childhood abuse is both deeply destructive and has long-lasting effects.

My own education and training is in working with special needs children so I don't work with adults. However, I have worked in the past with children with emotional and behavioral disorders. One strong predictor for these disorders is trauma/neglect/abuse and I have direct experience working with children from these specific backgrounds. They act out, many times in sexual ways and at startlingly young ages. With proper suppports and interventions, many of these children can make progress to lead productive lives. Did Kristen get that help? I haven't read that from statements she and her family have made. I do know that she ran from home to escape abuse as a teenager so I suspect that she did not get the help that she needed.

2. I have repeatedly defied anyone on this board to locate research that suggests that prostitutes are not troubled people who do not, in fact, "choose" prostitution. Most are apparently quite desperate to leave the profession. Please reference the information located today on the NY Times editorial page about Spitzer's own work to increase penalties for the "johns." We all have our own opinions but the research gives us a far clearer picture than our own specific experiences or perspectives can.

3. Please also look up on phillynews.com the archived story on Dawn's Place (past 12 months). The story is about a shelter in Philadelphia, Dawn's Place, that helps women leave the profession of prostitution. Within the article are many sources of information about what drives women into prostitution and the difficulty of them leaving the profession due to a host of emotional, behavioral and psychological factors.

by Jeffrey A. Tucker

It's not enough that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer jailed Martha Stewart, banned trans fats in New York, harassed business within an inch of its life, and grafted onto just about every other left-fascist cause provided it was politically correct and increased his personal power.

It turns out that it was he who waged war on prostitution by going after not the suppliers but the demanders, through use of wiretaps, sting operations, money-laundering investigations, and extended jail terms. He completely agreed with those who believe all prostitution constitutes exploitation and so it is up to the state to crack skulls in the name of protecting the women who enter into this sector of their own volition.

In a twist of hypocrisy reminiscent of the prohibition era, Spitzer himself has been caught in one of his own sting operations, a full audio and paper trail of his having sought and used an online "escort service" for his own pleasure and at great expense. Next it will be revealed that he eats trans fats and subscribes to MARTHA.

At the behest of hysterical activist groups, he has been prosecuting sex-trade rings for years. He called prostitution "modern-day slavery." His law – which makes no distinction between human trafficking from far-off lands and traditional prostitution – prosecuting men who hire prostitutes came into effect in November 1, 2006. And yet he is said to have shelled out as much as $80,000 for prostitution services, and it was his attempting to drum up another $4,000 in cash that initially alerted the police to his activities.

An analogy might be for the nation's drug czar to be revealed as a regular customer of the Medillin Cartel, except that this one is even more stirring of public interest since it involves a subject of even greater public curiosity than drug use. ...

--------------------------

even more here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker94.html

I love it when a fascist on the left or on the right gets eaten by their own. It is sad that the misuse of the government by this monster will be punished by yet more misuse of government; but they were going to destroy someone for something anyway. Better this slop-jar.