http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html?hp

It's titled "Do as He Said."

You still don't get it.

The kind of street hustling this article talks about, with exploitive pimps looking to "turn out" young girls will never become legal. None of us are proposing that.

To amplify LWM's comment, not only is nobody arguing for that, the fact that prostitution is illegal creates these situations. The pimp couldn't be turning girls if there were legal agencies. She'd just say "Look, if I wanted to do that, I'd call up that number right there on the sign across from us."

Commenter bmaz over at emptywheel makes a good point.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/03/12/spitzer-resigns/#comment-58007

See, thats the problem. It is maybe sometimes a fine line, but it is still a distinct line. Even if it is true that the genesis was a SAR/CTR, once they see that there is no reason to believe the subject is not reputable (and being the independently wealthy governor of NY is not a sign of disrepute), and there is no obvious improper purpose (i.e. the transfers were not to the AQ Martyr’s Charity or something), you should be done. Because going further is investigating a person in search of a crime. That is no good.

I've been trying to phrase this for a while, but haven't been able to. Once it was clear that this was not money laundering, why did the investigation continue?

No, you don't get it with all due respect. I have repeatedly argued that prostitution is not "victimless" regardless of the size of the paycheck. You are doing so.

Aside from the extensive research, I also pointed to the key witness against Spitzer as a prime example. Let's look at Kristen's history: Homeless runaway, abuse survivor, drug abuser. Oh and a very high-priced call girl. What then makes her situation so uniquely privileged? Please list all of her wonderful advantages in being a prostitute because they escape me right now.

Or do you think a young woman who has survived abuse in her childhood along with other behavioral and emotional struggles should simply be happy to sell her body to keep a roof over her head?

JMO: I want and expect far more for the Kristens of this world. She may be too young to know the many different ways to make a positive, healthy life for herself, but I hope she gets that help now. I certianly will not condone or give a pass to the men who exploited this young woman or women like her.

What are your sources for that statement. Just because one type of sexual commerce is legal doesn't mean that it stamps out other types of abuses. For example, Amsterdam still has trafficked sex workers. Why is that?

Please forgive me if I inadvertantly splattered you with my excessively broad brush. While developing my caricature of Liberals vs Conservatives I was using my grandmother and my wife as models.

I'm sure you realize that I am aware that reality is significantly more complex than what can be described by dividing everything into two buckets but I will note that neurons themselves are binary devices so I hope you will forgive the impulse.

Peace.

@LWM

No, you don't get it with all due respect. I have repeatedly argued that prostitution is not "victimless" regardless of the size of the paycheck. You are doing so.

You are not as bad as Bucky. What a maroon.

Look. A woman decides she can make more money selling the gift that god Gave her -- an incredible appeal to the rich and powerful of the opposite sex -- than working at a job like Walmart Women at all levels of social class are throwing themselves at them anyway because power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. She sets up her own webpage or ad in an alternative press, or even an add in the yellow pages. Or she goes to work for someone like Sydney Biddle Barrows, The Mayflower Madam, but not because she worked at the Mayflower Hotel. Because her family, one of the best in NY High Society), came over on the Mayflower:

...In her book, Mayflower Madam, Barrows imparted the advice that made her service so exclusive and successful. "Hire good people and pay them what they are worth" is her first rule of good business....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Biddle_Barrows

Maybe she goes to work here:

Prostitution in Nevada

Nevada is one of only two U.S. states that allow some legal prostitution; in most of its counties, brothels are legalized and heavily regulated. (In Rhode Island, the act of sex for money is not illegal, but street solicitation and operation of a brothel are.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Nevada

I'm sorry. You are like most people arguing against those of us who know what we are talking about. You know absolutely nothing about this. You see a few TV specials on MSNBC. Watch too many crime dramas on TV. Read some crusading screed in a newspaper.

No one here is arguing for legalizing street hustling or any of the crimes that are attendant with that milieu.

No, you don't get it with all due respect. I have repeatedly argued that prostitution is not "victimless" regardless of the size of the paycheck. You are doing so.

Man walks into a bar.

Sees a pretty girl and sits down next to her. They begin to chat about the weather while watching the TV at the end of the bar.

The movie Indecent Proposal is on, wherein a rich Robert Redford pays a married Demi Moore a million dollars to sleep with him for one night.

The woman looks up from her drink during a commercial says, "I'd sleep with Robert Redford for a million bucks."

"Really?" asks the man sitting next to her.

"You bet!" she says.

He thinks for a minute and finally blurts out, "Would you sleep with me for $50?"

Dumbstruck, she turns to him and says, "Certainly not! What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"I thought we already established that," he says camly, "and now we're just haggling over the price."

Don't be this guy.

Nobody liked him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Comstock