Drugs should largely be decriminalized except for the most dangerous and damaging (meth, for instance) but the "punishment" shouldn't be a long prison term unless violence was involved, but treatment.

Decriminalizing "drugs" will do nothing to stem the violence associate with "drugs". The violence almost always due to disputes over distribution channels.

For all practical purposes, alcohol was "decriminalized" during Prohibition.. It was the manufacture, importation and sales of alcohol that were made illegal, not the possession or consumption.

Why don't we go ahead and "decriminalize" alcohol again, eh?

By your own view of things, because John McCain's resources were so much less than Cindy's when they "courted," it is John McCain who is a whore.

Now you may argue that he is not still a whore, but I think you may have a few problems with that viewpoint. You would have to prove the following false:

Once a whore, always a whore.

You would need to establish:

That he is not a whore for lobbyists.

You would have to provide argument in support of the following:

That any resources the McCains now have are "theirs" by virtue of marriage because marriage automatically makes whores virtuous.

I agree with Glenn, and with Aycharaych, and with Mona that the issue here isn't sex, or -- except tangentially -- hypocrisy. If you're in a position to sell your self at a decent price, under conditions which are freely negotiated, you have every right to do so. As with nuclear physicists, so also with prostitutes.

If for one reason or other you're in no position to choose, and accept work at a less than decent price, in conditions that are by any honest measure are horrible and inhuman, your lack of choice shouldn't be treated as a crime either in law or in public opinion. This should be as true of street-walkers as it is of undocumented sweatshop workers or crack peddlers.

I don't agree that we should make no public policies regarding those at the bottom of the freedom-of-choice scale. There are many things a decent government could do to improve both the opportunities for choice, and the objective conditions of people's lives. Call them social engineering if you must, but if done wisely, they can help, and shouldn't be rejected on purely ideological grounds.

As I've said, I'm no libertarian, but I do believe that what the gods have ordained, or what human nature favors, shouldn't be tinkered with for no reason. When reasons do exist, we should be forthright about the necessity of intervention, but we should also be humble about the limits of our wisdom.

Awright, hands UP! (If you clicked through...

...on Glenn's link to the pic of the alleged escort.

I did.

And, naturally, so did I. Even with the blurry bits she is clearly stunning...but no one is stunning enough to pay $4000-$5000 a pop for a little "zug-zug".

You have to remember those /blockquote tags or we'll end up with a column of single letters.

Also, williedigital doesn't have evidence backing up any of his claims. This one especially: In almost every country where prostitution is "legal" or tolerated by the law, pimps, drug abuse among employees, and all the other terrible side effects of prostitution are present.

It is all vague generalities and implications with no fact to back anything up.

How's this for a similar comment "In almost every country Bush has visited, people drink alcohol, have extra-marital sex and die!"

I was puzzled by the issue of bank reporting being the initiation of the investigation. It was repeatedly mentioned that cash deposits of $10,000 would trigger a report, as could indications that multiple deposits which appear to be avoidance of the threshold would trigger a report.

But Spitzer wasn't making deposits he was making withdrawals.

Then in an interview on NPR I heard the real scoop: All bank transactions are scrutinized. Every bank transaction in the entire country. There is no $10,000 threshold. All transactions are examined by software that can kick out a report - regardless of amount, regardless of type of transaction.

Add this to the ever growing 24/7 surveillance we live under today in "The Land of the [formerly] Free."

You, Glenn, don't get to decide which laws matter and which don't

He doesn't? Dammit!! Glenn, send me back all those bribes I've been sending you. Here I was thinking you could get me out of that speeding ticket...

Calling for Spitzer's resignation, but not that of a man who has admitted to ordering torture is unconscionable. It is unacceptable behavior by any news organization, and it taints this country and everybody in it.

Megadittoes..

"Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue."

And

"The only thing that should astonish us is that we are still capable of astonishment."

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Wherever you women are -- if you kept this man from browbeating you into having unsafe sex -- good for you. Thank you very much for doing that.

I think you were addressing Le tsunami.

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.

What's your argument exactly? That our laws are wrong because people in Japan would disagree with them? In that case, why aren't Japanese laws wrong because we disagree with them? The only solution to this relativism (which I have no problem with) is that laws are acceptable when they are properly enacted by democratic institutions.

Culture is a strawman.

Congratulations on the strangest take on Prohibition I've ever seen. Completely wrong of course, but still wins for "strangest".

Hey Glen, stop being cynic. Yes, we care.This guy pays whores with public money and you pretend that we dont care. Maybe you dont care, BUT WE CARE TOO MUCH. Stop ignoring our problems.

Bruno38