Ironies in Spitzer's Legacy

In response to glib Glen G's reference to prostitution as a crime without a victim, I give you Nicholas Kristof's NYT piece which first deals with the victimless crime fallacy.

[T]he evidence is overwhelming that, in the United States, prostitution is only very rarely just another career choice. Studies suggest that up to two-thirds of prostitutes have been sexually abused as girls, a majority have drug dependencies or mental illnesses, one-third have been threatened with death by pimps, and almost half have attempted suicide.

Melissa Farley, a psychologist who has written extensively about the subject, says that girls typically become prostitutes at age 13 or 14. She conducted a study finding that 89 percent of prostitutes urgently wanted to escape the work, and that two-thirds have post-traumatic stress disorder — not a problem for even the most frustrated burger-flipper.

The mortality data for prostitutes is staggering. The American Journal of Epidemiology published a meticulous study finding that the “workplace homicide rate for prostitutes” is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. The average age of death of the prostitutes in the study was 34.

34! Then he talks about what Spitzer used as a model for his crackdown which was a demand-side "bust-the-John" strategy which was implemented in Sweden.

In contrast, Sweden experimented in 1999 with a radically different approach that many now regard as much more successful: it decriminalized the sale of sex but made it a crime to buy sex. In effect, the policy was to arrest customers, but not the prostitutes.

Some Swedish prostitutes have complained that the policy reduced demand and thus lowered prices, while forcing sex work underground. But the evidence is strong that the new approach reduced trafficking in Sweden, and opinion polls show that Swedes regard the experiment as a considerable success. And the bottom line is that if you want to rape a 13-year-old girl imported from Eastern Europe, you’ll have a much easier time in Amsterdam than in Stockholm.

I love the fact that Kristof sees prostitution for what it is: a form of rape. Maybe I'll send him a Travis Bickle action figure.

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Pi Day

Not July 22, bloke.

"Jesus taught me how to love the HELL out of my enemies"

Sooooooo... do you think Obama will say "all my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk" about this guy, his former minister for years?

And question: who called Obama a [N-word]? Answer: his black friends. Maybe even his minister.

My bro lives in Chicago, and he told me that everyone over there knows the radical racist nature of this church.

Really?!?!?!

"The call girl at the center of the prostitution scandal that prompted Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign in disgrace has been identified as a 22-year-old aspiring musician who struggled in a broken home as a child."

From a broken home? I'm shocked.

Dennis Hurley as "Sam"

This is every bit as funny as For Your Consideration.

Response to Esquire and Everybody

Obama "floats like a butterfly"

Here's David Davenport's Townhall commentary email:

I recently realized that Barack Obama is the Muhammad Ali of presidential politics.

You remember when traditional fighters stood in the middle of the ring and tried to hit Ali, they rarely could because, as he put it, he floated like a butterfly. Ali said he was too pretty to be hit, that your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see.

That captures Barack Obama who, so far, has floated like Ali above the fray of traditional politics. We don't know where he stands, which has been part of his appeal. Amazingly, Obama himself wrote that he serves "as a blank screen on which people of vastly different stripes project their own views."

With Hillary Clinton's and Obama's views so similar, the Democratic primary has not forced him to stand and fight on policies and positions. Perhaps when he meets a Republican contender in the fall, he will have to come down to earth and actually tell us what he stands for.

I'm wary of saying that his magic is simply going to dissipate overnight if he gets nominated. He'll definitely have to change tactics, but the campaign will have gained incredible prestige and momentum at that point, having defeated Clinton. He does sound less confident to me when the teleprompter is off, and I'm hoping that his vacuous rhetoric is more widely recognized as such. But I'm not betting the bank on it. I had no idea he'd be ahead at this point -- maybe I misoverestimated Hillary's powers.

By the way, Muhammad Ali is a Muslim. As far as I know.

You're not doing anything, look this up for me please

Hey, I'm too lazy to look this up right now, but I know that Chesterton wrote a Father Brown mystery where there was a 14-step program guy who freaks out because he's secretly an alcoholic. What's the name of that mystery? I'm pretty sure it's Father Brown and not the Hardy Boys.

Thanks in advance.

Caption Contest for Chimpy McSpitzer

Also regarding the "Client #9" jokes, remember that at the height of the Beatles' drug experimentation they recorded the song "Revolution Number 9" which, when you played it backwards said "Turn me on, Dead Man". It turns out that Spitzer is the "dead man", not Paul McCartney, who looks as if he might outlive all the rest of the Liverpool lads. BTW, Ringo has a new album out.