IntenseDebate

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Prostitution bust - LO... · 0 replies · +2 points

I don't know if you are still following this thread, Jennifer, but I saw this story recently in response to the news about craigslist shelving their "adult services" section and it addresses many of the misperceptions (or simply out-dated data) you may have about the realities of the sex trade, who enters it, and why.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti...

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Is sentence too severe... · 1 reply · +22 points

Too severe?

Probably.

But, then again, given the fact the female teachers, counsellors, etc, who have full-fledged sex with male students are routinely charged with minor offenses and receive kid-glove, slap-on-the-wrist sentences that - when male teachers engage in the same acts with female students the males are charged with much more serious crimes are receive HEFTY prison sentences - I'm hard pressed to be too terribly sympathetic to one woman who the legal system treated just as harshly as they would have a man who had done the same exact thing.

Reverse the sexes here and the guilty party would be facing at least a decade behind bars . . .

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Prostitution bust - LO... · 0 replies · +2 points

I read Levitt's book (and his newer one "Superfreakonomics") and I recall that the street prostitutes he interviewed reported that nearly a quarter of the sex acts they performed were on police officers who demanded them in exchange for not arresting them.

One more way, I think, that the very illegality of the act creates more social and legal problems than were it legalized, regulated, etc.

That aside, 27.00 an hour is better than nearly anybody is making these days, let alone the uneducated, etc.

Do some research on Rhode Island's (only recently changed) prostitution laws that allowed it as long as it was indoors and didn't involve actual street walking.

Admittedly, such a policy may still have allowed certain vulnerable women to be exploited but, then again, what low income, poorly regulated job doesn't allow for this?

If it is legal for men to pursue athletics or other careers that may involve serious physical risk or injury, so too should women be allowed to be prostitutes if they wish.

As George Carlin said "Selling is legal. Sex is legal. Why isn't selling sex legal?"

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Prostitution bust - LO... · 3 replies · +7 points

"There’s no single reason, [prostitution is illegal] but here’s a compelling one: It’s incredibly dangerous."

That's only where (and BECAUSE) prostitution is illegal.

In countries (or even states here in the U.S. like Nevada) where it is legal and highly regulated it is safer than just about any other legal profession.

Making prostitution illegal - just as making drugs illegal - has caused far more problems than it has solved, created many new problems, is based entirely on moralistic grounds rather than rational or legal ones and has done absolutely nothing to stem the demand for it.

It may well be the "world's oldest profession."

How and why lawmakers think they can override males' desire for sex sans commitment and women's desire to provide it to them for money is beyond me.

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Prostitution bust - LO... · 2 replies · +7 points

"Poor women with few options have turned to prostitution for survival since the beginning of time."

Are you suggesting that NO women enter this trade willingly and voluntarily simply because A) they can make exceptionally good (tax free) money doing so and/or B) they enjoy sex?

Granted, streetwalkers like the ones in the original article likely do not fit this description (the ones I'm referring to a usually called "escorts" but paint all prostitutes with the same brush is both a great disservice to prostitutes as well as borderline misogynistic/patriarchal as it presupposes that women will only engage in sex under duress or may not have any interest in it whatsoever.)

"Never mind that about two out of three women who have sex for money were victims of childhood sexual abuse"

Care to cite some sources for this?

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Johnson County candida... · 0 replies · +1 points

Translation:

"Since this guy is not a political insider and is not a lock-step follower of the Johnson County Democratic Machine we WILL find a way to keep him off the ballot."

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Iowa City anti-21 law ... · 0 replies · +2 points

Do you think the University will be suing them for using their colors on the website? Are we even allowed to type the words "University of Iowa" without permission anymore?

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Cedar Rapids man charg... · 0 replies · +2 points

Do you think the University will be suing them for using their colors on the website? Are we even allowed to type the words "University of Iowa" without permission anymore?

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Iowa City anti-21 law ... · 0 replies · 0 points

How long until the University sues them to take it down for "unauthorized use" of their color scheme or some such nonsense?

15 years ago @ GazetteOnline.com - Is southeast Iowa City... · 12 replies · +7 points

Holy cow. 439 folks moved from Chicago to Johnson County in 2008.

With an average income well under 12 thousand a year.

Welfare cases all.

They HAVE to be with that level of "income."

Facts trump head-in-the-sand naive leftist propaganda yet again . . .

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