As much as I love to see an abominable person destroyed, Spitzer‘s fall is unwelcome due to how it came about: privacy is dead. And of course prostitution should be legal.
You may continue cheering. (I read somewhere that traders on the floor of the NYSE cheered when the news hit, but I can’t find it.)
Previously: Spitzer shits to music.
Somehow apropos to SXSW going on now and the absurd name of the prostitution ring, last year I noticed there’s a street in Austin called Bold Ruler Way. Update: A commenter notes that Bold Ruler was a horse.
We may pursue truth for its own sake in the public domain, but an incursion into any private domain needs a warrant, possibly to remedy a conflict of privacy, but certainly to protect life.
Freedom of intercourse whether intellectual, commercial, or sexual, does not necessarily harm the life of the participants or anyone else. Consenting adults should therefore be free to exchange sex for money and solicit such exchanges, where this clearly doesn’t compromise bodily integrity or health – or cause a public nuisance.
Therefore, I’d say hypocrisy was far less respectable than prostitution, but a violation of privacy in order to demonstrate this, is despicable in the extreme.
Similarly, Bill Clinton should never have been required to confess to his private affair with Monica Lewinsky. The president should not lie, but then no court should violate his privacy by placing him under oath to compromise it – unless far more is at stake than the mere satisfaction of a scurrilous press.
Score one for the civil libertarians. Truth be told all consensual crime (including prostitution) should be legalized or at least decriminalized.
Just make sure you don’t lose sight of human rights in what two adults may consent to – of all affected parties.
Assisted suicide between two consenting adults for example should remain a crime (as it is in enlightened societies that hold the human right to life to be absolute and inalienable). It is a dangerous state that turns a blind eye or collaborates in the premature ending of its citizens’ lives. Note that I used the word ‘premature’. It is possible that there may be extreme cases of ineffective prolongation of life of people with severe, irrecoverable brain damage – such cases should be rare however.
The guide to determining crime should be rights, not consent.
Does She Spitzer or Swallow? (paid for by supporters of Spitzer for governor of Amsterdam)
Okay, so the crusading Dudley Dooright of Albany got busted doin’ wrong with a high-priced hooker in D.C. I say go easy on him. This guy may be the closest thing we’ll ever see in our lifetimes to Elliot Ness – and I betcha if you talk to someone who knew the real Mr. Ness you’d see that, while chasing Capone through the streets of Chicago, the real Mr. Ness had his share of happy endings as well. Our modern day Mr. Ness has gone after crooked corporate ceo’s, mega-powerful financial institutions, crooked radio promoters, and most of all, he doesn’t bow to special interests or tolerate party politics – how rare is that?
So he got his mojo on once or thrice with a sexy woman of the night. So what? Have you seen his wife? Have you seen him? Sure prostitution’s illegal in NY state, but it’s one of those “If you’re standing here it’s illegal, if you’re standing there, Bob’s yer uncle!†kinda laws.
Personally, I’d rather have my politicians committing adultery – and maybe even snorting a line from time to time -rather than the usual “happily married†ones who take kickbacks from drug companies in exchange for allowing untold amounts of prescription pharmaceuticals to seep into the public drinking water.
In any case, there’s two ways out of this, Mr. Ness:
1. Call a press conference tomorrow. Make sure the wife wears a frumpy housedress and is by your side – not for support but for shock value. Tell the room full of reporters to take a look at her. Then, hold up a picture of the hot-assed hooker. You’ll be encouraged for a second term on the spot.
2. Try and claim you thought the hooker said she worked in prosecution.
Good Luck big E.
[…] people think very differently. Read the previous blog posts by Chris F. Masse:Fun with conditional probabilitiesWrongly Crafted […]
LETS ASK A WOMAN’S OPINION, SEX AND SINGLE, I DON’T CARE WHO
YOU SEE, PAY FOR OR NOT, HAVE FUN, SAFE SEX, IF YOUR MARRIED
YOU MY FRIEND HAVE NO, DID YOU HERE ME RIGHT TO BE POKING ANYBODY BUT YOUR WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I absolutely agree that prostitution should be legalize as long as individuals are safe and typically most of us are regardless of the situation. I would much rather spend the night with a call girl (hate that word prostitute) then a woman I just met at the local sizzles stake house…….
[…] what many libertarians think, right? But Nicholas Kristof has a piece in the New York Times that is well informed and […]