I wasn’t picking you apart, I was responding directly to your questions. We agree it should be legalized, we disagree on the government’s role.

I’ll try to clarify:

No, I am saying, if you set a trap in your house and a burglar breaks in and is injured, they can sue for damages and you will lose.

You missed my point, affairs aren’t illegal so how would this be any different.

The reliability of the witness should be an individual issue not an industry issue. It would improve their credibility by removing the “say what we want and you will get a deal” plea system we have.

You are talking about zoning, that is a different issue.

industry – n 1: the people or companies engaged in a particular kind of commercial enterprise;

No, we aren’t in Iraq because of what other countries think. We are there because this administration wanted to be there. We are supposed to be a soverign nation, not beholden to other countries. That is not related to going out and starting a fight with another country.

That is zoning, it isn’t about “unillegalizing”.*

I wasn’t calling you emotional, I was saying take the emotion out of the legalization issue and discuss it as if it were any other business.

Oh, and welcome!

Thanks. I didn’t get any messages telling me there were responses until today.

* I dislike “legalize” because it sounds like the government is granting this freedom instead of it being a freedom that should not have been illegal to begin with (which is only illegal under arbitrary circumstances).

GRAYWOLF… EVERYTHING is based on emotion! I just happen to be the only person who ever seems to make it a point to bring it up! You made an emotional decision to pick apart my emotional-based comment, did you not?

If all you guys want are my biased opinions or just the plain ol’ facts, then here they are:

1. Prostitution should be legalized.
2. It should be heavily regulated for at least the first 10 years
3. It should be treated as a business and must conform to standard business and accounting rules.
4. The main focus of legalizing it should be to get children off the streets and to get abused women at least into a safer working environment.
5. Women and children who are “left behind” will be worse off since there will no longer be a visible police presence to protect them anymore (a speck of protection is better than none at all)

Regarding some of your specific comments to my own:

1. “That already doesn’t exist. Try setting boobie traps in your house for burglers…” Not sure what this means, but I think you’re actually agreeing with me. If I illegal exchange money for sex and I contract AIDS, you mean to tell me that I can sue her for monetary damages in a court of law? For a similar analogy to yours, in the state of New York, I can be tried for murder if a burgaler breaks into my house with no weapon whatsoever, throws his hands in the air in a conceding matter and I shoot him in the head anyway. I can’t use somebody else’s illegal act to justify my own.

2. “Can she do it now? “Affair” does not automatically mean hooker.” You’re missing my point here. Affair means having sex with someone who is NOT your wife. Unless there are COLD-HARD FACTS that a wife could use to prove his infidelity, it’s just circumstantial (it’s also an open invitation for the husband to make his own “circumstantial” claim against her as well. Does “No-Fault Divorce” ring a bell?) But, if there are bookkeeping records of it, can this be used against him in a court of law. Remember this… An affair is ONLY an affair if you can PROVE it!

3. “That is what sopeneas/warrants are for.” This isn’t much of a problem right now, is it? The hookers that are unreliable witnesses today just might be the same hookers that are all of a sudden a “reliable witness” tomorrow. After all, they would be hard-working women making a living in a legal profession with the governments seal of approval based on how well they regulate the industry. The government can’t contradict itself by saying that they made it legitamate but can’t trust the legitamacy of the same employees they regulate.

4. “There is no “creation” of the industry, it is already there.” You are using semantics, here. You’d be HARD PRESSED to find anybody who would consider Prostitution an “industry”. Hooker’s don’t say they’re in the “Prostitution Industry”, Local, State and the Federal Governments don’t say that they have a major problem with the “Prostition Industry” in their districts AND the average citizen doesn’t say “We need to do something about the Prostituition Industry in our neighborhoods!” An INDUSTRY would be created if it IS legalized! This way, we can all say “We don’t want the Prostitution Industry in OUR neighborhoods! Our property values will plummet!”

5. “Who cares what other countries think? So what?” We’re seeing the effects of that statement right now, aren’t we?

6. And finally: “What value has freedom?” Freedom ONLY has value when it doesn’t impede upon other people’s freedoms. Do you know how fast you’ll scream for the government to regulate the zoning laws of brothels in America when your landmark you use when giving directions to your house is “I’m two houses down from the building with the big neon purple sign that says ‘The Whore-aaay Brothel’… You can’t miss it!”

You make some good points, though, and I have taken them into consideration, but (ready for the big “closing joke”?) I’m too emotional right now to name them. Seriously, though, you do make some interesting observations about what I said and I do take them into account.

Oh, and welcome!

“I believe that if we are to legalize the “profession” in the US, then it MUST be heavily regulated by the government, at least for the first 10 years or so, to ensure that it DOES become a profession instead of just having today’s illegal hooker on the streets becoming tomorrow’s legal hooker on the streets. If the result of legalization is the latter senario, then that will open the door for more child prostitutes, forced prostitution and a “way out” of the industry for those who can’t.”

That might be a short term cost, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to set an age limitation on the legality of it. Just like drinking. Forcing someone to do something against their will is illegal (unless you are the government) regardless of the industry…no regulation necessary.

“If the local police can’t arrest them, then they can’t use their limited resources to simply police them either. Yes, they can still get some of the underaged children off the streets or arrest the pimps who enslave and abuse their “employees” regardless, but if “nobody is looking” any longer, then who’s going to find them? It MUST be considered a “business” by the US government”

Why do the federales need to be involved at all?

“with it’s own unique regulations in order to ensure the health saftey of both client AND vendor! Also, it would be much easier to regulate it as an incorporated business”

Corporations should be eliminated, this is a state creation that makes it easier for monopolies to exist and easier for people in power to do the wrong things and be protected from it.

“using standard “Accounting Rules” with it’s own industry-specific exceptions and requirements as well. Unless I’m REALLY missing something from an economic standpoint, creating the “Prostitution Industry” should be no different or more complication than creating any other type of industry.”

There is no “creation” of the industry, it is already there.

“BUT, would the social impact of legalizing prostitution be worth the cost?”

What value has freedom?

“The first thing that WILL happen is an avalanche of criminal and/or civil lawsuits that will crush the legal system!”

Good, maybe put an end to some of the other idiotic prosecutions/persecutions.

“There will no longer be the “You can’t sue for damages if your illegal act put you in danger in the first place””

That already doesn’t exist. Try setting boobie traps in your house for burglers…

“roadblock if Joe Blow contracted AIDS from Jane Doe the Hooker. Imagine the world’s perception of the state of our country when the US Supreme Court issues it’s landmark decision on the redefining the legal term for “Ejaculation” when John Q. Public sues a brothel for “breach of contract”, claiming that he interpreted “pay-per-ejaculation” as FULLY ejaculating? Imagine being the first lawyer in history to enter a used condom into evidence as the undeniable proof that a few drops of semen isn’t ejaculating under the law?”

Who cares what other countries think? So what?

“The second thing that WILL happen is a huge jump in the divorce rate in the US. Does a spouse have the right to know if their partner was a client of a brothel?”

Do they have the right to know if they rent a hotelroom for an affair?

“Does anybody have the right to that information for use in background checks or used as circumstantial evidence in a criminal investigation/trial to prove that he’s a rapist or child molesterer?”

That is what sopeneas/warrants are for.

“Could it be used as proof of character or even to speculate that a stalker would have raped his victim eventually because he visited a brothel 10 times a month?”

“And lastly, could a wife use “adultery” as a reason for divorce if all of his extramarital affair were done in a legal fashion?”

Can she do it now? “Affair” does not automatically mean hooker.

“The third thing that WILL happen is that the client assumes that s/he loses their right to anonimity and has to live the rest of their lives with the stigma that comes with paying for sex.”

Why?

“If a brothel is raided and exposed in all the national newspapers for violating numerous health codes and there is a need to inform EVERYONE that has ever been a client at that establishment for health reasons, then how would they be able to inform him without exposing him?”

If there was a problem, present the info and leave the responsibility to the patron to follow up.

“What if a major crime was committed at a brothel and Joe Blow visited their 5 hours before it happened; will he be required to testify at the criminal proceedings because he witnessed the perpetrator at the scene even though he didn’t see the crime committed?”

What happens today if the same thing happens anywhere else?

“Sorry for the long post, but I believe that any debate involving sex in general is the most complicated of them all.”

Why, thake the emotion out of it and view it as just another business.

“The “legalizing recreational drugs” debate is easier because it has only a minor stigma attached because most people are guilty of breaking that law at least once in their lives themselves!”

How many people are not guilty of having sex?

Our First Sargent (nicknamed Mother, a great guy!) kept an opened box of condoms by the door in his tent so we had no excuse for not having some when we went to town. Yes, we lived in tents for awhile.

I was told that the punishment for rape was thus: First offense was 5 years in jail, second was 20 years in jail and third was the execution of the day such as shooting, hanging, etc. If the woman was under 17 or a virgin then it was considered a third offense and the offender killed. Life expectancy was about 3 years in a Korean jail. There were few repeat offenders.

The system worked there and could work here.

Oddly enough pornography was illegal at that time! Go figure.