To the delight of civil libertarians and libertarians alike, the Canadian courts have been leading the world in dealing with conflicts between privacy principles and morality legislation. I am serving as an expert in the review of Canadian polygamy laws in British Columbia. In the meantime, the Ontario Superior Court may allow three prostitution laws to die this Saturday.
In September, the Court struck down the laws. The federal government is charging that this is nothing short of a “social experiment unprecedented in this country.” However, it is also a frank acknowledgment that consenting adults came engage in sex for money as a consensual choice. Currently, an individual can have sex with any number of partners but can be arrested if they accept anything of value in exchange for sex. They can receive gifts as part of a “relationship” no matter how fleeting but not as payment.
The Court previously noted that criminal laws force prostitutes in the shadows where they are easy prey for abuse and even homicides. Once legal, protections and regulations can apply to the world’s oldest profession. With the demise of the laws, street walking will be legal.
Source: Star
Jonathan Turley
some one emailed that Veronica Monet might be a happy hooker… she supposedly ran away from home at 13 and became a hooker and then authored something decades ago. I couldn’t find any verification on Google that she actually existed and wasn’t just a pseudo name.
Kay S, “Does Tony C believe that he has a right to have sex with the mentally retarded or that a mentally retarded woman can legally consent to be a prostitute?…
There must be some reason why the owners of brothels in Nevada aren’t producing their employees for television interviews…… It makes sense that the reason is that they are mostly retarded and can’t get through an interview without that coming out….”
****
You’re seriously going off the deep end on this subject and Tony C. is to be commended for treating you with more respect than you are treating him. Play nice.
Your argument on mental defect resulting in legal prostitutes in Nevada is no more likely than my saying that they don’t do interviews because they are aliens in disguise. Real aliens. In disguise.
“Absence of proof is not proof of absence.” – Wm. Cowper
Or you can just make shit up to suit your opinion, kay. Like “They supposedly can’t even leave the brothels.” Nevada law provides for 9 day work shifts in brothels.
The ADA doesn’t allow for discrimination based solely upon mental capacity and provides remedy for harassment and abuses in the workplace that would trump anything but a state law that provides greater protection. You cannot constrain the reproductive rights of the mentally disabled even if their goal is simple fun instead of procreation or for legal licensed prostitution (provided they are otherwise capable of performing the duties associated with the job).
It was also your opinion that you can give legal advice despite it being manifestly against the law for a non-professional to do so.
It was also your opinion that you were competent to represent yourself in court and that landed you in jail.
That says a lot about the value of your opinions.
Fine I don’t mean to personally attack Tony C.
An easy way to make sure that the mentally retarded aren’t working as prostitutes is to demand that they have either a driver’s license or a high school degree but Nevada does neither. AND
There are 0, that is zero, confirmations of any non retarded non mentally ill licensed prostitutes in Nevada where there are supposedly at least 300 licensed prostitutes and it has been legal for 40 years.
I employed a service that employs the mentally retarded.
In my opinion it is exploitation to employ a mentally retarded adult as a prostitute.
I am shocked that the State of Nevada isn’t protecting the mentally retarded from being exploited as licensed prostitutes.
They supposedly can’t even leave the brothels.
I largely agree with the substance of Tony C’s remarks…
No personal attacks from me, as I wasn’t the one attacked. Having said this, there was provocation, IMHO.
Night, all…
Kay,
I’m currently in favor of legalizing prostitution. (As is the case with Tony C., I’m also law-abiding.)
I have the perfect right, as does anyone, to blog anonymously. Each one of us has our particular reason/s for doing so.
I’d have to go back and read all the comments but the following seems unfair — it seems like an unwarranted attack:
“Does Tony C believe that he has a right to have sex with the mentally retarded or that a mentally retarded woman can legally consent to be a prostitute?”
I’m just saying…
You wrote: “There must be some reason why the owners of brothels in Nevada aren’t producing their employees for television interviews…… It makes sense that the reason is that they are mostly retarded and can’t get through an interview without that coming out….”
Maybe the women don’t want to do television interviews. I wouldn’t conclude that “it makes sense that the reason is that they are mostly retarded…”
There is certainly exploitation of the mentally retarded, but it doesn’t factor into legalization, IMHO. It’s going to exist whether prostitution is legal or illegal, it seems to me. Should it be addressed? Absolutely.
This is it for me tonight.
I believe if somebody is judged a mentally competent adult they have the right to do as they please; anybody taking financial or sexual advantage of a mentally incompetent person is a sociopath and should be jailed.
There is another reason: Perhaps prostitutes have somehow figured out that people like you think they are retarded or the scum of the earth and they have no incentive to out themselves on TV and get harassed by their neighbors or in the grocery store or at their daycare center by irrational parents screaming on TV about the plot to turn their little girls into hookers.
Maybe prostitutes are ***smart*** enough to know that putting their face on TV may be all it takes for a bunch of crazy dumbshit moralizing asshole hypocrites that can’t mind their own business to try and shut down the business that pays their rent and feeds their children. Maybe they keep a low profile not because they feel intimidated and oppressed by their boss, but because they feel intimidated and oppressed by jerks like you.
I don’t think it exploits the mentally retarded for them to work as dishwashers. I do think it exploits the mentally retarded to work as a prostitute.
If you have a driver’s license, it means you can read and aren’t mentally retarded.
Does Tony C believe that he has a right to have sex with the mentally retarded or that a mentally retarded woman can legally consent to be a prostitute?
Supposedly about 2% of the population is mentally retarded. If they have sex 20 times a day then the 2% could service 80% of the population every other day right? Did I calculate correctly?
There must be some reason why the owners of brothels in Nevada aren’t producing their employees for television interviews…… It makes sense that the reason is that they are mostly retarded and can’t get through an interview without that coming out….
My daughter fully knows my position on prostitution in particular and civil liberties in general, and agrees with me. My daughter is not destined for a white collar job or any job as far as I can tell. She is a college graduate and did work for years, but is now happily married, with one child, and a stay at home mom, which is what she wanted. Her husband owns an established business that is doing well despite the current economics.
@Kay: Why would a driver’s license matter? I was a dishwasher without a driver’s license, I took the bus. You can think what you want about the Nevada prostitutes; the fact that they have to undergo testing proves part of my point: It is safer for them and safer for the johns that insist upon legally licensed V.D. free prostitutes.
So Tony C doesn’t want his daughter to know that he is in favor of legalized prostitution?
Is that because prostitution is a job for the mentally retarded and his daughter is destined for a white collar job?
@Kay: Why would my true name add any credibility to my argument?
As for my identity subtracting credibility: I disclosed a potential bias by writing I am the father of a daughter. I have never been either charged or convicted of any crime; although about thirty years ago I did spend about three hours in a holding cell for driving with both an expired license and an expired inspection sticker. (It was a very busy time in my life!)
My name, my income, my friends, my investments are all immaterial. I prefer to be judged on the content of my statements alone. If who I am really matters to someone, I am guessing they are so beholden to received wisdom and so incapable of independent thought that I shouldn’t waste my time arguing with them, because they won’t have anything original to add.
You heard it is hard to get a good lawyer?
ROUND ROCK – A school board member and prominent lawyer has been charged with prostitution, accused of offering legal services in exchange for sexual favors.
Steven C. Copenhaver, 56, was released from jail Thursday on a $750 bond.
An arrest affidavit said Copenhaver offered to represent a Round Rock woman’s husband if she and her sister-in-law would perform sex acts with him and each other.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1371132/posts
Not for me!
NAC 441A.800 Testing of prostitutes; prohibition of certain persons from employment as prostitute.
1. A person seeking employment as a prostitute in a licensed house of prostitution shall submit to the State Hygienic Laboratory in the Division or a medical laboratory licensed pursuant to chapter 652 of NRS and certified by the Health Care Financing Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services:
(a) A sample of blood for a test to confirm the presence or absence of human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) and syphilis; and
(b) A cervical specimen for a test to confirm the presence or absence of gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis by culture or antigen detection or DNA probe.
2. A person must not be employed as a prostitute in a licensed house of prostitution until the State Hygienic Laboratory in the Division or a medical laboratory licensed pursuant to chapter 652 of NRS and certified by the Health Care Financing Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has reported that the tests required pursuant to subsection 1 do not show the presence of infectious syphilis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia trachomatis or infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
3. A person employed as a prostitute in a licensed house of prostitution shall submit to the State Hygienic Laboratory in the Division or a medical laboratory licensed pursuant to chapter 652 of NRS and certified by the Health Care Financing Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services:
(a) Once each month, a sample of blood, identified by the name of the prostitute as it appears on her local work permit card, for a test to confirm the presence or absence of:
(1) Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); and
(2) Syphilis.
http://prostitution.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=749#21
You see there is no requirement that the prostitute have a driver’s license or have a high school degree or in any other way demonstrate competence.
I think Nevada brothels are employing retarded women as prostitutes and taking advantage of their disability.
Tony C, since you “do not see why prostitution should be prevented, I do not find it inherently repulsive or damaging to society or degrading to women”, would you be willing to post your true name?
On the subject of licensing prostitutes I found this recent posting to the effect that the current quarterly licensing fee for a prostitute in Nevada is $62.50. How much regulation do you get for $62.50?
http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Nevada_Brothels_Off
Ha! Sorry for the schizoid break in there on punishment; I write these things without editing quite often and in that case, between the 3rd and 4th paragraph, I had a change of heart and should have deleted the 3rd paragraph. (I thought of what my reaction would be had my own daughter ever been raped, and I think: just kill them. I am not above vengeance.)
@Blouise:
>>>[Anon Nurse @ 12:21]: In 1999, Sweden made it legal to sell sex but illegal to buy it—only the johns and the traffickers can be prosecuted.
This seems like a clever way to prevent prostitution, to me, by discouraging buying of it. I do not see why prostitution should be prevented, I do not find it inherently repulsive or damaging to society or degrading to women.
As for **unwilling** prostitution and **underage** prostitution, I’d love the Swedish model: make it a felony. Send men to jail for a year without probation if they are convicted of having sex with an underage girl, prostitute or not. Put men in jail for life without parole if they are convicted of human trafficking.
I believe in over-the-top law enforcement, zero plea bargains, and as little D.A. discretion as possible. I was raised in a bad neighborhood; two of my siblings were murdered and we had an armed drug dealer that “owned” the bench on the corner where the school bus picked us up. I do not believe rehabilitation is possible; there are acts that criminals perform that cannot ever be undone. In my opinion the criminals you are talking about understand one thing only: Overwhelming force. Any adult that knowingly has sex with a child should be put to death. I do not believe in redemption, or forgiveness, or the power of faith. Kill Them. Kill the people that made it possible. Kill the human traffickers in adult women as well, they are broken people that cannot ever be fixed and the sooner they die the less they will cost us to incarcerate.
That said, I don’t like the government trying to prevent prostitution because what the woman is doing with her body is obviously not the point: Everything she does as a prostitute she can do for free, with exactly the same clients, as often as she wants, without ever breaking a law.
So prostitution laws are about whether or not a woman can negotiate payment to do something that would be entirely legal if she were an unpaid volunteer. Or equally crazy, she can be paid to actually perform these acts on film with partners she has never met, but she cannot be paid to do the same thing in private with a private citizen.
It isn’t about health safety: The laws don’t stop men from picking up a use-her-lose-her skank in a bar, or stop women from engaging in drunken sex with strangers. The activities that produce the health concerns (either physical or mental health) are 100% legal, and might even be considered a civil right of a free adult.
That makes the prostitution laws morality laws, and I do not see government as our parent or nanny or pastor or as a fount of moral leadership. I am a liberal but I see government as our servant, coordinating the funding and execution of non-profit services for common benefit. That includes the exercise of force to prevent the violation of people’s rights, but I believe moral prohibitions exceed that authority because you and I do not have any right to force others to abide by our particular moral code. **That** is oppression and makes us less free.
My husband and I drove thru Southern Michigan recently. He loves peaches. We saw a peach orchard. We could see the yellow peaches and we were told they were ripe. So when he saw a parking lot at a peach orchard we drove in.
The farm workers were there getting ready to leave. Visually they seemed hispanic looking and when they spoke to us to point us where we could buy peaches, they used mostly spanish. There were about 10 trucks. All the trucks looked like they were worth over 25K. Really expensive looking vehicles they were driving. Not what we expected.
11/23/2010 The Injustice on Our Plates
By Richard Cohen, President (SPLC – Southern Poverty Law Center)
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/the-injustice-on-our-plates
Not that it isn’t amply evident to the many good people here…
(I posted this to the “Thanksgiving” thread, then decided to post it here, as well, after I reread the article and looked at the faces of the women who have been photographed… Sorry to take this a little off topic. Thinking about the exploitation…)
I suspect that many adult licensed prostitutes are noticeably mentally retarded.
Licenses of prostitutes are public information aren’t they?