Tale of a Jilted Tearoom Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

"The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy - a naughty boy. I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” - Senator Larry Craig (Republican-Idaho), 1998

The Republic has withstood the drama, denials and ultimate disgrace of anti-gay, right-wing Republican Larry Craig, who now stands convicted by his own statement under oath that he engaged in the conduct described by a Minnesota police officer who arrested Craig at the Lindbergh (ugh) Terminal I. As usual, The Smoking Gun has links to most of the salient documents. (HAT TIP Zuzu.)

Of greater interest to me is the police interrogation of Craig. Now Craig is over 60 years of age and has been in the Senate for over 15 years, on Capitol Hill since he was 25. So he should have a passing familiarity with the U.S. Constitution, one would hope, which provides an absolute right to remain silent, to say "jack" to the police. The Minnesota constitution does likewise, though one should forgive the "just-passing-through", non-attorney Senator Craig for not knowing that. But the U.S. Constitution which he had taken multiple oaths over multiple decades - he should have known that.

But in case the good Senator forgot, the office read the Senator his 5th Amendment rights, per Dragnet, as can be heard and read here at TPM Muckraker.

At least one witness claims to have had sexual relations in the Washington Union Station mens room with Craig some years back. And it's this bathroom, this neglected tea-room for politicos, lobbyists, para-government anonymous travelers and the presumed wayward tourist to which I turn my attentions.

Union Station is one of the top three or four railroad stations in the U.S. for total passenger volume. (This is not saying much, of course, because the U.S. treats rail shabbily, more shabbily than any European could possibly imagine.) I use this Union Station bathroom infrequently for purposes entirely consistent with the intentions of the architects, civil engineers and D.C. building permit authorities who authorized its construction. It is a disgusting place, 100% of the time, even if one does not dare "gaze" into the cracks between the stalls. I think it is the unlawful permanent residence of several people, and baggage does occasionally crowd the front of a stall, though whether that's a legitimate tactic against baggage theft by a resident or a passer-through, rather than an obscurement of a different violation of the D.C. Code, I cannot say and would rather not contemplate too deeply.

But I cannot help feeling that the Union Station "tea room" that this bathroom is said to be, now feels jilted. Larry Craig appears to have plied his tea room trade in, of all places, Minneapolis. Yet Union Station is only 6 blocks from his DC office. So close, and yet so far. The one widely-reported incident in Minneapolis cannot but leave the poor, under-appreciated restroom at Union Station feeling a little miffed. Railroads have lost out in federal funding, support and construction to airlines even though railroads are often more time and energy efficient for medium-distance travel and involve fewer (though NOT zero) security concerns. So of course Union Station will feel slighted.

Washington is a bigger and wealthier city than Minneapolis. So I suspect there is a bit of the resentment of the fallen nobleman jealous of the poorer but, in reality, freer merchant class, giving rise to bitchy snobbishness. Union Station has a statue of civil rights and labor organizer A. Philip Randolph, who was not gay but who associated closely with gay allies. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's main terminal is named after a vicious anti-semite and Nazi sympathizer who, in total random coincidence, shot on the same riflery team as the Crab's grandfather at the University of Wisconsin. So it probably burns Union Station's, er, chaps, to lose out in attention to such an unworthy venue. Especially since Washington may now be the largest gay city proportional to population in the country, approaching San Francisco and perhaps surpassing it.

The entire incident has made me more, not less, supportive of gay marriage. I wish that Craig were gay married right now, and had been so three months ago, for several reasons. One is that if Craig were same-sex married, he probably would not be an advocate against same-sex marriage in the halls of Congress. Another would be that he would be less likely to have done what he did, though in fairness plenty of men (and, my divorce attorney colleagues keep reminding me, women, usually with greater discretion) openly married in opposite sex marriages do reckless and brazen things as well.

But no matter what I think, Union Station's feelings will remain tender for some time, no doubt. Show Union Station some love, though I would recommend visiting Sbarro's or the newsrack instead of the john if you have a choice.

Guess What Godfrey's Comment Will Be? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Loyal readers, dear readers, what do you think my comment will be to this picture? Who can mimic old curmudgeon Godfrey?



(Hint.)

Jessica of Feministing focused on the virgin/whore dichotomy - with merit, no doubt - but I focused on another dichotomy. But you, dear reader, will have to take your guess.

As a kid, perhaps you played "guess what number I am thinking of." Guess what dichotomy I am thinking of.

UPDATE: There have been some peculiar technical problems with this post. I cannot fathom why the buttons below have not been appearing consistently, while the post before and after are fine. Hmmm.

Baltimore Sun: Maryland State Workers Surfing the Internet for Pornography on State Time Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, March 9, 2007:

Employees of the Maryland Aviation Administration and Maryland Transportation Authority used state-owned computers in "hundreds of instances" last year to visit sexually oriented Web sites during working hours, legislative auditors found in a report released yesterday.

The auditors were able to identify more than 20 employees of the two agencies who visited the sites, some of which included nude pictures and pornography.

...

The report urged transportation officials to take further steps to block access to such Web sites from their computers. The auditors said that besides being a waste of state employees' work time, visits to such Web sites could expose the state to legal liability for allowing a hostile work environment or allowing the introduction of computer viruses.

I am extremely offended by this. I put up this site at my own expense - and with considerable effort, given the difficulties of my current day-job work schedule - and these state workers don't have the decency to come visit, instead spending their time at Dahlia Does Dundalk.

Harrumph.

Pillage Idiot Takes on the Wooden Phallus, the Laxative and Swapping Spit Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Nearly too gross for me this time, Attila, but the sort of "so awful you have to watch" gross.

Washington Post: Monica Lewinsky's Latter-Day Detractor Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Libby Copeland of the Washington Post, December 24, 2006:

Lewinsky, 33, is known more for her audacious coquetry than for her intellectual heft, and the notion of her earning a master of science degree in social psychology at the prestigious London university is jarring, akin to finding a rip in the time-space continuum, or discovering that Kim Jong Il is a natural blond.

...

A revelation on this order suggests Lewinsky belongs to a fascinating subspecies, dumb-but-smart. Dumb-but-smart folks defy our low expectations. They appear dull or ditzy but possess unpredictable pockets of intelligence.

Ms. Copeland, go to Hell. Your paper defied my high expectations by not firing you for submitting this to your editor, let alone printing this.

I agree with Jessica Valenti of Feministing about Monica Lewinsky's Master's Degree from the London School of Economics: well done, congratulations to Ms. Lewinsky and those who would take swipes at her now are being asinine. Valenti's language is a bit vulgar and rude, more vulgar than I would probably use here but appropriately rude. Copeland should be ashamed.

Let us cut through the B.S. on this. Approximately 100% of the non-sociopath human race has something in their past that causes them shame, guilt or humiliation. Maybe something they did, or got caught doing, or something they did not do but damn well should have. Of that group, what percentage should move on with their lives and do better? 50% 92% No, of course not: 100%, not approximately 100% but precisely 100%. If you owe amends, make them. If you did damage, fix it or make reasonable efforts to mitigate it. If you didn't hurt anybody and don't owe amends, but just feel like garbage about it, then discharge it the way that probation officers do when somebody breaks the rules seriously but it isn't worth busting the probationer: they "close the file as 'unsatisfactory'" and probation terminates, and the probationer and the probation agent both move on to other business. Granted, this is not always easy; I have struggled with this myself from mistakes I have made, not wanting to let the matter die when "closing the file" was the better path. But it is wiser to let a matter go when you cannot reasonably improve the situation. There is a moral principle: you need not perform what you, in fact, cannot perform. If you owe, you pay, but only to that person who is injured; ain't nobody else's business.

We get righteous about sex far more than we do about other morally complicated issues. Traditional morality condemns a great many actions other than sexual "sins": gossip, cruelty, cold-heartedness to people in need. Even if you take a less explicitly religious view, say the view of virtue as taught formally by some Greek philosophers or informally under the musings of Founding Father Ben Franklin, sexual improprieties are hardly the only area of possible moral weakness with which we must contend. While the human tendency to gossip really knows no firm bounds, it seems most willing to discuss sex over other issues.

What did Ms. Lewinsky do after the ordeal? She recovered some privacy, probably some dignity, moved on with her life and went to grad school abroad in a challenging program, where she earned a master's degree in social psychology. Did she make amends to any people she may have harmed? I don't know; I was not one of them if they exist, so I wouldn't know and am pleased not to know. Be damned if I have made enough efforts to provide justice to the people I have occasionally harmed. Did she "dope out" under the pressure and become a ward of the state or of her insurance company's rehab resources? No, or at least no such evidence exists.

Has she made it her life's work to profit from her prior circumstances? No. She interviewed with Barbara Walters some years back, but ABC does not pay for interviews. She did write a book in the aftermath of the affair, and did presumably receive large royalties from that book, but she moved on to start a business and get a graduate degree. [NOTE: Crablaw made corrective edits to this paragraph from an early version.]

She was never a moral scold to me, never interrupted my Sunday morning television pleasure (now rare) by scolding me for my multifaceted immorality and asking me for a donation to her religious ministry. She was neither a corrupt public official nor a conspirator with such public officials to bleed the public fisc.

The other point is that of the "bimbo" - the concept that a (currently or previously) sexually active woman is unworthy of respect for her intelligence. In her piece, Feministing's Valenti drills the point home, using some graphic language. Everybody alive today - leaving aside artificial insemination rarities - was conceived, ahem, the old fashioned way. Parthogenesis is not a feature of our species. But if you hold that being a sexual person or specifically a sexually active or interested woman is associated with low intelligence, well, you have just insulted the intelligence of all of your female ancestors, going back depending on your beliefs to Eve or the apes. You have just called them all "[reproducing] morons."

You really cannot insult one woman's intelligence for being a sexually active adult without insulting all women. Her choice in a partner - yeah, unwise in the extreme, immoral, neither the first nor the last intelligent woman or man to make an unwise sexual choice. Wisdom does not equal intelligence. Wisdom usually requires gray hair and scarring, though not always, and Lewinsky was quite young when the stories emerged, let alone occurred.

Nobody tried to strip Bill Clinton of the academic achievements he earned as a Rhodes Scholar in England due to his being an alleged "himbo"; no one should do so in effigy against Ms. Lewinsky's study in Britain (which, unlike Clinton's, actually resulted in an academic degree.)

There is a possibility that Ms. Lewinsky learned something through her ordeal about being decent to people who make serious personal mistakes. If Ms. Copeland is both intelligent and wise - i.e. "smart but smart" - perhaps she will contact Ms. Lewinsky, apologize for her nasty column and ask her what she learned about giving other people a second chance through her ordeal. If Ms. Copeland does that, I will apologize here for telling her to go to Hell. Even Ms. Copeland may deserve a second chance.

Why I Hate DC: Moral Depravity and Boycotting the Washington City Paper Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

"Why I Hate DC" is a blog, not an editorial comment from Crablaw. It has a detailed rundown of a Washington City Paper article by a misogynist bastard named Franklin Schneider about his creepy, women-hating sexual conquest adventures while on unemployment in DC. It is not for the timid or weak of stomach, details are graphic.

HAT TIP to Majikthise.

Examiner: Exotic Dancers Take It All Off - For Tots Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

In addition to the friendliness they normally extend to customers, some exotic dancers in San Francisco will be spreading a more traditional kind of holiday cheer this season, as they help put toys into the hands of underprivileged children.

As they have for more than nine years, approximately 700 dancers at 11 clubs citywide will donate approximately $15,000 from their tips to the San Francisco Firefighters’ Toy Program, a union charity that last year provided nearly 20,000 toys to 4,189 families.

If they choose to participate, dancers working at clubs such as Centerfolds, the Garden of Eden and the Hungry I perform one song for charity during their shifts between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They contribute their tips from that song — usually about $20 — to Toys for Tots.

My only question is whether Fark.com would rate this story "spiffy" or "Hero".

UPDATE: "Hero" it is.

Reuters: Sex Tax Imposed On Prostitutes In Cologne Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

From Reuters, December 15, 2006:

Cologne will earn a record 828,000 euros ($1.1 million) in "sex tax" revenues this year, a figure well above expectations when the levy was first introduced by Germany's fourth largest city in 2004.

...

Cologne, which introduced the tax two years ago to raise money after national reforms left the city woefully short of cash, has been charging prostitutes a flat 150-euro per month tax since 2004, replacing a voluntary reporting scheme.

...

Prostitution is legal in Germany and sex workers are required to pay tax on their income and a value-added tax.

Here's how it breaks down.

The prostitutes must pay a value added tax based on the increase of value of their goods and services that provide. Arguably this is a more rational form of tax than the typical state sales tax in the U.S., in that a business cannot recover the costs of inputs into manufacturing here. Example: you make steel, you need iron and coal. If you have to pay sales tax on the iron and coal, you don't get to subtract that tax from future taxes that you will have to collect and remit on your steel. (If you buy and resell iron or coal, you can usually get that initial purchase exempted from sales tax, but not if the purchase is for industrial inputs rather than for resale.) So presumably, a prostitute could recover the value added tax that she paid for, say, condoms, and subtract that from what she would actually have to remit to the German tax authorities for the value added for the sexual services provided.

Prostitutes must and do pay income taxes in Germany, same as any other independent contractor.

Now these businesswomen are being subjected to a about a $2400/year licensing fee for tricking in Cologne, a large, liberal and heavily Roman Catholic city on the Rhine. It is the home of the annual Fasching (Mardi Gras) festival; sort of like New Orleans in a lot of ways.

Here's my question. Does the imposition of a monthly levy, rather than a surcharge to the value added tax, distort the market for prostitution in inefficient ways? Does it discourage the marginal producer, allowing the more famous madams in the spirit of Lulu White to reap the benefit of reduced competition and charge oligopolistic rent? What about non-compliance and evasion; is the infamously picky German customer equally picky about paperwork in this area, and will heavy-handed German bureaucrats inflict their obsessive-compulsive Kantian ethic of the categorical imperative to prosecute the non-compliant? How would Borat's sister - the 4th most famous prostitute in Kazakhstan - adjust to these market conditions?

I think we need to get the Maryland liberal bloggers who are public policy grad students - Isaac? Matthew? - to weigh in on these policy matters - how well would Borat's sister be likely to produce in this market?