Wednesday, March 12, 2008

"Spitzerian"

I was hoping to get credit for inventing this word, but it turns out to already have another, and rather more reputable, meaning. So I will have to settle for a secondary definition:

Spitzerian (adj): 2(a) Of or relating to the act of procuring commercial sex. (b) having the quality or atmospherics of such a procurement.

Example: "I feel very uncomfortable when handing cash to a young woman. The aura is very Spitzerian; that's why Mrs. Φ always pays the baby-sitter."

Update: In this vein, Ross Douthat points up the cognitive dissonance among liberals regarding the legal status of prostitution.

Meanwhile, something about Donna Hughes' description of imminent changes to federal prostitution law makes me uneasy. Perhaps its the evasiveness: after two pages, I still couldn't say with more than 90% certainty that the Wilberforce Act makes being a John a federal crime. The law itself seems evasive on this point and is probably the product of exactly the cognitive dissonance that Ross describes. For my part, while I would support existing law, I see neither a constitutional nor pragmatic case for further federal involvement.

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