Bourbon Cowboy

The adventures of an urbane bar-hopping transplant to New York.

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Location: New York, New York, United States

I'm a storyteller in the New York area who is a regular on NPR's "This American Life" and at shows around the city. Moved to New York in 2006 and am working on selling a memoir of my years as a greeting card writer, and (as a personal, noncommercial obsession) a nonfiction book called "How to Love God Without Being a Jerk." My agent is Adam Chromy at Artists and Artisans. If you came here after hearing about my book on "This American Life" and Googling my name, the "How to Love God" book itself isn't in print yet, and may not even see print in its current form (I'm focusing on humorous memoir), but here's a sample I've posted in case you're curious anyway: Sample How To Love God Introduction, Pt. 1 of 3. Or just look through the archives for September 18, 2007.) The book you should be expecting is the greeting card book, about which more information is pending. Keep checking back!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Somebody Help Me With Pornography Here...

The sudden bizarre scandal involving Eliot Spitzer (which must be playing quite risibly in France--and, for that matter, in Las Vegas--where prostitution is legal) reminds me of a question that has always bothered me, and which I wish someone would explain:

Prostitution is illegal. But making porn movies is legal, right? Which means that it's illegal to pay someone for sex...unless you film it and sell copies. How does this make sense? Or rather, since it doesn't make sense, how did this bizarre double standard emerge? Does anyone know?

UPDATE: Looks like Andrew Sullivan, via a proxy, is asking the same thing. Now I feel in touch with the zeitgeist.

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posted by Cowboy Dave Dickerson | 2:30 AM

4 Comments:

Blogger that atheist guy said...

Here's another good article on it:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/10/spitzer/index.html

3/12/2008 9:50 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Yes, it makes no sense. And the bizarre part is, nobody seems to notice or mention it much. You'd think this would be a fundamental argument for those who want to ban porn! Or, the other way, by those who want to legalize prostitution. This is a crazy country, man.

3/12/2008 6:54 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=132370&page=1

The Url above explains the difference. Nixon tried to ban porn, Reagan tried to ban porn, then the GOP crusade against porn stopped. Why did this happen? Because Paris Hilton's daddy gets an extra $15 out each of the 85% of the pay per view movies rented in his hotels because they're porn flicks. Money beats BS morality every time.

3/14/2008 7:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Slate Explainer actually tried to explain it and did a fair job:
http://www.slate.com/id/2186552/

3/18/2008 8:56 AM  

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